Founder Friday with Bethany Deshpande of SomaDetect
SomaDetect is a precision dairy technology startup on a mission to help farmers make the best possible milk. Established by Dr. Bethany Deshpande, SomaDetect uses a cutting-edge in-line sensor and software system to detect health and reproductive indicators in dairy cows to offer dairy producers a reliable source of milk-based data directly from their milking line.
We caught up with Bethany to hear what’s new for SomaDetect, what’s coming up next, insights into what’s happening in the industry, and advice she would give to her past self and up-and-coming women founders.
What’s New
Bethany and the team are proud to report they are having wonderful success on-farm. They recently completed a major case study on a farm comparing SomaDetect to two competing technologies and are showing the strength of their AI and machine learning approach like never before.
And that’s not going unnoticed. Wrapping up 2023, SomaDetect took home some hardware for their hard work, which included securing a win as one of the distinguished 2023 Grow-NY $500,000 Winners and being named the winner of Export Development Canada’s (EDC) 2023 Cleantech Pitch Competition.
What’s Next
To continue empowering farmers and every support person who works in and around a farm and, ultimately, helping the global dairy industry, Bethany is looking forward to exploring some incredible strategic partnerships that are coming together.
SomaDetect will also be looking for more and more farms throughout 2024, so keep an eye on their website and social media to see what the team has coming up in their pipeline.
What’s Going On in the Industry
The dairy industry is trying to become more sustainable much more quickly, and thus leading to things like really efficient production and capturing key metrics on dairy farms in new ways. Farmers are measuring more than they have ever before to really understand efficiency, sustainability, and the health of their animals.
All of this makes for a really exciting time for SomaDetect to be involved because it speaks so much to their patented technology. SomaDetect helps eliminate 50% of antibiotic usage, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and improves milk quality and the health of individual animals.
Dairy is a multi-thousand year old industry just now starting to see more digitization, monitoring, sensors—all of these technological updates to reach new heights.
For example, robotic milking has become more common with sensors and collars for activity monitoring. We can know where cows are going and how much they're moving, as well as get an estimation of the rumination (how much is this cow chewing, eating, etc.).
Today—even in the last five years—we have an array of innovations on farms: sensors looking at the milk, cameras looking at the behavior of animals, and more. Farms are introducing more technologies to stay ahead and current.
Considering we've been consuming milk for thousands of years, there are only so many ways to milk a cow. So farmers need to be investing in technologies to help improve their production, whether that be production quality, maximizing quantity of milk produced, or ensuring the health of the individual animals.
Advice to Your Past Self & Other Women Founders
“Sit in the joy of what you’ve made,” Bethany says. “Celebrate your wins for yourself and your team because it’s a really important part of the road.”
It’s easy to get caught up in planning, moving ahead, and chasing the next thing on a founder’s neverending to-do list, but don’t forget to pause and appreciate how far you’ve come. To come as far as you have—regardless of what stage you’re at—takes tons of work that often goes unacknowledged and underappreciated.
Keep going, but be grateful for everything and everyone who has helped you reach this point—including yourself. Being a founder requires confidence in your decision-making and what you know, so be proud of your accomplishments.
You brought your vision to life and are doing what’s needed to drive its success. From pulling together a solid team, building an innovative product, forging relationships, surrounding yourself with trusted advisors, securing funding—being a founder isn’t a simple job.
So through it all, remember to soak it all in and enjoy celebrating milestones along the way.
The51 is proud to partner with the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) in telling founder stories to accelerate the representation of women within Canada’s innovation economy.