The advancements in technology are proving highly rewarding for not just the urban culture but also the rural lifestyle. The involvement of robotics and autonomous systems has immensely benefited agriculture. Resultant, many organizations to invest their resources in agri-tech to enhance the quality and quantity of yield. Technology is transforming landscapes from retail to agriculture. Having a keen interest in the advancements of technology and agriculture Yahoel Van Essen is enhancing the farming experience through his company Eleos Robotics. Eleos Robotics is one such company that is pioneering in the innovative farming business.
Yahoel spent a lot of time in France where he saw that agriculture was down to an art for them. Looking at the labor issues and the rising complaints he led to the idea of automation. Yahoel has always been involved in activism against pesticide use. Yahoel understood that the two core issues were global labor and environmental crisis that needed a solution. In order to change the things, he focused on creating a solution that would meet increasing consumer demand for organic produce and reduce unskilled labor dependency. One more challenge was the adoption of the solution, if the solution would not improve farm economics and reduce operational complexity for growers, they would not adopt it. Creating a perfect blend of farming and cutting-edge technologies, Yahoel introduced RoboWeeder through Eleos.
Autonomous, Sustainable and, Eco-Friendly
Weeding solutions are very laborious and expensive for individuals. Seasonal imported labor and herbicides are not sustainable options for the future world. Eleos Robotics came up with a solution called ‘Roboweeder’ to overcome these issues. Yahoel believes that the RoboWeeder is needed in the midst of an ensuing worldwide labor and environmental crisis.
Roboweeder has clear advantages over the solutions. The existing weeding solutions are laborious and expensive. The novel tech is fully autonomous and unlike herbicides, the method is sustainable and eco-friendly. “RoboWeeder customers will grow more, go organic, and eliminates operational headaches,” claims Yahoel.
Failed To Fit In the Corporate Mold
Yahoel is a visionary, builder, leader and world citizen. The journey Yahoel has been on outlines his “never give up attitude”. His entrepreneurial journey was very much similar to others. He was dissatisfied with the opportunities his degree provided. Professionally, he had to work for years at hard, unfulfilling, unexpressive jobs and regretted investing his time and talent to build other people’s dreams. His career in marketing consulting and professional sales was short-lived, as Yahoel did not fit into the corporate mold, thus he decided to go into business himself.
Although, he did work as a missionary abroad for a year. Expressing his view on the journey, Yahoel asserts, “I was working as a technical sales coordinator at a prestigious marine engineering firm when I was swiftly canned without cause for “thinking outside of the box” and leaving my narrowly defined “box” altogether. The next day, I started Eleos Robotics, a start-up that was inspired by the dire need for safer food and mounting labor pains for growers worldwide.” However, Eleos was Yahoel’s second technology startup, the first startup was while at BCIT while studying his Bachelor of Business Administration.
Resilience and Faith Is the Key
Every startup has to overcome certain challenges throughout the journey. Yahoel too encountered many hurdles throughout the course. The biggest challenge for any startup is to collect funds. Similarly, the biggest hurdle Yahoel faced was raising seed funds, making financial sacrifices and protecting it at the same time. He had to pitch his idea to numerous investors as the idea was a robotics startup. Such startups are incredibly difficult to fund if there is nothing tangible to show and no track record whatsoever. Sometimes, he felt like he was on a “goose chase” or spinning in circles in other words. However, Yahoel “locked-in” his investment purely based on his vision and personal character.
Secondly, raising a startup demands many financial and personal sacrifices from the founder’s end, which affects the social life, mental health, and wallet negatively. For about 2.5 years Yahoel did not draw a salary and the first six months he was getting groceries from the food bank. Despite the challenges, it was resilience and faith in the vision that helped him throughout the journey.
“Finally, over the years it has been necessary to protect Eleos from several ‘unsavory’ individuals who aim to take advantage of the company,” concluded Yahoel. This is commonplace and every entrepreneur has had to wage war to protect their vision. It requires the leader to be clever, firm and maintain integrity to overcome all the challenges and move towards success.
Stay Innovative, Get Results and Exceed Expectations
The roles and responsibilities of a leader do not limit to a single title. Being a leader, one must be on his toes and be prepared for various responsibilities. Yahoel’s responsibilities too are not limited to the title of CEO. He is the “hustler”, visionary, administrator, and financier of Eleos. At times, he has also handled the work of the general contractor, cleaner, and fabricator.
Among all the responsibilities, motivating the team is one of the prime roles of the leader. However, Yahoel has kept the motivation mantra for the team very simple. As long as the team stays innovative, gets results and exceeds expectations they get to continue working their dream jobs. Moreover, get to follow their passions and build some of the most advance agriculture machinery on earth. In turn, the team also becomes the best engineers on earth by working on the best technology. Finally, the competent team gets to revolutionize farming by automating agriculture and by removing herbicides by making them obsolete.
Failures Prove To Be Beneficial
Prior to ‘Roboweeder’ the team of Eleos was attempting to use a CO2 laser to kill weeds. The team spent almost the entire research and development fund, albeit, minuscule, but the application failed. Yahoel and his team were without a proof-of-concept. The team was without aid and had the pressure of coming up with the novel precision microwave technology that is now patent-pending worldwide. Eleos’ team was successful in creating a novel technology that is more effective at killing weeds, safer, draws less power, easier to assemble, and relies on commoditized equipment as opposed to specialty lasers.
Due to the initial failure, the team was successful in creating a more effective solution and Yahoel is highly grateful for the failures. Learning from the failures and constantly listening to customer feedback is the reason that the team is successful in delivering the optimal machine. “In reality, the robot looked very different on day one than it does today mostly due to ‘failure’. That and constant feedback from our customers has forced the team to pivot and make a more optimal machine,” quotes Yahoel.
Exemplifying Characteristics Is Vital
Over the years, Yahoel has understood that to be a successful leader one must have vision, resilience, and flexibility. One’s ability to envision something that is not, to be able to envision a roadmap to make it real and then to take action is incredibly rare. Besides that, a leader must be resilient enough to see the vision through. In the journey, one can encounter many hurdles and the path may get overwhelming. The leader must have the courage to overcome challenges and threats and to stay cool under pressure and stressful situations.
The journey will also demand numerous sacrifices, Yahoel advises that the leader must be willing to suffer short-term and make sacrifices to see their vision turn to reality. There can be times when things don’t go as planned, which requires the leader to be flexible by innovating creative solutions. “There is a lot more to being an effective leader, but most natural leaders exemplify these characteristics,” concludes Yahoel.
Alternate Career Apart From Entrepreneurship
Yahoel took a bold decision to leave the corporate world and choose entrepreneurship. However, if he would not have been a successful business leader he probably would end up being a professional athlete, inspirational speaker, NGO founder or politician. Being a curious environmental activist, he also would choose an alternate career as a scientist or engineer himself to satisfy his need for intrigue.
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