I was listening to Radio1, a flemish radio channel, and their baseline is “It all starts with listening.“. That was the trigger to start writing again. After the last Now Sprint Accelerator, I got very sick again. After a lot of research, they found out I also have metastasis in my liver, just dots, not a tumor. My mother died of liver cancer so that came in very heavy. After that, I got a blockage in my intestines, so I ended up in hospital for a week. I had constant pain for weeks but, Inşalah, I am better again. You can understand that I had no appetite for writing although in the meantime we went to Slovenia for an Erasmus Plus project thanks to my very good friend and partner Mustafa Memiş. I threw up on the plane twice but I had a productive introduction meeting with great partners. I think this is enough as an intro :-D

Back to the failing startups and management skills. We always hear startups complain about not having money to realise their dreams. It is like complaining to Santa Claus that you really need that toy and why don't I get it. They forget that man doesn't even exist. It is a commercial fantasy. Some smart people surveyed the missing link of successful startups. According to international statistics from December 2019:

1. 90% of new startups fail
2. 75% of venture-backed startups fail
3. 40% of startups actually turn a profit (that is 40% of 10 to 25% of successes)

Failures were going back to bad or missing management skills:
Bad management — Conflict between co-founders — Bad hiring decisions — Underestimating market need — Poor competitor analysis and so on.

I know by experience it is very true. All my failures at the start of my entrepreneurial roadmap were due to the fact that I didn't know how the manage my business, my partner (at the start my ex-wife), competitor analysis, or financial knowledge. I learned it over 10 years at a very high cost. That is the reason why first starting to work in an existing company is so important. I heard the abbreviation “KPIs” for the first time after selling 2 companies, just like scorecards and other management tools. Lean Startup, Design Thinking, and Business Model Canvas when I moved to Türkiye 10 years ago. I learned from others but mainly from Youtube.

There are enough leadership and management courses you can follow but in the end, your character is the main reason for being or becoming a good manager. Management has changed from the bully, see industrial revolution, to an empathic person who is not sitting in his or her unidirectional ivory tower. That is why listening and understanding are becoming crucial. One of my partners in the last company that I started in Belgium was the ultimate non-manager. In the end, all I had the do is apologise to customers and coworkers for his behavior. 2 years after I left the company went bankrupt. Empathy is the keyword combined with transparency and clearly defined goals. You can not enjoy great music when you are talking. And most founders like to hear themselves, convincing themselves they have all the answers.

In Flanders we have a great saying about young people who think they already know everything. “A big mouth but he can hardly pee alone”. So true. It also was meant for me. I peed on my shoes figuratively for 10 years. And on leather shoes that give bad stains.

I don't have a solution at hand. As a founder, you have to go through this school of life. Sadly of course the bad managers don't see themselves like they are perfect. For those, who might challenge their own skills, get a second opinion from a mentor or an experienced business person. It will not surprise you that mainly men are suffering from overestimating themselves. It is in their nature. Women pee differently, that is probably the reason :-D.

Patrick Bosteels

patrick@stage-co.com or patrick@nowsprintaccelerator.com
Co-Founder Now Sprint! Accelerator, Stage-Co, Creative Academie, and Urla Coworking

Imagine, Eminem recently purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT (non-fungible token). It was sold to the rapper by BAYC member GeeGazza. ‘EminApe’, should resemble him, cost him around $452,000 (123.45 Ether). A startup needs to put its pants down to get 5,000 dollars but in the new hype, money is thrown away like nuts in the zoo. Do not ask me for a link to the Bored Ape Yacht Club, you can find it yourself. The rich have found a new toy to be unique, the makers see the bigger dollars rolling in and the upper-middle-class wants to follow the rich of course so at the bar they can show their certificate of a piece of digital “art”. Being cool is more important than adding real value to society.

The blockchain enthusiasts and the cryptocurrency adepts have of course great reasons why their new hero will bring nothing but progress. I am sure the tech side is amazing and cryptocurrencies have advantages but also use a massive amount of electricity (around 91 terawatt-hours of electricity annually = what a country of 5 million people would consume). There is also this amazing inequality, the top 9% of accounts hold 80% of the $41B market value of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. The practice of “whitelisting” keeps the bulk of NFT profits within a tight circle of insiders. Bitcoin is even worse. The top 2% of accounts own 95% of the $800 billion supply of Bitcoin, and 0.1% of Bitcoin miners are responsible for half of all mining output. Just as an inside. Not going into the crime side who are very happy with the security :-D.

As far as I am concerned the crypto hype is like the biggest pyramid scheme ever. When Elon shows his bad dance moves and opens his mouth about his favorite crypto the value goes up, next he says something else and the value goes down. Same with NFTs. They really are disruptive and not in the way VCs like to chase disruptive startups but like a very disruptive child’ troublemaking, troublesome, unruly, rowdy, disorderly, undisciplined, attention-seeking, riotous, wild, turbulent. unmanageable, uncontrollable etc.. Yes, it is nice to have a certificate for digital art and yes it is nice when resold the original owner gets a 10% cut. But what real problem is solved? Is an NFT deductible from your taxes? When I make a screenshot, will I end up in jail? What if jpg or other formats are not supported anymore in 10 or 20 years? Why do I pay more in Turkish Lira than in Dollars converted to Ethereum (minimum wage in Türkiye is around 322 dollars)? What about inheritance?

Why does it upset me? I work with startups in The Balkans, Türkiye, and Africa and it is heartbreaking how hard it is for them to get early-stage investment. On the other side, you have all the opportunists pouring in money to a vault that is not based on real value but on opportunism. We have seen Bitcoin jumping up and down just because of news items. If you really have money to throw away, then invest in early-stage funds or start one your own. Today the cryptocurrency bubble is carried by some smart opportunists who put in front the overnight millionaires who are so proud of their Ferrari for which they created no real value, just to gamble at the right moment. We don’t hear from all those who lost a lot of money of course. And who are the ones pulling the strings?

I don’t see any mention of gambling in the SDGs, the minimum we should all look at and try at least to put in action one of them. Startups in The Balkans, Türkiye, and Africa can not go to banks. When I see it broader, as I do not like the startup hype so much anymore, I would prefer to talk about entrepreneurship. Today more than ever entrepreneurs create more jobs than the big corporations. They are interested in optimization, so fewer people. SMEs create around 2/3 of new jobs compared with large companies. Indeed startups fall under SMEs and are only a smart part. Focus on entrepreneurship is in that sense more important and the SDGs should be channeled to them. I am convinced they will do a better job than the large companies. We just need a better understanding of the needs of SMEs and create services and financial products that really help them forward.

In our New Sprint Accelerator, I see the need for help that can get the entrepreneurs started or grow their businesses based on a positive impact, sustainability, and taking into account the SDGs. It’s less cool than a certificate of an NFT artwork of course. But for all non- video-based assets, just f*ucking print it and sign it. Photography does that, Screen Printers do it. As for video, put it on a memory stick with a golden cap, password protected or even biometric protected. That makes it unique. All the rest is a screenshot and I have it too. Yes, you also have other applications like entry tickets. But do we have a real problem with that? Amin to that.

Patrick Bosteels

patrick@stage-co.com or patrick@nowsprintaccelerator.com
Co-Founder Now Sprint! Accelerator, Stage-Co, Creative Academie, and Urla Coworking

When I joined ClimAccelerator, Christian (a very hard worker) asked me about the KPIs of Now Sprint Accelerator. I answered him impact, so he wanted to know how to measure that. Of course, what he expected me to say was how much money the teams raised that went through my program. I ignored that KPI and explained that, especially in early stage, impact means giving the teams support, knowledge, and confidence to go to their next step. Not raising money but making sure that they have a product or service that solves a real problem for enough people to build a business around. I am a big fan of getting customers who pay, not raising money to fulfill dreams without substance. Bootstrapped hardcore, I never raised money on an empty account, that is, customer accounts. That is where the real validation comes to light.

As I am already engaged in the SDGs and now Climate Change I did some research on the existing accelerators who proclaim green and blue and I saw that they all like to brag about how much money the teams that went through their programs had raised. So in the end they see the money impact as key KPI despite the idea of changing the world. Missed opportunity in my view. The biggest change we need is to change the neo-liberal goal of profit and added value, read making a lot of upsell, as the main aim. The industrial revolution destroyed us but we keep the same mindset. Bottomline making (a lot of) money for a minority. Equity for money while you have no idea what will be the outcome while we underline that any startup should first validate, validate and validate. So there you are with that unknown co-investor and probably stuck for quite some time.

If we really want change we will need a new KPI set that measures the real impact of accelerators. Do not get me wrong, a company must make money, profit, otherwise start an NGO or see it as a hobby. The startup world is sick today because of the gamble money of some rich people or institutions with big pockets and a dubious strategy. KPIs should be about profitable business, hiring people, products, and services that add value to a better world, even happiness should be accounted for. After the Climate Change comes the Nature disaster, extinction, lost biodiversity etc. And that we will not be able to solve. If there is really money to gamble with, then at least gamble on startups with a positive impact on society and humanity for the long run. I see great examples already in the circular economy. And in the end, when a team gets investment from a fund or angel, it is their achievement and not the one of the accelerator!

I don’t have all the solutions, but in Now Sprint, free and with no equity, I can clearly see the impact of what we do, together with amazing volunteers. They help me give workshops, are devoted mentors and a great jury. So let’s change the table setting and look for better ways to support entrepreneurs, not based on the quick growth and the X-times you can make in 5 to 10 years. Let’s plan long term so our kids and grandchildren also have a place of happiness. A cliche as big as a house but we need to repeat this but accelerators should make a choice on which side they stand.

Ellerine sağlik,

(Health to your Hands in Turkish)

Patrick Bosteels

patrick@nowsprintaccelerator.com

Partners Albania is a great organisation in Albania and Juliana Hoxha and her team are of great support for Now Sprint Accelerator. Established in 2001, Partners Albania is an independent Albanian NGO working to support civil society and facilitate inter-sector cooperation. They are very supportive of the startup scene within Albania and neighboring countries. As I was discussing with Juliana who to talk to concerning the agriculture sector in Albania she introduced me to Gramos Osmani. His last name is of course very familiar to me, as it is among many meanings, also a reference to Ottomans and a popular name in Türkiye.

Gramos Osmani lives in Tirana, born in 1982. He finished Business Administration at Tirana University followed by different international studies and certifications. Today he is working as Agribusiness Intervention Manager, for Helvetas Swiss Intercoorporation in Albania, on the RisiAlbania project with the main objective to increase youth employment in Albania. Prior he worked in the banking sector. His last position was head of Agro business at Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Albania so he has some good insights on what happens in the Agro sector.

Albania is I guess a very unknown country for most of us, especially considering Agriculture. For the country itself, it is very important though. Albania has a total land area of 28,750 square kilometers, of which 24% is agricultural, 36% forest, and 15% pasture or another type of land. Agriculture contributed around 22%(21.2%) to national GDP in 2017(2019). In 2018, imports of agricultural products totaled approximately $980 million. Exports have continued to rise, reaching about $300 million in 2018, a 6.5% increase from 2017.

Albania has a harsh history in my opinion. After World War II, Albania became a Stalinist state under dictator Enver Hoxha, and remained staunchly isolationist until its transition to democracy after 1990. In 1992 the elections ended 47 years of a hard communist rule. This is actually very recent and is still felt today. Gramos remembered that farms were run as cooperatives with a planned economy. The land was nationalised and redistributed to the cooperatives and everything was planned centrally. After the 1990s the land was again redistributed mainly based on the number of family members. The result was small plots, dispersed, and based on manpower. Already during the communism period, the mechanisation was extremely low and now farmers had to restart with just their hands and animals like horses. It was starting from scratch. Many Albanians also escaped from the regime but came back with the knowledge they picked up from the neighboring countries like Greece and Italy. Today there are 380.000 registered farms in Albania, farm sizes average of 1.2 hectares with 36 percent of the employees in Albania active in the agricultural sector. I mentioned to Gramos that, when I planned to become a farmer, I needed 4 hectares to be productive so 1.2 hectares is really very small.

The main agricultural products in Albania are vegetables, fruits, medicinal and aromatic plants, olives, grapes, figs, wheat, maize, potatoes, dairy products, honey, meat. Especially medicinal and aromatic plants surprised me and I remember one of the teams in the 4th cohort in Now Sprint who made a startup around this crop. During communist times people went to the fields and forests to harvest them in the wild and it became an export product. Today more and more farmers are cultivating them.

Agriculture, after the communism period, was supported at the start by different donors. The moment Albania applied to become a European member a lot of support came from Europe. This helped to improve farming in terms of mechanisation, quality of produce, etc. An interesting opportunity is that Albania still has agricultural land which has not been cultivated for years and the products can enter the process of organic certification fast. This gives Albania the potential to increase in the near future the export of organic products in high-value markets. Compared with the other Balkan countries Albania still has a big catch-up to do. It has the lowest produce per hectare and is still mainly based on labor due to very low mechanisation and lack of technology solutions. There is not a strong Balkan organisation either, seems like every country is trying to grow on their own strength.

The development of the aquaculture sector is constant and has followed the demand of the domestic consumer, especially for marine fish products and its growing trend is better than fishing. However, the import of marine aquaculture products (sea bass and shrimp) is needed to fully meet domestic demand. In total there are 82 aquaculture farms with 78.05% (64) in marine waters and 21.95% (18) in inland waters. About 25–30% of fishery production is traded in the local market (preferably supplied with artisanal fishery products), slightly less in the region due to less attractive prices and the rest is export-oriented to the EU market. Exports of fish and seafood have quadrupled, compared to 2013, during 2020 the value of Albanian fish exports reached 104 million euros.

Access to finance is still a big problem in Albania. The plots are very small, so collateral is a problem and banks are not very eager to jump in. There is still a high number of unbanked people also among the farmers. Non-performing loans from farmers are very low compared with other industries but the agricultural sector is still ignored. Labor cost is very low, like 1 to 10 compared with Europe’s average but this can not be sustained according to Gramos. Farming is very hard so young people don’t want to start farming. Entering Europe will also bring more rules so cheap labor will not continue to be an added value. Here Gramos came back to education. Or rather the lack of it. There are Agricultural Universities and Professional Agriculture high schools but the government should have a higher focus considering the high percentage in the GDP, employment, and importance as an export product.

According to Gramos the small plots, spread, are the biggest challenge. The viability is close to impossible so that needs to be addressed. He does see that some regions do better than others, greenhouses seem to do pretty well, even the most profitable today, and those with bigger plots can invest in mechanisation and tech. He sees especially the immigrants bringing knowledge and tech as a turning point and the grant schemes through different international organisations. This makes that there is a positive evolution. This can be seen in the expansion in export, although Albania is not self-supporting and still needs to import like wheat and maize.

Albania has very fertile soil, an abundance of water, and a great climate. And a lot of room for improvement. He sees still too many talented young people going abroad, the famous brain drain, and on the other hand the possibility to grow the agriculture sector just by increasing the productivity and use of empty land. The application for Europe brings also the need to evolve to a higher quality, and higher productivity. As for the organic challenge, there is the need for certification and control mechanisms. This comes at a cost of course and that is another challenge. For as far as Gramos understands there is a big incentive to invest, thanks to the many European grant programs, raising the standards so the Albanian products can compete with the other European countries entering a very big market. The increase in using technology will not only increase productivity but will also improve the physical labor that is very hard today and does not attract young people. Too much land is not used today according to Gramos.

Food processing is also growing together with the higher volumes of produce. Standards are elevated and the sector is also taking advantage of European grants. More focus is put on standardisation, marketing, and packaging. There is higher demand now in markets known as the Albanian diaspora like France, and as far as the US, and this is a growing market.

The Startup scene is in an early stage with initiatives where startups are participating in competitions or programs. Gramos is part of the mentor community and sitting as a jury member. In his personal experience, the investor community is not very developed and even the startups are not really focused on finding investment. They prefer competing for grants or go for loans. Gramos recalls the story of Amazon, Jef Bezos, and the way he raised capital through friends, fools, and family and giving shares in return. Most startups are very protective of their ideas and Gramos sees a big problem in trust. Even sharing all info with mentors seems difficult for the starters. There is also no Stock Market, so the investment scene needs to be more improved and aligned with the international markets.

We finally discussed how Partners Albania is doing a great and unique job in Albania and neighboring countries. Recently they introduced a new platform for the startup ecosystem, “Dua Partner Invest” inspired by dozens of amazing ideas and startups, which deals with the constant challenge of getting funds to put their ideas into practice. They enable innovative startups in the Western Balkan region to access expertise from a large community of experts.

As a conclusion, I asked Gramos how he sees the near future and what he would like to see there. He is clearly positive about the future but acknowledging that tech improvement is needed, a partnership between all players is a must from farmer to the food processor to distribution and exporters. Attracting investments to grow and expand, especially from abroad. This will improve the use of tech and knowledge. Very interesting is that Gramos always comes back to sustainability on economically, environmental and social aspects including better environment protection, working conditions, less low labor, and more gender balance. He genuinely puts emphasis on more participation of women, not only for labor but also for decision roles. He would like to see more involvement from the banks as they can play a big role in the growth and improving the agricultural sector. Together with Gramos I truly hope for. a bright future for Albania!

Patrick Bosteels

patrick@stage-co.com or patrick@nowsprintaccelerator.com
Co-Founder Now Sprint! Accelerator, Stage-Co, Creative Academie and Urla Coworking

I am very grateful for the experiences I got through Startup Weekend. It brought me to many countries like Iran and Moldavia but the most impressive one was for sure Sudan. I met a great team there, 249Startups, and discovered the energy and the beauty of Eastern Africa. When I started with Now Sprint Accelerator I wanted to include as many countries as possible from East Africa so I started to reach out through Facebook pages covering Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya. I had seen a documentary on tv about the Nairobi Startup Ecosystem and I was quite impressed. To my surprise, after 4 cohorts I had to conclude that around 70 percent of participants effectively came from Africa, 25 percent from the Balkans, and very few from Turkiye and SouthEast Asia. This is how I met Carolyne, who started a youth & woman-led organisation named Kimplanter Seedlings and Nurseries Ltd in Kenya and she ended up as the winner of the 4th cohort. She is all about smiles and smartness so I reckoned she would be a great person to interview to understand her story as a startup in Agriculture in Kenya as part of the first vertical for Now Sprint Accelerator, AgriFood Impact.

Carolyne Mukuhi Mwangi, that’s how I see her on my Whatsapp. After the interview, I was quite impressed by what I heard and what a journey she went through before being successful. Actually, she was always successful, she has this magic and drive to always succeed in whatever she does. When she entered Now Sprint she already made money but she was convinced that it might be an opportunity to learn.

She actually started by doing so many things in parallel, it was like a puzzle to capture her story. Although she had the opportunity to go to university she chose to go to college instead and picked Human Resource Management for a course. She wanted to get deeper into how that could help her as in the back of her mind there was certainly growing the idea of doing something extraordinary in her life. Immediately after her studies, for being the darling of the teachers she started to work almost by accident at an MPesa shop owned by her favorite teacher whom she admired as she was juggling a career, businesses, family and being a mentor to many at the same time. One day she received an envelope and she just kept it in the drawer of the shop, unaware it was her pay. So dedicated in doing things right.

Her dedication paid off as she got her first formal job in Embu County working for a Japanese international construction company. The pay was minimal, her parents were hesitant about it but she convinced them. She was 21 years old in 2011. It was a construction company and it was a great experience. She saw a very well-structured company and learned a lot. There she found out that she wanted to do finance. She followed classes after work as she liked to understand human resources and finance if she ever opened her own company. She met with racism in that job but managed it her way. With a smile, I guess. She finished her Finance studies at the highest level, CPA-k. She worked for 5 years in this company and tremendously grew to management level, and at the same time and not to get lost in too many details, opened a clothing shop, ran 2 butcher shops in different locations, and had a child. But wait until you hear about her hobby at that same time.
Carolyne was very early impressed by a friend who ran a small farm while being an engineering graduate. She visited him and that triggered, maybe also other inputs, to get interested in agriculture. During her working at many levels, this kept bogging her mind. As their neighbor left for the US with a green card leaving his farm in her parents’ care she started using that farm for what started as a hobby. Growing plants. Her parents supported her in this choice. She used her savings and started farming as a hobby at 22 years old. In whatever country, that is exceptional, and working full time at the same time! It wasn’t easy and as she was an auto-didact, she used Google, she calls it her friend, to look up how to start growing passion fruit.

A TV station learned about this 22-year-old female farmer and her TV appearance got media coverage during primetime. This young lady started farming. Normally agriculture is deemed to be for people who did not study and now a girl? People started to order seedlings from the passion fruit she was cultivating. At first, she guided people to her supplier for seedlings, but then he sold out his stock and she decided to grow seedlings herself. And she started to make money. Sold out in no time, started with green vegetable seedlings, but again sold out. So she started to see the hobby as a business. She went back to her Google friend to understand what they did in İsrael and India and found out that it was better to use planting trays and Coco Peat Media for a better yield. She had a small wooden greenhouse, 6 by 3 meters, 23 years old, full-time work, evening classes, and all the side-jobs on top. In 2016 she stopped the full-time job and dedicated all her time to the farm. Today she has opened 2 extra places and went from 30.000 to 1.3 million seedlings a year, and hired more youths into the business. It was not all sunshine of course. The first place next to her parents, the owner came back and she had to move the whole setup in 2 weeks!

Carolyne has every reason to be proud of Kimplanter Seedlings & Nurseries, operating in different locations across Kenya — Kiambu county, Muranga County and Kajiado County. After she attended the Now Sprint Accelerator, she restructured the company and changed the management structure. I remembered we spoke about the fact that she was too involved in the operational part and once you grow it is more important to be in the management seat. Carolyne is also a very engaged person and together with an investor, she started a reforestation and food production for proper nutrition project in Kimana, Maasai Land. The setup is to change the local mentality of just grazing off the land with their cattle, but also conserving it by planting trees and using some of their vast lands to cultivate some food for their household use for proper feeding and nutrition in the Maasai Community.

Through the journey and passion to be a modern farmer who inspires other youth despite the challenges, Carolyne was awarded by Kenya President as Best Youth in Agriculture in Kenya and recently she won the Africa Founder of the Year Award -Agriprenuer 2021 (FOYA Awards). She derives satisfaction in impacting communities going into food production for proper nutrition in their households through kitchen gardens. Carolyne has formed “CarolKimplanter Foundation” that runs social initiatives such as “Tunalima Young Initiative”( meaning we are farming while young) that targets youth and school children to sensitize them on the importance of practicing modern agriculture, proper nutrition, Agribusiness as an employer, why and how agriculture affects our GDP so strongly. For Carolyne, it is “Purpose over Profits”.

Going over the challenges, opportunities, and problems in Kenya with Carolyne I saw many known issues coming back that I heard of in the Balkans and Türkiye. What struck me is that Carolyne sees herself as part of the change in agriculture. Especially women are getting their voices raised and taking initiatives. What she did until now is exceptional and she became for sure a role model. More attention in schools is coming and NGOs and the Government talk more about agriculture and its importance. Still, capital to start is hard to find and there is still the “societal stigmatization”. When you go to college or university, you do not become a farmer, it's too low a vision, they say.

Also in Kenya, and I assume in the whole of Africa, getting the right price as a farmer for their produce is hard to get. Sadly, a big part of that problem is also due to the policies. The government is not always on the same side as the farmers. Problems with taxes and VAT, especially with imported food from outside where these same taxes and VAT are not applicable, and in that way, are cheaper than what local farmers can sell. Import of onions from Tanzania and maize from Zambia for example. These imports kill local farmers’ work and life. The is no protection of local farmers. Today all is based on demand and offer, neoliberalism at its best. A known problem all over the world and although food is a primary need, it is too often seen as just a product to make (easy) profit from. Self-sufficiency could be easily achieved for many countries but somehow that path has been left for profits (for a few). Importing seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides with added VAT give farmers a hard time as costs increase. Too often corruption plays a hand in policies next to policies that create a lot of challenges like the obligation of using imported hybrid seeds making it even illegal to grow your own seeds. Once the seeds became a separate, industrial activity, policies were created to protect and grow this business. We touched upon tomatoes who are worldwide starting to look all the same, red but with no taste and just water inside.

Agriculture though is key to Kenya’s economy, contributing 26 percent of the GDP and 27 percent of GDP indirectly through linkages with other sectors. 40 percent of the total population is employed in this sector and more than 70 percent of Kenya’s rural people. This shows the importance of agriculture for the country. The population almost quadrupled from 11 million in 1970 to 39.5 million in 2011, it will double in the next 27 years, reaching 81 million in 2039.

The next step for Carolyne is getting into leadership and advocating the needs and challenges farmers have. She wants to be part of the decision-making, defending farmers and empowering youth and women in agriculture. Today farmers are not very well connected and organised to make their voices heard and weigh on the policies that are made now. I can see a great role here for Carolyne as she has a great background and started the business herself, totally bootstrapped and through self-study.

Before joining EIT Climate-KIC as an open-source climate Accelerator with Now Sprint (more next year), I was asked what were my KPIs for Now Sprint. Good question, but although in business it is all about measuring, the impact of an accelerator is not only measured in how much money is raised after the program. Impact goes further than that and talking to Carolyne gave me the confirmation that impact on the future of the teams, business or emotional, depends on many factors but most of all it is about people, connection, empathy, and sharing. And patience. Carolyne is an exceptional founder and a great role model and for myself a great motivator in continuing to do what I do. Take initiative, share whatever can help, and be grateful. The result is happiness on both sides!

Patrick Bosteels

patrick@stage-co.com or patrick@nowsprintaccelerator.com
Co-Founder Now Sprint! Accelerator, Stage-Co, Creative Academie and Urla Coworking

August 20, 2021

Announcement Startup Wise Guys Africa and Now Sprint Accelerator.

Happy to collaborate with Now Sprint Accelerator and include the best teams coming from their 5th cohort to the Startup Wise Guys Africa acceleration bootcamp.

Startup Wise Guys: The bootcamp is the first step to get access to our equity-based online acceleration program and investment up to 65K EUR per startup. The program is the best fit for scaling startups that have achieved first revenues, run a B2B business model, and a product in the digital and tech field. The program is run online for 7–8 months focusing on sales and scaling with international experts, and after the program, startups can access a 4-month after-care program as well as be eligible for a potential follow-on investment.

About Startup Wise Guys Africa:

Startup Wise Guys (SWG) is Europe’s most experienced B2B startup accelerator and one of the most active investors of early-stage startups. Founded in Tallinn in 2012, SWG has helped more than 500 founders bring their startups to the next level. In 2021 Startup Wise Guys has launched the Africa Fund to invest and accelerate East- and Western-Africa-based B2B startups.
www.startupwiseguys.com
press-contact, zane@startupwiseguys.com

About Now Sprint Accelerator:

Now Sprint Accelerator was started in 2021 by Patrick Bosteels, cofounder of Stage-Co.com and based in Izmir, Turkey. The acceleration program is a no-equity, free, online accelerator for early-stage teams. The program focuses on the SDGs in the following regions: Balkans, Turkey, and mainly (East) Africa with special attention to female founders. Next to providing workshops, we have a great team of mentors and jury members.

www.nowsprintaccelerator.com
patrick@nowsprintaccelerator.com

To measure is to know. And what you know you can manage. Nobody will object to this statement, especially as we are measuring more and more so one would expect that we manage better. You wished. In theory, we can measure an amazing number of things. So when you don’t measure or do not share measurements, then we can imagine what happens with the management.

Agriculture is part of my DNA. My grandfather was a farmer and I farmed for a couple of years, even almost starting my own bio farm, but luckily I couldn’t find enough free land. I was too young and too naive at that time. Meeting Sumer Tömek Bayındır around 3 years ago was a relief as I found a person submerged in agriculture like I have been too, with 1 big difference, it is also her living and destiny so to say. Today she is the General Manager, and together with her brother, Başat Tömek, Technical Coordinator, leading TETA Teknik Tarım in Izmir, Türkiye. It’s a family business with strong roots and love in and for Türkiye but with an international mindset.

Sumer studied Business Administration in English at Dokuz Eylül University Izmir, Türkiye. Followed immediately with a Master's degree that took 2 years at the University of Massachusetts Boston and stayed 1 extra year to continue working. Boston is called by some the Athens of America so in that sense she was close to home. In her 2nd year, she started working in a textile company but she withheld her boss from applying for a Green Card as she assumed she might not stay in the US. And she didn’t, returning back to Izmir.

Upon her return from the States, her father told her he was waiting for her for a small surgical procedure. He disappeared for 1 month. I guess she didn’t expect this, seeing her smile while telling me. It was like an accelerated jump into his business. Her father was an agricultural engineer academician helping farmers with his acquired knowledge throughout his academic career. He started his company, TETA Teknik Tarım, in his late 40’s, in 1989. He focused on finding the best solutions, machines, and helping the dairy farmers with cows, sheep, or goats. In 1983 he was the first to apply his vision with a modern dairy farm in Torbalı with 400 cows, which was big for Türkiye and Europe. A complete system that was unique and attracted a lot of visitors from Türkiye and also from abroad. It quickly became a model farm.

From 2008 on, investors started to have bigger size farms, so TETA served the bigger farms. Manure systems, milking systems, etc, becoming gradually a full-fledged service provider with a focus on the animal husbandry farm business. More and more products were developed and made in-house. Later on, local producers were added as they were able to produce cheaper and better products in time. Recently they restarted providing machinery and systems also to medium and smaller farms. The philosophy behind this, started by their father, was to offer them the knowledge they acquired through their customer base of around 1500 farms. Trickle-down the knowledge to smaller farmers who can not afford the consultancy and investments the bigger ones are capable of.

Sumer was at first more interested in entrepreneurship, next to managing the company. She was for many years very active in JCI, 18 years to be more precise, showing her dedication. As if she didn’t have enough at hand she was one of the starters of the Family Business Network NGO Taider, in 2015. The main purpose was to find a way to extend the life of a family business. The purpose is to make Turkiye the top in generation succession rate. A lot of importance was drawn to sustainability, an important asset for family businesses. Big corporations have a lot of drawbacks on real sustainable business results, but family businesses can do a lot about it. Meeting with international like-minded people she saw the same issues coming back independent of the country or culture you live in.

Apart from other initiatives, she started in 2008 “Izmir Tarim Group”, not an NGO but just a group of people connected through agriculture. The idea was to lobby for agriculture, like trying to have more representatives in parliament. Sumer saw very quickly that this was going to be hard, if not impossible. It was a great learning experience and in 2018 she kicked off another NGO, “TARIM 4.0 Teknoloji ve Etki Derneği”, which translates to AGRICULTURE 4.0 Technology and Impact Association. Two things are important in this name and these are 2 very important drivers for Sumer. Agriculture 4.0 first of all. Although very fashionable today, it has been the core asset of her company, TETA. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR or Industry 4.0) is nothing but the continuation of automatisation where M2M or now called IoT, collecting data that is used for the management of processes and integrated for increased automation. So they call it all smart now with AI as the wonder tool. The second part is Impact. Sumer is not a big fan of using sustainability or the SDGs. Every day she is confronted with real-life challenges that the farmers are faced with. Through experience, she is more eager to thrive for Impact, a positive impact on society as she likes to see all elements as part of a holistic view of the world. I would rather be more precise, as impact also means an object hitting another object. The Economic and Societal impact would be more precise and is the demonstrable contribution that excellent social and economic research makes to society and the economy, and its benefits to individuals, organisations, and/or nations. (ref: https://esrc.ukri.org/research/impact-toolkit/what-is-impact/).

The scope of TARIM 4.0 Teknoloji ve Etki Derneği goes from farming to food to gastronomy. As Sumer is a nosy person she wanted to capture the full food chain process until it disappears in your mouth and further on. For instance in Italy, they saw the importance of Local Produces and Chefs promoting it. In Europe you have 3 labels: protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), and traditional specialties guaranteed (TSG). This system is similar to appellation systems used throughout Europe, such as the appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) used in France, the denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) used in Italy. In Türkiye the same approach is tried but didn’t result yet to for example an increase in prices or really good protection. There is definitely a lack of marketing and a legal framework. Knowing that in Türkiye there are so many genuine local products!

In Türkiye we are less focused on chef-based restaurants compared to Europe. I reminded of an episode of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown, when he visited NOMA in Denmark. He wandered through the local farm where head chef René Redzepi got his ingredients, all locally grown. Actually, all chefs Bourdain visited focused on a locally grown, season-based menu. Would be great to have the same culture in Türkiye, not as an exception, but as a rule.

From gastronomy to local producers is the vision of Sumer for Tarım 4.0, combining automatisation and impact. She has enough examples like our olive oil or our amazing cheeses. I even take white cheese with me when traveling to Belgium. Can not miss it at breakfast. We have in Türkiye centuries of experience in our local produce with an amazing variation thanks to different climate types, soil types, etc. And she makes sure that I do not see it as a romantic idea underlining that technology should go hand in hand with tradition where it makes sense. Tech as a tool, not tech for tech. One can not deny that the ambition of Tarım 4.0 (Agriculture 4.0) set the bar very high.

This brings us to her latest adventure, organising an online summit “Tarım ve Teknoloji Zirvesi” or “Agriculture and Technology Summit”, that took place on the 25th and 26th of May 2021. The setup was a 2 days summit involving all the stakeholders, from Government, local and national, the Izmir municipality, other NGOs, the Chambers, to scientists and entrepreneurs. Even non-agricultural people, like digital transformation specialists. All participants as speakers stayed involved for 2 days. The mayor of Izmir spoke 2 times. Presidents speaking from the different Chambers took the floor. All the known topics came to the foreground. The questions could be addressed through the facilitators. Many topics were handled thanks to the selection of speakers by Sumer. For example, a professor confirming the importance of gastronomy to get more appreciation for local produce. Even controversial topics came to the fore, like a professor who explained climate change is a returning phenomenon. I am not a scientist so I need to trust my instinct, what I see around me and the sources I believe in. I also learned that the title professor does not always give you extra credibility. And I also think it is a very complex issue and the cow farts are definitely not the biggest one. But deniers of what is obvious, RAPİD climate change through human interaction can not be ignored. As I said, I am not a scientist, it is just my opinion. What I do see is that each industry defends his or her potential impact on the topic for economic or other reasons, sometimes justified, sometimes not. But definitely a hot potato I loved discussing with Sumer.

I was very interested to understand if all, or at least those involved in Agriculture, mentioned the same problems. Of course, Small Earnings is a very known topic and you can add to that the huge increase of debt to the banks. The enormous numbers of farmers who stopped producing, selling their land to construction companies or cattle. We are talking about a 50% decrease. Increase of arable land that is not cultivated and I would add, maybe not discussed in detail, the lack of accurate data. I had to go to the OECD website (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), to find meaningful data that is not even recent. The trend in recent years is a bigger consolidation leaving us more and more with industrial agriculture and a lot of not cultivated arable land.

There are also issues that go beyond what the agricultural sector can do. Türkiye was always an exporter of agricultural produce, Sumer pointed out that today Türkiye is not any more self-sustainable, even importing during harvest periods which seems very weird. I looked up some numbers through the OECD website. Agriculture is around 8% of total GDP, with 47.222 million USD in 2019, a decrease towards 2017 with 58.884 million USD. Support for agriculture went from 1.9% in 2017 to 1.1%. Taxes on fuel are very high in Türkiye, there is no exemption for farmers. Fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds are depending on the exchange rate of the USD, In 2017 the dollar was at 3.65 TL/Dollar. In 2021 we noted 8.5 TL/Dollar. Not mentioning the inflation and the interest on loans nor the height of debt of the farmers to banks. I mentioned this situation to Sumer and wondered if all stakeholders in the summit were aware of this situation? The answer was yes. So I fell in silence for a moment. Sumer went further into the problems and highlighted the importance of milk. Milk is an indicator for inflation. So the price is kept low. This is of course a problem for the farmer who can hardly feed his herd, can not invest, can not even survive. So they sell cows, shrinking the herd, because of the increasing debt. A vicious circle. It is the dead-end story for many farmers. What is the solution? Those who can resist will win. Fewer cows, production goes down and the price goes up. Since 2019 this process has started. The other effect is that poverty will increase. As mentioned by Sumer, all stakeholders are aware of this.

Of course, the “Why” question popped up, but still today I have no clear answer to the 5 Whys. I know Sumer and many other peers are fighting for the sector to survive and thrive. A lot of work has to be done and there is a big role here of the rulers of the country. Crossing my fingers and I know Sumer is doing the same, just hope they will not end up blue and numb.

My next question went towards solutions, as we like to see positive progress. And there are, small but growing, not yet organised. She sees startups using tech, based on IoT, precise farming, even fintech in agriculture. There is the growing “farmer to plate” movement, which is actually part of Turkish culture. More importantly, she pointed out to the agility of the farmers and their never-stopping drive to come to solutions, short term, more like surviving, with a positive attitude that can be hard to understand by an outsider. As Sumer pointed out, it is amazing how Turkish people, also farmers, can handle uncertainty and believe that tomorrow there will be a solution. As I said, I cross my fingers.

What about the next summit? Sumer was very happy with the 1st one with over 5000 participants, an amazing and diverse number of speakers, and many topics covered. The next one she wants a more vertical approach with more specific topics, focus on the economics of farming, reaching out to other regions. The 1st edition aimed at the Ege region, an important region, but there are other regions like Central Anatolia. Agriculture is not only about producing but is also important for employment.

As you can imagine we can go on for much longer, it is a broad and important topic, AgriFood. What I remembered from this lively interview/discussion is that I met a great female entrepreneur, who perfectly fulfills the role model most people are talking about. A person that combines her love for Agrifood with a great ambition to create a positive impact and is not afraid to get out, share her knowledge, create new opportunities and initiatives to come to a better world. No better way to start the next Now Sprint Accelerator program, Agrifood Impact, starting October 12th.

patrick@stage-co.com or patrick@nowsprintaccelerator.com
Co-Founder Now Sprint! Accelerator, Stage-Co, Creative Academie and Urla Coworking

Even my mother didn’t understand why I started this company, it was my second one. I had this wild idea to start a media company with outdoor advertising. Instead of doing my homework, I immediately bought the license and started. The part my mother did not understand that the advertising would be on garbage bins in the middle of shopping streets. I had no marketing background and didn’t even test if it was really working. I was simply an enthusiast and believed all the arguments that the owner of the license had.

I immediately started to work with an outdoor furniture design company and we created a full line from garbage bins to banks etc. The material, a composite with marble or granite dust from Italy looked really like marble or granite. Then started a whole team with sales and getting contracts with municipalities to have the places ensured and the emptying and cleaning of the garbage bins. We had some successes but it was a nightmare. Got a first investor (actually crooks as I learned the hard way) and ended up giving it all up. The reason: zero validation, zero testing, zero background check on the investor. We did have Mac Donalds as a customer at one point.

It is only when I discovered Lean Startup through Startup Weekend as a mentor and facilitator more than 10 years ago that I started to see the methodologies and especially discovered Steve Blank. Although today I am not a big fan of Lean Startup, I more prefer Design Thinking, the Business Model Canvas is a great tool for early-stage teams. I wished more just did what I always recommend at the beginning of the workshops for early-stage teams or Now Sprint Accelerator. Go to www.SteveBlank.com and read all the free info that is available. You will be surprised how much you can use from it.

His very famous quote is: Leave the Buiding, meaning validate through your target audience, from partners to potential customers. Today we see a lot of lookalikes of Steve, Eric Ries, and Alex Osterwalder, just making it more complicated and putting their name under it as the next guru. Cheap tricks. Even after 10 years, I didn’t see any well-validated Business Model Canvas, and that seems so easy with these 9 fields.

Make your homework, read and search, there is a lot available. I only later understood why some of my ventures succeeded and some failed (especially in the beginning). Those who succeeded were researched and based on actual customer needs. Women are better than men by the way. They are more inclined to prepare better and listen to good advice. Most men are like me at the start of my entrepreneurial adventure, naif and in love with a world, we create in our head, far from reality.

Kolay Gelsin,
Patrick Bosteels

patrick@stage-co.com or patrick@nowsprintaccelerator.com

Co-Founder Now Sprint! Accelerator, Stage-Co, Creative Academie and Urla Coworking

I was so bad at languages at school. For French, I am native Flemish-speaking, I sat next to Catherine who spoke French at home. Every test she helped me willing or unwillingly so I could pass. Even English was a burden although you think it will be easy, it wasn’t. I remember going on an adventure to Paris for a German company to set up a distribution for scanners. I so failed in the first months as my French was nowhere good enough and Catherine was not sitting next to me anymore. Luckily I could hire an Algerian assistant who spoke and wrote better French than any Frenchman. In France, English is only for tourists, like 5 words and that’s it. Even my German counterpart was only German, except for the boss and his wife. And my language struggle continues. After I managed to speak 3 languages fluently I now struggle width Turkish. My eagerness for exploring the world was always met with language barriers.

I see the same struggle in Now Sprint Accelerator where teams have to leave the program because of the lack of English. They are probably very talented but today English in the startup world is simply a must for many reasons. I am very lucky I was born in a multilingual country as it confronts you immediately with the language barriers. My father insisted that I spoke French fluently. He only spoke a flemish dialect and was very frustrated by that. The fact that English made it as the international language probably comes from the fact that the US has a market of 400 million people speaking the same language and their openness to being innovative and great entrepreneurial spirit.

In developing countries, not to mention the underdeveloped countries, the language barrier is a struggle to connect with the fast speed of the developed countries and we point to globalisation as the problem. Education and political choices are in my opinion way more important in creating a counterbalance. Romanticism in the 18th century created nationalism and we have seen terrible things born out of that. The result we see today, where the most talented people who have the means move out of countries that are using language, in many forms, and land at places where another language is used that inspires and challenges in a positive way.

I only recently discovered Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on Netflix. The poor man is not anymore but what an amazing way of discovering cities and countries through the language of food. He prefers, of course, to speak to locals who also speak English and therefore most of the time have a better view of how to place the local dishes in a historic context that goes further than “this is our national specialty” as it almost always comes from a mix of influences. Language as a bridge should always be the aim.

Kolay Gelsin,
Patrick Bosteels

patrick@stage-co.com or patrick@nowsprintaccelerator.com

Co-Founder Now Sprint! Accelerator, Stage-Co, Creative Academie and Urla Coworking

We just finished Cohort 4 of Now Sprint Accelerator. All teams were selected based on SDGs and impact. We started with 15 teams and ended with 8 pitches. Some teams left as they understood that this was not a sit back and relax show but an interactive and intensive program with homework. Some teams I kicked out as they didn’t take it seriously for whatever reason. My way or the highway. I don’t want to sound harsh but we are all volunteers and our effort and time should be respected. One of the most important things in life for an entrepreneur is empathy and respect. Simple.

Kenya was again very well presented together with Sudan and Palestine. This time finally we had Balkan teams, mostly thanks to Dua Partners Albania. Actually, all partners are doing a great job and it grows every month. The same thing happened with the trainers and the mentors. Growing organically through like-minded people. After 3 programs I could also improve the flow and the process. Thanks to Branka van der Linden, we have now more cohesion between the teams! Some teams have problems with an internet connection or even lacking a good laptop. We aim at early-stage teams, idea stage to MVP, and early growth. Very mixed in many ways and the mix of Africa and Balkans working really well. I still have a hard time involving South-East Asia.

The jury decided:

1. Kimplanter, Kenya
2. Three Sisters Co., Kenya
3. Immortelle Shpk, Albania
4. Matogreen Agricultural, Sudan
5. AgriChance, Palestine
6. Little Explorers, Republic North Macedonia
7. Perpetual Motion Squad, Sudan
8. A Better World, Palestine

The aim of the program is to help the teams to validate their idea or their actual status and make a step or even steps forward in order to become successful. In some cases, we hope they can go to an accelerator program for equity or even an early-stage investor. Honestly and personally I insist always on bootstrapping and organic growth. I did the same for 35 years and for 13 companies. I prefer paying customers and having full control. Of course, in some cases when hardware is required investments are needed. Banks are great as no involvement in the management but out of reach for the teams we work with. Grants are also great but not an easy road. Investment through Venture Capital is in most cases a good possibility but again the countries we target are not as VC-crowded as we see in Europe or the US.

Now Sprint Accelerator is totally bootstrapped and based on volunteers. All of us. I want to continue this for the online version and I am very proud of our results and the impact we create. I see big organisations like UNDP, not to name one, with huge budgets but not with a better result. I know as I am a mentor and trainer, on a volunteer basis in their accelerator. We also made an offer based on their open request that we of course not got. Not going any further on this topic but I didn't even get an email with the decision or why not. I send an email to understand the status and got a very nasty response back. I was baffled. I might now throw out my window but so be it. The team who is now doing the facilitation I know quite well and I am sure they will do a great job. But it stays very hard for us to get at the table of big organisations who want to listen and maybe help us.

Every challenge is an opportunity so we started a new project, Now Sprint Impact Invest. As the name says, it will be a fund that invests in early-stage startups in the region we work in but not exclusively. We are now working on the products we want to offer, from equity investment to loans to grants. I had a very good talk with Yonca Braeckman from www.impactshakers.com. She also mentioned shared revenue but my problem here is that I see that in most funds the overhead costs are way too high and agreements based on shared revenue also require a lot of control. I always remember Joachim Berendt from Bic Angels who tried to impose a central accounting system so he had control combined with processes like different offers for outsourcing. I found that normal as he invested his money in the teams. When I talked to the teams they didn't like it at all. They preferred to work with friends/family and didn't like the KPİs and processes. What seems logical can be very different in reality. A nice explanation of what Impact Investment is can be seen here: https://youtu.be/jv3oKGUbCPo by https://prowgress.com/. I love their abbreviation standing for: Put Your Money Where Your Meaning Is Community. Couldn’t say it better.

In October the 6th cohort, online, is planned. The 5th cohort in September, but this one will be in-person in Urla, Ion Village, and our first vertical, IoT in Agro 4.0 over 7 days. All info on www.nowsprintaccelerator.com.

Here are the people involved in the 4th Cohort as seen on the image at the top. Many many thanks to all these amazing volunteer friends and of course our Fellow Sprinters!

Trainers: Next to me and there from the start: Branka van der Linden, Ezgi Ada, Karen Stephen, Ferda Tarakcioglu Erdem and Özlem Yalın.

Jury: Noah Nasiali — Kadima , Hale Umul, Esat Asar, Anwar Yahia, and Ariola Memia.

Mentors: Mehmet Gençer, Yağmur Nur Dolek, Valentina Primo, Felix Lee, David Kabata, Ebru Elmas Gürses, Ali Riza Ersoy, Begüm Savaşan, Günce Önür, Sertaç Yakın, Shannon Eastman, Tunjar Asgarlı, Umut İlhan, Selinay Filiz Parlak, Reha Yurdakul, and Ozan Sonmez.

Kolay Gelsin,

Patrick Bosteels

patrick@stage-co.com or patrick@nowsprintaccelerator.com

Co-Founder Now Sprint! Accelerator, Stage-Co, Creative Academie and Urla Coworking