Today we are here with Fred from Cowing, the startup that is disrupting many industries all at once.
I’ve been with Fred a couple of days and what I have seen is incredible.
Fred, how did you come up with the idea to build a startup based around cows?
Fred: Well, as you know, there are millions of cows in the US alone. With so many cows and a huge intrinsic value, we thought, what if we used cows instead of gold, or money, basically use cows as currency, you know. Nobody has thought of this before, say, in the last 10 years, and the current system is literally ripe for overhaul.
Way back in 2010, when I was still in college, you know, I had never seen a cow before, I mean a real one up close. All of that changed one time when we went on a field trip, literally, fields everywhere, crazy, and then we saw a whole bunch of cows, it was the most crazy thing. So cows have been on my mind a whole lot since then. Also since I love hamburgers. Cows are awesome, you know.
Did you ever think, as basically a city boy, the way I understand, how do I enter the world of cows?
Fred: Well it’s quite easy really, you know, if you know the right people. I have many good friends. I have a friend and he is from Kansas originally. There are many cows there. So we talked a lot about what a cow is, you know, and what you can do with them.
Even as far away as India they have cows and they are not dangerous at all. They are way ahead because there they walk around in the city.
How do you see this, you said before today, you will transform the economy based on cows. How does it work?
Fred: So, we have so many cows, even if you can’t see them. They are far away in the rural areas where space is so cheap and so big. Then I thought, all these vacant shopping malls and parking lots in our cities, perfect! We can have the cows right up close, you know, so we can see them. Seeing is believing really. I really believe that.
Then you have small cows, and until they are turned into hamburgers you have all this time that they are basically useless and a cost burden. I thought, if you pump money into these cows, why not, like a piggy bank. I had a piggy bank when I was little and I used to put my coins there and every time I put a coin in, my dad would double it. I thought, genius! So let’s say you want to invest in a cow and you put in $100, then the cow keeper puts in $100. I mean, he was going to do that anyway. But now, think of it, now there is $200 in the cow, twice as much! So with twice as much money in it, the cow keeper can take much better care of the cow and the profit per cow will go way up! Also efficiency. Everything goes up!
So Cowing is like a bank, the cow keeper?
Fred: Yeah, like we see cows as even much more than hamburgers. They are like a currency in and of themselves. Then we thought, besides only storage of value, you can use cows in transactions, you know, actual cows. So you want to buy something, you could basically pay in cows, or in part of a cow. It’s genius. I mean, you’re already paying for your hamburger, but then you eat it and it’s gone. It’s a total loss. But when you transfer a share of your cow, the cow is still there. You have a share in a cow. We call it Stake. You know, like it sounds like steak, get it? A piece of a cow.
So Cowing will basically operate all the cow lots. Isn’t there a great cost, employees?
Fred: We like to call them cowboys, and a cow girl, so far, and no, you know, they are mostly stationary, the cowboys don’t have to drive them like in the old days. Cowing cows are basically self-driving cows. Get it? Self-driving. We’re way ahead. But more than that, we will own the lots, but we also franchise, so we’re not only in the cow business but also in real estate. Just like McDonald’s. We’re giving these malls and parking lots a new life and increase their value overnight.
How are you going to feed the cows when they are pasturing, so to say, in parking lots?
Fred: Yeah, that’s a whole ‘nother thing that we have already thought of. So basically we are planning to go into the chicken business too. You know. We have waaay too many chickens. So one way is to do the same thing with chickens as we do with cows. The chickens can be in the buildings, you know, in the malls and when it’s time we simply make them into bite size pieces that cows love. Chicken nuggets! It’s a solved problem. And did you know that cows eat twice?
Do you think chickens are healthy for cows? I mean, aren’t cows supposed to eat grass?
Fred: Yeah well chickens are versatile. I have another good friend and he is from Maine and there they have fish. You know, they fish farm. And you know what they feed these fish? Chicken! So I don’t see it as a problem.
What about global warming?
Fred: What about it?
Cows’ excrement emits methane, for example.
Fred: Well, actually, cows are zero carbon. Basically, we turn chickens into carbon, and they were already made out of carbon in the first place, you know. Chickens are made out of carbon. And dioxide. Carbon dioxide. And water. Like trees. It’s just basic science. We have a guy working on it. All you need is chicken feed. Yeah we’re also getting into that. We will cover the whole supply chain, you know, the possibilities are endless.
Well Fred, that’s certainly ambitious, and I’m impressed. How do I get into investing into cows?
Fred: Alright, it’s quite easy. We have CowCoins you can buy. That’s another thing, it’s gonna be huge. It’s blockchain. Blockchain is huge. And we’re working on an app, Cowkemon. You know since we can’t have real cows in the streets, we’re going to have virtual cows and you can purchase in-app and do all sorts of stuff with the cows. Even kids will love it. So we bootstrap with CowCoins and Cowkemon to buy chicken feed and from there it’s basically getting the word around more and more, via our cowmunities.
Thank you Fred. You are full of great ideas. Do you have any guess what will be next?
Fred: Camels! Camels are good packers. We’ll probably compete with robots. And what you saw in California, you know, the drought, and other places, there is just bad with water. And camels don’t use electricity.
Didn’t we use horses for that 100 years ago?
Fred: Exactly, been there, done that! We’re all about innovation really, and disruption.