You’re reading an eChai Interview, an insightful and candid conversation with Entrepreneurs — a publication of eChai Ventures.

eChai Showcase : Young Urban Farmers

Today we are introducing one inspiring Canadian startup - Young Urban Farmers - which provides edible gardening products and services including raised beds, containers gardens, and in-ground landscapes.

Here is the insightful and candid conversation with Christopher Wong, Co-Founder, Young Urban Farmers. Chris is an entrepreneur with a strong sales and marketing background. He has a reputation for getting things done, creating and managing a local service business, as well as cofounding and serving on the board of a non-profit organization. Professional experiences include work at a global consulting firm, sales and marketing for a Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods company, and previous small business ventures.

How did you come up with the idea of 'Young Urban Farmers' ?

Young Urban Farmers was started from the belief that we can grow fresh, healthy, delicious produce right in our front or back yard. Instead of just growing grass or ornamental plants, we wanted to provide people a real and tangible result in the form of fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs from our business.

We saw there was a growing trend towards the local food movement, including more people concerned about organic growing techniques, the 100 mile diet, as well as an increasing awareness of wanting to know how their food was grown, who grew it, and how it got from the farm to their plate. From these ideas, we created Young Urban Farmers, which strives to share the joy of vegetable gardening with as many people as possible as well to make gardening fun, simple, and easy.

What problem are you solving?

Young Urban Farmers helps people grow their own fresh, delicious food. No matter your space or ability, we believe in making gardening simple, fun, and rewarding. We curate the best urban farming products and provide a range of garden services including maintenance and coaching to ensure that everything grows as bountiful as possible. This allows our customers to learn firsthand how to grow their own food, especially parents and educators to teach their kids and students where and how food is grown. In addition to spending time outdoors and connecting with nature, our customers can feel good about the eating the freshest and most delicious food, knowing exactly who grew it and how it got from the backyard to the dinner table.

How does it work?

For local Toronto customers, we offer a full range of edible gardening products and services, including raised beds, self-watering containers, and our custom soil blend. Most people arrange for a free consultation, where we assess their space, sun conditions, and best solution for their unique situation.

For customers outside of Toronto and across Canada, we have an online store where people can purchase urban farming products and accessories.

iChannel interviewed Young Urban Farmers co-founder Christopher Wong on their program At Issue in 2011. Host Candice Batista talked to Chris about growing your own food and how YUF helps people set up their own garden in the city. Chris talks about how people were looking for organic produce, locally grown food, and often didn't have the time or expertise on how to grow their own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK1g6zpU79c

What is your target market?

Anyone who is looking for the best urban farming products or for some help with their garden are people in our target market. Typically, this includes families, young professionals, but also students, seniors, teachers, and everyone who enjoys eating good, wholesome food. We believe everyone should grow something, even if it as simple as pot of herbs on their windowsill.

What is your competitive advantage?

Creating and maintaining a successful garden can be challenging in both the short and long term. We believe that our vigorous testing to find the best products along with our over 5 years of hands-on gardening experience give us the knowledge and know how to ensure a successful harvest and bountiful yields for our customers.

How much time did it take you from conceptualization of 'Young Urban Farmers' to actually launching it in the market ?

From conception to starting the business was very quick. Within a few months of our idea, we had our first sale and were on our way in developing our website and other sales and marketing materials. Early on, we had a very strong bias towards action and failing quickly when it came to trying new products, new marketing strategies, and new ideas.

Tell us more about your team?

Chris is the general manager of Young Urban Farmers. He has a gardening and sales team that help to connect with customers and ensure all the plants are setup and growing to the best of their capabilities.

What is your technology stack?

While we love technology and utilize it for much of our record keeping, photographs, and customer information, it is only a limited part of our business. We have our website, online store, and social media channels, but much of our business is in interacting with customers face to face or working with them directly in their garden.

How do you plan to market your product? What are your customer acquisition strategies?

We're fortunate that we are able to meet new customers through word of mouth referrals. In addition to direct marketing efforts such as local trade shows, we have a strong online presence which helps to generate organic search traffic for people looking for our products and services.

What is the revenue model of 'Young Urban Farmers' ?

We have a variety of edible gardening products and services that we sell to our customers. Many of them are repeat customers who have us come to replant their garden every spring or help with managing their gardens. Over the past few years, our online customer base has been growing and we have a variety of gardening products that we ship all across Canada.

What do you want to achieve from this? What is your larger goal or vision?

One of our goals is to get everyone in the city growing something edible. It could even be as simple as a jar of sprouts indoors (which is great especially in the winter). Some of the challenges in reaching this goal is education and awareness - especially among the younger generation. For that reason, Young Urban Farmers was instrumental in helping to setup the non-profit organization Cultivate Toronto, which runs a community shared agriculture program using backyard land and commercial rooftops. As part of the program, we teach people how to grow food and enable people in our communities to have access to fresh, locally-grown produce during the summer outdoor growing season.

What sort of support and feedback are you looking from the community?

Gardening is both an art and a science. Every year we learn new gardening techniques and which varieties work best for our region from our customers, our extended gardening community, and our own experiences.