The office at Bitstrata Systems doesn’t have the welders or cutting torches that might be associated with an agricultural machinery research and development company.
There’s just a couple of computers, table, chairs, coffee pot, and oh yes, that giant $50,000 ceremonial cheque the company received when it won the Tech Venture Challenge, a business competition sponsored by the University of Saskatchewan.
Bitstrata’s founders, Mike Lockerbie and Ian Meier, started the Saskatoon-based company to bring new mobile monitoring technology to agriculture and other industries.
The first application is grain carts. Load cells that measure weight on the cart are attached to a small, battery-powered electronic device using Bluetooth technology to link wirelessly to a smartphone or tablet equipped with an app.
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Lockerbie and Meier created the electronics and app.
“Ian has written an application for the grain cart that looks and feels very much like the traditional weighing indicator display — they’d have an LED and some push buttons (and have a wiring harness across the hitch into the monitor in the cab),” Lockerbie said.
Traditional indicator boxes print data on each load, and the farmer manually inputs it into his records.
Bitstrata’s wireless technology generates digital data accessed by any smartphone equipped with the app, which easily transfers the information to software for analysis.
The drivers of the truck, the tractor and the combine could all get the same information on their smartphones, Lockerbie said.
“That is the kind of thing that costs a fair amount with traditional technology because you have to buy another indicator.”
Bitstrata’s technology is not limited to grain carts.
“You can have the same technology applied to a variety of applications tuned to different things: feed mixers, a static scale at a grain terminal. You just need to change the app. There is no change to the electronics,” said Meier.
It is rugged and flexible in what it can monitor, Lockerbie added.
Dean Toews, owner of Triple Star Manufacturing in McGregor, Man., who sells scale systems and grain carts, said frustration with costly old-style indicator technology had him considering hiring a company to develop smarter technology when, out of the blue, Lockerbie and Meier called with the solution.
“Being able to transfer data is actually one of the increasing trends that we are seeing. Guys want more than just the scale weight and write it down. They want to plug it into software or a format so they can say this is this field and this is what we got off it in terms of weight and so on,” Toews said.
“As farms are getting bigger, the volumes per farm are just astronomical compared to what they were just 20 years ago. And the higher value of all commodities … your input costs as well as what you are harvesting, guys want to be able to manage that information.”
Lockerbie and Meier, with electrical engineering and computer science degrees from the U of S, had previously created new products for major prairie manufacturers, but decided to form their own business.
Lockerbie said the experience has been rewarding.
“People tend to think that becoming an entrepreneur is a really risky and scary proposition, but for us it has been really gentle.”
Farm Progress Show in Regina is the official launch of the grain cart system, marketed under the brand Agrimatics. In the meantime, the two are paying the bills doing consulting work, but they say they’ve had great success with mentors and agencies created to help entrepreneurs, including the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program and Saskatoon Ideas Inc., which provides office space, networking and business guidance to innovative new businesses.
The U of S Tech Venture Challenge award includes office space, professional services from Deloitte and banking services from RBC.
Bitstrata is also participating in the Progress2Capital competition, a six-month program that teaches entrepreneurialism through business boot camps, mentorships, coaching and networking. It is sponsored by the Regina and Saskatoon economic development authorities and the Saskatchewan economy ministry.
Meier said the competitions’ events yielded unexpected benefits.
“The tiniest things that happen cause completely different outcomes. Just the act of doing things, going to an event or talking to somebody, cascades into creating opportunities that you could have never predicted it would happen.”
Jill Sauter Marketing and Communications in Saskatoon has helped guide Bitstrata. Sauter said people become entrepreneurs because they have a great idea or product, but no one has skills in every aspect of business.
“The biggest success factor I find is their ability to learn,” she said, adding a person with skills in research or manufacturing might not have accounting skills.
“If there is an area … that you are not good at, get some people who are good at that and get them on your team either as an adviser or pay them to help you understand what you need to know.”
Meier and Lockerbie have done just that and are amazed at how many people are willing to help. As Lockerbie said, it made the jump to entrepreneurialism gentle and rewarding.
“Having your business being your total responsibility, yes there is uncertainty, but it is also quite liberating and exciting to know that you are in control of your destiny.”
