Building The Product For True Bharat and Some Funny Tidbits

What happened when Agrifi Team went to the field

Hola Peeps,
Diwali went by 2 weeks back and so did our first on-field journey. Trust me spending Diwali holed up in the car for full is not the best suggestion for anyone but it did help us in building strong bonds with the team in the 8-hour long journey. In the evening we reached the beach in Pondicherry. And from here the 3 days journey started to know the real bharat.

Let me introduce some of the People from our trip:

Pradeep Paladi - The vegetarian anchor

This is the guy because of whom many times we have eaten veg food. This is literally a joke. A group consisting of people who are ready to do any idiotic thing, Pradeep was the sanest guy amongst us. Any offer we propose Pradeep did ask cross-question and in end, we did realize the awesome idea we are thinking is idiotic at most. If the field visit went well it was because of this guy.

Me every time we go to a new restaurant to Pradeep :/

Sagar Ranjan - The hero Guy

Most photogenic amongst us and rightly flaunting so. Being the partner in most of the crimes with me he second priority would always be clicking pics. For a pic from one place this guy made me click 20-30 poses. Take about free labor!!!

Him at every new location:

Shihas Shareef - The eligible Bachelor

This guy doesn’t speak much, is very sweet, and very pure at the heart. I did find whenever he got the free time he was scrolling through the profile of girls from some matrimony sites. He is a great engineer no doubt, but talk with him about any non-engineering thing related and I can bet you would find yourself questioning your bachelor life or married life in case you are married.

Wishing him this:

Nandakumar - The All In One Communicator

This guy is perhaps the most important guy because of which we were able to conduct our on-field validation. So pure and down to earth that humility oozes out from him whenever he speaks. Everyone we met on the field was talking to him like he was his long-lost childhood friend. Little exaggeration here but it is mostly true.

His Image with All the trader/Farmer/Asp

Some Pictures For You to get Jealous Of Our Trip

Now we won’t share everything with you as the Legend Goes:

Whatever Happens in Pondicherry stays in Pondicherry………. ;)

Some Learnings:

I have shared the finding with all of you(link). Now let us discuss some facets that are not business-related or maybe it is:

Humility:

Everyone was so humble while interacting with us. None of them tried to get over the meeting as soon as possible. While discussing you can find a familial bond with them. We thought talking past 20 mins with any one of them would bore them and will result in low-quality answers. But the exact opposite was true. With each person, we would have spent at least 45 mins. Yes, fracking 45 mins and this 45 mins consist of everything from mentioning problems faced, our feedback collection, their life story, property tours, and the occasional serving of cold drinks or tea.

This thing you won’t find while collecting feedback from tier 1,2 audiences. This goes on to prove how big of a problem we are trying to solve and these people are also very hopeful towards a company like us who is trying to build for real Bharat.

Some Shortcoming that I observed:

• Direct communication wasn’t possible because of the language barrier hence to get all the notes, question, and process I prepared fell flat.

• To get actual field validation you have to pack your bags for at least a week if you want to interview all the stakeholders in the value chain.

• They still have some reservations about dealing with someone from outside. From them all, we were outsider part from Nandha. This goes on to show that what these people call trust is not based on the ideal product you can offer but they should feel you are someone like them who is extending a helping hand and not some business ideas.

• Building for real bharat doesn’t happen through your traditional set of principles. Building from them requires understanding their life and then inserting your value props in their life.
  A simple Example - They don’t understand the normal UI things, Burger menu, three-dot menu, pop up is not very intuitive to them. If something is doing some action then it should be in form of the button only.

• Onboarding them to the digital ecosystem is a mammoth task. They are set in their own way and to push them to adapt to new ways comes with a very steep curve.

I firmly believe whatever we are doing is going to potentially change the whole Agri ecosystem of India. Being some of the first players in this field we have a big open field we can build and shape how the Agri community could prosper.

Here is to hoping that we achieved what we set out to achieve and succeeded in our mission to bring prosperity to the Agri community of India.

In end I have just one thing to say to you:

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