New grand challenges brought forth ideas in seed, soil, food logistics, and agriculture ecosystem innovations in a competition led by The City of Escondido and Fresh Brewed Tech:
Team The Local Basket took home top honors in the City of Escondido’s second AgX Startup Hackathon on Saturday, March 9. The team included Eric Westreich of iValue Global, Antonio Villanueva, Saian Ford, and Gustavo Vazquez, all from ArkusNexus. The latter three team members plus 10 other hackathon participants traveled from Mexico to participate. The winning concept, The Local Basket, enables farmers to find new revenue paths by building demand for their produce with themed farmer baskets ordered directly from consumers. The subscription- based app facilitates pre-orders, helping farmers gauge demand and connecting consumers with growers through stories and experiences linked to their themed baskets. This concept is now live and taking pre-orders. The concept was an entirely different idea when pitched Thursday night and iterated through many customer interviews on Day 2 and 3.
