Andrew Humphries reckons the five months spent in a business accelerator programme were the hardest he has worked in his life.
Mr Humphries is the founder of the Dunedin-based agritech start-up AgriTrack which was created to help large-scale cropping farmers deal with logistical challenges during harvest.
It was one of eight start-ups selected to take part in the inaugural Sprout agritech business accelerator programme.
Each entrepreneur received a cash investment of $20,000 and took part in a five-month accelerator programme, which was remotely delivered.
Mentoring was provided by business and technical experts and the programme culminated in an opportunity to pitch for investment to a group of potential investors, corporate partners and potential customers.
Mr Humphries came up with the idea of a software system to live track farm vehicles while driving a tractor in Australia and the business was created in 2013.
When the start-up started in the Sprout programme, it had a product on the market but it did not have a coherent plan for growth, talent strategy, working capital or a strong sales and distribution model.
"Those five months were the hardest I've worked in my life, but the support and advice has allowed us to develop all areas of our business plan and now the capital we've raised means we're well-equipped to take our business to the next level,'' Mr Humphries said.
AgriTrack secured $550,000 of capital and was on track to grow sales by 80% year-on-year, and had achieved a 100% conversion rate from product trial to sales with Australian farmers this year.
The company gained a lot more from being part of the programme than Mr Humphries initially thought it would.
It now had four staff, including him, in New Zealand and Australia, and Tom Rivett, who was involved in developing the software, was now a shareholder.
It planned to invest in marketing. To date it had involved "driving up driveways doing cold-calls'', he said.
Registrations were now open to apply for the 2016-17 Sprout programme which begins in October.
