What is the name of your organization? Farmstr Inc.

What is your company’s product/service? (in 50 words or less) Farmstr is a platform for local farmers, fishers and ranchers to post their organic quality food for direct purchase from consumers.

How has your business grown since you presented at First Look Forum? A year is a lifetime in the startup world. Since FLF we have closed $1.25M in Seed Funding from PNW angels and funds. We have grown to a team of 9 employees and plan to launch a new site by end of November. While still focused on the Seattle market, we are iterating on our business model and preparing to expand to other markets in 2015.

How did First Look Forum help you grow your business? FLF was our ‘coming out party’ – we had launched our prototype, had customers and revenue and it was the perfect venue to ignite investor conversations. Winning was ideal in that it affirmed us as a startup and gave us a jumping off point for conversations with press and investors.

What is the most valuable lesson you learned from participating in First Look Forum? I don’t know if this qualifies as a lesson or affirmation of my firm belief in saying ‘yes’ to opportunities that make you uncomfortable – but that you know will ultimately help you grow or succeed. I was still getting used to pitching in front of groups, and remember all the preparation that went into my presentation. I remember the nerves. Someone asked me afterwards if I had been nervous and I answered: it doesn’t matter if I was nervous or not. It was the right thing to do for Farmstr. When you are ‘all in’ on your start-up, you do whatever it takes, meet whomever you have to, take the punches and keep focusing forward.

What advice would you give to future First Look Forum applicants? It took me awhile to understand the common phrase ‘fail fast’ in the startup world. I now understand it to mean iterate through a series of scheduled – then measured – hypotheses to quickly learn and ‘get it right.’ It is one thing to have a compelling, timely, lucrative idea – and yet another to dive into the actual revenue-making customer proposition that capitalizes on the highest potential for success and sales. In short, failing aka bad decisions, unhappy customers, friction, missed sales opportunities, incorrect hypotheses, a bad hire, is still forward movement as long as you apply that learning / new knowledge to your business model and eventual success. Failing in many ways is like gold – insights into what doesn’t work so you can quickly learn what does.

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Written by: Janelle Maiocco

  Janelle is the CEO of FARMSTR and comes from Dutch dairy farming roots and grew up in an agricultural community. She’s a trained chef and nationally recognized food blogger who has worked for years as a strategic marketing leader within the food industry. She raises chickens, grows a lot of her family’s food, and drives around in a badass red ’52 Dodge truck.