Prayer over USDA Testing Today

[Captain Kirk]

As some of you know, I started a company (Agricultural Food Systems) 2 and a half years ago with 3 college classmates. Our flagship product (the TenderID) measures tenderness in beef on the production line. The USDA is conducting testing on our technology today alongside two competing technologies. Please be praying for favor from the LORD and for God's will to be done. If our technology is a more accurate predictor of tenderness than our competitors then we will have great opportunities to market our technology. If it is not, we may as well close shop. We will find out the testing results in the near future.

We have dedicated our entire business to God and His glory and we pray that He would continue to glorify Himself through this testing today.

Thank you for joining me in prayer,
Kirk

[The Guardian]

Praying the USDA will have no beef with your technology 

[Old_Iron_Spine]

Whoa! That's so cool! I'll be praying how does it work?

[Captain Kirk]

Good one Justin. We have always included lots of puns in our business.

The device inserts 3 blunt blades into a beef carcass at the exposed 12th rib area and measures how much force is necessary to penetrate a certain depth.

Kirk

[Professoralstad]

Good one Justin. We have always included lots of puns in our business.

The device inserts 3 blunt blades into a bee carcass at the exposed 12th rib area and measures how much force is necessary to penetrate a certain depth.

Kirk

A. Those must be some pretty small blades.
B. I thought insects had exoskeletons.
C. Overall, it seems kind of gross, and somewhat unnecessary.
D. I could go on...

But seriously, I hope the testing goes well, and that you spell-checked your original presentations. 

[STAMP]

As a happy meat-eater, I'm praying God's Will.

On a side note, did anyone read about the research into the toxin-carrying nanoparticles in bee venom that kills HIV yet leaves healthy cells unaffetced?

Milk and honey, baby!


Oh, and tender beef. 

[crustpope]

Interested to know how this went.

[Captain Kirk]

Thanks for asking Matt - my apologies on forgetting to post an update!

Test results were a mixed bag. We made some design changes prior to testing that made the device less precise than the initial prototype. The initial device is not fast enough or usable in a production setting so changes were needed. The production line was also slightly faster than what all our industry contacts had told us. We realized that we needed to revisit our design again.

We just completed the redesign to make the device lighter (plastic instead of metal) an it uses air pressure instead of mechanical pressure to insert the blades more quickly.

Please pray:
1. The next round of testing with the USDA is Aug 21-23. Please pray for God's will to be done and that He would bless our testing.
2. Funding. We have had limited success in our efforts to raise $200-400k in investment that we would need to push the company into production mode. Please pray God works in the hearts of individuals to invest as He wills.

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Kirk

[Prof Underwood]

2. Funding. We have had limited success in our efforts to raise $200-400k in investment that we would need to push the company into production mode. Please pray God works in the hearts of individuals to invest as He wills.

Kickstarter?

[Captain Kirk]

Thank you all for your prayers this far. Round 2 of USDA testing is underway in Cactus, TX with our revamped prototype. So far the operation is a lot faster and easier than last time. Please pray that we would find favor in God's ideas and that He would bless the testing results!

Thank you!

Mark, as far as Kickstarter we have had a hard time determining appropriate rewards for pledges. Any ideas you have would be appreciated.

God bless,
Kirk

[Prof Underwood]

Mark, as far as Kickstarter we have had a hard time determining appropriate rewards for pledges. Any ideas you have would be appreciated.

If I were to try to "market" this on Kickstarter, I would consider 2 groups of people to appeal to.  The first would be people in the meat industry who really hope to have a better product become available.

I'm not sure what kind of price range your final product would be, but I'm guessing that it would be a bit expensive.  If so, getting one of the first production run could be one of your top end rewards.

For an even higher reward, you could let someone have one of your prototypes.

The other group of people to appeal to would be younger people who would just like to see a group of fun guys succeed in starting a business.

In order to appeal to them, you would need to have a really creative and funny YouTube that could go viral.  Then you could have some smaller pledge rewards like T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc. just so people could get in on a piece of the phenomenon.  You will need a funny catch-phrase though.  Maybe something with "Where's the [tenderest] Beef?" or something with Elvis' song "Love me Tender [beef]".

[Captain Kirk]

Please pray for a big meeting tomorrow with Wal-Mart (7/22/14) and one with Tyson on Thursday!

I realized I never posted updates to this thread. The second round of testing with the USDA last year did not produce valid results as our device malfunctioned and produced results that were not even in the range that the device should measure. We modified the device further and conducted smaller scale tests with small processors and have had mixed results.

The big news now is that we are looking to sell the company due to reaching our limit of our own money to invest and needing additional expertise to help continue the iterative testing process. My business partner is pitching a sale to several individuals high up in Wal-Mart tomorrow (7/22/14) at 10 am and to Tyson at 8:30 am on 7/24/14. Please pray for the following:

1) clarity in communicating benefits of our company and technology to Wal-Mart/Tyson
2) balance of humility and confidence regarding the market
3) wisdom in setting a price point

Thank you!
Kirk

[Warrior_Monk]

Great to hear from you Kirk. Will be praying, and best of luck!