A new Springfield-based company just launched that aims to be the next technological platform for life-coaching education as well as housing and employment needs.

Harvest Solutions is a one-stop shop for people looking to better their lives, founder and Chief Executive Officer Douglas Feller said. Behind the business is a complex idea and a complex business model.

It all starts with a custom-built application — free to download in every app store for all types of smartphone users — that throws the user in the middle of multiple platforms, all of which are heavily laden with video and audio content. Harvest aims to be a lifestyle community in an app.

Short videos walk the user through all aspects of life that focus on a step-by-step approach to solving problems. Content includes everything from navigating SNAP to parenting, dealing with different forms of trauma and much more. Feller refers to content “silos,” almost like channels on a specific subject. And the more videos a user watches, the more points they earn.

“The content is designed in a way that is educational but still entertaining,” Feller said. “Every day we’re shooting content. We’re uploading and adding more on there.”

The short courses are presented by thought-leaders and experts on the topic with “lived experience,” Feller said. The videos feature someone who has endured the struggles they talk through and give advice on.

Feller knows what it’s like to struggle — and bounce back.

He became a millionaire in the logistics field, then lost it all and went to prison before rebuilding his wealth — and now launching an app he hopes will help others.

Free content for all walks of life; Harvest will have a hard launch in spring 2025

Users are not charged for any content and there is no subscription fee. The free videos and podcasts — the limitless content that the company produces daily — are just one side of Harvest Solutions. The app also wants to be the go-to source for employment and housing fulfillment. Think of an Indeed-like platform for job postings in all industries across the country. And then, still part of one app and one user experience, Harvest wants to impede into Zillow-like territory by providing local housing listings.

Feller knows it’s a monumental task, but the founder is gearing up for the challenge and putting his money where his mouth is. Feller said he, personally, has put millions of dollars into Harvest, though he declined to disclose the exact figure. In the past six months, the company has gone from one full-time employee to 25 in the Springfield offices, and another 10 developers in India. The CEO expects Harvest to hit 100 employees by the end of 2025.

The app is in the middle of a “soft launch,” but is available for download in all major app stores, Feller said. In April, Harvest Solutions will have an updated version and a full launch, with a campaign to gain as many users as possible.

The company definitely stands in the red right now, as most start-ups do, Feller said, but the goal is to generate at least $10 million in revenue by the end of the year. To be free to all users means that revenue will come in job and housing listings, advertisements and brand partners, Feller said.

Feller plans to grow Harvest so rapidly that he is already eyeing a move to a bigger office space sometime in 2025. He owns the property that houses Harvest, located at 1531 E. Bradford Parkway, Ste. 300. The company will start a separate studio space, where content will be shot and produced, out by the Springfield-Branson National Airport.

Harvest meets the user where they are, and that means advertisers can, too

Harvest has seven core platforms for video and podcast content and countless videos in those categories. Users will be able to subscribe to specific categories, like SNAP Benefits, Job Etiquette, Substance and Alcohol Abuse, Financial Literacy, Re-Entry after Incarceration and more.

A quiz at the end of every video makes sure you retained some knowledge and awards points, known as “seeds” in the Harvest system. Seeds lead to awards and other incentives, like coupons for products and services from partnering companies. Harvest is a complex form of “incentivized learning,” Feller said.

The short videos do contain a brief advertisement from a brand partner, Feller said, and that allows companies to tailor ads to groups of people with specific problems.

“People are placing ads on our site because they’re trying to get the millions of viewers that we have that were incarcerated, or on SNAP” or dealing with other hardships that Harvest’s videos pertain to, Feller said.

The app is broken down into three main tabs: Learning, Jobs and Housing. Learning is where all the courses are posted. The first videos that appear in mid-February are on confidence-building, relationships and goal-setting.

Harvest founder’s past pushed him to fund “passion project”

The motivation behind Harvest stems from Feller’s own experiences of being released from prison and not being able to find resources for help at the time, the founder said.

In 2011, Feller, while living in Springfield, was sentenced to 28 months in a federal prison for his role in a nearly $4 million fraud scheme, according to an FBI press release. He pleaded guilty to four charges related to fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.

Feller had to pay $738,941 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. The executive also had to pay an undetermined amount, up to $3.9 million, to the company he defrauded in the scheme.

In Feller’s own words, he took some illegal “kickbacks” from some deals he orchestrated in the logistics industry, and subsequently did not pay taxes on the extra funds he pocketed. He was acting as a consultant for large companies to negotiate contracts for shipping and logistics.

Feller said he worked with authorities for four years after the FBI knocked on his door one day in 2006.

“I went from having millions to basically being broke and in 2011, I got sentenced and went off to prison,” Feller said.

Despite a sentence of more than two years, Feller was released after 18 months and he settled down where his wife and kids were, in Lamar, Missouri. Along with his father, he started Superior Asphalt and Paving, a business that would grow to repave parking lots in Missouri to Arkansas and all over the Midwest.

But Feller still looks back at the period of time immediately following his incarceration as one of great fear and uncertainty. The founder said that’s when he latched onto the concept of “post-support,” like programs and teachers that can walk you through the many unexpected concepts that arise after your incarceration.

“You’re almost set up for failure without the true post-support and you start to lose hope, you start to lose confidence,” Feller said. “Because what the majority of these individuals from all these different walks are really lacking — the first thing — is confidence and hope.”

After selling the asphalt company and a string of construction and commercial property gave him the funds to follow his passion, he landed on the doorstep of another company that helped people who had recently been incarcerated. But he quickly realized that he could help more people with a mainstream app, and the seed for Harvest Solutions was planted.

“Harvest is a passion project for me,” Feller said. “I wasn’t looking to get into this business but I do resonate and understand the need people have with this, with my own struggles and ups and downs.”

Job listing app where employers already know a lot about targeted employees

Why would employers choose Harvest for job postings over other job listings sites? Feller says those employers know they are getting their job listings in front of people who are already trying to better themselves. By joining Harvest and enrolling in some educational programs, people using the app are giving clear indications about themselves.

“If they’re looking for new employees, they want people that are taking initiative to better themselves,” Feller said. Employers “think it’s great people are watching these courses and videos.”

Right now, Harvest is focusing large-scale, seeking out large corporations that have employment opportunities all across the country. Entry-level positions have been the hardest for multinational retailers and manufacturers to fill, Feller said.

To gain users, Harvest is launching a campaign and trying to partner with any organization with some reach. Since the app and the content is free, Harvest Solutions’ services pair well with a host of nonprofits, like food banks, drug-treatment centers, jails, correctional facilities and organizations that help victims of abuse, Feller said.

“We’re not competition for them,” Feller said. “We work well in providing those services to” nonprofits’ clientele.

In the app, the Jobs tab holds all employment listings, which included job listings from national retailers like Bass Pro Shops, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Walmart and Little Caesar’s. There were also Springfield-region companies like Wilhoit Properties, Inc., MacCheesy and Ozark Mill.

Housing listings confirmed with major national-scale apartment developers

On the housing front, expect local apartments, houses and other homes for rent, tailored to the user, Feller said. Just like in the job listings, Harvest is first approaching national companies that manage apartments and housing complexes. Harvest has secured a partnership with seven of the 50 largest complex owners in the U.S., the founder said.

Those companies will “start advertising and have all of their listings, have all of their available units, on our platform,” Feller said. “They’re looking for good tenants.”

In the Harvest Solutions app, the Housing tab lists different properties for rent across Springfield, including single-family homes, apartments, townhomes and more. Even in its soft-launch phase, there were a plethora of listings in mid-February.

The Harvest team, headquartered in Springfield, is expected to grow three-times-over in 2025, and the company is actively hiring in all departments, Feller said. There’s a government outreach team, a communications team, there’s teams that manage housing and job partners, and a team devoted to building and fostering brand partners.

“We’re looking for people that are passionate about what our mission is,” Feller said. “I’m looking for super-talented people.

Ryan Collins

Ryan Collins is the business and economic development reporter for the Springfield Daily Citizen. Collins graduated from Glendale High School in 2011 before studying journalism and economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He previously worked for Bloomberg News. Contact him at (417) 849-2570 or rcollins@sgfcitizen.org. More by Ryan Collins