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Meet Our Founders: Catherine McVey

Catherine McVey

OsRostrum – SEED Spring 2024

Published December 11, 2024

As part of our ‘Meet Our Founders’ series today, we introduce Catherine McVey, Founder and CEO of OsRostrum based in Graham, NC. OsRostrum‘s Phenomic Inference platforms combines 3D scanning, computer vision, and machine learning to help farmers identify reliable physical indicators of robustness to breed for healthier and longer-living cattle.

Q: What does the road ahead look like for your company?

A: Chaos…. just kidding. Our beta app is launching this October. We’re excited to get it into the hands of farmers and get their feedback. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be ready for our full launch at Cattle Con early next year! We’ve also got a number of academic collaborations starting up next year for further validation work that we hope will open the door to some really big partnerships next year to help revolutionize how we breed and manage for good-footed and sounder cattle.

Q: What is one thing you wish you understood about entrepreneurship before you ever got started?

A: How important humility is for a founder. When I first jumped onto the entrepreneurial path, I worried more about my ego getting away from me. The reality of an early stage startup is that you are wrong all the time, constantly pivoting. Personal resilience, a strong support network, and learning to fail forward have been the cornerstones for any early stage company.

Q: Who do you look to for advice and mentorship?

A: Bluntness. Don’t get me wrong, a good pep talk every once in a while also helps. But there’s so many thoughts bouncing around my head as a solo founder at any given time, there’s not much time for sugar coating. Having mentors around that will just tell me when they think I’m pointed in the wrong direction, and lay out clearly and concisely where their logic conflicts with my own, is so valuable to quick course corrections that save time and money that are so valuable in early stages. For first-time founders, your own network is almost always the first limiting factor in any task, so having mentors with amazing networks is the best way I’ve found to fill that gap.

Q: What other passions do you have besides your business?

A: When we moved back to NC, we moved into my great-grandad’s farmhouse – the sixth generation to live on this land. We are slowly but surely renovating the house and pastures, which is always a good break from all the heady tech issues. In addition to my horse and his donkey companion, we also raise heritage breed layer ducks, buff geese, and guineafowl.

 

While visiting Graham, Catherine recommends:

  • Graham Coffee Depot has the best caffeine and baked goods fix in town. Graham Soda shop for lunch. For dinner though, its worth driving out to the Saxapahaw General Store – best farm-to-table food in the state if you ask me. While you’re there you can pick up some Ranlew milk and ice cream, or some Reverance farm meats (two of our pilot farms). Or grab some of our own Shangri-Haw Farm pasture-raised duck eggs. Oh, and Haw River Farmhouse Ales downstairs has some amazing stouts if you want to hang out and watch the sun set on the river.

 

Support OsRostrum and Catherine by:

  • We’re still looking for pilot testers for our HoofPhIT app, if you have any family or friends that have cows and passionate about cow feet. Also, if there’s anyone out there passionate about design/marketing that also knows cows, please reach out!