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Startline Startup Accelerator

Posted by Spencer Doepel on

Startline Startup Accelerator

Startline was ecoflys first introduction to startup programs. This program took place at the University of Akron. This program was designed to help startups find their right product market fit.

Step 1

Fist thing we had to do was fill out this business model canvas. The first thing we needed to do was create a value proposition and hypothesize what customers needed.

 

 When filling out the business model canvas for the first time I believed that "My customer; the feed industry; has a problem that; one of the main products in the agriculture feed is fishmeal farmed from the ocean. Current methods fail to solve the problem because plant alternatives are not digestible. Our solution uniquely solves this by rearing BSFL on spent grains". Not a bad first value proposition but it has been changed and modified extremely now!

Step 2

The next thing I was asked to do was decide what customer segment I will go after, what hypotheses I wanted to test and what questions I will ask during the industry interview.

Step 3

Next I was asked to do a competitors analysis into the black solider fly industry.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS WORKSHEET

Name: 

Spencer Doepel

 

Business Name:

Ecoflys

 

Date:

1/16/20

 

Different kinds of competitors to think about:

  • Direct Competitors – solving the same problem for the same customer with a similar product (Ex. iPhone vs Galaxy)
  • Different Solution - solving the same problem for the same customer, but in a different way (Ex. Hotels vs AirBnb)
  • Different Customer – solving the same problem in the same way but for customers in a different industry/vertical. (Ex. 3D printing for manufacturing vs 3D printing for fashion.)
  • Status Quo - What are your customers doing right now instead of using your solution? (Ex. Before the walk-man, people didn’t listen to music on the go.)

Competitor:

Enviro Flight

Their Product:

Bug ,Meal , Oil, Frass (Dog Food

Their Target Customer and Product Features:

Direct Competitor

Target Customer: B2B feed market

I would consider this the industry leader.

Extrexon and Darling Ingredients are parent company both of those companies have experience in making ingredients and biology of organic life.

They follow the American Association of Feed Control Official (AAFCO) Guidelines. Also believe the manure waste of livestock is not a healthy diet for our larvae; the potential of heavy metal contamination, salmonella, and other unknown pathogens is not worth the risk.

They feed our BSFL a variety of materials including Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles (DDGS) from ethanol plants and brewer’s grains from nearby Yellow Springs Brewery, cookie meal, and other organic materials available from pre-consumer processing.  All materials fed to our BSFL are safe for use in animal feeds and meet AAFCO guidelines.

Fully compliant with the standards established by the US Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

Are in multiple industry’s their Bug, Meal ,Oil and frass can be used as a standardized product over there 6 industrys they serve--- Poultry, Aquaculture ,Pets, Exotic, Young animals and Fertlizer

 

How does your product compare? What makes yours better?

Products are pretty similar. Possibly differentiate from them by adding different types of insects or protein to pelletized final product

 

Competitor:

Grub Tubs

Their Product:

Waste Conversion Process Management

 

Their Target Customer and Product Features:

Different Solution/Different Customer

Target Customers: Restaurants, Farms

They run a system where Restaurants collect food waste in special GRUBTUBS (just 6-gallon buckets) then grub tubs transports it to local farms where they give the farmers presumably BSFL eggs and a humidity dome to grow up the BSFL. Once this is done farmers grow up BSFL and feed to pigs and chickens and give discounts to Restaurants.

 

How does your product compare? What makes yours better?

BSFL farms are portable and takin care of by farmers instead of entomologists

 

Competitor:

Fluckers Farms

Their Product:

Crickets, Mealworms, Super Worms, BSFL

 

Their Target Customer and Product Features:

Different Customer/Status Quote

 Target Customers: Reptile feed

 Fluker Farms has partnered with Texas A&M University (TAMU) to produce feeding grade black soldier fly larvae. The entire sale of the larvae will go to university research funding split between TAMU and Louisiana State University (LSU).

They are responsibly raised on a grain and grass-based diet, with calcium enrichment.

 

How does your product compare? What makes yours better?

They only sell live insects, we will be able to pelletize or send off to a manufacturer, they sell multiple insects to it will be hard to focus on BSFL, finally no mention of waste conversion

 

Competitor:

Phoenix Worm

Their Product:

Phoenix Worms

 

Their Product Features:

Status Quo/ Different Solution

 Target Customer: High Class reptile feed

 This is where you can order genuine Phoenix Worms from Dr. Craig Sheppard, University of Georgia entomologist and the developer of this unique feeder insect.

 Phoenix Worms is the original BSFL feeder. Researched at UGA for more than 30 years, and tested by breeders of bearded dragons, crested geckos, leopard geckos, and dart frogs for 5 years before going to market, Phoenix Worms were introduced at the National Reptile Breeders' Expo in Daytona Beach in 2005. We're proud to have been awarded the first registered U.S. trademark for an insect in 2006.

 Notes: This company market is the reptile/feeder insect industry but have very high standards when it comes to the diet of the BSFL.

 

How does your product compare? What makes yours better?

Our product will be grown up on spent grains from brewery’s. Working in different industry/different end main customers. No mention of waste conversion

 

Competitor:

Symptom Black Solider Fly

Their Product:

BSFL, EGGS, Frass, Dried BSFL

 

Their Product Features:

States Quo/

 Target Customer: Insect Rearers, Reptile Feed market

 Defiantly a smaller player in the market but has a good positioning with eggs, dry BSFL and frass. Owner of this company also owns EVO Conversion Systems which provided equipment to strategic partners in the BSFL world like phoenix worms

 

How does your product compare? What makes yours better?

Feeder insect will be pelletized. No mention of waste conversion

 

Step 4 

Next I did an exercise to try and determine how I could differentiate myself from my competitors.

COMPETITIVE POSITIONING WORKSHEET

 By answering the questions below, it will help you narrow your hypothesis the priorities about how customers choose between two products.

  • What are the customer satisfaction variables that your customer cares about the most?

Nutritional Value, Cost, storage, scalabilty (manufactrable)

  • What are the weaknesses of my competitors?

Many sell the insect but not products derived from the insects, bad content marketing

  • What are the strengths of my competitors?

Good market size, Good nutritional values for some

  • The major issue that motivates customers is

Nutritional Value

  • What are the strengths that your company can brag about that you do exceptionally well that competitors cannot?

Processing of spent grains to product which are easily

storable and scalable for large scale B2B food operations

  • The gap between what my competitors offer and what they need is…

Processed/Manufactured products

 Now from the brainstorming above, what are the top two benefits/requirements/priorities that your customer cares about the most?

 Next, create a competitive positioning map/graph using those two priorities as follows (You can map it on example below):

  1. Divide both the x-axis and y-axis into two halves.
  2. On the x-axis, write the number-one priority of your Persona/Target Customer.
  3. On the half of the x-axis closer to the origin, write the “bad state” of this priority (e.g., if the priority is “reliability” then write “low” here).
  4. On the other half of the x-axis, write the “good” state of this priority (e.g., “high” for “reliability”).
  5. On the y-axis, place the number-two priority of your Persona/Target Customer. Write the “bad state” on the half of the y-axis closer to the origin, and the “good state” on the other half of the y-axis.
  6. Plot your business on the graph, along with those of your competitors (current and future). Also include the customer's “do nothing” or “status quo” option.

 After that, as bonus, chart the price against your customer’s number one priority. (You can map it on example below). If one of your customer’s top priorities was listed above as price, disregard.

  1. Divide both the x-axis and y-axis into two halves.
  2. On the x-axis, is the price from low to high.
  3. On the y-axis, place the number-onepriority of your Persona/Target Customer. Write the “bad state” on the half of the y-axis closer to the origin, and the “good state” on the other half of the y-axis.
  4. Plot your business on the graph, along with those of your competitors (current and future). Also include the customer's “do nothing” or “status quo” option.

 

Step 5

Finally I did a on the phone interview with a fish food manufacture.

SAMPLE CUSTOMER INTERVIEW NOTES WORKSHEET

Name: 

Spencer Doepel

 

Business Name:

Eco Flys

 

Date:

3/11/20

 

Customer name:

XXXXXXXXX

 

Customer contact info(phone/email):

Tel: XXXXXXXX

Cell: XXXXXXXXX

E-Mail: XXXXXXXX

 

Customer job title and company(if applicable):

Facility Manager

 

What 1 to 3 hypotheses are you testing in this interview?

1) Black Solider Flies are less per pound then fishmeal.

2) Plant and algae replacements are not as digestible as black solider fly replacements.

3) The Aquaculture Industry More Sustainable than traditional means of agriculture.

 

What 4 or 5 questions will you ask?

1) How much on average is a pound of Fishmeal compared to substitutes?

2) How has the price of Fishmeal changed over the last 20yrs?

3) Have you used any plant based or algae based feeds?

4) If so for #3 how did the Yield differ when using Fishmeal?

5) What are your regular yield compared to regular agriculture?

 

What were the customer’s responses?

1) Different types of feed, depending on feed proportion of fish…. He told me that Fishmeal is diluted to about 7% protein. Said BSFL is pure protein.

2) Up and down very volatile market. Hurt there operational planning. Depends on the water fished out of, Stock price. Said a good indicator was a barrel of fish oil fishmeal is a spot market.

3) Algae gave the fish diarrhea so did not continue feeding said it came in as a additive in regular food.

4) Didn’t put on weight because they had diarrhea so switched back to normal feed was worried about dehydration in the fish.

5) Yes less per pound inputs to aquaculture farming. pound graph 1to1 for fish. RAS farming 15yrs old aquaponics 50yrs old agriculture 10,000 years old


What were the 2 or 3 biggest take-aways?

The biggest takeaways were

The three biggest takeaways for me were plant based substitutes are not there yet in terms of digestibility and Black solider fly feed can provide value to Aquaculture operations by giving them a more stable price point for feed and more pure protein instead of diluted fishmeal.

 

Summary

In conclusion the Startline program was a great success for ecoflys. We were able to gain a lot of knowledge about our competitors and the problems that still need solved in the industry.

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