7 Years, 100k Invested, Zero Products (MFB 60)

0:00Welcome to Market Farming Basics. I'm your host Diego, DI, EGEO. In each episode I'll share everything that I've learned over the last 10 years of doing podcasts to help you create a profitable farm without breaking the bank. Each episode delivers actionable strategies you can implement right away if you prefer watching. Check out the video version on YouTube at Modern Growercow. 7 years. Hundreds of thousands of dollars trips to two countries, national research labs, engineering teams, outside investors, zero. Zero products shipped. Every backer refund was denied and a founder was in the emergency room struggling to breathe. I have to admit,

1:01I'm a fan of Kickstarter. I like supporting the products. I always fall for those marketing schemes that are the campaigns themselves. And this is one that really struck a nerve because I really, really wanted this product. But like many of the ones I've supported, I didn't deliver. Here's the story about why and what you can learn from it as a business owner. I supported a campaign in the coffee space and I got a letter from the founder that I had backed. They emailed everybody not just me. One of those updates that I'm sure they didn't want to write. And buried in is a lesson that can apply to everyone running, a farm business or really any business. This founder didn't fail because they were lazy. They failed because they were busy doing everything except what mattered. Here's an excerpt from

2:05the letter. For nearly seven years, I've been working towards bringing a better product to market. This product represented years of research, travel, relationship building, and hundreds of thousands of dollars invested to understand not just how to build a product, but why it should exist. Think about it. Imagine working on something for seven years, doing years of research, relationship building, and after all of that, you don't have a functional product. This is the seduction of important work. This founder was an idol. They were incredibly active just in the wrong spaces. And I've seen this in the past decade, a ton of times on farms. A farmer spends years, years researching equipment or the right method or going to workshops and building spreadsheet. And three years later, they're still using the same equipment and maybe

3:08they still haven't even started farming. Research often feels like progress, but at some point, research becomes resistance. Two years, preparing instead of launching at $40,000 per year revenue potential equals $80,000 in opportunity costs, plus loss customer relationships, and any learning that you'd get running the business in that time. Set a deadline, give yourself 30 days to gather information and then decide what will I do. The goal isn't the perfect decision. It's a good enough decision to learn from real world feedback. If we go back to the Kickstarter, then I'm still very disappointed that I'm not going to get, although I'm not really surprised. That founder traveled to two countries to meet coffee producers. They attended trade shows. They met with scientists at National Labs. They visited recycling facilities.

4:12Notice the sequence. They knew everything about the sourcing before they actually manufactured a single unit. Conventional wisdom would say research first, build second. But here's the reality. I know this from running a product business where I've had successes and a lot of failures. My successes are piggybacked on the learnings of my failures. Founders who ship who get product out, they do the opposite. They build something basic. They get it into customer hands. They learn what actually matters. Not what you think would matter. Then they iterate. And I've talked to so many farmers. The ones who've been really successful, they didn't wait until they knew everything about farming and soil biology and no till before planting. They planted. They observed. They adjusted. The farmers that struggle. They're still

5:13reading about cover crops or this ideal farm. They haven't seeded anything. And I can go back to 10, maybe 20 calls that I've had in the past decade of somebody calling and telling me about this amazing farm that they're going to build and how sustainable and regenerative it is and great it is for the community. And the plan is so complex, so detailed. They didn't never get executed. And after years of interviewing farmers, successful farmers make small bets fast and then they iterate. Struggling farmers make detailed plans slowly and they never execute. The difference is in intelligence. It's not about a smart UR. It's just about velocity. How quick can you get things out? Observe. Ininitrate. My Kickstarter founder spent months exploring

6:16purpose driven business models, including B Corps. All great, but it doesn't help put the product out. They spoke with mission led companies about aligning profit with values. There's nothing wrong with values, but what good is a B Corps certificate if the company never launches? What good is an ethical supply chain if there's nothing to supply? Today's episode is brought to you by Modern Grower. Modern Grower is your source for time and labor saving farm tools such as the paper pot transplanter, quick click cedar, and the jang direct cedar. Turn labor some tasks in the free time with tools by Modern Grower. I call this values distraction. Spending so much time ensuring your business will be perfect that you never build a business. And ironically, when you do that, you never get to

7:22implement any of the values that you plan for, because ideally if one of my values is restoring the food chain, but I never get into the food chain, all that planning about how it was going to fix it is for not. On farms, you see this, the farmer who won't sell until they're certified organic, but they've been working towards certification for years. The farmer who wants to be biodynamic regenerative permaculture based in carbon neutral before planting their first seed. The farmer that reads every book, but hasn't planted because they're still designing the system. B-Corp certification can cost you anywhere from one to $50,000, a company that never launches has zero revenue. You can't calculate ROI when the denominator is zero. Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves. Launch with integrity, but don't let aspiration become

8:27procrastination. Your values matter most when they're attached to something real. An ethical business plan in the drawer helps no one. My Kickstarter company, not mine, the one I supported in 2024, they raised outside capital from investors, produced multiple prototypes. This might mean we made it. The company still failed. Capital isn't a business, it's fuel. If your vehicle isn't running, more fuel doesn't help. In capital amplifies the risk, there's more stakeholders, more pressure. When market condition shift, the runway is gone. New farmers think, once I get that loan, I'll be all set. They buy the tractor, the greenhouse, the fancy irrigation system. But when I look at the farmers who've been successful, the ones who

9:31invest heavily before proving demand, they don't work. Because equipment doesn't create customers, a greenhouse doesn't create demand, successful farmers in my experience by expensive tools after proving revenue not before. When most people run a business, they think about the numbers and spreadsheets. But I can tell you firsthand, being a dad of three, being somebody who's worked aside, also being a full-time entrepreneur, that a huge part of business is the mental side of things. And my Kickstarter founder shared this. What I didn't fully anticipate was the personal toll. Over time, the stress accumulated. I was constantly sick. I experienced severe anxiety. At one point, I ended up in the ER struggling to breathe. This is not of the norm. And I feel bad for this person,

10:35but I get it. It's part of the entrepreneurial game. And if you're not prepared for this going in, don't sign up. This isn't easy. This isn't a privilege. This is a privilege. It's not a right. It's something that's hard. It's something that becomes a lifestyle. And I don't think the entrepreneurial lifestyle is for everyone. But one thing I'll tell you is when the business flounders, when it's struggling, that just amplifies the stress even more. And this is what happens when you spend years building something that never goes anywhere. Every day you don't launch pressure compounds. You have invested now more time, more money, more identity, customers are complaining. Or if potential customers or potential investors, real investors, potential customers are complaining, stakes rise. But you're not closer to knowing, does this actually work as a business?

11:39The uncertainty is corrosive to you mentally. It will tear you down. You talk to people who are deep into this, who are getting ready to launch. They can't sleep. They're irritable. They can be physically exhausted. Not from the work itself, but from this weight of uncertainty that goes with the business that is either struggling or not yet launched. Research shows prolonged uncertainty triggers the same stress response as actual negative outcomes. Your body doesn't distinguish between, I might fail, and I am failing. If you've been preparing for more than a season, for more than a few months, set a launch date, put it on the calendar, tell someone, commitment will at least reduce that uncertainty stress. Launching and failing is healthier than

12:42endless preparation. Failure gives closure, it gives data, but perpetual preparation gives neither. One of the most important things that I've learned in life and in business is to keep the main thing, the main thing. In the letter I got from the founder ends as follows. All funds have been fully spent. We are unfortunately unable to provide refunds. Every dollar gone. Nothing shipped. The founder still believes in the mission. The vision's alive, but the vehicle is dead. Not because the idea was bad, it was actually amazing, and the idea of the product was awesome, but because their execution sequence was wrong. The main thing was building a product and getting

13:45it into customer's hands. Instead, they built relationships with farmers overseas. They built knowledge about materials. They built a values framework in prototypes that never got shipped. Everything was done except the key part, the business that could sustain itself. For the farmer, the main thing is to grow food and sell it for more than it costs to produce. Everything else, certifications, perfect crop plans, a beautiful farm, Instagram worthy stands, sophisticated software integration. That's all secondary. You cannot optimize what doesn't exist, and you cannot implement change for something that either exists for the blink of an eye or never exists at all. If 70% of your time goes into activities that don't generate revenue, and you need $50,000

14:57for example to survive, then you're trying to make that 50k with 30% effort. This week, audit your time, if you're in the struggle if this sounds like you might be guilty of this, it's okay, you can change. This week, audit your time, market your task. Does this task directly generate revenue? Yes or no? If the ratio is worse than 5050, you found your problem. Revenue generating tasks matter. Busy isn't productive. Motion isn't progress. The only metric that matters in year one, did customers give you money? My founder, working incredibly hard for seven long years, but working hard on the wrong thing in the wrong order produces the same outcome as not working at all. They could have said seven

16:03years ago, give us our money, we're not going to give you anything and said they did seven years of work, felt terrible, took our money and didn't give us anything. If you're in the planning phase, a new farm, a new product, a new market channel, ask yourself, what is the main thing? Am I working on it? The world doesn't reward preparation, it doesn't care, it rewards execution. The farmers who win aren't the ones with the best plans, they're the ones who ship. Now go build the farm business, not just the farm and I'll see you in the next one. Thanks for watching. I'm Diego DiIegeo, let me know what you thought about this one in the comments below and until next time, be nice, be thankful and do the work.

17:06Thanks for tuning in to Market Farming Basics. If you found this valuable, hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and join our growing community of profitable market farmers. I'm Diego and I'll catch you on the next episode. Until then, keep growing smarter, not harder, find the video version in more resources on YouTube at Modern Grower Pro. Thanks for listening and until next time, be nice, be thankful and do the work.