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THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2026
Agriculture Now Friesen makes mark with FarmerTitan by AARON EPP K atie Friesen is used to playing games. The Manitoban’s prowess on the vol- leyball court led to a scholarship to Flor- house,” she said with a chuckle during a vid- eo call from the co-working space she uses in Austin. “It’s about the joy of playing the ‘game,’ right? And the ‘game’ that I’m playing right now is the game of business.” 65-year-old father using it and sent the vid- eos to her developers so they could adjust the product to suit customers who may not be tech-savvy. “I think part of our secret sauce is that we re- ally, really understand the user who’s using it,” Friesen said.
Raised on a farm in Niverville, Friesen first experimented with entrepreneurship in high school when she started a summer volleyball camp for children. “I loved the fact that it was up to me and my initiative to push the business forward,” she said. After earning a degree in accounting, Friesen worked for Miami-based venture capital firm Minerva Capital Group. That led to working on the customer relations and global finance teams at Chiper, a Colombian tech company that helps digitize convenience stores in Latin America. During her time at Minerva and Chiper, Friesen says she gained a better understanding of using entrepreneurship to solve problems. When she returned to Niverville to help with the administrative aspects of her family’s farm, she experienced the challenges the farm faced — especially when it came to keeping track of equipment maintenance. That led her to create FarmerTitan, which she incorporated in June 2025. The company’s app allows farmers to make a record of their equipment and record any repairs or maintenance that are needed. Us- ers can assign an urgency level to the task, add checklists and cost data, and assign the job to a specific employee. The goal, according to the company’s web- site, is to help agricultural operations reduce preventable repairs, decrease downtime and ensure work machines are taken care of. Users pay a one-time set-up cost and then an annual subscription fee that’s determined by how many pieces of equipment they are tracking. Friesen said while there are similar products on the market, FarmerTitan’s ease of use sets it apart. While developing the app, she recorded her
ida International University in Miami, where she competed on the Division 1 school’s beach and indoor volleyball teams. But seven years after graduation, Friesen is playing a different game. The 29-year-old, who divides her time be- tween Manitoba and Austin, Texas, is the founder of FarmerTitan. The platform allows farmers to manage their equipment and em- ployees using QR codes and a mobile app. Friesen said instead of putting a down pay- ment on a house, she used her savings to start a business instead. “It’s way more fun to have an app than a
Chris Renwick can attest to that. He’s the manager at Spud Plains Farms, which plants 20,000 acres of crop per season. The Carber- ry-based operation has 50 full-time employees year-round and at least 100 seasonal workers during peak season. Spud Plains Farms started using FarmerTi- tan at the end of January. Before that, keeping track of the operation’s 800 pieces of equip- ment was difficult, Renwick said. “We were always behind, trying to remem- ber to write down what got cleaned, what date it got done on and who did it,” he said. “Now if there’s any issues throughout the season or in the wintertime when we’re maintaining our equipment, it’s all there at our fingertips.” FarmerTitan is “a really interesting solution,” said Jacqueline Keena, chief executive officer at Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learn- ing Initiative (EMILI). The Manitoba-based non-profit recently co-founded the Agriculture Innovation, Vali- dation and Adoption Network (AIVA), which pairs ag tech developers with farmers. AIVA is using FarmerTitan on three different farms across Canada this growing season, Kee- na said. “We’re excited to see how it performs,” she said. For Friesen, the last few years have been the opening moves in a game she hopes lasts for a long time. “I think it’s the most epic feeling in the world when you’ve created something and someone buys it, because it’s an admission that you solved their problem and you’ve created value for them,” she said. - Winnipeg Free Press
SUPPLIED PHOTO Born in Manitoba and educated in Florida, Katie Friesen is the founder of FarmerTitan, an online platform that helps farmers manage their equipment and their teams.
SUPPLIED PHOTO
Katie Friesen is originally from Niverville.
Storms create soggy conditions
GRAHAM WALKER THE CARILLON Farmers in some parts of the province have been inundated with moisture as a result of thunderstorms rolling through the area. This farmer, located north of the Trans-Canada Highway along Highway 12 was pumping excess water from his fields last week.
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