Research and testing
Jacco Kooistra and Christian Visser of Syklus also entered into a more active dialogue with customers through the Business Innovation Program Food, in order to properly understand their questions and needs. Whereas WeedAway focuses on a more environmentally friendly production process in the agribusiness with smart farming, Syklus focuses on the processing of green residual streams: using black soldier flies, among other things, vegetable and fruit waste is processed into various products for the animal feed industry. 'Because we already have the necessary trade due to high market demand, we were mainly focused on short-term production,' says Jacco. 'We discovered in this program that for long-term development we also need to continue research. To find out where the needs of customers are and to do more testing.
'At the start of the program, I was somewhat skeptical,' Jacco says honestly. 'It seemed as if we were going to repeat the process we had already gone through with Syklus itself, when we were already looking for investors. Still, we were able to sharpen our value proposition considerably thanks to the assignments and critical questions. Our time commitment has also changed, now that we are focusing through this program
on the longer term. Insect farming can really make a big impact towards the future, provided we build it well. The guidance of NOM and Flinc during this process was therefore also valuable. They have a wealth of experience and in contacts with investors they protect you from making mistakes by letting you think carefully about the approach.