After struggling with tracking vineyard data firsthand, Shawn DeMartino, CEO and Founder of Sentinel, decided to create a solution with his partner. Enabling vine by vine mapping and data collection that could stand the test of time enables vineyard managers to increase the lifespan of a vineyard, manage viruses, and effectively create a “medical record” for each individual vine.
Detailed Show Notes:
Shawn’s background - winemaking, viticulture, now general management
Sentinel was a Covid project that became real, software that collects individual vine information over time
- “Patient medical system of record for vines”
- The solution includes a mobile app, desktop platform, and high-accuracy GPS (receivers that clip onto phones)
- Maps all the vines in the field
- Configurable data collection forms
- Available in 5 countries currently
Mapping the vineyard
- Create a 3D model with lat/long and elevation
- Basics (variety, clone), images, comments, discrete statuses (e.g., life stage, virus status)
- The vineyard mgmt team populates data, can walk up the vines and record
- Work with/ Sentinel to put in bulk metadata (e.g., block info, varietal)
- A client mapped 100 acres in 1 week
Work order function
- E.g., irrigation can be recorded
- Roguing, planting, and grafted statuses can auto-update when the work order is completed
Core benefits
- Extend the life of the vineyards
- Virus/disease management, see the program more clearly, identify asymptomatic vines in hot spots (case study: ~10% of vines asymptomatic)
- Optimize pick areas (through mapping flavor profiles)
Pricing
- Mostly software, hardware costs small
- Annual subscription based on acres, not users (<1% of farming cost)
- Biggest growers ~$2k/year
ROI example: client roguing 1% of vines/year w/ growing virus problem, Sentinel enabled them to get ahead of the problem in 1 year
Marketing mostly organic search
- Articles and podcasts helped
- Last 18 mo, mostly word of mouth
- Referral program: The referrer gets a bottle of Krug
Barriers to adoption
- Worries about time requirements; the goal is to collect data when already in the field
- Worries about less flexibility to manage vineyard; full customization of data enables more flexibility
- Next on the product roadmap - continue to flesh out more work order functionality
Other tech Shawn is interested in
- Winery management platforms (e.g., Innovint)
- Soil moisture probes for irrigation
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