Madison Ayer, CEO FarmShop
Meet Madison Ayer, who started his career as a venture capitalist in the United States, where he founded two companies. With this experience, Madison chose to move to Kenya where he now lives, to focus on problems more ”on the ground”. It is there that Madison founded ”Farm Shop”, a social enterprise selling agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizers, and other agricultural input products) to farmers.
Being an Ashoka Fellow, and that way a recognized social entrepreneur, Madison spoke a bit about what he thinks social entrepreneurship is about:
- At heart of every social entrepreneurship venture is a new idea the realization of which brings beneficial social value and impact
- Social entrepreneurship is fundamentally a creative, outside of the box business
- Social entrepreneurs bridge informal economies with more formal systems
- Social entrepreneurs are people who have ethics at their core: This allows them to buildtrustful yet transformative relationships with the people and systems they are trying to change
The burning question that drove Madison to found Farm Shop was this: Could we enhance the quality of farmer crops by enhancing the quality of agricultural inputs they use? In other words, could it be that things like bad seeds, inadequate animal feed and poor or no fertilizers are the driving cause behind poor yields and farmer losses in Kenya and other African countries?
According to Madison, traditional systems have failed to provide farmers with what they need in order to yield profitable and sustainable crops. He clearly saw a systemic gap in the face of the right farmer inputs to yield the desired level and quality of agricultural produce. With Farm Shop, he aims to address this gap, first in Kenya, then in other African countries.
Farm Shop is a social enterprise using the franchise business model. This establishes incentives for all to participate. In particular:
- Farm Shop is a network of retail shops selling agricultural inputs to farmers
- Typical Farm Shop clients are low income farmers who nevertheless see the value of purchasing high quality agricultural inputs and find the means to do so
- Farm Shop franchise shop keepers undergo a rigorous 3-month selection process
- Farm Shop regularly organises ”trouble-shooting” days to address franchisees’ challenges and share knowledge within the network of shop keepers
- Because Farm Shop addresses a gap in, and therefore a demand for better agricultural produce, it has prospects for sustainable and growing revenue and profits
Since Farm Shop was launched, there has been a dramatic increase in sales with market demand growing each season! This validates the effectiveness of the Farm Shop marketing strategy.
Next steps for Farm Shop are to expand and include more franchise shops into the network. With currently 25 shops in Kenya, the prognosis is that once 120 shops are reached, the social enterprise will break even. As Madison noted, the ecosystem in which Farm Shop operates is very challenging, nevertheless Farm Shop can evolve in the direction of a social business and run a profit in the years to come.
Download Madison’s presentation here. And let us know your opinion here below!
This entry was posted in Day 2, Social entrepreneurs, Uncategorized on bynadjaloumbeva.
