FOA 227: Finding Product-Market Fit and Talent with Joe Dales

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great show for you today, especially for the entrepreneurs in the audience. We have on the show Joe Dales, who in his current capacity is the CoFounder and President of Agri & Food Innovation at RH Accelerator in London, Ontario, Canada. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode, we talk about the importance and the elusiveness of product-market fit - meaning creating not just a great product or service, but one that the market is eager to pay for. We also talk a lot about attracting and retaining talent to the ag industry, and the future of work. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Joe’s extensive experience in bringing innovations to the market really shines through in this episode. He has been involved in successfully launching over 40 agtech innovations ranging from crop protection products, to seed varieties, to biologicals, to software companies. In 1998, he co-founded Farms.com Ltd. and AgCareers.com which have grown to become a leading supplier of innovative solutions to farmers, agriculture and food companies around the global, he remains a major shareholder and director.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Be sure to stay tuned to the end of this episode for great stuff from Joe, but also a startup spotlight. This one is another Canadian company, from a few provinces over in Alberta. Rob Saik makes his third appearance on this show to talk about his newest venture AgVisorPro, so make sure to stick around for that at the end of today’s show. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Joe Dales Quotes: </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I’ve always looked at where innovation in agriculture come together, and think about how they can help farmers.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“You'll know when you get product-market fit, you definitely know when you don't have it, because there's crickets. I'll take it to (farmers like) my brother or my best friend, and say, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?’ And they'll go, ‘