The road from idea to implementation to profitability is often a twisting, rocky path. Sam Evans discovered this the only way one really can—by doing. And although he ultimately ceded control of his business, Farm of the Day, to a larger company, Evans says his entrepreneurial journey and ultimate resolution happened in a good, soul-satisfying way.
Sam Evans
While on a cross-country drive in 2015, Evans had an idea for a small refrigerated box that would keep food fresh from farmer to consumer. “So instead of buying already harvested food at the grocery store, you would get shipped the whole carrot alive, and this box would keep it alive,” he said.
Evans has been interested in healthy living—particularly rock climbing and eating fresh, whole foods—for years. He called a childhood friend and together they tweaked the concept from a product into a service called Farm of the Day, which would act as an intermediary in delivering products between farmers and consumers. Farm of the Day was an online farmers market, of sorts, for customers who wanted to receive same-day harvested foods.
Every day that first summer, the two partners headed out in pickup trucks pulling refrigerated trailers they’d built themselves to gather produce from their farm clients and deliver it, CSA-style, to individual customers and restaurants.
“It was a good idea, but it never really caught on,” Evans said. “We weren’t good at marketing or advertising. [My partner and I] had similar strengths and weaknesses.”
By the fall of 2015, their agricultural supply was greater than customer demand. The farmers appreciated the drivers, though, so Farm of the Day became a refrigerated delivery service from farmers to restaurants and grocery stores. Requests came in for runs to Louisville, and then to Cincinnati.
“I got to put some of my engineering experience to work,” Evans said. “Routing delivery vehicles is shockingly complicated.”
Evans, a native Lexingtonian, is a 2009 graduate of the University of South Carolina with a B.S. in chemical engineering. He worked in his chosen field for three companies in as many states as a nuclear hazards analyst, a process engineer and as a systems engineer.
His aunt had given him a subscription to “Popular Science” magazine every year for Christmas since he was small, and “I loved it,” Evans said. “I’ve been wrapped up in science since I was a little kid.”
As an employee in corporate America, however, Evans found that he grew restless when projects didn’t progress fast enough for his liking. He preferred contract work, which he did for Bechtel Corporation, the country’s largest construction and civil engineering firm, at its offices in Washington state.
“I could usually figure it out on my own if I gave it everything I had,” Evans said of the engineering and logistics problems he’s tackled.
After starting Farm of the Day, Evans grew to appreciate the work ethic of people in agriculture.
“They’re doing this stereotypically hard job of growing food and they’re also running a business,” he said. “They have to file paperwork and run payroll and a thousand little things you have to do to run a business.”
In early 2017 Evans became a solo entrepreneur when his partner bowed out, and by late fall the early mornings and late nights had taken a toll. He entered into an agreement with Cincinnati-based PTG Logistics to take over delivery operations. Evans stayed on as a consultant for Farm of the Day, planning routes and maintaining client relations and quality control.
“It has freed me up to move on and work on other stuff, and to work on it less than 24 hours a day,” he said.
Evans set up his new business as Solanum Services (solanum is Latin for nightshade and a genus of tomatoes, potatoes and other agricultural plants) and is seeking other clients for engineering and logistics consulting work. He’s also inspired by Central Kentucky’s food producers, many of whom he’s met personally.
“Everyone is so passionate about what they do,” he said. “I also realize that getting food to the grocery store is harder than you can possibly imagine, and [farmers] do everything they can to make it work. It is by sheer force of will that we have fresh tomatoes.”