A Medical Record for Each Vine w/ Shawn DeMartino, Sentinel

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 managementSentinel 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 fieldConfigurable data collection formsAvailable in 5 countries currentlyMapping the vineyardCreate a 3D model with lat/long and elevationBasics (variety, clone), images, comments, discrete statuses (e.g., life stage, virus status)The vineyard mgmt team populates data, can walk up the vines and recordWork with/ Sentinel to put in bulk metadata (e.g., block info, varietal)A client mapped 100 acres in 1 weekWork order functionE.g., irrigation can be recordedRoguing, planting, and grafted statuses can auto-update when the work order is completedCore benefitsExtend the life of the vineyardsVirus/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)PricingMostly software, hardware costs smallAnnual subscription based on acres, not users (<1% of farming cost)Biggest growers ~$2k/yearROI example: client roguing 1% of vines/year w/ growing virus problem, Sentinel enabled them to get ahead of the problem in 1 yearMarketing mostly organic searchArticles and podcasts helpedLast 18 mo, mostly word of mouthReferral program: The referrer gets a bottle of KrugBarriers to adoptionWorries about time requirements; the goal is to collect data when already in the fieldWorries about less flexibility to manage vineyard; full customization of data enables more flexibilityNext on the product roadmap - continue to flesh out more work order functionalityOther tech Shawn is interested inWinery management platforms (e.g., Innovint)Soil moisture probes for irrigation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.