December 21, 2022 • 34 mins
We spoke with Chris Rhodes, director of industry partnerships and project-based learning at CAES, and UGA students Chris Ayers and Jeffery Whitmire about FABricate, an entrepreneurial pitch contest. Participants get the chance to expand their leadership and business skills while developing a new food product or agricultural, environmental or sustainable business.
Listen to more of the student experience in bonus episodes one and two!
Resources:
Learn more about FABricate
Read more about Keith Kelly's long-standing partnership with CAES
Successful FABricate business examples:
Chiktopia
Gently Soap
Automat
Edited by Carly Mirabile
Produced by Jordan Powers, Emily Davenport, Carly Mirabile
Music and sound effects by Mason McClintock, an Athens-based singer, songwriter and storyteller who creates innovative soul-pop music that transcends traditional genre boundaries. Hailing from small-town Southeast Georgia, Mason's influences range from the purest pop to the most powerful gospel. Mason is a former Georgia 4-H'er and a recent University of Georgia graduate! Listen to his music on Spotify.
Almanac is an annual publication that provides a window into the work being done at CAES to make the world increasingly healthy, equitable and sustainable. We are pleased to announce that the 2024 edition is now available online. Explore stories of science in service of humanity and the environment.
Get social with us!
Follow CAES on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and check out UGA Extension on on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for the latest updates.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sound Effect (00:00):
[music]
Emily Davenport (00:01):
Welcome to "Cultivating Curiosity," where
we get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our lives,from what we eat to how we live.
I'm Emily Davenport.
Jordan Powers (00:12):
And I'm Jordan Powers. And we're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Sound Effect (00:19):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:21):
In today's episode, we're going to talk to
Chris Rhodes, director ofindustry partnerships and
project based learning at theUGA's College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Andthen later on in the episode,
we're going to talk to a coupleof students who have been
through the FABricate processand can talk about their
experience. But first welcome,Chris.
Chris Rhodes (00:38):
Thank you.
Jordan Powers (00:39):
Tell us a little bit about your role here at CAES
and how you ended up being apart of FABricate.
Chris Rhodes (00:44):
Sure, yeah, I came to CAES about two years ago,
from a background in the privatesector in entrepreneurship and
precision agriculture. I reallyhave three goals at CAES. The
first is to make UGA the go-toresearch partner for industry.
The second is to build a cultureof entrepreneurship in the
College of Agriculture amongstthe students and the faculty.
(01:06):
And third is to make sure thatour students are as prepared as
possible to go out into theprivate sector. I got involved
in FABricate because it was partof the experiential learning
teams remit back then. And theyfelt like I had a background and
entrepreneurship and it justmade sense for me to take it
over and run it and try to buildit up.
Jordan Powers (01:28):
That's amazing.
That background ofentrepreneurship and
agriculture, I think issomething that gets left out of
the conversation quite a bit. Soit's really exciting to see a
program dedicated to that hereat UGA.
Chris Rhodes (01:37):
Absolutely.
Emily Davenport (01:38):
Can you tell us a little bit more about what
FABricate is?
Chris Rhodes (01:40):
Sure! FABricate is an entrepreneurial pitch
contest. So if you've ever seenthe show Shark Tank, it's
basically that. The kind of hookis, that it is built around
either food ideas, farmingideas, or sustainability ideas.
So if it's not one of thosethings, it's not eligible for
FABricate. The great thing aboutit, or at least a great thing
(02:01):
for the students is it's a$10,000 prize. So you go through
a number of different levels andparts of the contest. And in the
end, the winner gets $10,000.
They can use that for theircompany, they can use it for
other things. But that's whatusually draws the students in is
that kind of funding.
Jordan Powers (02:19):
Outside of that really amazing prize that the
students are competing for, whatother opportunities does
FABricate provide for students?
Chris Rhodes (02:26):
Yeah, I mean, everybody starts with the prize,
right? That's what gets people'sattention. But really, I always
say there's only one prizewinner, but everybody's a winner
in the program. The real greatpart of it is that these
students get access to expertsto help them build their
business, there's me who's gonethrough it before, there are
mentors who help them. There'sseminars that teach them about
(02:49):
what it means to start abusiness. The judges are usually
very accomplished and veryhelpful. And ultimately, one of
the great values for a startupcompany is the connections that
they make through this, it'svery visible, they do get in
front of nine judges who havetheir own businesses. And so we
have a bunch of studentcompanies from the last few
(03:12):
years who have become realcompanies and are working with
bigger companies that they metthrough this process. The
biggest thing that I guess Iwould say about the program, and
the biggest takeaway, is thepeers. So they meet other people
who think like they do; there's40,000 people on this campus,
it's not always easy forstudents to find people who are
(03:35):
interested in the same thingsthat they are. This brings them
together. And we've really seena close connection between
different members of thecommunity once they've started
to work on their projects. Sothey start out as competitors,
of course; they're all trying toget that $10,000 prize. But what
they find over the course of,you know, working together is
that they learn from each other,they build this community, and
(03:58):
they've become friends beyondthe program. The other thing I'd
say about, the other benefit ofFABricate is beyond just being
great for your business, if youwant to continue that business.
It's just a great experienceoverall for your career. It
gives you experience looking ata business holistically, which
(04:19):
you don't always get early inyour career when you go out into
the private sector. And asyou're trying to find a job,
it's a great conversationstarter. It's a great thing to
have on your resume that movesyour resume to the top of the
list because it's such aninteresting, usually unusual
thing to do. And that's whatemployers are looking for. So,
(04:40):
those were all the benefitsbesides the $10,000.
Jordan Powers (04:43):
Absolutely.
Having that little extra thingon the resume. I feel like
especially these days is soimportant.
Chris Rhodes (04:49):
Absolutely.
Emily Davenport (04:50):
Definitely. Who is eligible to participate in
FABricate?
Chris Rhodes (04:53):
Any student at UGA. So graduate, undergraduate,
College of Agricultural andEnvironmental Sciences or not,
we've had students from the vetschool, we've had students from
the business school. So really,just because it's run out of our
college doesn't mean it'slimited to the college, any
student; your team can also havenon-students on it, it needs to
(05:15):
be, I believe it's at least twothirds of the team members need
to be students. But you can haveone or two team members who
aren't students at UGA as well.
Jordan Powers (05:24):
And you touched on one of the things that I
think is really exciting aboutFABricate is that it's run by
the College of AgriculturalEnvironmental Sciences. But it
really is thatcross-departmental, that
cross-college environment, thatstudents are getting to engage
with people that may not be intheir classes, when they're
going through their program, andreally getting to go across the
college and make thoseconnections on both on a
(05:45):
personal and professional level,which is really exciting.
Chris Rhodes (05:47):
That's exactly right. It really does bring
like-minded folks together fromwherever they happen to be on
campus. You know, a biguniversity like this, there's
not always that opportunity toconnect with people from other
schools. This is absolutely theplace where people run into each
other. It's really been great tosee those connections forming
and the kind of richness of theexperience that comes from that.
Emily Davenport (06:11):
How did FABricate get started?
Chris Rhodes (06:13):
You know, I wasn't here when it started, I believe
the way it got started was fromone of the previous deans of the
College of AgriculturalEnvironmental Sciences got
together with some businessleaders from around Georgia who
thought that there was anopportunity for our college to
be a little more engaged with,kind of commercialization of
ideas. And so, Keith Kelly wasone of those key early business
(06:36):
folks from Georgia who helped.
He's still engaged, he's still ajudge, super helpful working
with some of our previouscontestants who are now running
their own businesses.
Sound Effect (06:45):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (06:46):
Keith Kelly graduated from UGA CAES with a
degree in agriculturaleconomics. Since then, he's
applied his business andagricultural knowledge to help
CAES and its students achievethe same success he believes the
college equipped him to achieve.
Kelly is a founding sponsor ofFABricate, where he also serves
as a judge, and is alsopartnering with CAES researchers
in the Department of Animal andDairy Science on a project
(07:10):
focused on methane reduction andimproving the efficiency of
cattle production.
Sound Effect (07:15):
[chime]
Chris Rhodes (07:17):
So it was kind of the brainchild between the
academic group here and thebusiness community in Georgia.
Jordan Powers (07:25):
Continuing those connections, beyond UGA. So
we've talked a lot about whatFABricate can mean for the
students who are participating.
What does FABricate mean for theuniversity?
Chris Rhodes (07:37):
Yeah. Well, I think you know, first of all,
it's always important toremember that FABricate is part
of this broader innovationcommunity at the university,
there's been a lot ofinvestment, a lot of energy put
towards the Innovation Districtat the University of Georgia,
you see it at the businessschool, you see at the Delta
Hub, each college has aconnection into that as well.
(07:57):
And that's kind of what my jobis here. So we're contributing
to that overall ecosystem ofinnovation at the University of
Georgia. It gives students atthe university insight into a
couple of industries that areactually a little bit weird. You
know, agriculture is a littlebit of a different type of
industry, food is a little bitof a different type of industry.
(08:19):
And sustainability is such agrowth industry. Right now
you're seeing it kind of rear upin the areas where you might not
have seen it before. So the factthat we're focused on those
things, I think adds to theoverall University of Georgia
innovation community. The thirdpiece is it gives the College of
Agricultural and EnvironmentalSciences a focal point for
(08:40):
thinking about entrepreneurship,and what that does, in turn, as
it connects students and membersof the CAES community into this
kind of culture at UGA that theymight not have had access to
before, or even realizedexisted. So, when you're
bringing in kind of a wholegroup of new people into a
(09:02):
community like that, I thinkthat adds to the overall so
there's a value in having anentrepreneurial contest in a
college versus just coming outof the business school.
Emily Davenport (09:13):
If you could describe FABricate in one word,
what would it be?
Chris Rhodes (09:16):
This is the hardest possible question you
could ask.
Emily Davenport (09:19):
Excellent.
Everyone (09:20):
[laughter]
Chris Rhodes (09:21):
I think the word I would use would be community.
Everybody who starts out withFABricate is interested in the
prize, you can see it in theroom. When I say $10,000 prize
you can see everybody's eyes getreal big. The reason that
everybody stays in the FABricatekind of universe is because of
(09:42):
who they meet, and what theylearn, and how engaged the
community is around them as partof FABricate. As I think about
how do I want to build thisprogram out? It always comes
back to "how do we build thatcommunity? How do we build that
culture?" So that's if I have touse only one word, and that
word's not awesome, I'm gonnause community.
Jordan Powers (10:04):
I feel like awesome is another good word to
Everyone (10:04):
[laughter] use; maybe not as hard hitting,
doesn't quite get you in thefeels the same way, but still
accurate.
[laughter]
Jordan Powers (10:14):
So Emily and I are a couple of deadline-driven,
A-type one's here. So let's talka little bit about timelines. I
know that FABricate kind of runson an annual cycle of deadlines.
Talk to us a little bit aboutwhat those timelines look like
for those students who might beinterested in participating.
Chris Rhodes (10:29):
Really, the next deadline is in January. So we
want people to sign up for theprogram, preferably by January
24, so that we can then connectthem with mentors. The final
deadline is in mid-February, ifyou don't want a mentor or
you're struck by inspiration inmid-January, it's fine, you can
(10:49):
join the program up untilmid-February. And then it really
runs hardcore between thatmid-February to mid-March and
the finals are at the end ofMarch. I do recommend everybody
sign up as soon as they can. Ifyou have an idea, why not sign
up? It's easy, it takes fiveminutes to kind of get on the
(11:09):
radar, and what you get as soonas you sign up as access to some
of the resources that becomeavailable. So we'll start
finding you a mentor, you'llstart to get invited to
different types of events whereyou can learn more about
entrepreneurship and the agindustry or the food industry.
And so there's real value andsigning up sooner rather than
later. But in terms ofdeadlines, really nothing that
(11:31):
you have to do before the end ofthe year.
Emily Davenport (11:33):
Can you tell us more about how the mentors get
involved in the program?
Chris Rhodes (11:37):
When I came in and kind of took over FABricate, it
felt like there was anopportunity to bring in business
leaders who are interested inhelping students out and helping
them progress their businesses.
And so as soon as a team signsup, I start to look through my
Rolodex or the college's contactlists, and just start to reach
out to people who might be ableto offer some additional wisdom.
(11:59):
What the students have is a lotof energy, creativity, smarts,
hard work; what they don'talways have is knowledge of the
industry or knowledge of certainaspects of running a business.
So we try to connect them upwith folks who can really help
them in that part of theirplanning and pitching and all
(12:21):
the other stuff that go alongwith with starting a business.
Jordan Powers (12:26):
Is there anything else that we've missed that you
want to share?
Chris Rhodes (12:28):
There's two things that I want to be sure that kind
of people hear. The first isjust sign up, you know, people
get nervous about it, they don'twant to embarrass themselves or
they're worried it's going to betoo much work or, you know,
there's a lot of reasons thatpeople use to convince
themselves not to sign up. And Isay just sign up, it doesn't
matter where you are in thejourney. There's an opportunity
(12:51):
for you to learn aboutentrepreneurship, about yourself
about organization, aboutcreativity. So just sign up. The
second thing I would just wantto be sure everybody knows is
that FABricate contestants areabsolutely killing it out there.
We've got real companies doingreal things, national companies
at this point who aredistributing their their wares
(13:12):
nationally. Really, you know,several companies that are
making a real go of it. Theother thing I would say is that
we have even more contestantswhose teams have gone on to win
other contests. We've got teamswho have done FABricate and then
gone on and been very successfulin other areas of the college
and other parts ofentrepreneurship. They've gone
(13:32):
to the business school, they'vegone to other universities, and
done really well in thosecontests as well.
Sound Effect (13:38):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (13:40):
We'll add links to successful FABricate teams in
the show notes for you.
Sound Effect (13:43):
[chime]
Chris Rhodes (13:44):
So like I said, it's a great community, people
are being very successful in anumber of different ways.
Jordan Powers (13:49):
I love that sentiment of just sign up, just
do the thing. Later on in theepisode, we're going to talk to
a couple of students who didexactly that. They just signed
up and have amazing stories ofthe process and of the program.
But in the meantime, thanks,Chris, for joining us today. We
really appreciate your time.
Chris Rhodes (14:06):
Thank you.
Sound Effect (14:06):
[music]
Jordan Powers (14:18):
Welcome back listeners. We are here with
poultry science student ChrisAyers and biological engineering
student Jeffrey Whitmire, whowon $10,000 for their idea,
Chiktopia, an automated chickentractor designed to move
pasture-raised chickens easilyand efficiently while preserving
the land and saving labor costs.
You all clearly did very wellparticipating in FABricate. Tell
(14:39):
us how you heard aboutFABricate?
Chris Ayers (14:42):
Yeah, so I first heard about FABricate when I was
coming into the university as atransfer student from Georgia
State. This actually came aboutthrough speaking with an
outreach coordinator namedWhitney Jones. And so I got to
telling her about this sort ofsolar powered chicken tractor
that I had. And that's when Ithink a bell went off in her
head and she realized this ideawould fit perfectly within the
(15:02):
context of the FABricatecompetition. And prior to
speaking with her, I reallydidn't think of, you know,
starting Chiktopia as a companyor anything like this.
Jeffery Whitmire (15:10):
Yeah, so I heard about FABricate because I
needed a new roommate. So Iposted on Facebook. And then
Chris was actually the one thataccepted, showed up to my house
a day early, actually. And I waslike, who is this guy coming up
early? And then we sat there andtalked for like, two hours. And
everybody else I interviewedkind of just didn't vibe with
(15:30):
very well. When we actuallybecame roommates, he started
telling me about the chickentractors he had been making,
tells me about a competition.
I'm like, yeah, sure, I'll helpyou out with it. I'll join
because he had saw that I was abio engineering student and
thought I could help him. Sothat's how I heard about it.
Jordan Powers (15:47):
Okay, so now I need to get this timeline
straight. Because before westarted recording, you all are
seniors, you transferred heretwo years ago. And in that two
year time period, you went fromthis idea that you thought maybe
never would turn into anythingto winning $10,000 from
FABricate to start your company?
Chris Ayers (16:03):
Yes, that's right.
Jordan Powers (16:05):
That's the definition of a whirlwind.
Everyone (16:07):
[laughter]
Chris Ayers (16:09):
I'd like to also add the story of when I realized
that Jeffery would be a perfectbusiness partner, is one day, I
was showing him this one part ofthe previous prototype that I
had designed, which, in myopinion, is also the worst part
of that prototype. And so I wasasking Jeffery, you know, why am
I encountering this problem,which was basically my wheels
turning inward. And so he satdown and drew out the whole
(16:32):
equation and explained to mewhat a moment was and what a
moment arm was, and really madeit to where I was fully able to
understand that concept and asto why that failure was
occurring. So after having thatconversation with him, that's
when I realized like, to myself,okay, Jeffery, is definitely
somebody that I need to havewith me on this endeavor,
because he's able to understandthese problems, not only can he
(16:53):
understand them, but he can alsoexplain them to other people in
ways that make perfect sense. Soyou can solve that problem, you
know, through the understanding.
Jordan Powers (17:00):
Absolutely. A lightbulb moment, a perfect
pairing, it sounds like[laughter].
Emily Davenport (17:04):
That's amazing.
Have you always wanted to be anentrepreneur?
Chris Ayers (17:08):
I have, yes. My father has ran multiple
businesses, you know, throughoutmy life growing up, so he
started with HVAC. And then in2006, economic crash, that
company went under. And so eversince then, he's been running
his pressure washing company. Soas a part of being one of his
employees, and it being a familyrun business, you know, I've had
(17:30):
to take on the role of helpinghim run that business, going and
selling jobs, pressure washinghouses. And so, you know, doing
all that really instilled in me,the entrepreneurial spirit, and
sort of that spirit of likeindependence, I would say, you
know, to go out there and dothings and sort of, I don't
know, forge your own path, youknow?
Jordan Powers (17:48):
Absolutely. How about you, Jeffrey?
Jeffery Whitmire (17:50):
Yeah, I would say that I've always wanted to,
in some capacity, like I'vealways had a drive towards being
independent on whatever I'mdoing, had like inklings here
and there about running my ownthing. And when Chris came
along, was showing me this andthe farther we got with the more
grew, it was really exciting. Soreally glad to be a part of it
(18:12):
and that it's an opportunity tohave.
Jordan Powers (18:14):
Truly starting something from the ground, or
the wheels up, I suppose.
Absolutely. Tell us a little bitmore about Chiktopia. We got the
basics of it at the intro here.
But tell us a little bit moreabout the company and where it's
at right now.
Unknown (18:28):
There's this farming style called pasture raised
poultry. It's essentially likegrass fed beef version of
chickens. So you have chickenswho have access to fresh grass
every day. And in order to keepthose chickens protected, you
use a mobile housing unit calleda chicken tractor. And
conventionally, they're made outof just chicken wire and wood.
(18:49):
And the farmer just drags themaround by hand or with a truck
or trailer, like a heavy pieceof equipment. So Chiktopia is
coming in with the mindset ofhow do you automate this style
of farming, allow a farmer tohave more access to time and
still be able to grow thisreally good nutrient dense meat
and eggs, this alternative foodchoice is definitely growing. So
(19:13):
we want to come in and provideautomation to that farmer
practice.
Jordan Powers (19:18):
This is really working to, I would assume how
the producers with automation,benefit their time, but also I
know that there was a little bitof talk of it preserving land,
and how does it help theenvironmental side?
Chris Ayers (19:30):
Yeah, so on the environmental side, you can take
a mobile chicken tractor andcompare it to something like a
stationary house. And, you know,what you'll see with stationary
chicken houses, even ones thatallow for their birds to free
range outside of the houseduring the day. What you see is
around that house, essentiallythe soil gets ruined because
it's oversaturated withnutrients, such as nitrogen and
(19:52):
phosphorus. And these are thingsthat come out of the chicken's
body and then go out onto thesoil and run off into waterways
and things like this as theyaccumulate. And so with a mobile
chicken tractor, what you can dois essentially spread that
nitrogen and phosphorus equallythroughout that pasture. And as
a result, you can instead ofleading to detrimental
(20:13):
oversaturation with nutrients,you can actually lead to sort of
a positive regeneration byadding those nutrients back into
that soil. So this style offarming would be beneficial for
pasture land in general. But itcould also be extremely
beneficial for a farmer who isusing pasture raised chickens in
conjunction with his crops,because then this farmer would
(20:33):
be able to save lots of moneyfrom having to use synthetic
fertilizers to go out there andspread on the fields. So during
the dormant season, per se, youcan have your chickens go
through and essentially get thatpiece of land fertile and ready
for that next growing season. Soit's a cool effect that the
chickens have on the pasture bybuilding that soil by being
there in sort of a low duration,but higher density.
Jordan Powers (20:55):
That's fascinating. This is why we love
our job is we get to learn aboutall these amazing minds and the
things you all are doing tobetter life for producers and
our planet.
Emily Davenport (21:05):
Yeah, I actually have more questions
about how the tractor works. I'mjust imagining it on wheels. How
are the chickens reaching theground? And/or how does the
farmer control where it goes andwhen it goes where?
Jeffery Whitmire (21:16):
To explain this, I need to tell you that
there's two different styles ofpasture raised poultry, there's
egg production, and meatproduction. So with the meat
production, you'll have abroiler coop, and that will have
no floor and the chickens willhave access to that pasture. And
the sides of the coop are whatcontain them, and then move them
along to constantly have accessto grass. Now with egg layers,
(21:40):
it's a mobile housing unit thatthey go in and out of, and then
you use either like a stationaryfence, a large fenced in area or
a fence that you can move byhand and then you contain them
that way. So you're right whenyou think that there are wheels,
and it's just kind of movingalong it. It's not that simple.
But it kind of is like I guessyou could say.
Emily Davenport (22:01):
How does the farmer drive it around?
Chris Ayers (22:03):
So the tractors actually move themselves from
[laughter]the fifth prototype onward,
every every single coop that wemake here on out moves itself.
Right now, we're not using adrive system, we're moreso using
a pulling system that allows forthe coop to then move itself
under its own power on thepasture. So the farmer is not
actually having to go out thereand move it with any equipment
or by hand, they can move atremote control or set it on a
(22:26):
timer. And essentially, it'llmove one coop length however
often they they'd like to do it.
So, you know, with the egglaying ccop, these birds aren't
confined to that house all day,every day. So that means that
they get to go out and freerange in one of those two styles
of fences, right. For thebroilers, though they have
(22:47):
access to that grass everysingle day. And so it's a
requirement that that coop getsmoved daily. And so one big
aspect of our coops that we wereimplementing for both broilers
and egg layers is the fact thatit does move itself under its
own power, meaning that thefarmer is not having to go out
there anymore to move thatchicken tractor day in and day
out. Another part that'snoteworthy and worth adding is
(23:09):
that as a broiler chicken growsolder 4-weeks and beyond, that's
about half of his lifecycle, itneeds to be moved twice a day,
especially if you have thestocking density 1.5 birds per
square foot or less. So a higherstocking density means that you
have to move them more often. Sohaving a coop that moves itself
basically offers a lot ofadvantages for the producer, in
(23:33):
terms of time and labor savings.
Jordan Powers (23:35):
So you're saving a ton of labor if you're going
from physically moving somethingtwice a day to being able to
remote control it and be workingon other tasks. And I mean, as
we know, most of our producersdon't have one single sole thing
they're focused on, it's about amillion things at once. So
that's amazing. Tell us a littlebit about what drew you in to
participate in FABricate andreally what FABricate has done
(23:56):
for your company.
Chris Ayers (23:58):
Personally, what really drew me in to FABricate
was sitting down and talkingwith Chris Rhodes and learning
more about the actualcompetition, learning about
previous competitors and wheretheir businesses are at. You
know, so those two things inconjunction with one another is
what convinced me that FABricatewas a competition that I
absolutely wanted to compete in.
Jordan Powers (24:16):
And what did FABricate do for your company?
Chris Ayers (24:18):
If I were to simplify it into one word, it
helped our company grow. We grewin the aspect of getting our
names out there throughmarketing, having articles
written on us that we were thenable to go use when we were
talking to new people, theywould understand that we are a
credible source. So havingarticles written on us through
UGA essentially helps give uscredibility and credence when
we're speaking to newindividuals.
Jeffery Whitmire (24:40):
FABricate really helped us with the prize
Jordan Powers (24:40):
Absolutely. I know Chris, when he was in here
money because we were able totake that and turn it into a new
generation prototype for egglayers. And we wouldn't have
earlier was of course mentioningthat prize money is one of the
been able to do that as quicklyhad not it been for FABricate.
biggest incentives but thenthere's also all of those
tangential benefits like gettingyour name out there and the
(25:03):
mentorship, we've heard earliertoday about the benefit of that
mentorship component ofFABricate. So it's really
wonderful to see, kind of thatmultifaceted benefit that comes
out of the program.
Emily Davenport (25:14):
When thinking about the mentorship side, can
you guys talk a little bit aboutyour mentor and how that
relationship has evolved overyour participation in FABricate?
Chris Ayers (25:22):
Definitely, the relationship we have with Chris
now I'd say it's extremelycordial, I can text him if I
ever needed to, I can reach outto him and give him a call. It
started out as me coming toChris's office and sort of just
telling him about this idea. AndChris sort of saw the light at
the end of the tunnel, so tospeak, when I told him, we
actually had a prototype thatwas functional. That was the
(25:43):
moment when he sat back andsaid, along the lines of, this
is what makes this much morereal is the fact that you have
something already built, that'sworking, that's proven itself.
And so beyond that point, youknow, our relationship's only
grown and grown stronger, withmore meetings, him helping us
grow our network. And so he'sgotten us in connection with
(26:03):
lots of individuals who havehelped us grow beyond FABricate
and UGA.
Jeffery Whitmire (26:07):
After we did FABricate, we went out and did
other programs at UGA. And we'vemet tons of people, and they all
have, you know, their differentways of doing things. And Chris
Rhodes has always been able to,like keep us on track. And we're
always able to go back to him,tell him what has developed, and
he'll guide us where to go fromthere.
Jordan Powers (26:28):
Incredible. Yeah, his passion for the program is
very much apparent in everythingthat he does, which is
wonderful. What surprised youall the most about your
experience with FABricate, werethere any either ah-ha moments
or just surprising parts of theprocess?
Chris Ayers (26:42):
For me, the surprising part was how
difficult it was to actually goout and pitch in front of these
judges. So I had actually goneand won one prior pitch before
we had gone through FABricate.
After having gone through thatexperience, I thought that I was
more confident stepping in frontof judges. And thankfully
FABricate actually has threedifferent pitches that you have
(27:03):
to go through. And so for me,getting that extra practicing,
even though if you're not one ofthe judge's picks in the second
competition, you will get cut.
But essentially, having threedifferent pitches go along
through just one competitionallows for all the contestants
to get in front of judges, in myopinion, you know, enough times
to build that confidence that ittakes. And so I was surprised
(27:25):
that the lack of confidence thatI had going into that first
FABricate contest. And so afterthat pitch, I had a moment of
realization that there was a lotof work that I needed to do in
order to get better and get morecomfortable pitching in front of
these judges, because that was a90-second quick pitch. And it
certainly was not my bestperformance.
Jordan Powers (27:44):
But it sounds like you've had the practice and
the experience. And clearlythings are going well. So it
sounds like you're doing allright. But it is pretty amazing.
Those 90-second pitches, I don'tthink anybody realizes how much
pressure is on you. In thatmoment, you can go into it 100%
prepared and still come out ofgoing, huh, okay. How did that
go? Really?
Emily Davenport (28:04):
Yeah.
Jeffery Whitmire (28:05):
What really surprised me was that there's so
much opportunity for student-ledstartups and lots of people
don't take advantage of it. Andthere are all these people like
Chris Rhodes, and all the judgesthat Chris brings in, are really
wanting to help, which is, Ithink, a really, really good
thing. And I was completelyblind to it before I met Chris
(28:27):
and heard about FABricate, so.
Emily Davenport (28:28):
What would you tell other students about
FABricate to encourage them toparticipate?
Chris Ayers (28:32):
Beyond the $10,000, this is a great life experience.
So going through thiscompetition gives you sort of
the spotlight in front of thesejudges to know whether or not
your idea is valid. Also, goingthrough the FABricate
experiences requires, for allthe students that go through it,
to do extensive amount ofresearch and legwork in
developing their idea. Or ifthey already have a business,
(28:56):
developing that business evenfurther so that it's more
appealing in front of thejudges. So what I would tell all
students is to not be fearful,if you're worried about public
speaking and pitching, don't be,practice makes perfect. Also, I
would mention to a student thatthe value that they will get
through going through thisprogram won't be matched through
(29:16):
just about anything else thatthey could do. There's just
about nothing else that willtest you and really refine your
business down to a point towhere it could actually become
self sustaining. Like theFABricate competition.
Jeffery Whitmire (29:28):
Yeah, I would have to agree with everything
Chris is saying and then maybesay, a lot of people that I've
met might have ideas because asI've gone through this and told
people what I'm doing now theywill tell me oh, well, I kind of
had this idea or that. And Iwould say that there's no other
place like FABricate in theentrepreneurship system at UGA
(29:51):
that you're going to be able togo and have the opportunity with
the low level of judgment andsuch a high level of value
provided to you like feedback.
So if you're ever going to dothat, I would say do it now
while you're a student.
Jordan Powers (30:04):
And now is the time I know I'm like, I wish I
had some opportunity like this,I went to a very small
university. And this is justsuch an incredible thing to hear
about, it makes me want to goback.
Chris Ayers (30:14):
I'd also like to add one more point about
FABricate and the judges andChris Rhodes and everybody else
that is involved with FABricate.
FABricate for entrepreneurs isone of the only times where
every single person involved inthe process is looking to help
you every single coach, mentor,individual that we networked and
had a meeting with, every singleindividual was out there to help
us in any way that they couldhelp us. And having my prior
(30:37):
experience with my father'spressure washing businesses, I
know this is not the case inreal life. So, really take
advantage of sort of the networkthat you have at your disposal
being a student here.
Jordan Powers (30:51):
So we know you all are both seniors, you're,
unfortunately for UGA, leavingin the near future. What's next
for Chiktopia?
Chris Ayers (30:58):
Just like with FABricate, growth, being
students sort of limits us interms of scaling up because we
have requirements for classes,exams. So for us, it's going to
be growth in terms ofmanufacturing, distribution,
making sales, really puttingtogether a team of individuals
that can make this a successfulcompany.
Jeffery Whitmire (31:19):
Yeah, I would say our rough plan is raise
money, start manufacturing andyou know, sell and grow. Like,
in the shortest way you can putit.
Jordan Powers (31:29):
I think that was a business plan in five words,
and I am impressed.
Everyone (31:33):
[laughter]
Emily Davenport (31:35):
I love it.
Okay, so if you could describeFABricate in one word, what
would it be?
Chris Ayers (31:41):
Reshaping. Because, not only just with Chiktopia and
ourselves, but lots of people goin to FABricate having only
ideas. And by the time they makeit through that top five or top
15, through the second or thirdcompetition, what they started
with looks completely differentcoming out. Because a lot of us
(32:02):
go in not having a lot ofexperience in the pitching world
or in the entrepreneurshipworld. So having the guidance
through the mentorship helps youreally reshape your whole idea
your whole company intosomething that has the potential
to go out and sustain yourself.
Emily Davenport (32:19):
It's a good word.
Chris Ayers (32:21):
Thank you.
Jordan Powers (32:23):
No pressure, Jeffrey.
Everyone (32:25):
[laughter]
Jeffery Whitmire (32:26):
I guess I would say fulfilling, that would
be my one word. I feel likethat's kind of like a cliche,
but it's like an emotionalroller coaster with
entrepreneurship because you'regonna have, like, 10 times where
you're gonna think everything'snot gonna work out. And then
you'll have 10 times where youthink you're about to take over
the world and make the biggestbusiness in the history of
(32:49):
mankind. And you have to balancethose out and, like, you really
do feel the highs and the lows,but I would say you kind of grow
into managing that. But that isa very, for me, personally
fulfilling way to live.
Jordan Powers (33:04):
I love it. I don't think it's cliche at all.
I love it.
Emily Davenport (33:06):
No, that's great.
Jordan Powers (33:08):
Well, we covered a lot of ground today. I just
made an accidental chickentractor pun we've covered the
ground of the podcast.
Everyone (33:16):
[laughter]
Jordan Powers (33:16):
But is there anything else we've missed that
you all want to share?
Chris Ayers (33:19):
So a piece of exciting news that's coming from
Chiktopia moving forward, we'vemade our first sale and so our
very first coop is set to bedelivered on Rock House
Sound Effect (33:30):
[chime] Creamery's farm.
Emily Davenport (33:32):
Rock House Farm and Creamery is owned by Keith
Kelly.
Sound Effect (33:36):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (33:36):
Congratulations!
Emily Davenport (33:38):
Ooo, yeah.
Chris Ayers (33:38):
Extremely excited to deliver that coop and to make
content and to essentially showthe world what it is that we've
been up to.
Jordan Powers (33:48):
Congrats! That is, talk about a high of that
roller coaster ride right there.
Jeffery Whitmire (33:52):
Absolutely. We kind of made our first sale
through, like meeting someone inFABricate I mean, it's the
primary benefactor of thecompetition, but like...
Jordan Powers (34:01):
But that's now a continued relationship...
Chris Ayers (34:03):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Jordan Powers (34:03):
...that you all have of, he's not only a partner
in this FABricate program, butnow he's a client, as well.
Chris Ayers (34:09):
Absolutely.
Jordan Powers (34:10):
That's amazing.
Emily Davenport (34:10):
Yeah, without that initial connection, you
wouldn't have that...
Jeffery Whitmire (34:14):
Right.
Emily Davenport (34:14):
...first sale, so...
Chris Ayers (34:15):
Exactly.
Emily Davenport (34:16):
Awesome. Cool.
Yeah, thank you.
Chris Ayers (34:20):
Thank you both.
Sound Effect (34:20):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (34:20):
Check out our two bonus episodes featuring
past FABricate participants foreven more FABricate content.
Sound Effect (34:26):
[music]
Emily Davenport (34:27):
Thanks for listening to "Cultivating
Curiosity," a podcast producedby the UGA College of
Agricultural and EnvironmentalSciences. A special thanks to
Mason McClintock for our musicand sound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.
[music]
Emily Davenport (00:01):
Welcome to "Cultivating Curiosity," where
we get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our lives,from what we eat to how we live.
I'm Emily Davenport.
Jordan Powers (00:12):
And I'm Jordan Powers. And we're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Sound Effect (00:19):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:21):
In today's episode, we're going to talk to
Chris Rhodes, director ofindustry partnerships and
project based learning at theUGA's College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Andthen later on in the episode,
we're going to talk to a coupleof students who have been
through the FABricate processand can talk about their
experience. But first welcome,Chris.
Chris Rhodes (00:38):
Thank you.
Jordan Powers (00:39):
Tell us a little bit about your role here at CAES
and how you ended up being apart of FABricate.
Chris Rhodes (00:44):
Sure, yeah, I came to CAES about two years ago,
from a background in the privatesector in entrepreneurship and
precision agriculture. I reallyhave three goals at CAES. The
first is to make UGA the go-toresearch partner for industry.
The second is to build a cultureof entrepreneurship in the
College of Agriculture amongstthe students and the faculty.
(01:06):
And third is to make sure thatour students are as prepared as
possible to go out into theprivate sector. I got involved
in FABricate because it was partof the experiential learning
teams remit back then. And theyfelt like I had a background and
entrepreneurship and it justmade sense for me to take it
over and run it and try to buildit up.
Jordan Powers (01:28):
That's amazing.
That background ofentrepreneurship and
agriculture, I think issomething that gets left out of
the conversation quite a bit. Soit's really exciting to see a
program dedicated to that hereat UGA.
Chris Rhodes (01:37):
Absolutely.
Emily Davenport (01:38):
Can you tell us a little bit more about what
FABricate is?
Chris Rhodes (01:40):
Sure! FABricate is an entrepreneurial pitch
contest. So if you've ever seenthe show Shark Tank, it's
basically that. The kind of hookis, that it is built around
either food ideas, farmingideas, or sustainability ideas.
So if it's not one of thosethings, it's not eligible for
FABricate. The great thing aboutit, or at least a great thing
(02:01):
for the students is it's a$10,000 prize. So you go through
a number of different levels andparts of the contest. And in the
end, the winner gets $10,000.
They can use that for theircompany, they can use it for
other things. But that's whatusually draws the students in is
that kind of funding.
Jordan Powers (02:19):
Outside of that really amazing prize that the
students are competing for, whatother opportunities does
FABricate provide for students?
Chris Rhodes (02:26):
Yeah, I mean, everybody starts with the prize,
right? That's what gets people'sattention. But really, I always
say there's only one prizewinner, but everybody's a winner
in the program. The real greatpart of it is that these
students get access to expertsto help them build their
business, there's me who's gonethrough it before, there are
mentors who help them. There'sseminars that teach them about
(02:49):
what it means to start abusiness. The judges are usually
very accomplished and veryhelpful. And ultimately, one of
the great values for a startupcompany is the connections that
they make through this, it'svery visible, they do get in
front of nine judges who havetheir own businesses. And so we
have a bunch of studentcompanies from the last few
(03:12):
years who have become realcompanies and are working with
bigger companies that they metthrough this process. The
biggest thing that I guess Iwould say about the program, and
the biggest takeaway, is thepeers. So they meet other people
who think like they do; there's40,000 people on this campus,
it's not always easy forstudents to find people who are
(03:35):
interested in the same thingsthat they are. This brings them
together. And we've really seena close connection between
different members of thecommunity once they've started
to work on their projects. Sothey start out as competitors,
of course; they're all trying toget that $10,000 prize. But what
they find over the course of,you know, working together is
that they learn from each other,they build this community, and
(03:58):
they've become friends beyondthe program. The other thing I'd
say about, the other benefit ofFABricate is beyond just being
great for your business, if youwant to continue that business.
It's just a great experienceoverall for your career. It
gives you experience looking ata business holistically, which
(04:19):
you don't always get early inyour career when you go out into
the private sector. And asyou're trying to find a job,
it's a great conversationstarter. It's a great thing to
have on your resume that movesyour resume to the top of the
list because it's such aninteresting, usually unusual
thing to do. And that's whatemployers are looking for. So,
(04:40):
those were all the benefitsbesides the $10,000.
Jordan Powers (04:43):
Absolutely.
Having that little extra thingon the resume. I feel like
especially these days is soimportant.
Chris Rhodes (04:49):
Absolutely.
Emily Davenport (04:50):
Definitely. Who is eligible to participate in
FABricate?
Chris Rhodes (04:53):
Any student at UGA. So graduate, undergraduate,
College of Agricultural andEnvironmental Sciences or not,
we've had students from the vetschool, we've had students from
the business school. So really,just because it's run out of our
college doesn't mean it'slimited to the college, any
student; your team can also havenon-students on it, it needs to
(05:15):
be, I believe it's at least twothirds of the team members need
to be students. But you can haveone or two team members who
aren't students at UGA as well.
Jordan Powers (05:24):
And you touched on one of the things that I
think is really exciting aboutFABricate is that it's run by
the College of AgriculturalEnvironmental Sciences. But it
really is thatcross-departmental, that
cross-college environment, thatstudents are getting to engage
with people that may not be intheir classes, when they're
going through their program, andreally getting to go across the
college and make thoseconnections on both on a
(05:45):
personal and professional level,which is really exciting.
Chris Rhodes (05:47):
That's exactly right. It really does bring
like-minded folks together fromwherever they happen to be on
campus. You know, a biguniversity like this, there's
not always that opportunity toconnect with people from other
schools. This is absolutely theplace where people run into each
other. It's really been great tosee those connections forming
and the kind of richness of theexperience that comes from that.
Emily Davenport (06:11):
How did FABricate get started?
Chris Rhodes (06:13):
You know, I wasn't here when it started, I believe
the way it got started was fromone of the previous deans of the
College of AgriculturalEnvironmental Sciences got
together with some businessleaders from around Georgia who
thought that there was anopportunity for our college to
be a little more engaged with,kind of commercialization of
ideas. And so, Keith Kelly wasone of those key early business
(06:36):
folks from Georgia who helped.
He's still engaged, he's still ajudge, super helpful working
with some of our previouscontestants who are now running
their own businesses.
Sound Effect (06:45):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (06:46):
Keith Kelly graduated from UGA CAES with a
degree in agriculturaleconomics. Since then, he's
applied his business andagricultural knowledge to help
CAES and its students achievethe same success he believes the
college equipped him to achieve.
Kelly is a founding sponsor ofFABricate, where he also serves
as a judge, and is alsopartnering with CAES researchers
in the Department of Animal andDairy Science on a project
(07:10):
focused on methane reduction andimproving the efficiency of
cattle production.
Sound Effect (07:15):
[chime]
Chris Rhodes (07:17):
So it was kind of the brainchild between the
academic group here and thebusiness community in Georgia.
Jordan Powers (07:25):
Continuing those connections, beyond UGA. So
we've talked a lot about whatFABricate can mean for the
students who are participating.
What does FABricate mean for theuniversity?
Chris Rhodes (07:37):
Yeah. Well, I think you know, first of all,
it's always important toremember that FABricate is part
of this broader innovationcommunity at the university,
there's been a lot ofinvestment, a lot of energy put
towards the Innovation Districtat the University of Georgia,
you see it at the businessschool, you see at the Delta
Hub, each college has aconnection into that as well.
(07:57):
And that's kind of what my jobis here. So we're contributing
to that overall ecosystem ofinnovation at the University of
Georgia. It gives students atthe university insight into a
couple of industries that areactually a little bit weird. You
know, agriculture is a littlebit of a different type of
industry, food is a little bitof a different type of industry.
(08:19):
And sustainability is such agrowth industry. Right now
you're seeing it kind of rear upin the areas where you might not
have seen it before. So the factthat we're focused on those
things, I think adds to theoverall University of Georgia
innovation community. The thirdpiece is it gives the College of
Agricultural and EnvironmentalSciences a focal point for
(08:40):
thinking about entrepreneurship,and what that does, in turn, as
it connects students and membersof the CAES community into this
kind of culture at UGA that theymight not have had access to
before, or even realizedexisted. So, when you're
bringing in kind of a wholegroup of new people into a
(09:02):
community like that, I thinkthat adds to the overall so
there's a value in having anentrepreneurial contest in a
college versus just coming outof the business school.
Emily Davenport (09:13):
If you could describe FABricate in one word,
what would it be?
Chris Rhodes (09:16):
This is the hardest possible question you
could ask.
Emily Davenport (09:19):
Excellent.
Everyone (09:20):
[laughter]
Chris Rhodes (09:21):
I think the word I would use would be community.
Everybody who starts out withFABricate is interested in the
prize, you can see it in theroom. When I say $10,000 prize
you can see everybody's eyes getreal big. The reason that
everybody stays in the FABricatekind of universe is because of
(09:42):
who they meet, and what theylearn, and how engaged the
community is around them as partof FABricate. As I think about
how do I want to build thisprogram out? It always comes
back to "how do we build thatcommunity? How do we build that
culture?" So that's if I have touse only one word, and that
word's not awesome, I'm gonnause community.
Jordan Powers (10:04):
I feel like awesome is another good word to
Everyone (10:04):
[laughter] use; maybe not as hard hitting,
doesn't quite get you in thefeels the same way, but still
accurate.
[laughter]
Jordan Powers (10:14):
So Emily and I are a couple of deadline-driven,
A-type one's here. So let's talka little bit about timelines. I
know that FABricate kind of runson an annual cycle of deadlines.
Talk to us a little bit aboutwhat those timelines look like
for those students who might beinterested in participating.
Chris Rhodes (10:29):
Really, the next deadline is in January. So we
want people to sign up for theprogram, preferably by January
24, so that we can then connectthem with mentors. The final
deadline is in mid-February, ifyou don't want a mentor or
you're struck by inspiration inmid-January, it's fine, you can
(10:49):
join the program up untilmid-February. And then it really
runs hardcore between thatmid-February to mid-March and
the finals are at the end ofMarch. I do recommend everybody
sign up as soon as they can. Ifyou have an idea, why not sign
up? It's easy, it takes fiveminutes to kind of get on the
(11:09):
radar, and what you get as soonas you sign up as access to some
of the resources that becomeavailable. So we'll start
finding you a mentor, you'llstart to get invited to
different types of events whereyou can learn more about
entrepreneurship and the agindustry or the food industry.
And so there's real value andsigning up sooner rather than
later. But in terms ofdeadlines, really nothing that
(11:31):
you have to do before the end ofthe year.
Emily Davenport (11:33):
Can you tell us more about how the mentors get
involved in the program?
Chris Rhodes (11:37):
When I came in and kind of took over FABricate, it
felt like there was anopportunity to bring in business
leaders who are interested inhelping students out and helping
them progress their businesses.
And so as soon as a team signsup, I start to look through my
Rolodex or the college's contactlists, and just start to reach
out to people who might be ableto offer some additional wisdom.
(11:59):
What the students have is a lotof energy, creativity, smarts,
hard work; what they don'talways have is knowledge of the
industry or knowledge of certainaspects of running a business.
So we try to connect them upwith folks who can really help
them in that part of theirplanning and pitching and all
(12:21):
the other stuff that go alongwith with starting a business.
Jordan Powers (12:26):
Is there anything else that we've missed that you
want to share?
Chris Rhodes (12:28):
There's two things that I want to be sure that kind
of people hear. The first isjust sign up, you know, people
get nervous about it, they don'twant to embarrass themselves or
they're worried it's going to betoo much work or, you know,
there's a lot of reasons thatpeople use to convince
themselves not to sign up. And Isay just sign up, it doesn't
matter where you are in thejourney. There's an opportunity
(12:51):
for you to learn aboutentrepreneurship, about yourself
about organization, aboutcreativity. So just sign up. The
second thing I would just wantto be sure everybody knows is
that FABricate contestants areabsolutely killing it out there.
We've got real companies doingreal things, national companies
at this point who aredistributing their their wares
(13:12):
nationally. Really, you know,several companies that are
making a real go of it. Theother thing I would say is that
we have even more contestantswhose teams have gone on to win
other contests. We've got teamswho have done FABricate and then
gone on and been very successfulin other areas of the college
and other parts ofentrepreneurship. They've gone
(13:32):
to the business school, they'vegone to other universities, and
done really well in thosecontests as well.
Sound Effect (13:38):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (13:40):
We'll add links to successful FABricate teams in
the show notes for you.
Sound Effect (13:43):
[chime]
Chris Rhodes (13:44):
So like I said, it's a great community, people
are being very successful in anumber of different ways.
Jordan Powers (13:49):
I love that sentiment of just sign up, just
do the thing. Later on in theepisode, we're going to talk to
a couple of students who didexactly that. They just signed
up and have amazing stories ofthe process and of the program.
But in the meantime, thanks,Chris, for joining us today. We
really appreciate your time.
Chris Rhodes (14:06):
Thank you.
Sound Effect (14:06):
[music]
Jordan Powers (14:18):
Welcome back listeners. We are here with
poultry science student ChrisAyers and biological engineering
student Jeffrey Whitmire, whowon $10,000 for their idea,
Chiktopia, an automated chickentractor designed to move
pasture-raised chickens easilyand efficiently while preserving
the land and saving labor costs.
You all clearly did very wellparticipating in FABricate. Tell
(14:39):
us how you heard aboutFABricate?
Chris Ayers (14:42):
Yeah, so I first heard about FABricate when I was
coming into the university as atransfer student from Georgia
State. This actually came aboutthrough speaking with an
outreach coordinator namedWhitney Jones. And so I got to
telling her about this sort ofsolar powered chicken tractor
that I had. And that's when Ithink a bell went off in her
head and she realized this ideawould fit perfectly within the
(15:02):
context of the FABricatecompetition. And prior to
speaking with her, I reallydidn't think of, you know,
starting Chiktopia as a companyor anything like this.
Jeffery Whitmire (15:10):
Yeah, so I heard about FABricate because I
needed a new roommate. So Iposted on Facebook. And then
Chris was actually the one thataccepted, showed up to my house
a day early, actually. And I waslike, who is this guy coming up
early? And then we sat there andtalked for like, two hours. And
everybody else I interviewedkind of just didn't vibe with
(15:30):
very well. When we actuallybecame roommates, he started
telling me about the chickentractors he had been making,
tells me about a competition.
I'm like, yeah, sure, I'll helpyou out with it. I'll join
because he had saw that I was abio engineering student and
thought I could help him. Sothat's how I heard about it.
Jordan Powers (15:47):
Okay, so now I need to get this timeline
straight. Because before westarted recording, you all are
seniors, you transferred heretwo years ago. And in that two
year time period, you went fromthis idea that you thought maybe
never would turn into anythingto winning $10,000 from
FABricate to start your company?
Chris Ayers (16:03):
Yes, that's right.
Jordan Powers (16:05):
That's the definition of a whirlwind.
Everyone (16:07):
[laughter]
Chris Ayers (16:09):
I'd like to also add the story of when I realized
that Jeffery would be a perfectbusiness partner, is one day, I
was showing him this one part ofthe previous prototype that I
had designed, which, in myopinion, is also the worst part
of that prototype. And so I wasasking Jeffery, you know, why am
I encountering this problem,which was basically my wheels
turning inward. And so he satdown and drew out the whole
(16:32):
equation and explained to mewhat a moment was and what a
moment arm was, and really madeit to where I was fully able to
understand that concept and asto why that failure was
occurring. So after having thatconversation with him, that's
when I realized like, to myself,okay, Jeffery, is definitely
somebody that I need to havewith me on this endeavor,
because he's able to understandthese problems, not only can he
(16:53):
understand them, but he can alsoexplain them to other people in
ways that make perfect sense. Soyou can solve that problem, you
know, through the understanding.
Jordan Powers (17:00):
Absolutely. A lightbulb moment, a perfect
pairing, it sounds like[laughter].
Emily Davenport (17:04):
That's amazing.
Have you always wanted to be anentrepreneur?
Chris Ayers (17:08):
I have, yes. My father has ran multiple
businesses, you know, throughoutmy life growing up, so he
started with HVAC. And then in2006, economic crash, that
company went under. And so eversince then, he's been running
his pressure washing company. Soas a part of being one of his
employees, and it being a familyrun business, you know, I've had
(17:30):
to take on the role of helpinghim run that business, going and
selling jobs, pressure washinghouses. And so, you know, doing
all that really instilled in me,the entrepreneurial spirit, and
sort of that spirit of likeindependence, I would say, you
know, to go out there and dothings and sort of, I don't
know, forge your own path, youknow?
Jordan Powers (17:48):
Absolutely. How about you, Jeffrey?
Jeffery Whitmire (17:50):
Yeah, I would say that I've always wanted to,
in some capacity, like I'vealways had a drive towards being
independent on whatever I'mdoing, had like inklings here
and there about running my ownthing. And when Chris came
along, was showing me this andthe farther we got with the more
grew, it was really exciting. Soreally glad to be a part of it
(18:12):
and that it's an opportunity tohave.
Jordan Powers (18:14):
Truly starting something from the ground, or
the wheels up, I suppose.
Absolutely. Tell us a little bitmore about Chiktopia. We got the
basics of it at the intro here.
But tell us a little bit moreabout the company and where it's
at right now.
Unknown (18:28):
There's this farming style called pasture raised
poultry. It's essentially likegrass fed beef version of
chickens. So you have chickenswho have access to fresh grass
every day. And in order to keepthose chickens protected, you
use a mobile housing unit calleda chicken tractor. And
conventionally, they're made outof just chicken wire and wood.
(18:49):
And the farmer just drags themaround by hand or with a truck
or trailer, like a heavy pieceof equipment. So Chiktopia is
coming in with the mindset ofhow do you automate this style
of farming, allow a farmer tohave more access to time and
still be able to grow thisreally good nutrient dense meat
and eggs, this alternative foodchoice is definitely growing. So
(19:13):
we want to come in and provideautomation to that farmer
practice.
Jordan Powers (19:18):
This is really working to, I would assume how
the producers with automation,benefit their time, but also I
know that there was a little bitof talk of it preserving land,
and how does it help theenvironmental side?
Chris Ayers (19:30):
Yeah, so on the environmental side, you can take
a mobile chicken tractor andcompare it to something like a
stationary house. And, you know,what you'll see with stationary
chicken houses, even ones thatallow for their birds to free
range outside of the houseduring the day. What you see is
around that house, essentiallythe soil gets ruined because
it's oversaturated withnutrients, such as nitrogen and
(19:52):
phosphorus. And these are thingsthat come out of the chicken's
body and then go out onto thesoil and run off into waterways
and things like this as theyaccumulate. And so with a mobile
chicken tractor, what you can dois essentially spread that
nitrogen and phosphorus equallythroughout that pasture. And as
a result, you can instead ofleading to detrimental
(20:13):
oversaturation with nutrients,you can actually lead to sort of
a positive regeneration byadding those nutrients back into
that soil. So this style offarming would be beneficial for
pasture land in general. But itcould also be extremely
beneficial for a farmer who isusing pasture raised chickens in
conjunction with his crops,because then this farmer would
(20:33):
be able to save lots of moneyfrom having to use synthetic
fertilizers to go out there andspread on the fields. So during
the dormant season, per se, youcan have your chickens go
through and essentially get thatpiece of land fertile and ready
for that next growing season. Soit's a cool effect that the
chickens have on the pasture bybuilding that soil by being
there in sort of a low duration,but higher density.
Jordan Powers (20:55):
That's fascinating. This is why we love
our job is we get to learn aboutall these amazing minds and the
things you all are doing tobetter life for producers and
our planet.
Emily Davenport (21:05):
Yeah, I actually have more questions
about how the tractor works. I'mjust imagining it on wheels. How
are the chickens reaching theground? And/or how does the
farmer control where it goes andwhen it goes where?
Jeffery Whitmire (21:16):
To explain this, I need to tell you that
there's two different styles ofpasture raised poultry, there's
egg production, and meatproduction. So with the meat
production, you'll have abroiler coop, and that will have
no floor and the chickens willhave access to that pasture. And
the sides of the coop are whatcontain them, and then move them
along to constantly have accessto grass. Now with egg layers,
(21:40):
it's a mobile housing unit thatthey go in and out of, and then
you use either like a stationaryfence, a large fenced in area or
a fence that you can move byhand and then you contain them
that way. So you're right whenyou think that there are wheels,
and it's just kind of movingalong it. It's not that simple.
But it kind of is like I guessyou could say.
Emily Davenport (22:01):
How does the farmer drive it around?
Chris Ayers (22:03):
So the tractors actually move themselves from
[laughter]the fifth prototype onward,
every every single coop that wemake here on out moves itself.
Right now, we're not using adrive system, we're moreso using
a pulling system that allows forthe coop to then move itself
under its own power on thepasture. So the farmer is not
actually having to go out thereand move it with any equipment
or by hand, they can move atremote control or set it on a
(22:26):
timer. And essentially, it'llmove one coop length however
often they they'd like to do it.
So, you know, with the egglaying ccop, these birds aren't
confined to that house all day,every day. So that means that
they get to go out and freerange in one of those two styles
of fences, right. For thebroilers, though they have
(22:47):
access to that grass everysingle day. And so it's a
requirement that that coop getsmoved daily. And so one big
aspect of our coops that we wereimplementing for both broilers
and egg layers is the fact thatit does move itself under its
own power, meaning that thefarmer is not having to go out
there anymore to move thatchicken tractor day in and day
out. Another part that'snoteworthy and worth adding is
(23:09):
that as a broiler chicken growsolder 4-weeks and beyond, that's
about half of his lifecycle, itneeds to be moved twice a day,
especially if you have thestocking density 1.5 birds per
square foot or less. So a higherstocking density means that you
have to move them more often. Sohaving a coop that moves itself
basically offers a lot ofadvantages for the producer, in
(23:33):
terms of time and labor savings.
Jordan Powers (23:35):
So you're saving a ton of labor if you're going
from physically moving somethingtwice a day to being able to
remote control it and be workingon other tasks. And I mean, as
we know, most of our producersdon't have one single sole thing
they're focused on, it's about amillion things at once. So
that's amazing. Tell us a littlebit about what drew you in to
participate in FABricate andreally what FABricate has done
(23:56):
for your company.
Chris Ayers (23:58):
Personally, what really drew me in to FABricate
was sitting down and talkingwith Chris Rhodes and learning
more about the actualcompetition, learning about
previous competitors and wheretheir businesses are at. You
know, so those two things inconjunction with one another is
what convinced me that FABricatewas a competition that I
absolutely wanted to compete in.
Jordan Powers (24:16):
And what did FABricate do for your company?
Chris Ayers (24:18):
If I were to simplify it into one word, it
helped our company grow. We grewin the aspect of getting our
names out there throughmarketing, having articles
written on us that we were thenable to go use when we were
talking to new people, theywould understand that we are a
credible source. So havingarticles written on us through
UGA essentially helps give uscredibility and credence when
we're speaking to newindividuals.
Jeffery Whitmire (24:40):
FABricate really helped us with the prize
Jordan Powers (24:40):
Absolutely. I know Chris, when he was in here
money because we were able totake that and turn it into a new
generation prototype for egglayers. And we wouldn't have
earlier was of course mentioningthat prize money is one of the
been able to do that as quicklyhad not it been for FABricate.
biggest incentives but thenthere's also all of those
tangential benefits like gettingyour name out there and the
(25:03):
mentorship, we've heard earliertoday about the benefit of that
mentorship component ofFABricate. So it's really
wonderful to see, kind of thatmultifaceted benefit that comes
out of the program.
Emily Davenport (25:14):
When thinking about the mentorship side, can
you guys talk a little bit aboutyour mentor and how that
relationship has evolved overyour participation in FABricate?
Chris Ayers (25:22):
Definitely, the relationship we have with Chris
now I'd say it's extremelycordial, I can text him if I
ever needed to, I can reach outto him and give him a call. It
started out as me coming toChris's office and sort of just
telling him about this idea. AndChris sort of saw the light at
the end of the tunnel, so tospeak, when I told him, we
actually had a prototype thatwas functional. That was the
(25:43):
moment when he sat back andsaid, along the lines of, this
is what makes this much morereal is the fact that you have
something already built, that'sworking, that's proven itself.
And so beyond that point, youknow, our relationship's only
grown and grown stronger, withmore meetings, him helping us
grow our network. And so he'sgotten us in connection with
(26:03):
lots of individuals who havehelped us grow beyond FABricate
and UGA.
Jeffery Whitmire (26:07):
After we did FABricate, we went out and did
other programs at UGA. And we'vemet tons of people, and they all
have, you know, their differentways of doing things. And Chris
Rhodes has always been able to,like keep us on track. And we're
always able to go back to him,tell him what has developed, and
he'll guide us where to go fromthere.
Jordan Powers (26:28):
Incredible. Yeah, his passion for the program is
very much apparent in everythingthat he does, which is
wonderful. What surprised youall the most about your
experience with FABricate, werethere any either ah-ha moments
or just surprising parts of theprocess?
Chris Ayers (26:42):
For me, the surprising part was how
difficult it was to actually goout and pitch in front of these
judges. So I had actually goneand won one prior pitch before
we had gone through FABricate.
After having gone through thatexperience, I thought that I was
more confident stepping in frontof judges. And thankfully
FABricate actually has threedifferent pitches that you have
(27:03):
to go through. And so for me,getting that extra practicing,
even though if you're not one ofthe judge's picks in the second
competition, you will get cut.
But essentially, having threedifferent pitches go along
through just one competitionallows for all the contestants
to get in front of judges, in myopinion, you know, enough times
to build that confidence that ittakes. And so I was surprised
(27:25):
that the lack of confidence thatI had going into that first
FABricate contest. And so afterthat pitch, I had a moment of
realization that there was a lotof work that I needed to do in
order to get better and get morecomfortable pitching in front of
these judges, because that was a90-second quick pitch. And it
certainly was not my bestperformance.
Jordan Powers (27:44):
But it sounds like you've had the practice and
the experience. And clearlythings are going well. So it
sounds like you're doing allright. But it is pretty amazing.
Those 90-second pitches, I don'tthink anybody realizes how much
pressure is on you. In thatmoment, you can go into it 100%
prepared and still come out ofgoing, huh, okay. How did that
go? Really?
Emily Davenport (28:04):
Yeah.
Jeffery Whitmire (28:05):
What really surprised me was that there's so
much opportunity for student-ledstartups and lots of people
don't take advantage of it. Andthere are all these people like
Chris Rhodes, and all the judgesthat Chris brings in, are really
wanting to help, which is, Ithink, a really, really good
thing. And I was completelyblind to it before I met Chris
(28:27):
and heard about FABricate, so.
Emily Davenport (28:28):
What would you tell other students about
FABricate to encourage them toparticipate?
Chris Ayers (28:32):
Beyond the $10,000, this is a great life experience.
So going through thiscompetition gives you sort of
the spotlight in front of thesejudges to know whether or not
your idea is valid. Also, goingthrough the FABricate
experiences requires, for allthe students that go through it,
to do extensive amount ofresearch and legwork in
developing their idea. Or ifthey already have a business,
(28:56):
developing that business evenfurther so that it's more
appealing in front of thejudges. So what I would tell all
students is to not be fearful,if you're worried about public
speaking and pitching, don't be,practice makes perfect. Also, I
would mention to a student thatthe value that they will get
through going through thisprogram won't be matched through
(29:16):
just about anything else thatthey could do. There's just
about nothing else that willtest you and really refine your
business down to a point towhere it could actually become
self sustaining. Like theFABricate competition.
Jeffery Whitmire (29:28):
Yeah, I would have to agree with everything
Chris is saying and then maybesay, a lot of people that I've
met might have ideas because asI've gone through this and told
people what I'm doing now theywill tell me oh, well, I kind of
had this idea or that. And Iwould say that there's no other
place like FABricate in theentrepreneurship system at UGA
(29:51):
that you're going to be able togo and have the opportunity with
the low level of judgment andsuch a high level of value
provided to you like feedback.
So if you're ever going to dothat, I would say do it now
while you're a student.
Jordan Powers (30:04):
And now is the time I know I'm like, I wish I
had some opportunity like this,I went to a very small
university. And this is justsuch an incredible thing to hear
about, it makes me want to goback.
Chris Ayers (30:14):
I'd also like to add one more point about
FABricate and the judges andChris Rhodes and everybody else
that is involved with FABricate.
FABricate for entrepreneurs isone of the only times where
every single person involved inthe process is looking to help
you every single coach, mentor,individual that we networked and
had a meeting with, every singleindividual was out there to help
us in any way that they couldhelp us. And having my prior
(30:37):
experience with my father'spressure washing businesses, I
know this is not the case inreal life. So, really take
advantage of sort of the networkthat you have at your disposal
being a student here.
Jordan Powers (30:51):
So we know you all are both seniors, you're,
unfortunately for UGA, leavingin the near future. What's next
for Chiktopia?
Chris Ayers (30:58):
Just like with FABricate, growth, being
students sort of limits us interms of scaling up because we
have requirements for classes,exams. So for us, it's going to
be growth in terms ofmanufacturing, distribution,
making sales, really puttingtogether a team of individuals
that can make this a successfulcompany.
Jeffery Whitmire (31:19):
Yeah, I would say our rough plan is raise
money, start manufacturing andyou know, sell and grow. Like,
in the shortest way you can putit.
Jordan Powers (31:29):
I think that was a business plan in five words,
and I am impressed.
Everyone (31:33):
[laughter]
Emily Davenport (31:35):
I love it.
Okay, so if you could describeFABricate in one word, what
would it be?
Chris Ayers (31:41):
Reshaping. Because, not only just with Chiktopia and
ourselves, but lots of people goin to FABricate having only
ideas. And by the time they makeit through that top five or top
15, through the second or thirdcompetition, what they started
with looks completely differentcoming out. Because a lot of us
(32:02):
go in not having a lot ofexperience in the pitching world
or in the entrepreneurshipworld. So having the guidance
through the mentorship helps youreally reshape your whole idea
your whole company intosomething that has the potential
to go out and sustain yourself.
Emily Davenport (32:19):
It's a good word.
Chris Ayers (32:21):
Thank you.
Jordan Powers (32:23):
No pressure, Jeffrey.
Everyone (32:25):
[laughter]
Jeffery Whitmire (32:26):
I guess I would say fulfilling, that would
be my one word. I feel likethat's kind of like a cliche,
but it's like an emotionalroller coaster with
entrepreneurship because you'regonna have, like, 10 times where
you're gonna think everything'snot gonna work out. And then
you'll have 10 times where youthink you're about to take over
the world and make the biggestbusiness in the history of
(32:49):
mankind. And you have to balancethose out and, like, you really
do feel the highs and the lows,but I would say you kind of grow
into managing that. But that isa very, for me, personally
fulfilling way to live.
Jordan Powers (33:04):
I love it. I don't think it's cliche at all.
I love it.
Emily Davenport (33:06):
No, that's great.
Jordan Powers (33:08):
Well, we covered a lot of ground today. I just
made an accidental chickentractor pun we've covered the
ground of the podcast.
Everyone (33:16):
[laughter]
Jordan Powers (33:16):
But is there anything else we've missed that
you all want to share?
Chris Ayers (33:19):
So a piece of exciting news that's coming from
Chiktopia moving forward, we'vemade our first sale and so our
very first coop is set to bedelivered on Rock House
Sound Effect (33:30):
[chime] Creamery's farm.
Emily Davenport (33:32):
Rock House Farm and Creamery is owned by Keith
Kelly.
Sound Effect (33:36):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (33:36):
Congratulations!
Emily Davenport (33:38):
Ooo, yeah.
Chris Ayers (33:38):
Extremely excited to deliver that coop and to make
content and to essentially showthe world what it is that we've
been up to.
Jordan Powers (33:48):
Congrats! That is, talk about a high of that
roller coaster ride right there.
Jeffery Whitmire (33:52):
Absolutely. We kind of made our first sale
through, like meeting someone inFABricate I mean, it's the
primary benefactor of thecompetition, but like...
Jordan Powers (34:01):
But that's now a continued relationship...
Chris Ayers (34:03):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Jordan Powers (34:03):
...that you all have of, he's not only a partner
in this FABricate program, butnow he's a client, as well.
Chris Ayers (34:09):
Absolutely.
Jordan Powers (34:10):
That's amazing.
Emily Davenport (34:10):
Yeah, without that initial connection, you
wouldn't have that...
Jeffery Whitmire (34:14):
Right.
Emily Davenport (34:14):
...first sale, so...
Chris Ayers (34:15):
Exactly.
Emily Davenport (34:16):
Awesome. Cool.
Yeah, thank you.
Chris Ayers (34:20):
Thank you both.
Sound Effect (34:20):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (34:20):
Check out our two bonus episodes featuring
past FABricate participants foreven more FABricate content.
Sound Effect (34:26):
[music]
Emily Davenport (34:27):
Thanks for listening to "Cultivating
Curiosity," a podcast producedby the UGA College of
Agricultural and EnvironmentalSciences. A special thanks to
Mason McClintock for our musicand sound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.