Growers have a lot on their minds, and sometimes it can be hard to keep track of every single thing. Luckily, in this age of technology, more and more solutions to assist growers with their daily problems pop up every day. One of those solutions has been developed by RedBud. In this article, they explain more about their software system – aimed at cultivation, pest management, and task management – and how it benefits growers.
By growers for growers
Many people find technology difficult: it takes 2 hours of reading manuals before you understand the basics, it has too many buttons, or, most frustratingly of all, it does everything except what you need it to do. That, however, is not the case with RedBud’s system, as Tushar Kulkarmi, CEO of RedBud, tells us. “Our motto is ‘By growers for growers’, and that is exactly what our system reflects. Our company was founded by Joan Leonard, a grower herself, and it started because of a pain point most growers experience: most of the software in the market simply is not cultivation friendly. That is why ours is an easy, accessible, and user-intuitive system; a grower saw the problems, and a grower set out to solve those problems.”
As Kevin Burns, Director of Customer Success, tells us, user feedback is at the basis of the company’s success: “We constantly get feedback from our current users, and we always listen to that. Our primary goal is listening to the userbase and implementing everything they say – if it makes sense, of course. When you look at it like that, you could say that our customers are more of a little community of growers who bring new ideas that benefit everyone, as our updates typically take weeks, not months, and thus new features are rolled out quickly for everyone to use.”
Tushar and Kevin admit that they sometimes face some resistance, especially when the owners of companies prefer to do things ‘old-school’: “They think, ‘I know how to grow my plants, I don’t need software to collect this data’. However, we are not trying to tell them what to do – far from it. We try to help them collect data to make more informed decisions moving forwards.”
A thumbs up from users
During the interview, it was clear how proud Tushar and Kevin are of the positive feedback they have received from their users. One example they give is of a fifth-generation farmer in Ohio who used and compared many different types of software and prototypes. “He said our software is very user-friendly, and it really feels like it was developed by a grower,” Tushar gladly shares.
In fact, it seems that it is not just existing greenhouse growers who appreciate the system. Kevin tells us that they were approached by a few companies that had not even built their greenhouse yet. “They were using our technology to help find out how they were going to set things up, and what kind of data they were going to start collecting when they started growing. People have seen the benefits of the system before they even started.”
Something the RedBud company prides itself on, and something the users greatly appreciate, is its personal interaction with customers: “Something I think differentiates us from other companies is our onboarding process; we don’t just charge growers, deliver our system, and let them figure it all out by themselves. We stay in contact with our customers, show them how to use features they haven’t discovered yet or simply forgot about, and offer them general support. We do webinars and releases to support them, and we’re very hands-on. We are not a massive conglomerate; all our interactions are personal. We find that extremely important, especially as feedback from users is part of the success of the company,” Kevin concludes.
For more information:
RedBud
www.redbudsaas.com
[email protected]