Kenny Ewan. He is in charge of the overall strategic direction for WeFarm where he oversees the day-to-day activities of the business. After graduating, he spent 7 years in Peru running an international NGO, specializing in work with indigenous communities. Kenny played the lead role in developing WeFarm, before launching it as a startup in 2015.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Chaos Monkeys
What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
Favorite online tool? — Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I’m happy to let him make mistakes”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:18 – Nathan introduces Kenny to the show
01:49 – WeFarm is a growth focus model
02:29 – WeFarm offers their services to farmers
- 02:37 – WeFarm leads farmers to the sellers and WeFarm will take a small transaction commission
03:00 – WeFarm offers information in the space
- 03:08 – A farmer in Kenya who has no internet access can ask WeFarm a question, through SMS, for free
- 03:30 – 10-15 people in WeFarm’s network will try to answer the question
- 03:45 – The people who answer want to share their knowledge about farming
04:12 – WeFarm has generated revenue, but they’re still on pre-profit
04:20 – WeFarm just closed a seed round for $1.7M
04:27 – WeFarm started as an Impact project for Google and they won
- 04:36 – They used the prize as capital
- 04:42 – The prize was £500K
05:04 – Team size is 20 and is still growing; they’re around the globe
05:41 – WeFarm uses radio to connect with more farmers
- 05:51 – WeFarm partnered with radio stations and invited farmers on
- 06:00 – 4-5K people were joining WeFarm in just an hour
- 06:12 – WeFarm also partners with businesses where farmers buy
06:45 – WeFarm currently has 140K farmers on their platform
06:55 – WeFarm measures activity by the number of users who actively contribute every month
07:55 – WeFarm is also available online
08:15 – WeFarm has a super active marketplace
08:32 – WeFarm doesn’t incentivize people who answer inquiries, just like Quora
08:50 – WeFarm’s roadmap this year
09:00 – WeFarm has 20 people
09:30 – WeFarm already has a couple of commercial contacts with a major retailer in UK
- 09:48 – “We have validated our revenue sources”
10:00 – 2017 target revenue is around $50K
11:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

A business does NOT always have to be revenue focused; helping people can be a goal in and of itself.
We have a responsibility to help guide those who need it and access those who still do not have the internet.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, but be sure to learn from them.

Resources Mentioned:

The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

645: WeFarm Helps 140k Off-Grid Farmers Learn Faster, $1.7M Raised, 90% Still Active After 3 Months with CEO Kenny Ewan

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders