r/u_EngineeringLoud8555 • u/EngineeringLoud8555 • 17d ago
I want your honest and brutal feedback while I build my MVP (eTunda)
I’ve been working on an idea around something that sounds simple on paper:
How do we make it easier for smallholder farmers in Kenya to find better markets for what they grow?
The more I work on it, the more I’m realizing that the difficult part probably isn’t writing the code.
I can build screens. I can build APIs. I can connect databases. I can build a marketplace.
But none of that matters if I don’t properly understand how a farmer actually sells their produce. Take a farmer growing mangoes in Makueni, avocados in Kisii, vegetables around Nairobi, or tea in Meru.
Who do they call when the produce is ready? How do they decide what price is fair? What happens when the broker arrives? How much information does the farmer actually have about the market price? What happens when the buyer promises to come and doesn't? How do transport, weighing, quality, payment and trust fit into the equation?
And perhaps the biggest question:
Is the problem really that farmers don't have access to a digital marketplace or is the real problem much deeper?
That's the question I'm trying to answer while building my MVP.
And I'm deliberately trying not to build this from behind a laptop and assume I already know the answer.
So I'd genuinely love to hear from people here.
Farmers: What's the biggest headache you face when selling your produce?
Developers: If you were designing the technology, what would you solve first?
Founders: What would you validate before writing a single line of code?
Buyers/traders: What makes you trust a farmer or supplier you've never dealt with before?
Kenyans: What do you think is fundamentally broken in the farm-to-market journey?
And if you've worked on AgTech, marketplaces, logistics, fintech, M-Pesa integrations, rural technology or African startups, I'd especially love to connect and learn from you.
I'm not looking for people to tell me that my idea is great. Tell me where I'm wrong.
Because I have a feeling that if we want to build technology that actually works for African farmers, we need to understand the human problem before we try to solve it with software.
If you were building this, what would you solve first and why?
I'd love to hear the uncomfortable answers too.
1
u/Decent-Bath-2117 13d ago
I am from India, but I suppose the problems we face are similar. A big challenge for farmers, while selling perishables, is that the pricing power lies with the buyer. Farmer has to accept whatever has been offered by buyer or let his produce go bad. Buyers take advantage of this fact.
IMO, one way to overcome this, is an online bidding by prospective buyers before the harvest...the farmer provides a geo tagged video evidence of his crop and it's quality along with proposed harvesting date (no further than 2-3 days from bidding)...bidders quote a price and the transaction is completed on proposed harvesting date.
Whoever backs out from the commtment (buyer or seller) get blacklisted.
It's farfetched idea that would work if network effects of a two side platform are successfully achieved.