Farmers over funding

• Did you know that Gibran Huzaifah was a fish farmer himself before launching 500-backed aquaculture company eFishery?
• After facing various obstacles with high costs and low profit margins, he saw the opportunity to address this long-standing industry problem with technology. 
• Gibran built a prototype for an automatic feeder that releases the optimum amount of fish feed into the ponds accordingly, thus eliminating the issue of over- or under-feeding.
• According to Gibran, eFishery feeders can reduce feeding costs by 28%. Today, he and his team serve close to 60,000 farmers and about 280,000 ponds, making it one of the largest startups in the industry.
• Last year, the team raised what they shared was the world’s largest funding round by a seafood farming tech startup — a US$90 million Series C.
• Wondering how Gibran did it? Here are his three tips for running a successful company.
• Say no to high cash burn. Gibran shared that startups tend to burn cash in order to grow rapidly or have poor cost control. The reason why startups do this? “To increase their valuation and raise more money for the next funding round,” he explained. “For us, we don’t play that game.” He added that putting processes and systems in place from the start is also important, to prevent issues like overpaying for talent.
• Don’t give away products for free. Many new startups do this to expand their customer bases. This was something that Gibran tried himself, and the result: “Farmers didn’t want to use it simply because they have been farming for 20 years to 30 years, and they are not convinced to use this technology,” he shared. Eventually, Gibran knew that letting users use their product for free is not the way to go. From the start, he decided to sell his feeders at a profit.
• Customers first. eFishery had the advantage of being a first mover, so there was no competition pressuring the team to grow faster than their own pace. They focused on helping farmers and deploying their technology. “Don’t listen to investors because the investors that asked you to increase your burn rate five years ago are asking for profitability today,” Gibran said. “But if you continue to focus on core customers, you can build a good business with a strong retention rate, a strong margin, and eventually, the investors will come.”
• Read the full story on CNBC.