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Axel Jemt - BigBugBusiness

Axel Jemt - BigBugBusiness

 

Describe yourself and your project. How did you get the idea? 

My name is Axel Jemt and I'm a 23 year old student who always strives for improvement and efficiency.  My project is to start an insect farm with the plan to in the future sell the insects for human consumption. The idea came to me as I was exploring ways to reduce my consumption of meat and met problems with finding protein sources.

 

Who are you? Previous education/jobs/ experiences etc. 

I'm a 5th year masters student at LTH studying Industrial Engineering and Management with a specialization in Finance and Risk analysis.  I have previously been involved in smaller projects and tried to start businesses as well as engagements in voluntary work in Spex.

 

What will you do during these three months? How will you spend the time? 

The focus during these three months will be to setup a insect farm and a web shop associated with it. It's expected that a lot of time at the beginning of the project will be spent with finding facilities and sourcing equipment. When the production is setup the time will instead be spent at the farm caring for the insects and trying to optimize the production.

 

What do you expect to achieve during Leapfrogs? 

My goals during the these three months is to setup a farm and with it complete a product. The product will then be sold through a web shop and hopefully in a store.


Axel Jemt - BigBugBusiness #2

 

Tell us what you have done on your project so far during the Leapfrogs time. 

So far  the work within the project has been focused on setting up a effective farm and farming system. It has required a lot of searching for information and different methods of farming and choice of feeds. A lot of time has gone into finding all the components and suitable equipment for the farm. Another time consuming activity has been to read up on rules and regulation for food handling in general and trying to estimate the coming rules concerning insects.

 

Has everything gone according to the plan? Has anything unexpected occurred? Has something been easier/harder than expected? 

It has proven hard to find a facility in which to run the farm. This is however not a big problem as most of the work has been done in small scale. Another problem has been to find the specific type of cricket that I initially wanted. This was easily resolved together with the facility problem by acquiring silent crickets which are more suitable to have at home since they are not as noisy.

 

What will you focus on during the remaining time? Will you follow your original plan or has anything changed along the way?

Things are going as planned but the time the different steps take has been exaggerated. Ordering equipment and playing with different setups has taken a lot of time mostly due to delivery times. At the same time the webshop setup, which was intended to run while the slow paced physical setup came into place, was done quickly and effortlessly.  The plan is still to try to move into a bigger facility as soon as possible to increase the ability to try different setups and measure their effectiveness.


Axel Jemt - BigBugBusiness #3

 

How did you experience the three months?

Getting to independently work with something I like for these three months has truly been amazing. I've learnt a lot both about my project but also about myself. I've had a lot of moments of frustration when things don't go as planned and times when I try something new and just have to wait to see if it's a success. On the whole these less glamorous sides of these three months fade away and I will look back on them with a smile.

 

What has been hardest/most enjoyable?

One of the hardest things has been to keep the focus when there is so much fun to distract you during the summer. Another hardship has been to always question yourself, doubt your decisions and not really being able to evaluate if you made the right choice. The most enjoyable is when you find baby larvae/crickets in a container after worrying there won't be any babies.

 

Did it go as expected? Will you continue working on your project in the future?

It has both gone as expected and still nothing has gone according to plan. When I started I had an idea of how it would be but that quickly changed, over and over. I hope I get the chance to continue work in this field. I do however think I'm suitable in another role. I hope, in the future, that I can use more of the skills I've acquired during my education to bring insects to people's mouths.

 

What would you say is the most important lesson learnt while working on your project?

Plans change. In order to move forward you can't be rigid and demand that things fall out the way you plan. Instead you have to always look for opportunities. When something goes wrong you need to learn from it and adapt and sometimes when you doubt yourself you just need to sit tight and wait. But maybe most importantly I've learnt that many times good connections are required and more important than anything else.

 

Do you have any tips to other ”new” entrepreneurs?

I believe it's hard to create something good if your only goal is money. Being an entrepreneur is not a regular job and will be a bigger part of your life. Therefore it's important that you believe and find interest in your idea as you are the only and number one spokesperson for your product. Relax and be yourself, do what YOU want and strive to always be better. Find others with your interest and build together.