OinC: A Quick Needle-Swapping Device
Product Strategy & Go-To-Market
Role: Product Lead | Context: Startup Accelerator
Users: Large-scale hog producers & veterinarians
Overview
After identifying key pain points faced by farmers who regularly vaccinate pigs, our team developed a hardware MVP that enables instant needle swapping. I validated the product's commercialization potential by securing pilot approvals with 2 of the top 10 hog producers in North America, defining the go-to-market strategy and business model used in investor pitches, and supporting the IP strategy through a provisional patent application.
Problem Statement
Vaccination is one of the most labor-intensive tasks on large hog farms, accounting for roughly 70% of a farmer's workload. Manual needle switching increases injury risk, disease transmission, and non-compliance with safety standards - challenges that scale rapidly at farms with over 100,000 pigs.
The Solution
We designed a needle-swapping pouch that reduced the vaccination workflow to 3 simple steps, enabling faster vaccinations, safer handling, and healthier compliance. Early pilots showed a 20% reduction in annual labor costs (≈ $6,000 per farm) while reducing needle-related injuries.
(Prototype visuals omitted due to patent filing.)
Go-To-Market
We focused on pilot-led adoption with large producers, using veterinarians and farm operators as entry points. Positioning emphasized safety and compliance, not just speed, which helped secure early pilots and informed investor conversations. The initial revenue model centered on B2B hardware sales with bulk purchasing by farm operators.
My Role
I led customer discovery through 50+ interviews, translated insights into MVP requirements, coordinated engineering execution through structured sprints, and synthesized market sizing, competitive analysis, and GTM strategy for investor pitches.
Why this project: This year-long startup founding experience reflects how I approach early-stage products:
- grounding strategy in real workflows
- validating risk through pilots
- aligning engineering, business, and user needs toward commercialization.