Just like a family doctor, let's have a family farmer" A typical city brought up who had grown up hearing about connecting to the roots by her father. As an young entrepreneur, Archana Stalin took the lessons from her first venture and created myHarvest Farms in 2016. myHarvest Farms is a company which delivers fresh produce and organic food directly to customers. Today they have more than 100 farmers serving more than 2800 families with their list grown from 40 items to 200 items. Building a healthy community which enjoys safe, healthy food and practices natural way of living has been the dream of Archana and team. Service to humanity has always been in her mind. She had started an NGO while in college with the sole aim of serving people. Today, she serves as a mentor to many startups and her growth as an entrepreneur in immense. Few key learnings from her : 1. Pilot your product 2. Pivot when required 3. Necessity will help you take the next step 4. Empathize with your customer 5. Own your decision Pilot your product(MVP) Archana and team started with 1 farm and 18 families to pilot their model. They started small so that they can practically learn and understand their mistakes. This pilot phase helped them iterate and work constantly on their model. Pivot when required Covid was an unexpected bash for many and so was for myHarvest Farms. They were operating earlier in the subscription model and had to pivot to D2C model when situations demanded. "It was not us, but the local supply chain that won", says Archana. Necessity It will help you take the next step Started with a small terrace garden, understood the basics and decided to setup their own farm. Once they started farming, they learnt that there are seasonal vegetables and certain vegetables doesn't grow in certain areas. This urged them to travel to learn and create the ecosystem that is present today. Empathize Managing Supply chain was difficult in covid times. And unexpected delays were unavoidable. Being transparent with their customers had helped and Archana insists on being empathetic. Empathizing with customers and farmers has helped them earn their customers' and farmers' trust. Own your decision It has not been an easy thing to convince her family. But she and her husband who is her co-founder as well, had showcased strong will and continuous efforts in whatever they did. If you believe and own your choice, everybody around would respect and trust your choice. "If you build something exciting, people will want to use it" - Archana Stalin. Checkout it out works here - https://linktr.ee/tamilpreneur Join Tamilpreneur club here - https://tamilpreneur.in/club COUPON CODE - PODCAST You get access to Exclusive app with Digital community, Startup Masterclasses, Founder Interactions, and Networking sessions. Join our exclusive club and experience Entrepreneurship !!