Updated 11/5/2013.

I’ve had the fortunate opportunity over the past 9 months to interact with people from all parts of the aquaponics world. While I can’t claim any special insight into any of this (I’m pretty dense actually), I’d like to share what I’ve learned during that time.Hopefully it will be useful to anyone thinking of trying to start a business in the aquaponics space.

Here’s my take on the current state of the aquaponics products and supply market in the US.

In its modern incarnation, AP has been around for 50 years, developed in stages in the US and Australia. It’s got a few dominant players and suppliers who make a small but reasonable income.

It’s also got dozens – perhaps hundreds – of people (like me) who’ve thrown up a website and attempted to sell a few things or teach classes. Those who get too far ahead of their knowledge level and attempt to sell what they don’t understand are called very bad name among those who’ve been around awhile. It’s also got dozens – perhaps hundreds – of people (like me) who’ve thrown up a website and attempted to sell a few things or teach classes. Those who get too far ahead of their knowledge level and attempt to sell what they don’t understand are called Aqua-Schysters and have abad name among those who’ve been around awhile.

Starting a new business in aquaponics is very difficult unless you have a lot of connections and a lot of seed money. The reason is that the sales cycle is really long and it’s not clear what products folks are actually willing to pay money for. My impression is that people have to slowly learn to trust the technology as they hear about it from multiple places, meet others who’ve built one themselves, and consider whether it fits their lifestyle. Bootstrapping an aquaponics business feels like trying to boostrap Ferrari.

It’s the classic challenge of trying to get ahead of the market and establish a niche. In my case, that niche is the cold climate backyard market which is so fledgling it needs to be brewed before it can be tapped. Another challenge is that aquaponics can be super complex and require a solid understanding of both aquaculture and horticulture. Pretending to have this knowledge (as mentioned above) is done at your own peril.

The AP market is divided up into four tiers, between which the lines of demarcation are not clean or agreed-upon: