Where did you get the original idea for Cotter Agritech?

The idea started out on the home sheep farm when we were having trouble handling our own young lambs, trying to vaccinate hundreds of them in a race at once. It was back-breaking work that would take all day, would require 3 of us to be there and was rarely done properly. We knew we needed to find a better way so we devised the hardware element that brings the animal up to your height and takes the hard work out of sheep handling.

In the course of developing the go-to-market hardware, we came across this other problem in sheep farming around drug resistance. In sheep farming we have huge issues with anthelmintics, more commonly known as wormers or drenches, not working anymore on most farms. This has been caused by decades of overuse and misuse. Having seen this problem and being faced with it on our own farm, we decided to tackle it. What we have developed is a piece of software called SmartWorm which enables farmers to move from blanket treatment at regular intervals, to targeted treatment using advanced algorithms that identifies which animals need treatment and which don't. This Targeted Selective Treatment (TST) approach has been tested with the UCD Lyons Farm and Queen's University Belfast and has been shown to be able to enable up to a 50% reduction in drug use without any impact on worm control or animal welfare.

What was it like turning an idea into an active business? What was the biggest challenge in terms of getting your business running?

It's been really challenging but a very fun and enjoyable journey. Our guiding principle during R&D was getting the product into the hands of test farmers as quickly as possible.

We began the commercialization journey in January 2020 and spent much of that year conducting market research and building alpha versions of our hardware and software. We hit a big roadblock when we took our first prototype to farmers. This prototype only facilitated handling smaller sheep and we asked farmers if they would pay for this and to our surprise they said they wouldn't. It needed to be a full sheep handling system i.e. it needed to do both small lambs and full size sheep, so we had to go back to the drawing board and meet this key need. So in 2021 we worked alongside 20 test farmers to constantly test our prototypes under real conditions with the aim that by the end of the testing process, we would have something they would pay for, and we achieved this after 6 months of extensive testing, putting up over 40,000km of car travel in the course of doing so. It was expensive and time consuming but absolutely essential and unavoidable if we were to succeed in this venture.

90% of startups fail within the first 2 years, and of that 10% remaining, 90% will fail after another 2 years. I think the key to being in that tiny minority of companies that come through the process successfully is getting your product into the hands of someone who will pay you for it as quickly as possible. There are too many startups out there with solutions to problems that don't exist or solutions to problems that people won't pay you money to solve. The sooner you find out whether an idea is a good or bad one commercially, the sooner you find the right idea, and the sooner you will succeed and achieve your ambitions.

How has the Irish entrepreneurial scene supported your business?

There’s more support out there for start-ups in Ireland than there ever has been. We’ve received really key financial support (grant-aid) from our Local Enterprise Office and from Enterprise Ireland. We’ve also completed 2 accelerator programmes in the last 12 months – the first being the AgTechUCD Agcellerator Programme and just recently we completed the Ideate Ireland Startup Programme. These accelerators have been akin to giving a man a torch in a dimly lit room – they have helped us see more clearly what we have always been looking at. We’re hugely grateful to AgTechUCD and Ideate Ireland for their support and belief in what we do, and I would encourage any early stage startup to engage with these programmes. AgTech as a sector is very hot right now, being projected to rise to $22.5 billion in total market value by 2025. The trend is towards more nature friendly farming, reduction of chemical use and protection of our biodiversity, so the tide is rolling in our direction as we’re addressing these areas.

Most recently, I represented Ireland and Europe at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards with this idea and became Global Champion, which is a great achievement for our own company but also for AgTech and agriculture as a whole. It’s amazing recognition on the global stage of the importance of food and animal production and helping farmers to become more sustainable. After all, we’ve got to be able to feed ourselves.

How did the ISEF competition & workshops support your business?

The ISEF competition was an experience I will never forget and will stand to me in the future. Each stage of the pitch competition is quite intense, and you obviously hope you can go all the way and win it. To go and do that was a great achievement and something we often look back on when we're facing challenges in the business and it drives us forward. In particular, getting access to chat with experienced entrepreneurs was a huge asset to the competition. Getting to hear from the likes of David McKernan on why you should start a business, lessons learned and the importance of mentorship was very beneficial and I still go back to some of what he said on the pitch night for inspiration on problems we're facing in our business day-to-day.

How has your company progressed since winning ISEF 2023?

After winning ISEF, we went on to launch the business in May which was very successful. We now have paying users in Ireland and the UK and are seeing good levels of adoption. We're also active over in New Zealand having recently taken on our first paying customers. I've just started my final year of college in UCC so we're focused on growing sustainably. For the next 9 months or so we're going to grow at a pace where I can balance the business activities while completing my college degree and fitting in a bit of craic too...

What advice would you have for young entrepreneurs?

1. Go slow to go fast later. Get the fundamentals of the business right before scaling up. Like a stairs the way to climb it is step-by-step. Don't get sucked into moving too fast because others are moving faster or are further along than you. There will always be startups who are raising/selling more and businesses who are only just starting out and aren't as far along as you. Run your own race.

2. If you're the smartest person in the room you're in the wrong room. Surround yourself with experts, avail of as much mentorship as possible and become a great listener. Every day is a school day. Most of the learning happens on the job so just go and do it and swim along as competently as you can.

3. Place absolutely no limits on yourself and where you can go. Set standards of excellence, maintain them, be accountable to them, and strive to better them every day.

4. If you want something, the easiest way to get it is to deserve it. If you want to become an entrepreneur - work hard, put in the hours, and take it upon yourself to learn the skills needed to be a leader within your startup. As the success comes make sure to stay humble with your feet firmly planted on the ground at all times.