Founder spotlight: Anna Falkiner from Cropify
In our ongoing commitment to celebrating International Women's Day, we're again shining a spotlight on some of our exceptional women founders as they make waves throughout the emerging tech industry.
The third founder in this series is Anna Falkiner, Co-Founder of Cropify. We spoke to her about how she came to start her company, the challenges facing women in the emerging technology sector, and advice she'd pass along to women considering a career in the industry.
Tell us a bit about yourself
I come from a farming family and have two university student-aged children, a husband, and two dogs. My professional career has been in global and domestic marketing. I worked in a corporate environment for a long time which was a great grounding in business. I’ve now been self-employed for over ten years. Experiencing both sides of the coin was a good foundation for the startup environment.
Can you tell us a bit about the company you founded, Cropify, and what made you decide to launch it?
Cropify is an AgTech startup. We are using artificial intelligence (AI) to eliminate subjective testing from the classification of pulse and grain crops. My Co-founder / husband identified a possible solution to this long-standing challenge faced by the cropping industry. I came on board and have driven the development of Cropify since proof of concept (POC) was completed 3 years ago. We decided to launch Cropify once we had completed POC and identified an appropriate technical solution.
What three words would you use to describe working at a startup, and why?
Exciting: You are breaking new ground, backing your team, and endeavouring to develop a new solution.
Resilience: It can sometimes feel like you are taking 3 steps forward and then 4 steps back.
Rewarding: The sense of achievement when a plan is executed and the objective is achieved is amazing.
What does your typical day look like?
A typical day:
- Check priorities for the day
- Respond to emails
- Manage financials and accounts
- Problem-solving - are there any barriers that need addressing?
- Talk to the team via Slack
- Work on the priorities for the day; this could be anything from taking dataset images for Artificial Intelligence, grant applications, meeting accountants, or marketing plans.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced launching your company?
Initially taking the leap. To really back yourselves is huge. The tipping point for us to launch the company was self-assessment:
- Industry knowledge - Do we have a deep understanding of the challenge?
- Quantifying the opportunity - it is real and commercially viable?
The biggest challenge since launch has been finding the right team and driving Cropifyforward with largely bootstrapped funding.
What advice would you give to women considering a career in the emerging technology industry? What do you wish you had known?
Don’t be put off if you don’t have a technical background. If you have the tenacity and are willing to learn, go for it! The most crucial factor is that you have found a solution to a real problem that represents a good size market. Emerging technologies are the potential vehicle to deliver the solution but someone needs to drive the business forward. All those that work in emerging technology are not tech specialists.
