[ibimage==33202==Large==none==self==ibimage_align-center]
Fresh Nation, an online delivery service for local farmers markets, is fresh off a $1M seed funding round and is working hard to reinvent the traditional relationship between lovers of fresh food and local farmers markets. Since the beginning of time, markets have been the place to go meet your farmer and buy the freshest food. That process, though charming, takes time and Fresh Nation has devised a way to get great food when you don't have time for a leisurely stroll through the local farmers market.
Fresh Nation “opens up for farmers and food makers a large audience of customers that they would not normally have access to. We bring to the vendors the kind of person who would love to eat fresh local food, and would drive to go to the farmers market, but who doesn’t, because it’s not convenient," CEO Tony Lee said. "We make market produce fantastically accessible to them in their home virtually every day of the week.”
What makes Fresh Nation especially intriguing is its context within the wider farm-to-table fresh food movement. “There are other companies involved in the fresh food movement, and a lot of companies involved in the farm to home movement, but we focus exclusively on farmers markets,” said Lee. Fresh Nation’s unique position in the fresh food movement also comes from the barriers to entry present when working with famers markets. “Farmers markets are a complex and somewhat difficult part of the fresh food movement. The infrastructure involved is especially complex.”
Fresh Nation has managed to navigate the complexities of working with farmers markets through its CEO’s professional experience and personal passion. Lee said he “came across the idea for Fresh Nation somewhat by chance” after spending time in the E-commerce business, dealing both with technology and logistics. After several years in this industry, Lee decided he wanted a complete change, and opened a farmers market. After running the market successfully for a year, Lee said “what the world needed wasn’t more farmers markets, it just needed better farmer’s markets. Really, the whole thought of applying technology to the farmers market experience to improve the experience both of vendors in the markets and the consumers became the foundation of Fresh Nation.”
[ibimage==33203==Medium==none==self==ibimage_align-left]
Fresh Nation has also drawn its initial success from locating in Los Angeles. While the company’s business model was tested in the northeast first, Lee said he decided to grow and expand the company in Los Angeles because “farmers markets in Los Angeles are more frequent, because they do not operate as seasonal markets like in the Northeast.” Additionally, Lee said he sees potential in California as a whole, due to the state’s culture “related to healthy eating and fresh food, which you don’t find in many other places in the country, so the marketplace is more receptive to companies like Fresh Nation.”
Fresh Nation’s technology is developed in-house, due to the unique needs of farmers markets, but Lee said, “We’re always looking for fantastic new applications and add-ons we can use. These days, its so much easier to build and scale a startup because of the availability of cloud based services you can buy for a small amount of money, which would have cost you a fortune in the past.” Above all, though, Fresh Nation thrives on “finding great people and bringing them on. We look for people with incredibly agile minds. The people with incredibly agile minds find it easier to master the particular jobs they have, and they start adding tremendous value. A company is just its people. If you don’t have great people, you’re not going to have a great company.”
Have a tip for us or know of a company that deserves coverage?
Email us via [email protected]
