Onboarding Interview Rubisko
2024-08-15
1. Can you tell me how Rubisko started? And what the intended purpose was?:
Our journey started with me, Felix, and my co-founder, Will, who both have backgrounds in agriculture. Will was working in indoor farming, and I was immersed in the seaweed industry. We noticed a big problem: many farms were managing their data with Excel and paper forms, which made it hard to make data-driven decisions. This was especially crucial for the seaweed industry, where you only have one learning cycle per year. We wanted to help farms use their data better, so we started a pilot project with Tango Seaweed in Norway. Despite Tango Seaweed going bankrupt, the project was a success. This led us to offer software consultancy services, and eventually, we developed KORA, a standardised seaweed management software.
2. What is your biggest challenge at the moment?
Our biggest challenge right now is that the seaweed industry is still quite young, and so the customer pool is relatively small. We also understand that many farmers focus more on their crops and operations rather than data. That’s why we’ve made our software affordable and easy to use, to show how powerful their data can be in improving farm management and enabling them to make better, data-driven decisions.
3. Why seaweed?
You might wonder why we chose seaweed. While our business focuses on emerging agricultural technologies, I personally got fascinated by seaweed after reading about its potential to reduce methane emissions in cows. This led me to get hands-on experience in the seaweed industry. We realised that seaweed farming could really benefit from our software, and that’s how we decided to include it in our customer pool.
4. Why you want to join the North Sea Farmers network?
Joining the North Sea Farmers network was a strategic move for us. We wanted to listen to the industry's pain points and understand the latest regulatory changes. At the same time, we wanted to tell people about our software, KORA, and how it can help solve many of their problems. The network provides a great channel to connect with many farms.
5. Where do you see yourself and Rubisko in five years?
Looking ahead, our goal in the next five years is to be the trusted software provider for the seaweed industry. We want to be known for our experience, reliability, and excellent service. In future, we want to use the data we collect to produce better insights and build predictive models; our vision is to be an enabling technology that supports the growth of the entire industry.
