Online animal sales idea Cloudherd wins Carnegie’s Den
An online trading platform to sell cows online won the favour of investor Mark Carnegie and his panel of judges in Carnegie’s Den last night.
Cloudherd, pitched by Alexander Stamp, was selected as the best of eight new ideas in media and technology that were pitched to the panel that included former adman John Singleton, Network Ten chief digital officer Rebekah Horne and Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes.
The project, co-presented by Mumbrella, sought new ideas following the launch of a $120m innovation fund by Carnegie’s investment capital firm MH Carnegie.
As the winner, Stamp will benefit from coaching and a follow-up meeting with Carnegie with a view to investment.
Cloudherd’s plan is to save farmers money by letting them sell cows online through a fully integrated livestock inventory and trading system that would allow users to create an inventory online and load videos and pictures of the animals with guidelines to take the place of a physical inspection.
Although well rehearsed in pitching his idea, Stamp said entering Carnegie’s Den in the hall of Carnegie’s home in The Church, Darlinghurst, was somewhat unnerving. “I was kind of worried going in because I have heard Mark Carnegie speak before and I heard he can be a little bit rough, and Singleton has a reputation as well,” he said. “But he was very complimentary about the business, and I think everyone was. I didn’t expect to win today but I’m happy I did.
“It gives us some very experienced guys with lots of connections to the industry that we’re trying to enter, and we hope that that is going to be valuable for us. I just am really glad to have the opportunity to present in the first place and get our idea out there.”
Among the pitches shortlisted were personal training project Train Your Way; Food Orbit, an online business that would sell local produce to local restaurants, Renting Smart, computer software to help landlords manage their properties; and Picture Postie, an app to easily have pictures physically printed an delivered.
Trouble is livestock are prone to illness, disease and infection in transit
so what you get may not be what you ordered
a bit like eBay but for agricultural animals…
any buyer protection or is it caveat emptor ?
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oh and they are also sold by weight
hard to weigh an online object and get a true current value
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This doesn’t sound like something invented by a farmer.
Lionel is right. In addition, anyone who understands agriculture also realises that this is by no means a perfect market. It’s a demand driven market made up of lots and lots of sellers and a handful of buyers from meatworks.
If on the other hand they are investing in Stud stock – it is more feasible. Except of course no farmer will spend $2-$50k on a prize bull without sighting it first.
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Hi AB&GR’sL,
Alex is an engineer by background, most recently (his LinkedIN profile tells me) working on a fat scanning system for livestock.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Hey guys,
I’m Alex from CloudHerd and we have a small farm in our family. We understand many of the challenges present when selling in the livestock market and are implementing technological solutions to many of them.
I understand you may be skeptical but online sales of livestock already exist, though done using an agent model. In fact cow sales are advertised on Gumtree. CloudHerd is hoping to greatly improve the online selling experience and has tested its product with around 50 farmers.
Regards,
Alex
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Good for you Alex, don’t let these folk get you down. I know one of the guys you were up against and although he has a great product – you won on the day.
Follow your vision!
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Hey Lionel and Andrew Bolt & Gina Rineharts Lovechild,
You weren’t there were you?
Good pitch Alex and well done.
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Hi Anonymous,
No. I wasn’t there. So my opinion of this product is just based on what I am reading here. Oh, and a deep knowledge of farmers, farming practices and the business issues that farmers face.
Does that mean I am not entitled to an opinion?
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We all need a devil’s advocate. Congrats Alex. Like anything going digital there will be people who’ll do it first, then people who’ll do it well. The trust model and ecosystem value-adds will be a strong point of difference.
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