How AI is intelligently augmenting farmers to exponentially grow yields and efficiency.




Tech-Entrepreneur-on-a-Mission Podcast show

Summary: <p>My guest on the podcast is Tim Willis, CFO and Head of Growth at Aerobotics, an AI startup from South Africa. He’s charged with growing Aerobotics in non-core markets, as well as its global expansion efforts. He’s built his financial management expertise at both Deloitte and Uber, where he led its Analytics &amp; Strategy Central Operations Team for the Europe, Middle East &amp; Africa (EMEA).</p><p> </p><p>During this podcast interview we explore how technology can add significant value by augmenting farmers across the world to increase their yields, while becoming more efficient at the same time.</p><p>We’ll also look into the wider value implications this can have across the supply chain, and how other, non-farming related industries, can be served uniquely as a by-product of the intelligence gained.</p><p> </p><p>Here are some of Tim’s quotes:</p><p><em>Aerobotics effectively takes aerial images of mainly agricultural areas. We collect those images using drones and satellites and potentially even aeroplanes.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em>Farmers have a real struggle in terms of managing their overall farm….</em></p><p><em>…you're looking at farms that are hundreds of hectares big, and some farmers can't get through their entire farm in three days…</em></p><br><p><em>If they don't have technology, they have to basically walk around or drive around their farm trying to identify areas that could be potentially mismanaged, and employ large scouting teams to work in their farm. With our technology, they're able to basically manage their farm from their office.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em>If we look at the overall picture in the world, obviously food's going to be a scarce resource, and I don't think we're going to solve that by ourselves, but we're definitely going to be a player in the combination of solutions that solves that problem.</em></p><p> </p><p>By listening to this podcast you will learn three things:</p><p>1)   Why focusing on outcomes, not outputs is the secret to creating a sustainable business</p><p>2)   How focusing on just a thin slice of the market is key to dominate it profitably</p><p>3)   That less is always more – in other words you’ll always have 100 to 200 things you’d like or think you have to do with your software, but identifying the 10 that will truly move the needle is the most critical thing.</p><br><hr><p style="color:grey;font-size:0.75em;"> See <a style="color:grey;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://acast.com/privacy">acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.</p>