Prior to Hone, Thomas’ business was predominately focused on surveying and engineering consultancy. Throughout the Hatch program, the GeoApsis team focussed on completing customer interviews to narrow in on the customer segment and painpoints. Using the Lean Canvas they identified their customers were producers who do not utilise machinery from conglomerates. They learned that these producers were actively looking for auto-steer retrofit systems to upgrade farm machinery and cultivate crops with better watch and without fatigue. Thomas gained knowledge around how to focus on the value required by users to create a viable business model.

Heading into the Hone Program, Thomas was looking to build his farming network and understand how to encourage diversification of products and services to the producer. This communication with producers was a key achievement for Thomas in the program as he learnt how to evaluate the potential market and sharpen his pitch to the different customer segments, emphasising the value of his minimum viable product to different groups. Thomas learnt the best ways to find and approach different producer groups and created a go to market strategy focusing on ag field days and capturing demonstration videos for online marketing.

Thomas understands that part of democratising precision agriculture is sharing the knowledge and education around this technology. Thomas identified that delivering workshops in person working with local precision agriculture interested persons (found) through the Facebook precision agriculture group) did have demand in the producer community. Thomas has built new networks through the precision agriculture group and is expanding the content of the workshops to create more value for attendees.