Tech startup develops app with diverse content, audience in mind

A startup company is nearing the public launch of an app with a goal to help users with everything from affordable housing to career growth.

While Harvest Solutions first began hiring employees last August, CEO Douglas Feller said the idea for his business, which he describes as “50% tech company and 50% content creators,” began roughly four years ago and has since grown to a team of nearly 40.

“We’re an online community and we are focused on helping people grow personally, professionally, and we do that by offering free tools to help them with housing, with employment, with mental health support, all by making their learning fun and rewarding,” he said.

Harvest officials admit the venture’s concept is difficult for some people to comprehend. Feller said the company’s platform has online curriculum that offers free tools for areas such as career advancement, housing solutions, health, financial literacy and interpersonal skill development.

After registering on its website, HarvestSolutions.com, or through its app, available for iPhone and Android devices, users have free access to dozens of videos on topics such as confidence, leadership management, goal setting and relationships. Officials say roughly 20 people comprise the current lineup of content creators, but that number will rise as more videos are filmed and edited. Around 50 videos are currently on the site, as of Feb. 11. The video content the company is producing is like a Masterclass-style presentation that features a speaker and a couple different camera angles, officials say.

The website also includes listings for area jobs and housing, as the company offers a platform that seeks to place real estate and employment opportunities in one location. While companies such as online marketplace Apartments.com and Indeed provide housing and job listings, respectively, Feller said he wants Harvest to be a multifunctional resource.

“I don’t know of any organization that does what we do,” he said. “There’s not one online platform that I know of that has all of these resources in one place.”

Aside from stating his investment is in seven figures, Feller declined to disclose startup costs and financing, which he said is all privately funded.

“It is what’s needed to build the platform. I know what the business model is behind this and know the investment has to come up front,” Feller said.

The company is amid talks with undisclosed companies regarding partnerships for areas such as housing and employment listings, noting that will primarily be from where the company’s revenue stream will flow. He said no revenue is coming in yet but will be soon.

“We are in the middle of crafting special deals for each one of them,” he said, adding the company has added a sales team to connect with potential partners. “No deal is exactly the same.”

Feller said goals are to generate at least $10 million in revenue and expand the workforce to 100 people by year’s end.

Officials say the plan is to market the app to users by partnering with government entities such as the United States Department of Agriculture for its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and various nonprofits for community outreach programs.

Harvest Solutions fills roughly two-thirds of the 9,000 square feet on the top floor of the three-story, 27,000-square-foot office building at 1531 E. Bradford Parkway that Feller owns via Bradford-FH LLC. Most of the company’s current 27-person local workforce is stretched out in the building among two suites, one of which is a studio that contains space for recording videos and podcasts. An additional 10 employees are based in India as part of its web team of coders and developers.

Target audience
While Feller said the online community of Harvest Solutions is for everyone, some of its curriculum is aimed at those facing difficult life situations. That includes incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, college students, women leaving abusive situations, SNAP recipients and veterans transitioning to civilian life.

“We have these, what I call silos, that are specialized that we can drill in a little deeper for individuals that are going through those different parts,” he said. “What I say is we meet people wherever they are in life.”

The courses are taught through lived experience, Feller said. For example, one of the content creators is Bobby Bostic, a St. Louis native who was sentenced in 1997 to 241 years in prison for two armed robberies he committed at the age of 16. He was released on parole in 2022, according to media reports.

Feller, whose professional history includes investments in residential and commercial real estate, as well as the construction industry, also knows what it’s like to be imprisoned.

He was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison for his role in a nearly $4 million fraud scheme involving Oregon-based company Yakima Products Inc. Feller pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of income tax evasion, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

Feller served as a transportation consultant and later as director of distribution and logistics for Yakima, working out of his Springfield home as a contract employee. He created a fictitious company called Cooper Enterprises to bill Yakima for freight that was purportedly hauled by Cooper Enterprises, but freight was actually never hauled. He also submitted inflated invoices on legitimate freight charges, with additional funds going to him and co-conspirators.

In total, Feller and his co-conspirators were found to have defrauded Yakima for nearly $4 million, according to SBJ archives. During the 2004 and 2005 calendar years, Feller also attempted to evade paying income tax of nearly $600,000 by concealing his true and correct income.

“There was four people involved with me on it. I got the most time out of all of them,” he said, adding he served about 18 months before being released in 2012 to a halfway house in Springfield for several months. “None of them had the IRS stuff that I had.”

Feller said he doesn’t blame anyone but himself for his past actions. He’s also candid about his criminal history with his employees.

“I own it 100%. I have nobody to blame for anything that I’ve ever done or been through but myself completely, and I get that,” he said. “But I started Harvest because this is my give back, and this has become a passion project for me. It really is. So, we will see how many lives we can change and can help.”

Feller said he can understand and relate to people trying to rebuild their life. After his release from prison, he started an asphalt company, Superior Striping & Sealing LLC, in Lamar with the help of his father. He also got back into real estate investments over the past decade and sold Superior Striping a few years ago.

“I can relate to feeling hopeless or that you have nowhere else to turn, and that’s where all this passion for this comes for trying to give back,” he said.

Attractive vision
Natalie Nunn, who worked for over a decade in broadcast television in Springfield – most of that time as a meteorologist – said she sees Feller’s work at Harvest as a labor of love and a redemption story. She recently was hired as the company’s director of public relations and media.

“Once you hear Doug’s vision and the passion he has for it and the fact that he’s a phenomenal businessman, how could you not want to jump on board,” she said. “There’s such a need that it fulfills as well in so much of the population. Messaging that and bringing that message is kind of exciting.”

That vision also attracted Robert White, who started in August as Harvest’s vice president of production and media. White previously worked at video production company Opfer Communications Inc. for 22 years.

“I turned 50 and at some point you start wondering, ‘Is there any better way I could utilize my production experience that’s more meaningful?’ I was ready for a change and ready for a different challenge,” he said. “Of course, a startup can be scary, but when I heard the messaging, the content that we’ll be producing is actually helping people, like real people, I can actually be a part of that.”

The Harvest studio includes a 16-by-9-foot LED video wall screen that serves as the background for the courses.

“We’re producing course content relevant to the people that we’re trying to help and serve,” he said. “Each course is about an hour of content. So that’s five 10- to 12-minute videos on these courses.”

The company continues to be in hiring mode, having added staff this month, including Shannon Sherrow, formerly with KY3, and Christopher Upton, who previously worked for nonprofit Abilities First.

Feller said some content creators are being paid for their videos, while others are participating to increase their exposure. One of those is Billy Dove, the creator of 417Foodist LLC, who has posted food-related content on social media since 2019.

Dove said Harvest Solutions recently reached out through Instagram and invited him to tour the office and meet staff. The experience was positive enough that he’s already recorded a couple introductory videos talking about his background with food writing and creating content.

“The plan moving forward is we will do a mix of in-studio interviews with chefs and restaurant owners, talking about what it’s like creating menus or even just running a restaurant,” Dove said via email, adding he’s not getting paid for his content. “We will also be doing remote videos at restaurants and showing what it’s like to create a dish from kitchen to the table.”

Content from Dove will bolster the video content on Harvest’s platform, which Feller said will frequently be updated.

“Those are the two things that we’ll never stop doing. We always will be creating content,” he said. “We’ll always be updating our app and making it better, faster, smarter.”

Building out the app with the partnerships in place is getting closer, he said.

“We are not far off. It is a moving target, to be honest with you, but we are probably 60 to 90 days off,” he said.