Hello everyone!

This is the Entrepreneurship Senior Project Team from Cal Poly.  Our team in Fall quarter was comprised of four individuals: Christian Renfro, Emily Plummer, Jake Wing, and Ally Woods.  We joined the OpenFarm team in September and have had an awesome journey with such a fantastic and positive group of people.  When we first met Rory he presented us with the main question:  “How do we keep the lights on for OpenFarm?” “What is a sustainable revenue model that works with the culture we are trying to create?”  It was with this question that we realized we had a lot of learning to do.  About gardening, OpenFarm, the people who value it and the culture that we are trying to foster through being open source.

There are a few things we do as Entrepreneurs at Cal Poly, from Identifying our “Customer Segment” and “Value Propositions” to identifying a scalable revenue stream, and so on.  Essentially all aspects of a startup merge into something we call the business model canvas- what we were on a mission to define. Here is an example:

So, 3, 2, 1, and we’re off!  But.. where do we start?  Well, we had to take 2 steps back in order to take any steps forward as a team.  So we started working on the basics.

First: What is our customer segment?

Second:  What value is it that we are bringing to these people?  Is there a product market fit?

Third: Who do we interview, and what do we ask them to get valuable feedback on this startup?

Fourth: What revenue models work well with the gardening environment and the OpenFarm community and culture?

In upcoming posts we would love your feedback on some of the work we did as a team, as our job isn’t over yet!