Our Story
We’re Shannon Speight and Emma Black — the founders of Black Box Co. We had noticed a huge problem with the beef industry in Australia — a problem that looked almost too big to solve: vast amounts of useful information going to waste. There was an incredible amount of data in the beef supply chain, yet a lack of meaningful consolidation and analysis of that data. Producers were working to collect information on their livestock with no real way of effectively organising or analysing it. It was basically a waste of their time.
With over 25 years of beef industry experience — and a true passion for cattle production — we were determined to find a way to fix what was essentially a broken structure. That’s when Black Box Co was born.
Black Box Co launched in 2020, adding over 160,000 head to the database in our first two weeks — exceeding our 12 month target four times over. Huge demand and positive feedback led to rapid product refinement, working with the industry to meet their needs. By 2022 we had grown from two founders to an in-house technical and operations team. Our technical and operations teams now work remotely all across Australia.
Black Box Co is now right across the entire beef industry supply chain, employing experts in genomics and fertility to meat science and nutrition. This real-world knowledge ensures the insights Black Box generates translate into effective action at farm, feedlot and processing levels. Our team can work alongside producers because they know and understand the industry — making sure they get the most from their data. This working relationship also allows the free flow of feedback — enabling continuous improvement, so that Black Box stays practical and user-friendly.
Our incredible development team are passionate about data and about the industry. They go above and beyond to ensure that producers get what they need: simple, effective insights — without needing to clean data or apply complex algorithms.
With producer input and feedback Black Box Co has grown from a few basic indicators to a full suite of easy-to-use dashboards. Our dashboards offer a depth of analysis and flexibility not previously available to the livestock industry.
We thank everyone who has been part of our story so far and are excited for the future. Together we can make our industry better, smarter and more sustainable.
This is just the beginning.