A farmers’ market often appears simple on the surface, with tents, carts filled with fresh produce, and neighbors engaged in conversation. Yet Mike Rhee believes that underneath that wholesome atmosphere sits a fragmented ecosystem with missing information, limited digital access, and vendors who work tirelessly without the tools to extend their reach. Rhee created Farmers Market SoCal in response to that disconnect. The platform addresses this complexity by offering a seasoned digital marketplace that offers real-time market details, emboldened by the empathy of someone who has also stood behind a booth selling apples in the sun.
With 11 years in an automotive technology startup, Rhee invested time in building the company from the ground up. The startup, he highlights, shaped his professional identity and sharpened his understanding of how multi-sided platforms can succeed. Leaving after more than a decade created a void, one that he was determined to fill. “The reason I stayed with that company for so long was because of my passion. I needed to find the same level of interest and passion within another company,” Rhee states.
While he didn’t succeed in finding a company that reignited the same level of passion, what he found instead was the incentive to start his own venture, which arrived from an unexpected place. Rhee recalls, “My parents were managing a booth at a farmers’ market representing an apple farm. They wanted to go on vacation, so my wife and I took over.”
Standing outside instead of behind a screen, interacting with people face to face rather than through email threads, changed his perspective. “It was a complete 180-degree difference,” Rhee notes. “I’m outside, talking to real people, selling something they genuinely love, and everyone is in a good mood. It was low stress, low anxiety, and I loved it more than I expected.”
Even as he enjoyed a starkly different line of work, Rhee knew he couldn’t abandon his roots, and soon he realized that he didn’t have to. While doing research to expand the target market for the family’s apple products, he saw structural inefficiencies in how farmers’ markets operate and how difficult it is for both buyers and sellers to access reliable information. “Even I, as a participant, found it hard to answer basic questions like: Where is the market? What hours does it run? Which vendors will be there? Are products organic?” Rhee states. “The information did exist, but it was scattered across websites, review platforms, articles, and outdated pages.”
In the absence of that unified platform, Farmers Market SoCal emerged. The Southern California-based platform consolidates solutions into a single searchable platform. Buyers can discover markets by city or keyword and get access to comprehensive details that can guide them to where they want to go. It encompasses vendor lists, product types, and other operational details. “We’re eliminating the friction from the discovery process and making farmers’ markets easier to access for everyday shoppers,” Rhee notes.
Farmers Market SoCal wasn’t just a response to the pain points of the buyers, but also of the sellers. According to him, many vendors are small farmers and family-run businesses with little time or technical expertise to build an online presence. “These are people who work very hard and wake up early to get their produce to the market. They are focused on their farming business and may not have the resources to get visibility online,” he explains.
The platform allows these vendors to list products online, share what is in season, and sell beyond the physical limits of an early morning booth. “A shopper a hundred or a thousand miles away can learn about what they do and buy directly from them,” Rhee adds. This capability extends the farmers’ market model into a national digital marketplace without removing its local character. In this way, the platform supports local commerce while expanding its reach beyond geography.
An important dimension of Farmers Market SoCal lies in its appeal to business buyers. According to Rhee, restaurants, hotels, caterers, and event organizers increasingly prefer locally sourced ingredients but may struggle to identify and connect with farmers who can meet their needs. Inventory visibility and purchasing logistics can create barriers that may push businesses back toward large distributors. To address this, Rhee is building the platform with B2B buyers in mind to facilitate the vendor discovery process and view available products that can be purchased directly.
Additionally, Rhee finds it important to build credibility with regulatory bodies that oversee market operations to promote growth. In his view, their support can simplify access to vendors and markets, helping the platform scale responsibly within existing frameworks.
Farmers Market SoCal seeks to replicate its model in other states and metropolitan areas. Rhee views regions with year-round markets as immediate opportunities, while seasonal markets offer long-term potential. The foundational model continues to lie in unifying fragmented information and creating a reliable bridge between producers and buyers.
“These farmers have real families, real farms, real small businesses that aren’t just about the bottom line,” Rhee says. “They deserve to have the same access to technology and visibility as anyone else, and that’s what I seek to offer, leaving no opportunities unturned.”
