Convertible Note

Argus Farm Stop is a year-round, seven days a week farmers market and café. Co-owners and spouses Kathy Sample and Bill Brinkerhoff started Argus Farm Stop to help small, local farms succeed. In 2014, they launched as a one-stop shop where farms can sell locally grown goods to consumers year-round. In its model, farmers own the produce, set the price, and keep 70 percent of every sale. Since it began, Argus has paid $10 million to a network of 200 local farmers. Argus currently has two locations in Ann Arbor, as well an online ordering platform. Argus has offered Fair Food Network’s Double Up Food Bucks program since 2017, doubling shoppers’ SNAP dollars spent on produce. It also provides produce boxes to low-income households in the area using grants and programs . While its core business is connecting local farmers to local consumers, its owners and staff are passionate advocates who regularly consult other businesses interested in replicating its innovative “Argus Model.”

With our investment, Argus consolidated its retail grocery, produce box, and online order operations at a new location. Structuring the investment as a convertible note enabled Argus to secure the new location and optimize other locations before principal payback began.