The Oyster Common's Business Services for Shellfish Growers

Business services for shellfish growers.

The demand for animal-based food is expected to rise by 80 percent between 2006 and 2050. The current methods of production are not sustainable. Beef production, for example, requires 20 times more land and emits 20 times more greenhouse gas emissions per unit of edible protein than common plant-based protein sources such as beans, peas and lentils. New sources of protein are being developed and underused sources are being explored, but none are more sustainable than shellfish. Unlike beef and poultry production, shellfish aquaculture — such as oysters — absorb excess nutrients that are harmful to ecosystems. Oysters are keystone species that help build and maintain ecosystems by filtering water, improve coastal resilience through buffering the coast, are delicious as well as nutritious, and ship remarkably well. Despite rampant growth in production and sales, oyster farms still employ a fragmented and manual process to get their product to market; hindering them in expanding into new markets and, at times, leading to traceability issues. Typically, shellfish growers rely on a traditional wholesale reseller model to distribute their product, which can leave significant revenue on the table — close to 3x when compared to a direct to consumer (or restaurant) model. Additionally, the seafood market is rife with traceability issues placing more stress on - typically - small businesses to not only raise quality products, but also manually track detailed metadata that ensure products are delivered safely; including harvest information like when, where, by whom, and how long a product has been kept out of the water without refrigeration.  

The Oyster Common is an early stage startup that was founded to catalyze the expansion of sustainable protein by enabling shellfish growers to manage and scale their distribution operations while adhering to traceability best-practices. We're providing integrated software-based services that fall under three categories (1) Back Office Tools, (2) Delivery Logistics, and (3) Online Sales. These services allow our growers to manage their inventory, process sales, maintain product traceability, fulfill "farm to table" orders, as well as access and analyze sales data.

We believe aquaculture producers can provide delicious and healthy protein while also acting as essential stewards of our coastal environments. Supporting these often rural small businesses creates good jobs and helps to maintain cultural legacies of a working waterfront. Shellfish are rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals and require little more than clean ocean water to raise. By enabling farm to table consumption, we shorten the supply chain, which results in a better tasting and safer product. Enabling the oyster industry to continue - or even surpass - its current rate of growth in the USA (~5% annually compared to USA's GDP growth of ~2% since 2000) will ensure our coastal environments remain healthy while The Oyster Common's solutions will enable sustainable protein products to get from tide to table quickly, safely, and profitably.

Our lean team employs a user-centric approach to designing our proprietary software. We've spent countless hours interviewing shellfish growers and observing them while they test our product. The Oyster Common is an affordable solution that offers an integrated approach to business services. Our vision and approach is novel to the shellfish industry in North America. 

Our team has developed a software-as-a-service (SAAS) that provides a suite of integrated tools that fall under three categories (1) Back Office, (2) Delivery Logistics, and (3) Online Sales. Our web app enables shellfish growers to save time and money - and scale their business - by automating tedious tasks and accessing new customers. 

We recently launch our product and it is now being used by about five shellfish growers in the Northeastern United States. We hope to (1) expand to serving growers throughout North America, (2) begin making connections between our growers and restaurants that prefer to order straight from the source, and (3) continue to improve our software product. In the next 12 months, we hope to be working with 20 growers and 100 restaurants while adding new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) features to our product. 

Over the next five years, consumers will be confident in shellfish products because they know individual product's story from seed to consumption

The Oyster Common can have several positive multiplier effects. The first is enabling shellfish growers to scale their business and create more jobs. We also plan to support the many shellfish recycling programs that work to restore natural oyster reefs, which clean water, improve ecosystem services, and increase coastal resilience. Finally, we believe more people need to eat sea-based protein in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other negative externalities that result from traditional land-based agricultural methods.

We've built a considerable network of growers during the two years of research and development through personal connections and social media. We are employing the same methods in building our network of restaurant and other buying partners. 

We have brought four growers online with our services and plan to onboard an additional two by September. We are in the beginning phases of building our restaurant network and have a first restaurant making weekly purchases. We ran an oyster-of-the-month club in early 2018 as a proof of concept, which served about two dozen consumers over 4 months. 

We hope to be serving at least 20 farms and 100 restaurants in the next 12 months. In three years, we hope to serving hundreds of shellfish growers and thousands of restaurants, which would result in The Oyster Common ultimately serving millions of consumers. 

The Oyster Common team is composed of four individuals with complementary skills and a focus on developing services that result in our clients' success. We have expertise in community building, project management, product management, software engineering, and design. 

We charge a small subscription fee to our growers and take a small commission on each order shipped using our integrated logistical solutions. We expect this arrangement to be scalable as we recruit more growers and buyers. 

We think Solve can help connect us to experts in food and logistics. We are a small, nimble team that could also use advice on how to scale our operation effectively. 

We are changing the supply chain for shellfish and need to attract early adopters to develop success stories that will help is bring more business to our growers. We think Solve's network can help us grow our client list and refine our road map to ensure consumers get sustainable, traceable, and delicious seafood products.