Female founder spotlight: Anna Falkiner from Cropify

To celebrate 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.

Can you tell us 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 about Cropify?

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?

The words I'd use are:

• 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?

My day usually starts with checking my priorities to see what needs to be tackled first. After that, I dive into responding to emails – it’s always a mix of things that need attention.

Then it’s time to look after the financial side of things – managing accounts and ensuring everything is on track. Problem-solving is often part of the mix too; I’ll check if there are any roadblocks that need addressing so we can keep moving forward.

I catch up with the team via Slack throughout the day, just staying on top of everything and offering support where needed.

As for the main tasks, they can vary. One day, I might be taking dataset images for AI, the next I could be working on grant applications, meeting with accountants, or refining marketing plans. Every day brings something different, but it’s always focused on pushing things forward.

What's been the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your company?

The biggest challenge we faced when launching the company was making the decision to actually take the leap. It’s a massive thing to truly back yourself.

For us, the tipping point to finally launch came down to some honest self-assessment. We asked ourselves:

• Industry knowledge: Do we have a deep understanding of the challenge?
• Quantifying the opportunity: It is real and commercially viable?

Once we got past that, the real challenge post-launch has been finding the right team. Building a solid, passionate team has been key to driving things forward, especially when we’ve largely been working largely with bootstrapped funding. It's been tough, but incredibly rewarding as we continue to grow.

What advice would you give to women considering a career in emerging tech?

Don’t be put off if you don’t have a technical background. If you’ve got the tenacity and the willingness to learn, just go for it! The most important thing is that you’ve identified a real problem and have a solution that meets a significant market need.

Emerging technologies might be the vehicle to deliver that solution, but at the end of the day, someone needs to be in the driver’s seat to move the business forward.

The truth is, not everyone in emerging tech is a tech specialist, and sometimes you just need to find the right people and build the right mindset to make it happen.