Micron Agritech

Daniel Izquierdo Hijazi, CEO of Micron Agritech, sat at his desk and reflected on the future of his high potential agri-tech start-up. The company had evolved from humble beginnings as a student-led undergraduate degree project to a university spin-off, having secured its latest round of seed investment worth €1.5 million. The “cash runway” had been extended and the young founding team could now look to commercialisation and bringing their patent pending technology, the Micron Kit, from working product to market. However, there were some major decisions to tease out and challenges to overcome regarding the future strategic direction of this young, exciting enterprise. For instance, what if their manufacturing timeline is misaligned with the narrow window for launch of their seasonal product to the Irish market? This could likely be the case with global supply shortages in the electronic components for their technology. With this new injection of cash, the founders intend to nearly double the size of their current team. How can they ensure that they recruit the right individuals to bring the business to the next level? Most pressing, however, is the matter of distribution channels for their product. Should they follow the traditional routes to market (via big name distributors) or might there be a bigger pay-off in selling direct to the customer? Daniel wondered what position the other three founders will take on these matters. One thing was for certain, a clear shared vision for Micron Agritech was needed. And time was of the essence, as Micron Agritech were due to begin talks with some of the world’s largest animal health companies about potential distribution arrangements, in just one month’s time.