GRIT EDITION THREE - Flipbook - Page 27
20
20
STRONGEST TEAM
CLASS OF 2020
intelLiculture
IntelliCulture helps farms manage their equipment fleet with
data analytics captured through IoT data loggers, enabling them
to grow their farm into a sustainable and scalable business.
Co-founded by Cole Powers & Ramin Shaikhi; Next 36
Cole (left) recently graduated from The University of Waterloo with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, with an Option
in Entrepreneurship. He has practical experience in the automotive and the solar industries.
Ramin (right) holds both
a Bachelor of Applied
Science and Masters in
Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering
from The University
of Waterloo.
26
GRIT
FROM STUDENTS, TO FRIENDS,
TO TRUSTED CO-FOUNDERS
HOW DID YOU BECOME CO-FOUNDERS?
We have known each other and worked closely
together for many years. We all met through the University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team student
design team, where we were all various team leads.
The premise of the team was essentially a startup
sandbox, and the goal was to convert a Chevy Camaro to a hybrid electric vehicle. From there, we
didn’t want to give up the freedom and liberty of
working on our own project, and we got chatting
more and more about the agriculture space. After
enough chats at the pub, IntelliCutlure was born and
we haven’t looked back.
have a quick and clear understanding of what fields
have been sprayed, and they can set their cycles accordingly.
In addition to preventing spraying mistakes, we
automate maintenance procedures for farms. By simply plugging in our logger to machines, we instantly
begin tracking all required maintenance events and
provide farms visibility into these maintenance schedules. This helps encourage preventative maintenance,
rather than reactive maintenance preventing downtime and costly breakdowns.
HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN A HEALTHY CO-FOUNDER
RELATIONSHIP?
TELL US ABOUT INTELLICULTURE!
Farms are facing more pressure than ever to produce sufficient food for the world, and they lack data
and visibility into their equipment management to
optimize their operation. This lack of visibility leads
to costly mistakes and increased cost to the farm.
IntelliCulture’s core technology is equipment
management software for farms. We provide a small
GPS and logging device into farm machinery that
enables our software system that provides visibility into crop coverage, equipment health and maintenance planning for farms. Our monitoring system
identifies and notifies farms of costly mistakes, saving the farm up to $28,000 in a single season. We
prevent mis-spraying events through our easy-to-digest reports that allow the operations manager to
Our co-founding team holds a level of vulnerable
trust as paramount. We are all incredibly open with
one another, making us not just co-founders but best
friends. This level of communication and trust truly
bonds our team and helps us get through the tough
times.
WHAT SHOULD YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS LOOK
FOR IN A CO-FOUNDER?
Young entrepreneurs should look for a similar value system in their co-founders. Having alignment on
the items that are intrinsically motivating amongst the
founding team is incredibly valuable for the dynamic. Beyond that, I would encourage they look for folks
that they have a solid foundation of communication
and trust with.
GRIT
27