Status: Paused · Strategic pivot to explore market entry channels
Koe is a multi-tenant SaaS platform for livestock management, designed for small to mid-scale cattle operations in Argentina. The platform consolidates herd tracking, health records, feed management, and market pricing into a single operational dashboard.
Built solo over 12 months (2025–2026) as a technical and business case study.
Argentina represents ~40% of global beef exports and ~50M head of cattle. Yet farm management tooling remains fragmented across physical records, SMS, and disconnected spreadsheets. The initial thesis: a vertical SaaS serving the agro-tech supply chain (veterinarians, accountants, cooperative managers) could generate defensible margins.
Key insight: Direct-to-farmer channels saturate quickly. Distribution through professional intermediaries requires different product incentives.
Backend: Go · PostgreSQL · REST API
Frontend: React · TypeScript
Infrastructure: Docker · CI/CD pipeline · Self-hosted
Auth: JWT + multi-tenant isolation · RBAC
- Herd Management: Real-time inventory tracking, genealogy records, health history
- Operational Dashboards: Feed costs, weight gain curves, reproduction cycles
- Market Integration: Live cattle pricing feeds, sale history
- User Management: Multi-role access (producer, veterinarian, accountant), audit logs
- Multi-tenancy at schema level (not row-level) reduced operational complexity but locked in scaling decisions early.
- REST over GraphQL — simpler auth, fewer footguns with B2B clients on poor connectivity.
- Commodity pricing feeds required caching layer; live data was too expensive.
- Import complexity: Hardware-coupled models (inventory readers) added friction without compensating revenue.
- Direct outreach: In-person demos at co-ops, expo participation generated real interest.
- One qualified lead: Found a buyer willing to pilot + pay. Revealed actual use cases.
- Niche clarity: Positioning narrowed from "all farmers" to "cattle operations >200 head" = defensible TAM.
- Online-first sales: Cold outreach, ads, SEO generated signups but zero conversions.
- Hardware bundling: Imported cattle readers to bundle with software. Lead fell through; hardware became stranded inventory.
- Bootstrapped runway: 1 year of savings ÷ $0 MRR = forced pause before product/market fit.
After 12 months: 15 free users, 1 serious lead (lost to hardware import delays), $0 MRR, runway exhausted.
Not a failure of engineering or concept — a lesson in distribution and capital structure. A second iteration would require either:
- Upstream funding to sustain longer sales cycles, or
- Distribution partnerships before building product.
- B2B SaaS requires capital: Customers don't convert on free trials. Sales cycles in agro-tech are 3–6 months.
- Distribution ≠ Product: A 10/10 product with wrong channel = dead. A 7/10 product through co-ops/VCs = alive.
- Simplify the unit: Hardware coupling added margin risk; software-only is cleaner.
- Market selection matters more than execution. Picked a hard market (regulated, price-sensitive, offline-first) before proving demand.
Source code is private; architecture notes available on request.
The platform ran in production for 12 months, handling concurrent users across 3 provinces without major outages. Demonstrates full-stack execution: infrastructure, auth, API design, UX, deployment.
Platform is paused, not dead. Code is maintained. Open to:
- Consulting on livestock tech architecture
- Reviving with co-op partnerships as distribution channel
- Technical deep-dives on multi-tenant design, pricing, or agro-tech markets
Questions about the build, architecture decisions, or agro-tech markets? [Your contact/portfolio link]
Built: 2025–2026 · Go · PostgreSQL · React · Docker · Taught me more than most jobs ever will.