adi_agarwalla

Thanks for the questions. We have designed our own cost effective mechanisms to handle the costs that you mentioned. We are a facilitator, not a middleman.

Thanks for the question. We are currently in public beta in only one location in the country and as a result, the marketplace isn't live for everyone to be able to use. But, we are expanding this year to more locations in the country!

Currently, we haven't started looking at international buyers. So unfortunately, I can't answer that as of today.

The second aspect is something we have definitely thought about and which does hold a lot of value as we move forward. Great to see that you mentioned it as this is a problem many farmers do face.

Yes, a lot more needs to be done for this sector. But as you observed, a part of it does require a lot of input, in terms of capital and time.

Thanks a lot. You are very right in saying that middlemen make most of the profit in this industry and we are trying our best to ensure that both end buyers and sellers get the best deal possible because of the efficiency we bring into the system.

Nothing like that as we don't need one!

As for MBTI, mine is ENTJ.

You can reach us at founders@kisannetwork.in!

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Pricing is usually fixed for a 2-3 day period. Generally, market fluctuations take place outside of this.

For the crops, our team ensures that the quality requirements for buyers are met. As for the buyers themselves, ensuring they meet our requirements is taken care of during the on boarding process itself.

Just like other marketplaces, price is decided by market conditions. But where we come in is that unlike the physical marketplaces where auctions are the way crops are sold, on Kisan Network, the farmer gets a value depending on the quality of his produce.

We aren't looking at the storage aspect yet.

Yes, farmers in general and especially in India face numerous challenges. From our own interactions with them, we found this to be their major one as it is directly linked to their livelihood and the income they make.

Yes, trust from farmers is extremely important. Maybe the most important aspect here and we work daily to ensure and build that.

We haven't faced those sort of issues yet.

A couple of major reasons. There are so many aspects of a startup that go beyond where you are operating and the kind of market you are targeting. YC's advice with these matters is very valuable. They have started accepting international companies as well recently, which is a good sign.

Finally, the value of the YC network including its very strong alumni can never be quantified.

The cut depends on the crop and even specific varieties within the crop.

Yes, pricing is transparent to farmers.

Co-founder Aditya here. I'd love to answer any questions you may have, so please free to fire them my way!

The reason why we decided to build this is because the agricultural market in India is plagued by a middleman driven inefficient physical system where farmers do not have a say in the crop sale process. This is different from how the industry works in the US. But the fact is that in India, a huge majority (~85%) of farmers are small and marginal and therefore, have to deal with this system.

Comments / feedback / questions appreciated. Thanks

I was unaware that Yelp has that issue regarding business hours. If that is the case, I can understand their current approach. Though in such a case, they could fit in the hours (even if approximate) in the search results page so that the user could call up to inquire if the place is still open.

Personally, I have never faced the scenario where the mentioned business hours were incorrect.

Your point regarding saved favorites is very valid and it would be extremely handy to have them marked in between other search results.

Comments / feedback / questions appreciated

A redesign that works mostly! Check out my initial thoughts on it. Thanks