Agtech - So What?

Business Model Breakdowns with Shane Thomas: Co-Ops and their future in Ag

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Matthew Pryor, Shane Thomas) — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Co-operatives have a long and sometimes colored history in agriculture, across the Western world. What role will they play in the future of agriculture?

As agriculture becomes increasingly shaped by digital technologies and artificial intelligence, the question of who owns, governs, and benefits from farm data is still unresolved. Could co-ops be the answer?

In this episode, Sarah Nolet is joined by Tenacious Ventures co-founder Matthew Pryor and the creator of Upstream Ag Insights, Shane Thomas, to explore the history of co-operatives as a means for farmers to pool resources and address market power imbalances. They also unpack the business model behind co-ops and analyze whether the principles of co-ops could also be applied to digital infrastructure.

This episode is the first in a series of business model “breakdown” episodes we’ll be producing this year, where we’ll dig into how agriculture systems, structures, and even specific companies work, why they matter today, and the impact of agtech in their evolution.

This format is an experiment and we’d love your feedback!

Sarah, Matthew, and Shane discuss:

Why agricultural cooperatives emerged and how they address power imbalances in agricultural markets.
How the cooperative model could extend from physical infrastructure to digital infrastructure and farm data governance.
Whether co-ops could serve as trusted intermediaries for training AI models using aggregated farm data.
How governance tensions between different types of farmers might play out in a data-driven future.
How consolidation of cooperatives and changing farm structures could shape the future of technology adoption.

Got a business model you’d like for us to break down in a future episode? Let us know!

Useful Links:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Halter’s $2 billion question, with founder Craig Piggott

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Kirsten Diprose, Craig Piggott) — Wed, 1 Apr 2026 19:00:00 +0000

In less than a year, NZ-based virtual fencing company Halter raised $165 million and then $220 million more, reaching a $2 billion valuation at a time when global agtech funding is down more than 70% from its peak. By any measure, that's a remarkable achievement.

But what does it actually mean?

In this episode, Halter founder and CEO Craig Piggott speaks with our producer and dairy owner Kirsten Diprose about building the company from the ground up, from training cows on his parents' farm in the Waikato to shipping a million solar-powered collars across three countries.

Craig and Kirsten discuss:

What virtual fencing is and why pasture-based farmers are adopting it
The technical and behavioural challenges of building reliable hardware for animals
Halter’s evolution from a tech-first experiment into a farmer-first platform
What scaling from New Zealand into Australia and the US actually looks like

The conversation was recorded at the Australian Dairy Conference just before Halter’s Series E announcement. Host Sarah Nolet shares her own perspectives at the end, including the questions she wished she'd been able to ask Craig directly.

Useful Links:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The Seven Year Itch: What We Got Wrong (and Right) in Australian Agtech, with Sam Duncan and Natalie Engel

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Sam Duncan, Natalie Engel) — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0000

Seven years ago, agtech in Australia was still in its infancy. There were bold predictions, a flurry of startups, and an emerging ecosystem of programs and investors to back them. So how have things panned out?

In this live stage recording at the 2026 AgriFutures evokeAG event in Melbourne, Sarah Nolet is joined by Sam Duncan, founder of GXLab (formerly FarmLab and Ziltek) and Natalie Engel, a QLD-based cattle producer. Together, they reflect on the last seven years of the Aussie agtech ecosystem: the hype cycles, the pivots, and the very human realities behind building technology in agriculture.

Back in 2019 at the first evokeAG event, both Sam and Natalie pitched two very different ideas. Sam was an outsider to agriculture with a vision to use soil data and soil carbon to tackle climate change. While as a farmer, Natalie was reverse-pitching a problem: the frustrating reality of livestock traceability paperwork and the need for better digital tools.

Seven years later, neither could have predicted where their agtech journeys would end up.

Sarah, Sam, and Natalie discuss:

What the agtech ecosystem looked like in 2019 and how expectations around soil carbon, digitization, and traceability have evolved.
Why building agtech startups often requires navigating both the realities of farming and the pressures of venture-backed growth.
The emotional toll of entrepreneurship in agriculture.
Why the next decade of agtech may be driven less by hype and more by resilience, cost pressures, and geopolitical shifts affecting agriculture.

Useful Links:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The Innovation Sweet Spot: Aligning Corporates, Startups and Investors, with Brad Fruth and Frank Wooten

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Brad Fruth, Frank Wooten) — Wed, 4 Mar 2026 19:24:31 +0000

While agrifood innovation often celebrates bold founders and breakthrough technologies, what happens when the incentives of corporates, startups and investors don’t quite align?

In this live recording from evokeAG in Melbourne, Sarah Nolet is joined by Brad Fruth, Director of Innovation at Beck's Hybrids, and Frank Wooten, CEO of ArkeaBio and co-founder of Vence (acquired by Merck Animal Health).

Together, they explore the “sweet spot” of agtech innovation, i.e. the balance between what customers and corporations want, while recognizing the constraints that innovators and investors face.

Brad shares how Beck’s Hybrids, the largest family-owned retail seed company in the US, approaches innovation: rather than having a corporate venture arm, they focus on being internal problem-solvers and trusted matchmakers between startups.

Meanwhile, Frank Wooten speaks candidly about the realities of raising venture capital in agriculture; where billion-dollar exits are rare, timelines are long, and alignment with customers matters more than valuation headlines.

Sarah, Brad, and Frank discuss:

Why “free pilots” can devalue agtech products before they’ve proven themselves.
How corporations can support innovation without becoming distracted by it.
The risks founders face when fundraising incentives distort execution priorities.
The surprising advantages of Australian agriculture, from customer density to experimentation culture.

Useful Links:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

AI as a Competitive Farming Advantage, Paul Windemuller

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Paul Windemuller, Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 19:00:00 +0000

While farmer distrust of AI remains a key adoption barrier, will farm businesses that are being set up for an AI future have a competitive advantage?

Paul Windemuller is a pioneering first-generation farmer and Nuffield Scholar from Coopersville, Michigan (USA). Along with his wife Brittany,

Paul built his farm from the ground up with limited capital, relying on ingenuity, automation, and data-driven decision-making to grow Dream Winds Dairy into a highly tech-enabled operation.

In this episode, Paul shares his unconventional journey into dairy farming from digging parlor pits by hand and retrofitting sheds on a shoestring budget, to becoming an early adopter of robotics, wearable sensors, and AI-enabled tools. Paul didn’t grow up on a farm, so technology became a way to compensate for what he calls a lack of “cow sense,” helping him make faster decisions around health, breeding, and herd performance.

As AI accelerates, Paul argues that adoption is less about buying another gadget and more about building the underlying foundations: connectivity, clean data, and a culture of curiosity within farming teams.

Sarah and Paul discuss:

How a lack of traditional farming experience became a catalyst for data-driven innovation.
Why AI should be viewed as a utility, like electricity, rather than a single technology purchase.
The practical steps farmers can take today to become “AI ready.”
Why governance models that keep value with farmers and rural communities could determine whether AI delivers long-term benefits.
Why farmer-owned data infrastructure and interoperability may be the next big innovation in agriculture.

Useful Links:

Leading the Herd: AI, Insight, and the Next Agricultural Revolution, (Paul’s Nuffield report)
Getting Into the weeds: the AI data dilemma
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work in Agriculture
Yield maps killed agtech software, can AI fix it? (report)

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Beyond Scale: Native Grains and Indigenous-Led Food Systems with Jacob Birch

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Jacob Birch, Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 4 Feb 2026 19:00:00 +0000

While there is a growing recognition of the importance of indigenous knowledge in agriculture, all too-often, First Nations people are being asked to fit in with an established model. What if we flipped the script to create food systems that are led by indigenous principles?

That’s what Jacob Birch is aiming to do in reawakening a native grains industry in Australia. He’s a proud Gamilaraay man, scholar, Churchill Fellow, and entrepreneur who founded Yaamarra & Yarral, a wholesaler of ancient grains and retailer of stone milled flour.

In this episode, Jacob shares his journey into native grains, beginning with biodiversity and landscape restoration, and expanding into food, culture, and economic sovereignty. He explains why native grasses are keystone species for Australia’s ecosystems, how Indigenous Australians managed grain systems for tens of thousands of years, and why these histories, including bread-making, are still largely absent from mainstream narratives.

In his Churchill Fellowship, Jacob draws on lessons from First Nations communities in North America, exploring what Indigenous-led food systems can look like when the goal is not export-driven scale, but healthy communities, country, and self-determined economic development.

Sarah and Jacob discuss:

The nutritional value of native grains and their role in climate resilience and food sovereignty.
Why post–farm gate ownership is crucial for First Nations people.
How subsidies could potentially support indigenous-led enterprises in food and agriculture.
The realities of building a native grains industry; from land access to challenges in processing.

Useful Links:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The Future of Farming is Autonomous, with Brett McMickell of Kubota

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Brett McMickell, Sarah Nolet, Matthew Pryor) — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 19:00:00 +0000

We’ve hit a tipping point for autonomy in agriculture, so how far off is fully autonomous farming? In this episode, Matthew Pryor sits down with Brett McMickell, Chief Technology Officer at Kubota North America, to unpack his view on what autonomy can deliver in agriculture and why it’s closer than many people think.

Brett’s career spans spacecraft control systems and multi-vehicle autonomy. Today at Kubota, he’s helping guide autonomy strategy inside one of the world’s largest and oldest agricultural equipment manufacturers. Brett’s focus is about ensuring the technology solves on the ground problems for farmers and is driven by customer demand, rather than by the tech itself.

Matthew and Brett discuss:

What supervised autonomy will look like in 1 - 3 years.
Why smart implements and sensing are just as important as autonomous power systems.
Why AI in agriculture is still under-appreciated.
What autonomy will look like in 10 years (without human intervention).
How autonomy could completely change farm layouts, machine sizes, and operating metrics.
How Kubota decides whether to build, partner with, or acquire new technology.

Useful Links:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Making underwater forestry scalable and sustainable, with Andrew Morgan of Hydrowood

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Today's episode is a tangible example of a company in the "natural capital" space. While not traditional agtech, the Hydrowood journey hits familiar themes: building a business within nature's constraints, managing capital intensity, and the frustrating search for the right investors.

Andrew Morgan watched the Pieman River in Tasmania dam in the 1970s. In 1986, Lake Pieman flooded, submerging centuries-old forests. Many years later, he and co-founder David Wise spotted trees protruding from the dark water- large quantities of native species like Huon Pine, Tasmanian Myrtle, and Sassafras.

The timber was salvageable, but they needed underwater logging technology that wouldn't disturb the lake's ecosystem. This led to the founding of Hydrowood. Today, the business has attracted millions in investment and high-end brand partnerships, but the journey has been far from easy.

In this episode, guest host Adam Taylor, Insights Lead at Tenacious, and Andrew Morgan discuss:

Why the Hydrowood narrative captivates investors and media
Trading off custom versus standard machinery to lower financial risk
Pivoting to crowdfunding when traditional investment proved difficult
The future of sustainable and ethical forestry

Andrew is also the Managing Director of SFM, an asset manager for large-scale plantation estates and carbon project developer.

Useful Links:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Have we hit the tipping point for autonomy in ag? With Shane Thomas and Matthew Pryor

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Matthew Pryor, Shane Thomas, Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Over the past few years, the conversation about autonomy in agtech has moved from “but, does it work?” to “how can I get started?” This is a significant shift, indicative of autonomous machinery becoming a fully commercial category in agriculture.

In this episode, Matthew Pryor, Founding Partner at Tenacious Ventures, discusses his recent observations at the Gatton Agtech Showcase, in QLD, Australia, highlighting the move towards production-ready autonomous machinery. He discusses how structure is now emerging in the Australian agtech autonomy market, including in sales and distribution, with a mix of companies from established equipment dealers to venture backed scale-ups. He predicts growth in this market to only compound in the coming years.

Matthew and Sarah are joined by Shane Thomas, founder of Upstream Ag Insights, to also dive into recent agtech news and market trends.

They discuss:

The role of traditional dealership networks in an autonomous future
The potential misuse of the term ‘autonomous’
Regional variations in market dynamics around autonomy between Australia, the US, and Canada
The forces reshaping crop protection, including the rise of non-chemical solutions such as laser weeding and electric weed control

Useful Links:

Carbon Robotics raises $20m to build ‘another AI robot’?, AgFunder News
Monarch Tractor sued over tractors that were 'unable to operate autonomously', TechCrunch
Is Farmers’ Traditional Loyalty to Ag Equipment Colors Fading?, Farm Equipment
The Four Forces reshaping the crop protection industry and what comes next, Upstream Ag Insights
The Generics Revolution and the New Economic Geography of the Global Pesticide Industry, Journal of Agrarian Change
The Race to Define the Future of Ag Retail with Shane Thomas of Upstream Ag Insights, Agtech So What?
Getting into the Weeds: AI, Computer Vision, and the Future of Non-Chemical Weeding, Agtech So What?
Investment Notes: Azaneo, Tenacious Ventures
Disrupting the AgTech Ecosystem with Ron Adner, Agtech So What?
Vavilovian Mimicry, Bionity

For more information and resources, visit our website.

[0007:25] The role of dealerships in an autonomous future
[00:17:45] The forces reshaping crop protection
[00:25:20] Weeds adapting to non-chemical crop solutions

The Business Case for Electrifying Agriculture, with Cherry Grower Mike Casey

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Mike Casey, Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 19:00:00 +0000

In the race to decarbonize agriculture, the spotlight often falls on carbon sequestration, genetics, and alternative proteins. But have we overlooked something that’s right in front of us? Electricity.

Mike Casey is a self-described “tech bro turned farmer” from Cromwell, New Zealand. Mike runs what’s believed to be the world’s first fully electric farm, made up of 21 electric machines, from irrigation systems and frost-fighting fans, to electric tractors and forklifts. His business is aptly named Electric Cherries, where power is generated from renewable sources on-farm. Mike says this has enabled him to save tens of thousands on energy costs every year, while also developing a business model for farming that’s both profitable and low-carbon.

Sarah and Mike discuss:

How an old diesel pump kicked off Mike’s electrification crusade
The economics of going electric on a farm (and is it only possible in New Zealand or on a cherry farm?)
What electric machinery changes (and doesn’t) about running a farm business
Why farmers stand to benefit from the shift away from centralized, fossil fuel power generation to decentralized renewable energy

Mike is also the CEO of Rewiring Aotearoa, a movement helping Kiwis switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. His mission is simple: make electric technology an economic no-brainer for every farmer and household.

Useful Links:

On-Farm Electrification isn't an equipment change, it's a systems change, Agtech So… What?
Electric Cherries, Evoke Ag presentation by Mike Casey
Electric Farms Report, Rewiring Aotearoa
The future of (decentralized) fertilizer, with Jupiter Ionics (Tenacious portfolio company)

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The realities of winding up an agtech app, with Nikki Davey

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Nikki Davey, Sarah Nolet) — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 19:00:00 +0000

What happens when an agtech startup with market pull, a clear mission, and global momentum still doesn’t make it?

Nikki Davey is the founder of Grown Not Flown, which helped thousands of local flower growers reach customers who wanted sustainable blooms. Nikki’s app directly addressed the problem of ‘flower miles’. In Australia and the US, a store bought bouquet is likely to be made up of flowers that have been flown long distances, from places such as South America, Asia, or Africa.

Nikki won the National AgriFutures Rural Women's Award in 2023 for Grown Not Flown, which helped to further establish the business. But, as the Grown Not Flown app was taken up across multiple countries, the challenge of scaling became harder for the startup and ultimately it was wound up.

In this candid, episode Sarah and Nikki discuss:

· Misconceptions about the hardest part of founding an agtech startup.

· The realities of small founding teams, finding investors, and scaling with limited resources.

· The emotional toll of what happens when your identity is tied to your startup.

· Why the end of a business does not mean the end of the mission

Useful Resources:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Agtech trends: bundling, unbundling, LLMs and more with Shane Thomas and Matthew Pryor

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 19:00:00 +0000

‘Bundling’ is a well-known business strategy, especially in tech, where it’s not only used to increase sales and move slow-selling products, but also to tie customers into an ecosystem (such as Apple or Microsoft).

So what about all the unbundling that’s been happening in agtech recently? While historically we’ve seen seed companies offer bundled options, such as seeds, crop management, and data products, there is now a trend towards ‘unbundling’ in agriculture. This is exemplified by Corteva’s recent decision to unbundle its seed and crop protection divisions into two publicly traded companies. Similarly, Farmers Business Network(FBN) has also spun off its global crop solutions business from its digital marketplace.

In this episode, Sarah Nolet unpacks the bundling/unbundling dilemma in agtech with Shane Thomas, founder of Upstream Ag Insights and Matthew Pryor, Founding Partner at Tenacious Ventures. They discuss:

The strategic impacts of unbundling for companies such as FBN and Corteva, as well as the broader impacts on farmers and markets.
The market dynamics that encourage companies to bundle or unbundle.
How Large Language Models (LLMs) are being used in agtech, including Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and other AI frameworks.
Shane Thomas’ new AskUpstream AI tool.
Recent acquisitions in agtech, such as the Growers Edge acquisition of FarmTest

Useful Links:

What Corteva’s Seed and Chemical Split Could Mean For Your Farm, Successful Farming
Growers Edge Acquires FarmTest, Growers Edge
Farmers Business Network the latest to spin off company, following Corteva, Kraft Heinz, AgFunderNews
DTN acquires Grain Discovery, DTN
AlphaEarth, Google DeepMind
Kraft Heinz to split a decade after merger in a bid to revive growth, The Guardian

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Putting cotton farmers at the forefront of the cotton industry, with Marzia Lanfranchi

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Marzia Lanfranchi, Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 1 Oct 2025 20:00:00 +0000

The biggest issue facing the cotton industry isn't fast fashion or water consumption. It's that the people growing cotton have been rendered invisible. The industry fixates on fiber quality and commodity pricing while the farmers themselves– and their role in determining sustainability outcomes– get lost.

Marzia Lanfranchi, founder of the global community Cotton Diaries, is a strategic consultant working to improve supply chain sustainability in the cotton industry. She argues that cotton is viewed first and foremost as ‘a cheap fiber,’ instead of a commodity that is grown in the field.

She has seen that when cotton is treated purely as "a cheap fiber" rather than an agricultural product shaped by farming practices, the entire system suffers, including the sustainability frameworks fashion brands are trying to build.

In this episode, we discuss why putting farmers at the center changes everything.

Sarah and Marzia discuss:

What fashion brands miss or overlook about regenerative agriculture
Why cotton is often perceived as a ‘water thirsty crop’ (and why that is not always the case)
How stories are useful ‘tools’ to help people visualize solutions to problems
How traceability can be built into supply chains to help fashion brands improve sustainability

Useful Links:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Will China’s cheaper tractors disrupt ag equipment? With Lachlan Monsbourgh

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 20:00:00 +0000

As the world’s largest agricultural economy, when China makes a move, the world pays attention. China has just unveiled an ambitious plan to accelerate its development of ag machinery by shortening its research and development cycles. So will China dominate the future of agricultural machinery, and what does this mean for dealers, farmers, and agtech companies?

Lachlan Monsbourgh, Global Rural Agricultural and Environmental Lead at Rabobank, joins us to discuss China’s pivotal role in global agriculture. This includes China’s rapidly developing ag machinery industry, which can manufacture tractors and equipment for about half the cost of the other major players in the US, Europe and Japan. While the products currently face quality, durability and serviceability challenges, Lachlan argues it is only a matter of time before these are overcome.

Lachlan and Sarah discuss:

The price point difference between Chinese agricultural manufacturers and other big OEMs
The impact of cheaper tractors on agtech adoption and autonomy
How China is moving to ensure sustainable supply chains from countries such as Brazil.
Global biodiversity targets and the role of autonomous robotics in helping to achieve them.

Useful Links:

How China is reshaping Global Food Systems for the Climate Change Era, World Economic Forum
Target to accelerate agriculture machinery development, AgTechNavigator
Kunming Montreal Biodiversity framework
The Three Categories of Autonomy in Agriculture, SwarmFarm Robotics

For more information and resources, visit our website.

From agtech adoption problems to high performance farming teams, with Kevin Boyle, EFI

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Kevin Boyle, Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 3 Sep 2025 20:00:00 +0000

When the agtech is not working in the field, we can be quick to search for answers in the product itself. But sometimes, the solution is not there. That’s because it’s not a technical problem, but rather a social systems challenge.

Kevin Boyle is the Director of Organizational and Workforce Development at the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI). He argues that a key component of the farming and food system is often overlooked; and that’s the people who work on the ground. Farm workers can be seen as low-skilled, with little more to offer than the set tasks they perform. However, Kevin is seeking to change this approach, to better recognize the knowledge these workers have, and to create recognizable career paths for them.

Kevin also believes that focusing on the workforce will ultimately benefit the development and adoption of agtech. He spent much of his career in telecommunication tech, where he helped integrate the new digital technologies of the 1990s into the system, including the workers.

Sarah and Kevin discuss:

· Kevin’s unique career background, from growing up on a farm, to working in telecommunications tech, and consulting across Europe and the United States.

· How the perception of farm workers as ‘tools’ rather than humans with skills, knowledge, and desires has hindered tech adoption.

· How to better recognize the skills and knowledge of farm workers, to build high performance farming businesses

· How applied university research can be used to test a product in the broader system before it goes to market.

Useful links:

· Can robotics solve the farm labor problem? With Connie Bowen and Sophie Thorel

· How policy hamstrings agtech in California - Walt Duflock

Can robotics solve farm labor challenges? with Sophie Thorel and Connie Bowen

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Ask any farmer what their biggest challenge is right now and most will say ‘labor’. But what if, instead of trying to get more farm workers, we focused on changing the types of jobs available on farms? That’s where robotics comes in.

Unfortunately, successfully commercializing robots in agriculture has been extraordinarily difficult, especially relative to sectors like healthcare, defence and warehousing.

We break down the problem into three key challenges, based on research by Sophie Thorel, robotics expert and researcher at CREO Syndicate. Sophie argues robotics in agriculture needs to overcome the technical challenge of varied, uncontrollable environments; the cost and capital challenges that often comes with hardware; and the social stakeholder challenge of getting farmers and farm workers involved in the design process. Connie Bowen, GP at Farmhand Ventures, also joins us, drawing on her expertise in understanding and investing in agtech from a labor-first perspective and how all of these challenges intersect.

Connie, Sophie and Sarah discuss:

Sophie’s journey into robotics and why a family office investment platform cares about robots in food & agriculture
How we can overcome the time and cost it takes for on-farm robotics to develop to a stage where it’s actually useful for farmers/growers
Why it’s so important for farmers and farm workers to be involved over the long term in a robotics program- from design into implementation
How overcoming the key challenges in ag robotics could lead to a revolution in farm labor– more attractive and skilled farm opportunities

Useful Links:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Are agtech startups just digital agribusinesses? Mark Kahn, Omnivore

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Mark Kahn, Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 6 Aug 2025 20:00:00 +0000

The term ‘agtech’ now encompasses so many different types of businesses and innovations, that from an investment perspective, it can look overly complex. However perhaps the opposite is true?

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner of Ominvore, shares his ‘agtech-agribusinesss convergence theory’; where agtech startups eventually grow to look like a more conventional agribusiness company. He argues that if an agtech startup can’t see a pathway to either becoming an agribusiness or at least complementing one, then it’s likely to fail. The recent agtech startup failures in animal protein and vertical farming are an example of this.

So what does this argument mean for venture capital, which is all about high growth potential, disruption, and of course, high risk? Are VCs likely to invest in startups which are going to become ‘just another agribusiness’? And does that even matter?

For important context, Mark Kahn is based in India, which has a vastly different investment landscape compared with western countries. India has an incredibly large agriculture economy, worth about $US600 - 700 billion, with about 50% of the Indian workforce employed in agriculture. If you compare that with Australia, only 2.5% of the national workforce is involved in agriculture. In the United States, it's around 10%.

Mark and Sarah discuss:

Omnivore’s investment thesis and how it has evolved over time to focus on food security, agricultural prosperity, resource efficiency & rural resilience
The unique agtech investment conditions in India and how it compares with markets in western countries such as the US, Canada, and Australia
Whether we are starting to see a global uptick in agtech investment
Why Mark believes there is an agtech-agribusiness convergence
How the Indian agtech market can be overlooked by western investors, because they do not take the time to understand it

USEFUL LINKS:

Value creation in Indian agriculture - McKinsey and Company, 2025
DeHaat - the largest farmer platform in India and portfolio company of Omnivore.
What caused the farmer protests in India and what does it mean for innovation in Ag?- Agtech… So What? episode, featuring Mark Kahn and other investors.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

How “Food is Medicine” Could Change Food and Farm Economics with Brad McNamara

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Brad McNamara, Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 20:00:00 +0000

“Food is Medicine” is extremely popular right now, and a few facts suggest it might be more than just a trend. The U.S. alone spends something like $1.5 trillion annually on diet-related diseases, and key issues like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and other diseases are on the rise around the world. There are costly interventions available to manage many of these problems, but an increasing body of research suggests that some of the least invasive (and most affordable) interventions don’t come in a pill or vial, but in a grocery basket.

Agrifood tech is definitely not sitting on the sidelines. We’re seeing a new wave of startups emerging in this space, building on the lessons of food businesses of the past. To explore this trend, we spoke with one such founder– Brad McNamara, CEO and Founder at Morrissey Market, a “food is medicine” distribution startup. Brad was formerly at Freight Farms, a vertical farming company that strove to sell, not the produce, but the farm itself, in the form of a tech-enabled shipping container-sized farm.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

How Policy Hamstrings AgTech in California with Walt Duflock

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Walt Duflock) — Wed, 9 Jul 2025 20:00:00 +0000

When it comes to the production of high-value food crops, California is, without question, a global leader. Plus, much of the state’s thousands of acres of farmland lies within close proximity of Silicon Valley, where high-tech tools and solutions are endemic. And yet, many California farmers are struggling to continue their work, and agtech startups are increasingly looking beyond the state for customers and sectors to serve.

So what gives?

To answer this question, we asked Walt Duflock, Senior VP of Innovation at Western Growers Association on the show to help us connect the dots on why California’s world-renowned ag and its state-of-the-art tech sectors are struggling to align. Policy plays a big role here, but shifting tides around agtech funding are also having an effect.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Is AI the Secret to Next Gen Soil Sampling? with Jack Oslan and Nate Storey

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Jack Oslan, Nate Storey) — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 20:26:11 +0000

Finding the right solution often starts with finding many, many wrong solutions. When it comes to some of agtech's most beguiling challenges, like real-time, granular soil testing, many startups have found the wrong solution– either ones that simply don’t work, don’t work at the right price, or don’t work in a way that makes them useful enough.

But just because a problem hasn’t been solved yet doesn’t mean it’s unsolvable! And with the recent leaps made in artificial intelligence, a new startup– Soil Action– is taking another crack at this problem, hoping that a novel approach will help align the stars of effectiveness, usefulness, and affordability.

The co-founders at Soil Action, Jack Oslan and Nate Storey, also know a thing or two about tackling big challenges in agtech. They both were also co-founders at vertical farming startup Plenty, and this week, in addition to hearing about Soil Action, we’ll also hear about lessons learned from that journey.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Disrupting the AgTech Ecosystem with Ron Adner

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Matthew Pryor, Ron Adner) — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Longtime listeners have heard Sarah and Matthew talk about ideas like “ecosystem disruption” and “adoption chain risk” and “value architecture,” all of which stem from the works of Ron Adner. Ron is a researcher, strategist, and professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University, and the author of two books, The Wide Lens and Winning the Right Game, both of which have been influential at Tenacious.

So this week, we’re going straight to the source as Matthew sits down with Ron for a wide ranging discussion of how fundamental business strategy has changed in recent decades, and how agtech companies and investors can learn lessons from other sectors to inform their business models, go-to-market strategies, and the very way they understand the spaces where they play.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Making Sense of Recent AgTech Acquisitions with Shane Thomas

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Shane Thomas, J. Matthew Pryor) — Wed, 28 May 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Despite a persistent sense of uncertainty in the AgTech market lately, we’re still seeing startups get acquired– even if information about those acquisitions is opaque. Case in point: Syngenta recently purchased Intrinsyx Bio, a biologicals company, for an undisclosed sum.

Why do companies conceal this information? And in this moment when everyone has their eyes peeled for some indication of where the market is headed, what can we learn from exits?

Sarah sits down this week with Tenacious Ventures’ Matthew Pryor and Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights, to do a deep dive into the latest news and discuss what it all means.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

How GLP-1 Drugs are Reshaping the Food and Ag Landscape with Mary Shelman

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Mary Shelman) — Wed, 14 May 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Over the last few decades, a lot of products and technologies have promised to disrupt the diets and food buying habits of the world’s consumers. But nothing has made true on that promise quite like the emergence of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. These (as of now) injectables are changing the way people– and their households– eat and shop, and CPG companies, quick serve food brands, and others are already seeing a marked decline in purchasing in the months since these drugs have gone mainstream.

Given the speed with which people are adopting these treatments, and how fast the therapy affects their diets and choices, many in the food and ag sectors have been caught flat footed by a dramatic change in preferences among 10% (and growing) of consumers. Who will be the winners and losers?

To tell us more about what the future might hold for ag and food alike, we’re joined this week by Mary Shelman, Founder at the Shelman Group.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Beyond VC: Redeemable Equity in AgTech with Connie Bowen

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Connie Bowen) — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Big news from Tenacious– WE’RE HIRING! Do you share our mission of unlocking impact at scale in agri-food systems? Check out our open roles here.

...

Is agtech a good fit for venture capital, and vice versa?

This question - existential for some - is flying around in the ether right now.

We’ve been thinking about both the bearish and bullish answers a lot lately. And we’ve been intrigued by the possibility of shifting the question away from black and white answers, into nuance. Namely, we’ve been asking: if venture capital is not a perfect fit for agtech, but there are big opportunities for technology in agriculture, how else might agtech companies get funded?

To help us take on this larger inquiry, we called on friend of the podcast Connie Bowen, Founder of Farmhand Ventures. Connie has been both thinking about deploying alternative funding models in agtech. She brings the insight she’s gained from utilizing (and passing) on some of these alternatives, including redeemable equity, to the podcast this week.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Merging AgTech Startups to Multiply Value and Impact with Ron Hannam

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Rob Hannam) — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Between COVID-19, Avian Influenza, and African Swine Fever, ordinary consumers are more aware than ever of the risks of infectious diseases on animal and human health, and to society at large. Ag technology that helps farmers better prevent the spread of diseases is more relevant than ever, and that was a big part of the motivation for today’s guest, Rob Hannam, CEO of Farm Health Guardian.

But Farm Health Guardian was far from the only livestock biosecurity agtech company in the space, and at some point, when the team came in contact with a competitor with a complementary suite of technologies, they did something unusual. The two companies merged.

Given the current state of agtech funding and global financial markets, we thought the time was right to invite Rob on to talk about how he and his team first started exploring the idea of a merger, how they thought about the decision, and how it helped them unlock new opportunities and a more complete product.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Paying for Ag R&D When Consumers Won’t with Brooke Sauer of Boolah

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Brooke Sauer) — Wed, 2 Apr 2025 19:00:00 +0000

For commercial farming operations, determining whether or not new tools, technology, and practices work can be a big undertaking. From install and setup costs to helping the team involved climb the learning curve for effective use, even when technologies lead to big benefits, it can be tough to get the ball rolling.

One farm that we’ve learned about recently decided to turn these challenges into a product. The insight is simple– that on the other side of all these tech adoption challenges, there are technologists and companies eager to learn how to overcome them, and to gain third-party information about how their product works in commercial settings. So Boolah, an Australian malt barley grower that manages 70,000 hectares across their network of connected farms, has built a testing and trial business that helps them neutralize the costs of trying out and implementing new tech and tools, while also providing high value data and research to their partners.

To tell us more about what’s going on at the farm, we’re joined this week by Brooke Sauer, Head of R&D at Boolah.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

A Business Model for Novel Ingredients with Jake Berber At Prefer

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Jake Berber) — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 19:00:00 +0000

For years the food tech space has been rife with companies eager to replace familiar standbys– from protein to sweeteners to colorings– with cheaper, more healthful, or more climate friendly alternatives. There have certainly been a few successes, but there have also been some big and spectacular failures. Whether we’re emerging from the dust of the most recent bust or have a ways to go still, we’re actively watching the space to see what founders and investors alike are learning from the frothy boom cycle with its incredible stats and promises, and from what came after.

To understand a bit more about how this food tech ingredient space is changing, from products and go-to market to business models and financing, we’re joined this week by Jake Berber, Co-Founder and CEO of Prefer.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Solving for Adoption and Channel in AgTech… So what? with Shane Thomas

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Shane Thomas, J. Matthew Pryor) — Wed, 5 Mar 2025 19:00:00 +0000

There are a few topics in agtech (and in the tech startup world more broadly) that are truly perennial– problems that must be solved again and again in new and innovative ways as markets, customers, and businesses evolve. Adoption is one of those challenges, and go-to-market strategies are another. We’ve been thinking about the challenge of adoption a lot recently, and also what changes in the marketplace will mean for the retail channel and product distribution for agtech in particular.

Today, Sarah sits down with Tenacious Ventures’ Matthew Pryor and Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights, to do a deep dive on these topics.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

From Demo Farms to Adoption with Wine Australia

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Paul Smith, Dave Gerner) — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 19:00:00 +0000

When your organization is tasked with the job of getting growers to adopt new technology, there are a few tried, and frankly, not-so-true options to choose from. The world is lightly littered with various flavors of demonstration farms– properties where technologies can be piloted, field days can be hosted, and farmers can be converted from tech skeptics to believers. But in our experience, the problem with demo farms is just that they don’t usually do that much to actually drive adoption.

The innovation team at Wine Australia, however, have managed to buck the trend. Their approach to demo farms, and agtech adoption more broadly, is unusual in many ways, and the features that set them apart have led to dramatically improved experiences for farmers and tech companies, ultimately leading to better adoption rates and outcomes for their industry.

To learn more about their work, and their lessons along the way, we’re sitting down with Paul Smith, General Manager of Research and Innovation, and Dave Gerner, Regional Innovation Program Manager, at Wine Australia to discuss the custom program they built for their industry, which has led to meaningful success in increasing agtech adoption among Australian wine grape growers.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Killing Weeds Without Poison with Liam Hescock at Azaneo

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Liam Hescock) — Wed, 5 Feb 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Controlling weeds on farms is a sticky, two part challenge. First, you’ve got to identify the weeds, as distinct from the plants you want to grow. Then, you’ve got to destroy the undesirables and keep the rest. For today’s farmers, these two tasks can seem straightforward, but to do them at the scale required in modern agriculture– not so much.

Identifying weeds, especially with computer vision, is a topic we discussed on the podcast last year, and now we’re circling back to talk about the available solutions on the destruction side. Herbicides have been the unchallenged behemoth in this space for decades, but as issues with efficacy and environmental impact mount, farmers are increasingly looking to other options. In the last few years we’ve seen many novel solutions– from mechanical tools to microwaves to flamethrowers.

This week, we’re sitting down with Liam Hescock, Founder and CEO of Azaneo, one of our portfolio companies, to talk about their solution– which harnesses the power of electricity.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

2025 in AgTech… So what? with Shane Thomas

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, J. Matthew Pryor, Shane Thomas) — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 19:00:00 +0000

As the new year gets underway, we’ve been thinking about the likely ups and downs ahead for the agtech world. We’ve been searching for insights in the recent announcement that FMC’s corporate venture capital division is shutting its doors, and thinking about what a trend in CVC pullbacks might mean for the lay of the land in agtech. We’ve also been taking time to think about the agtech companies that currently stand out in today’s tough market conditions, and what it is that sets them apart from the pack.

Today, Sarah sits down with Tenacious Ventures Managing Partner Matthew Pryor and Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights, to discuss the news and expectations for agtech in 2025.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

How Business Model Innovation Changed AgTech in 2024

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Matthew Pryor) — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 19:00:00 +0000

There’s nothing like the end of another year to have us reflecting on the recent successes in the world of agtech, and the many challenges still left to overcome. One thing that has continued to stand out to us in 2024 is the vital need for more business model innovation.

There’s so much amazing technology that already exists, but for one reason or another, it is not getting adopted or utilized; it’s not delivering on the promised impact or commercial potential. Over the last twelve months we’ve talked to countless entrepreneurs and innovators who are finding novel and fascinating ways to overcome business model barriers, even when they aren’t using those words to describe their efforts.

So this week, Sarah is sitting down with Tenacious Ventures Managing Partner Matthew Pryor to connect the dots on business model innovation that we’ve discussed in different podcast episodes all year long.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Shortening the Long Game in Livestock Breeding with Gerard Davis from Nbryo

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Gerard Davis) — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000

The history of agriculture is a history of selective breeding. Whether it’s plants or animals, humans have been choosing desirable traits and making sure those traits make it to the next generation for tens of thousands of years. The challenge of this work is, of course, the timeline. Groundbreaking and world-changing advances are possible, but we are limited by seasonality, gestation periods, and even by the level of expertise required to effectively perform the high-tech work. This is the challenge that Tenacious portfolio company Nbryo is tackling– shortening the timeline for genetic advancements in livestock.

This week, we’re sitting down with Gerard Davis, CEO of Nbyro, to discuss his unconventional journey to the startup, the work the company is doing, and why he thinks genetic interventions are critical climate work.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Rethinking Who Pays in Irrigation AgTech with Jairo Trad

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Jairo Trad) — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Despite its importance to both agricultural and environmental outcomes, irrigation has not been a terribly successful subsection of agtech. We have our theories about why that is (we wrote a whole report about it, The agtech adoption dilemma: Irrigation), and many others have also spotted the challenges in this space.

But when Jairo Trad and his team dug in, they saw an opportunity for business model innovation. Their path, via Argentinian agtech company Kilimo, has been far from smooth, but where they’ve ended up seems to be a unique unlock for adoption and value capture.

This week, we’re sitting down with Jairo, CEO and Cofounder at Kilimo, who’s spent the last 14 years expanding the boundaries of the ag-water system to find the right answer to the question “who pays for water efficiency improvements.”

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

The Two Faces of Global ESG in Ag with Catherine Marriott

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Catherine Marriott) — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Depending on where you sit, the supremacy of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) action seems inevitable. Corporates are talking about. Investors are talking about it. Governments, regulators, and even farmers are talking about it. And yet for many of us, the questions of what exactly ESG is, what pursuing these goals means, and how soon acting on them will be mandatory remain unanswered. Then just when it feels like we start to get a handle on a definition or a timeline, you leave one geography and enter another, and it seems like all the rules have changed!

This level of ambiguity has piqued our interest to learn more about trends in ESG, global variations in ESG practices, and what the future might hold. So this week, we’re sitting down with Catherine Marriott, recent Nuffield Australia Awardee, who has spent the last year traveling around the world to learn about the current and future state of ESG in agriculture.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Fractal Ag Pitch Breakdown with Ben Gordon and Shane Thomas

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Shane Thomas, Ben Gordon) — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Farmland has long been a popular asset among investors for its steady appreciation and resistance to economic downturns. At the same time, farmland is also a challenging asset at times, especially for farmers looking to expand, given farmland comes up for sale so infrequently and is so valuable. In the space between these two needs is where Fractal Agriculture has set up shop, connecting the dots between farmers seeking capital and investors looking to benefit from farmland investments. And for good measure, sprinkle in some regenerative ag practices for risk mitigation on both sides of the ledger.

Today, Sarah and Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights, sit down with Ben Gordon, co-founder and CEO of Fractal Ag, to break down the pitch in real time. Along the way, they share insights, ask questions, and decide whether they’d invest in the endeavor.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Investing in Regenerative Agriculture Supply Chains with Calla Rose Ostrander

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Calla Rose Ostrander) — Wed, 2 Oct 2024 20:00:00 +0000

When it comes to leveraging capital to fund climate action in agriculture, few ideas get as much play as regenerative agriculture. The idea of production that can not only be sustained but that can actively help renew resources has captured imaginations within the sector and without, giving life to events like the Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum, where the faithful share strategies to incentivize investors to sink their resources into these solutions. Sarah is headed to the RFSI Forum this year (October 9th and 10th in Denver, Colorado), and to get a jump on the valuable discussions, we’ve invited conference speaker Calla Rose Ostrander, Co-Founder and Managing Partner Terra Regenerative Capital, joins us today to talk about her journey to the important and challenging work of investing in regenerative ag opportunities.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

When Kansas Drys up… in 2050 with Dan Northrup

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Dan Northrup) — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 20:00:00 +0000

There are many parts of the US that are at risk for severe drought and heat in the next 30 years due to climate change. But then there’s Kansas, where some growers pull irrigation water from a particularly vulnerable part of the gigantic Ogallala aquifer, which according to the latest science, may well be fully depleted by 2050. Western Kansas isn’t exactly the heart of the corn belt, but farming in the region does support substantial nearby livestock industries, including large confined dairy and beef cattle operations. If feed becomes sparse, or must come from more expensive, more distant geographies, the regional economic disruptions could be vast.

Dan Northrup, part of Galvanize Climate Solutions’ Science and Tech team and an Associate Professor at Iowa State University, joins us today to talk about the risks, and opportunities, that this kind of water vulnerability introduces, and where he thinks public and private investors can act now.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Unconventional Farmer-led Finance Strategies with Quint Pottinger

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Quint Pottinger) — Wed, 4 Sep 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Despite challenging conditions in financial markets the world over, ambitious entrepreneurs find a way. There are few sectors where that is more true than in agriculture, and despite the industry’s reputation for convention and conservatism, challenging times call for creative measures, and farmers are nothing if not creative.

To learn more about innovative farm business models and the cutting edge of farm financial strategies, we invited Quint Pottinger, Owner of Affinity Farms in Kentucky, USA. Quint is not only bringing in hedge fund investors, he’s selling all his crops– corn, soybeans, wheat, and rye– into specialty markets and finding hefty premiums for doing so, all while improving his local community’s sustainability and creating a transformed future food system where his farm will thrive.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Ag’s Scifi (and Non-Fiction) Future: Horizon Scanning… so what? with Shane Thomas

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 20:00:00 +0000

We’ve been thinking (and talking, and writing) a lot lately about the forces that are shaping the future of agriculture. There are the more obvious ones– artificial intelligence and mandatory climate disclosures– to the less obvious, like the ubiquity of remotely sensed data and geoengineering. All of these forces, and others like them, are not only acting on ag and the institutions the industry depends on, they’re also acting on one another, evolving and compounding all the time.

We investigated these forces, and four critical scenarios that they might create, in our latest report, Navigating a Future of Cross-Sectoral Forces, commissioned by AgriFutures Australia. This week, Tenacious co-founders Sarah and Matthew are joined by research collaborator Sarah Mock and Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights. Together, they discuss:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Citrus Moves North with Farmer and Orangepreneur Lindy Savelle

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Lindy Savelle) — Wed, 7 Aug 2024 20:00:00 +0000

When people talk about the impacts of climate change on agriculture, they usually use the future tense. The reality, though, is that climate change already is, and has been, changing global conditions enough to cause meaningful shifts in agricultural production. Case in point, where Florida was once known both nationally and globally as the US’s citrus powerhouse, today the groves are moving North, where farmers in Georgia are starting to establish citrus production with aplomb.

To learn more about this story of adaptation and resilience, we invited Lindy Savelle, self-proclaimed Orangepreneur at JoNina Farm and a founder and leader of Georgia Grown Citrus.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

How Syngenta is thinking about AI with Feroz Sheikh

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Feroz Sheikh) — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Not too long ago, we co-published a paper on the future of AI called “Yield Maps Killed AgTech Software, Can AI Save It?” and got a ton of great responses from across the industry. One such responder wrote in from his seat at the Syngenta Group, where he’s helped the organization go from zero to 250 million acres digitally served in just five years. Feroz Sheikh, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Syngenta Group, offered some incredibly nuanced responses to the limitations and opportunities in this space, and we knew we wanted to have him come on to talk more about his internal perspective on evaluating AI, advancing digitization goals in a legacy ag organization, and what he see in the future of ag software.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

AgTech News …So What? July 2024 with Shane Thomas

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, J. Matthew Pryor, Shane Thomas) — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 20:00:00 +0000

This week, we’re breaking down the freshest announcements from the agribusiness, agtech, and broader policy and tech worlds to share insights and ask “so what?” Sarah and Matthew are joined this week by Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Evaluating Biologicals Businesses with Joel Lipsitch

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Joel Lipsitch) — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 20:00:00 +0000

For better or worse, the biologicals space is still in the process of repairing a reputation that was marred by years of over-promising and under-delivering. Yet big advances have been made in recent years, helping improve agricultural productivity while reducing the industry’s dependence on chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

But discerning between new wave innovation and their more snake-oily predecessors isn’t always easy– so we wanted to sit down with an expert who’s been doing this work for decades. (Note: if you’re new to learning about biologicals, check out “Biologicals: snake oil or science, and how do we know?” before you dive into today’s episode for important background.)

This week, our guest is Joel Lipsitch, Founder at Blair Road Consulting and an expert in biological products and businesses. Joel guides through his thinking on topics including:

The red and green flags he looks for when evaluating biological companies, from the science to pricing models
How to expect companies to bridge the gap between the lab and the field, and what it looks like when they succeed
The biological go-to-market strategies that have proven the most successful, and where future business model opportunity is likely emerging

Useful Links:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Rebooting AgTech Software with AI, with Rhishi Pethe

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, J. Matthew Pryor, Rhishi Pethe) — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 20:00:00 +0000

We are certainly not alone in our interest in how artificial intelligence will shape agriculture in the coming years. We’ve been learning out loud about both the tech that might emerge, but also about how AI might shape existing tools, especially agtech software. In our recent report, Yield Maps Killed AgTech Software, Can AI Fix It?, we put forward some of our research and theories, and we got a ton of great feedback. Today, we’re going to respond to some questions and discuss further learnings from the report.

Joining me in the task is both my co-founder Matthew Pryor and Rhishi Pethe, author of Software is Feeding the World. For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

How green is sustainable aviation fuel? With Cris Handel

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Cris Handel) — Wed, 29 May 2024 20:00:00 +0000

As the US works to hammer out requirements for sustainable aviation fuel tax credits, the potential for the airline industry to open a huge new market for oil seeds has watchers in the sustainability space wondering what’s next. Will the opportunity for agtech to provide producers with the tools they need to meet production requirements and prove sustainability credentials be substantial?

The sustainable aviation fuel market is evolving rapidly, and we wanted to know more. This week, our guest is Cris Handel, Global Sustainability Officer at Valent Biosciences, Fractional COO at New West Genetics, and Former COO at Covercress. For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

AgTech News …So What? May 2024 with Shane Thomas

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Shane Thomas) — Wed, 15 May 2024 20:00:00 +0000

This week, we’re breaking down the freshest announcements from the agribusiness, agtech, and broader policy and tech worlds to share insights and ask “so what?”

Sarah is joined this week by Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

The Many Faces of Farm Security with John Hill

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, John Hill) — Wed, 1 May 2024 20:00:00 +0000

At the intersection of ubiquitous and affordable cameras and internet connections, growing farm sizes, and increasing environmental and social vulnerabilities sits the opportunity of farm security. The number of applications for this kind of remote monitoring are endless– from discouraging stock and equipment theft (or solving cases after the fact), to detecting bushfire conditions, to marketing properties and land-based opportunities like hunting.

Though simple cameras and video feeds might not seem like the kind of amazing, futuristic tech that really gets people excited, these tools - paired with the processing and detective power of AI and machine learning - have the possibility to unlock a ton of value without huge capital investments.

Today, we’re learning more about one business here in Australia that’s tackling the farm security space, and seeing it grow and transform rapidly before their eyes. Our guest is John Hill, National Sales Director at Land Watch Australia, who discusses:

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Landfill to Farm-fill: Rethinking Waste with Sam Coulton

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Sam Coulton) — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 20:00:00 +0000

The modern fashion industry creates a ton of waste. From the field to the cutting line, to the supply chain and consumers' closets, today’s ultra-cheap “fast fashion” obsession means everyday a lot of fiber gets carted off to landfills around the world.

Some amount of that fiber however– especially cotton– is not only biodegradable, it can actually be a valuable addition to soils, especially in dry climates where fibers help hold water. This fact has spurred researchers and farmers in Australia, alongside the Cotton Research Development Corporation (CRDC), to begin experimenting with turning waste fiber into a soil amendment, returning cotton to whence it came and at the same time, removing bulk from overcrowded dumps and investing in a more circular future for the industry. To explore this ongoing work, Sarah is joined this week by Sam Coulton, a third generation Queensland cotton grower and owner of Gondiwindi Cotton.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Biosecurity Meets AgTech: Preparing for a hotter sicker world with Sarah Britton

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 3 Apr 2024 19:00:00 +0000

As the world continues to get more crowded and less climatically predictable, the risk of biosecurity issues– from pest and disease invasions to food security and environmental health concerns– is only growing. Science and technology have major roles to play in helping us prepare for possible risks, and deal with them when they arise.

Today, we’re tackling these issues in one geography, Australia, in order to better understand the economic, environmental, and technological threats and opportunities that are in play related to biosecurity, and how they might be set to evolve in the future. Our guest is Sarah Britton, Founder at One Biosecurity Solutions.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

AgTech News …So What? March 2024 with Shane Thomas

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, J. Matthew Pryor, Shane Thomas) — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 19:00:00 +0000

This week, we’re breaking down the freshest announcements from the agribusiness, agtech, and global ag policy worlds to share insights and ask “so what?”

Sarah is joined this week by Tenacious Ventures Managing Partner J. Matthew Pryor and Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Generics, Biologicals, and the Volatile Farm Inputs Market with Sam Taylor, Rabobank

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Sam Taylor) — Wed, 6 Mar 2024 19:00:00 +0000

The global ag sector has recently passed a turning point, with prices and future outlooks for key commodities taking a decidedly pessimistic turn. Though market volatility is nothing new for producers, it does change the profitability equation. One of the first targets for pencil-sharpening and scrutiny tends to be farm inputs– from crop protection chemistry and fertilizers, to equipment purchases and agtech investments.

To get us up to speed on the state of global farm input markets, and how growers are likely thinking about planning and practice adjustments in the months and years ahead, we sat down with Sam Taylor, Farm Inputs Analyst and Executive Director for Research at Rabobank.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Getting into the Weeds: AI, Computer Vision, and the Future of Non-Chemical Weeding

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Weeds are a very expensive problem. According to one 2016 study, if weeds were left to grow unchecked in agricultural fields across just the US and Canada, the cost in lost productivity would total over $43 billion. And challenges are mounting. Though the last century has been ruled by crop protection chemistries that have kept weeds at bay– crafty wild plants have quickly adapted and the existing tools are under pressure from regulators and consumers. As farmers try to turn elsewhere, agtech is stepping into the void, expanding the weed-fighting toolkit with everything from water and heat, to lasers and robots.

To understand this challenge better, and to learn more about one of the emerging tools in the market, Tenacious’ Matthew Pryor joins Liam Hescock, Founder and CEO of Azaneo, an electric weeding company (and recent add to the Tenacious portfolio), and Guy Coleman, weed researcher extraordinaire.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

How Small Growers Think about AgTech, with Sam Godwin, Washington Apple Grower

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Sam Godwin) — Wed, 7 Feb 2024 19:00:00 +0000

There are few areas of the ag sector that are more in need of tech solutions than tree fruits. All around the world, factors like labor shortages, an aging farm workforce, mounting regulations, and rising costs have put fresh produce growers in a bind.

AgTech innovators have been hard at work on tools - especially harvesting tools - for years. But progress has been much slower than many hoped. One of the key problems from a grower perspective is the price tag– even when a robot comes along that can pick or prune, it’s too expensive for all but the biggest growers.

To understand this challenge better, today we’re diving into how growers think about tech solutions that are accessible to growers of all sizes. Sam Godwin, second generation apple, pear, and cherry farmer, and current chairman of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

AgTech News …So What? January 2024 with Shane Thomas

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, J. Matthew Pryor, Shane Thomas) — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 19:00:00 +0000

This week, in a new experimental format, we’re breaking down the freshest announcements from leaders in the agribusiness, agtech, and ag production worlds to share insights and ask “so what?” Sarah is joined this week by Tenacious Ventures Managing Partner J. Matthew Pryor and Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights.

What John Deere’s announced partnership with Starlink means for farmers, ag retailers, and the future of connected agtech
What Jigsaw Farm’s evolving status as a vanguard of climate-smart agriculture tells us about future trouble in carbon and methane emission-reducing plans
How ag software roll-ups might be evolving as agtech matures

If you like - or don’t - this experimental format, let us know!

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

AgTech 2023… So What? A Wrap-up

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, J. Matthew Pryor, Sarah Mock) — Wed, 6 Dec 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Somehow it’s December again, and another year has come and nearly gone. We've spent a lot of time reflecting on the highs and lows of a particularly unpredictable year for Tenacious Ventures, our portfolio companies, and agtech more broadly.

In that spirit, we’re taking time to talk about what we've learned from a year of fundraising, advising, learning and podcasting. We’re joined today by our editor and producer, Sarah Mock, who facilitates a discussion between Tenacious General Partners Sarah Nolet and Matthew Pryor.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Reflecting on Nowadays, a Tenacious Portfolio Company Wind Down

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, J. Matthew Pryor, Max Elder) — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Hearing the stats about startup failure rates (70 - 90%), and how one - only one- investment drives returns for most VC funds, is one thing. Actually experiencing it, is another. In line with our learning out loud ethos, today we're talking about Nowadays, a Tenacious portfolio company that recently wound down operations. Nowadays was a manufacturing platform for whole cuts of clean label plant based meat, whose flagship product is a plant-based chicken nugget made with just a handful of simple, clean ingredients.

We’re speaking with Founder and CEO Max Elder about what happened, where he is now, and what he's learned. Then, at the end of the episode, Tenacious General Partners Matthew Pryor and Sarah Nolet dig in on their takeaways and where to from here.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

How Can Agtech Startups and Corporates Do More Together?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Kevin McDonald) — Wed, 8 Nov 2023 21:15:00 +0000

There's a persistent myth in the startup space, and in agtech especially, that the most important way that corporates can support startups is through direct investments. In our experience, this is an insanely incomplete picture. Agribusiness and agricultural production are complex and enigmatic worlds, and newcomers to the space need guidance and support from advisors, customers, and support infrastructure, just as much as they need capital, if not more.

Today we’re joined by Kevin McDonald, VP of Customer and Government Relations at Guardian Ag, to hear more about Guardian’s ongoing partnership with Wilbur-Ellis; how it came about, how it’s going, and what other startups and corporates can learn from the experience.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

What do LPs Look for In AgTech Funds?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Eliza Jackson, Sara Balawajder) — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

2023 has been a year of both investing and fundraising for us here at Tenacious Ventures. And sitting on both sides of the table has highlighted to us just how much of the investing world is stuck in a black box. In general, we’ve found that this opacity can be a huge barrier, especially in an industry like agri-food– where venture funding hasn’t been a long-standing part of the ecosystem.

So we’ve decided to shine a little more light in the investment box by asking two of our favorite LPs– or limited partners, who invest in venture capital funds– to join us for a conversation about how their job works.

Today we’re joined by Eliza Jackson from Macdoch Ventures and Sara Balawajder from Builders Initiative to discuss how their vision for building investment portfolios is evolving and how it’s been informed by their experiences beyond the agtech sector.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

How Outside Forces are Shaping the Food System with Ian Proudfoot, KPMG

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Ian Proudfoot) — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

We've spent a lot of time this year talking about the future of specific sub-spaces of the food system– fertilizer, vertical farming, alternative protein, and ag retail, just to name a few. We’ve focused a lot on the existing internal trends and pressures that help us predict what might be coming next, but we’ve talked less about the factors outside of the expected, not least the way that people - from lawmakers, to organizations, to consumer groups- might be able to play a more active, and less reactive, role in shaping that future.

Today we’ve asked Ian Proudfoot, Global Head of Agribusiness at KPMG, to help us explore that question, specifically as it relates to the conclusions included in KPMG’s most recent 2023 Agribusiness Agenda.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Methane and the Climate Commitments that Matter Most Today

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Katie Anderson) — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 22:18:03 +0000

As 2030 looms and the climate commitments made in the last decade come into clear (and often disappointing) focus, one important lesson we’ve learned is that not all greenhouse gasses are created equal. Despite the many metrics created in the hopes of simplifying our way to climate action, CO2 is neither the most potent greenhouse gas nor, arguably, the most important priority in the short term. That position is held by methane, and a need for short term methane reductions puts the livestock and dairy sectors in the center of the action.

Today we’ve asked Katie Anderson, Senior Director of Business, Food and Agriculture at the Environmental Defense Fund, to shine a light on the kinds of current efforts that are fueling these reductions. Her organization’s recently announced partnership with Danone centers on a first-of-its-kind example of a commitment that puts methane– and not generic “climate” or “carbon” work– squarely on the goal line.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Bringing Systems Thinking to the Global Fertilizer Industry with Alzbeta Klein

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Alzbeta Klein) — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Without a doubt, the global fertilizer sector sits at the center of a complex web of international industries. From energy to mining and food to agriculture, turning deep earth minerals from the far reaches of the globe into the food we eat every day is no small task, and even tiny changes can have outsized, and often unpredictable, impacts. That’s why, as we continue our thinking around what the future of fertilizer, and therefore the future of the global food system will look like, we are coming to the challenge with a systems approach.

And today, we’ve invited a guest with a unique global perspective to offer some insight at the system level. We’re joined by Alzbeta Klein, CEO and Director General of The International Fertilizer Association (IFA), who offers her vision of a path towards a more resilient and responsible fertilizer sector, and what that journey could mean for everyone else.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Marc Arnusch on how farmers are using ChatGPT

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Marc Arnusch) — Wed, 6 Sep 2023 23:55:49 +0000

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT have been making waves across the global economy, but it’s not always clear how these language creating tools can make a difference in industries like agriculture. While companies everywhere are scrambling to develop their own proprietary AI tools before they even know what they’ll use them for, many in ag are left wondering– should I be using ChatGPT too?

Today we’ve asked Marc Arnusch, President of Arnusch Farms, to share his experiences using ChatGPT in farming, negotiation, and more. He’s had the opportunity to use the tool for tasks big and small, and has witnessed some exciting outcomes, and some that leave him worried.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Cultivating Agility at a Multi-Generational Food Company with Standard Meat

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Ashli Blumenfeld, Ben Rosenthal) — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Innovation in the protein space has most recently seen a lot of hype around “alternative” proteins, from high tech microbe engineering to proprietary science that makes plants into something magically similar to juicy burgers or satisfying nuggets. But innovation in protein is a much deeper field. And when it comes to actually getting products to customers, protein innovations are just as likely to happen on the production floor as the lab bench.

Today, we’re talking about how protein companies are thinking about innovation. We talk to Ashli Blumenfeld and Ben Rosenthal, Co-Presidents at Standard Meat Company, a family owned meat company founded in the 1930’s. Ashli and Ben chat about how they’re future-proofing their business, from how they make decisions about products and partnerships, to how they invest in innovations that might come to define the protein space.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

“Who’s investing in agribusiness?” from EvokeAg 2023

Wed, 2 Aug 2023 20:00:00 +0000

A few months ago, Matthew got the chance to represent Tenacious on a panel at the Evoke Ag Conference in Adelaide, Australia. The conversation was called “Going Global, Who's investing in Agribusiness,” and featured a group of investors who tackled some of the most pivotal questions facing the agtech investment space today; from tackling sustainability and ESG and managing through a generative AI revolution to getting to the next billion dollar exit.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Is Vertical Farming Dead? With Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin from Phyllome

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin) — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 20:00:00 +0000

In recent years, the vertical farming startup space has been characterized by ecstatic highs and disappointing lows. More than a billion dollars worth of funding has flowed into a relatively small number of investments, but despite this resourcing and years of runway, we’ve started to see frequent, high profile collapses. So, is there a value proposition with vertical farming? Or was it all hype, and time is running out?

Today, we’re joined by Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, Founder at Phyllome (a Tenacious Ventures portfolio company), to help us tackle these tricky questions.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Electrifying the Farm with David Meyers of GridTractor

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, David Meyers) — Wed, 5 Jul 2023 20:00:00 +0000

On the surface, the opportunity to transition on-farm energy to electricity seems limited at best. Farm jobs and farm equipment are big, and often require a level of power that electric options have historically been unable to meet. But between advances in electric vehicles and shifting dynamics in farm operations, those limitations are starting to dissolve. So we’ve started to wonder: is on-farm electrification at a tipping point?

Today we’ve asked David Meyers, CEO and Founder at GridTractor, to help us explore that question. His perch at the head of an agricultural fleet electrification and charging services company gives him a unique perspective on what comes next for energy use on the farm level, and what that could mean not only for the industry, but for electrification across the economy as well.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Transforming the Future of Australian Ag Retail with Rob Dawes

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Rob Dawes) — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 20:00:00 +0000

When we think about the effects of climate change on the ag sector, we tend to focus on the impacts to the farm– particularly those events will have an impact on farmer livelihoods. The reality is, unpredictable weather during the growing season is only one part of the challenge. Generalized climatic uncertainty from season to season is proving to be just as crippling, and not just for farm operators, but for the whole value chain.

Ag retailers, and other upstream ag businesses, are seeing their own climate-related disruptions, which often means that as farmers are working on contingency plans to adjust to unpredictable conditions, the companies they rely on are doing the same. And sometimes, these dueling alternative plans don't align.

To dig into these challenges, we're returning this week to the ag retail space with another perspective, from another continent. Today we're joined by Rob Dawes of Rob Dawes Consulting, who’s career has given him unique insight to both the farmer and the retailer perspective.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Race to Define the Future of Ag Retail with Shane Thomas of Upstream Ag Insights

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Shane Thomas, Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 7 Jun 2023 20:00:00 +0000

In the ag business sector, the retail channel is sacred. Ag retailers are home to the people who actually shake hands with farmers, know their kids by name, and drive by their fields regularly. So if you’re someone looking to sell a product or service to a producer, it can be almost impossible to go around these heavily-influential, and often highly localized, organizations. And yet, the ag retail world is changing. Shifts in the way producers learn about, try, and buy the things they need to run their businesses is putting pressure even on ag retail– relationships or no.

This week, we're diving deep into how ag retail is changing, and what it might look like in the future. You’ll hear from Shane Thomas, Author of Upstream Ag Insights.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

On-Farm Food Loss and Beyond with Sarah Hulick and Olympia Yarger

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet, Sarah Hulick, Olympia Yarger) — Wed, 24 May 2023 20:00:00 +0000

For the final installment in our three-part food waste series, we’re climbing all the way up to the top of the supply chain to gain a deeper understanding of on-farm food loss and waste. The challenges that farmers face getting food to the farm gate have ramifications that are felt all throughout the food system, so by understanding this vital link in the chain, we’ll gain insight into how we might begin to shift the way we understand waste overall.

Today, you’ll hear from Sarah Hulick, food waste expert and a Horticulture Faculty Member at Cabrillo College, and then we turn to Olympia Yarger, CEO of Goterra (a Tenacious Ventures portfolio company), for some closing remarks on what shifting the food waste narrative will truly require.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

How to Create Incentives for Circularity in Food System Waste

Wed, 10 May 2023 20:00:00 +0000

We’re digging back into waste in the food system this week, but to narrow the focus, we’re zooming in on Australia. Australia is a country that has set specific targets on waste reduction, but so far, is largely on track to miss them, and companies all along the value chain are contributing.

Alongside our broader discussion of overall waste targets in the country, we take a more focused look at a food system case study: a meal kit delivery company that deals with a diversity of waste streams– from ingredients to packing to fuel.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Challenges with Investing in Food Waste Tech with Closed Loop Partners and Olympia Yarger of Goterra

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Waste in the food system is an incredibly big challenge. Whether the aim is to reduce food loss, to curb packaging that ends up in landfills, or even to ensure food that’s grown makes it out of the field, there is waste at every link in the chain that continues to contribute to food and ag’s outsized climate impact. The good news is, there are plenty of startups, and many investors, that are tackling these thorny problems. But the problem is, it’s really complex.
Our internal grappling with why waste is such a hard nut to crack has taken us on a journey to better understand the barriers in the food system waste space. Today, we’re talking with Aly Bryan and Anne-Marie Kaluz from Closed Loop Partners about what they think is holding us back in addressing our waste problems, and then we turn to Olympia Yarger from Goterra (a Tenacious Ventures portfolio company) for more from an entrepreneur’s perspective.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Collaborating at the Intersection of Dairy and Alt-Dairy, with Michael Hampson from Norco Cooperative

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 20:00:00 +0000

There’s a common misconception in the alternative protein space that continues to hold back innovation: the idea that conventional and alternative products are direct competitors. In general, the idea that consumers are dropping conventional milk for soy milk, or eschewing chicken in favor of plant-based nuggets just isn’t reflected in the data. More often then not, consumers buy both conventional proteins and alternative proteins, often at the same time. Acknowledging this, we have a lot of conviction that the future of alt-proteins writ large offers a lot of opportunities for conventional protein producers as well.
Michael Hampson, CEO of Norco Cooperative Ltd., agrees. Since taking over leadership at one of Australia’s largest, farmer-owned dairy coops, he’s helped lead a change journey that has led recently to a new partnership with Eden Brew, which created a precision-fermented milk alternative that can be produced in conventional dairy facilities.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

How to Invest in Deep Tech in Agri-food, Tenaciously

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Deep tech– or the world of technology companies beyond those that make software– is often seen as a bridge too far for the world of venture capital investing. A key challenge; the tried and true strategies around growing high-value companies quickly that were the hallmark of the 2000s and 2010s don’t often translate when a company is moving atoms and molecules instead of bits and bytes.
But from our perspective, deep tech is likely the most important component of our future food system. We have conviction that deep tech advances, from robotics to distributed input production, will actually be the most important advances driving the industry forward during the next 100 years.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Unlocking Phosphorus for the Future of Fertility with Hunter Swisher of Phospholutions

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 20:00:00 +0000

When it comes to phosphorus-- the second most prominent fertilizer component– a big problem today is that it is simultaneously too rare on earth overall and too abundant in the landscapes where it's used. The vast majority of the world’s phosphorus reserves are found in just two countries, Morocco and China. And phosphorus runoff, largely originating from agricultural uses, leads to toxic algal blooms (and associated greenhouse gas emissions) all over the world.

Hunter Swisher, founder and CEO of Phospholutions, hopes that his technology offers a piece of the solution to this problem: enhancing phosphorus use efficiency. The team at Phospholutions has been working on their fertilizer additive product since they spun out of Penn State in 2016, and have been filing patents and winning pitch competitions ever since.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Can Molecular Farming Replace Cows with Crops? with Amos Palfreyman of Miruku

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 1 Mar 2023 20:00:00 +0000

The question of how to make commodity crops more valuable is a perennial one in agriculture, and over the years there have been a lot of good-- and bad-- answers. Recently, one strategy has emerged that we find particularly intriguing, though it's safe to say it comes with plenty of challenges.
Today, we’re exploring molecular farming– which, in this case, involves the production of dairy proteins in a genetically modified plant. Growing protein this way offers a lot of potential benefits, from avoiding the environmental impact of animal production to enabling plant-based dairy products that are quite true to the original.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Transforming Animal Waste into Renewable Fertilizer with Jordan Phasey from Phinite

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 20:01:00 +0000

When people in ag think about fertilizer, nitrogen -- or N -- is usually the first thing that comes to mind, whether thinking about yields, costs, or environmental impacts. But phosphorus is another concerning element of the crop nutrient mix, due to the declining mineable supplies, and the fact that those supplies are almost exclusively located in Morocco and China.
But natural deposits aren’t the only source of phosphorus on Earth: livestock manure also contains meaningful quantities of the valuable mineral. The challenge is in transforming a complex, liquid, and highly concentrated waste product into the fertility input with which most farmers are familiar.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Future of Fertilizer... So What? with Tim Hammerich from Future of Agrculture

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 1 Feb 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Global geopolitical disruptions first put fertilizer center stage as farmers around the world struggled with price and supply swings. But that was just the beginning of the conversation– as fertilizer tech begins to step into the spotlight, offering alternatives not only to traditional products, but to our whole way of thinking about the crop nutrients sector.
Today, Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast joins Sarah to dig into the “so what?” of the nitrogen tech we’ve discussed here on the podcast and the fertilizer innovations Tim has recently covered. Along the way, we discuss key quotes from our recent fertilizer episodes and offer theories on what the future will look like.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Disclaimer: Tenacious Ventures is an investor in Jupiter Ionics
The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

AgTech Headlines… So What? - Mineral Launch, Planet Labs Insurance, Deere Right-to-Repair

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Breaking news in the agtech world abounds here at the beginning of 2023, and as we've tracked the latest announcements, we've been thinking a lot about a few tech updates, especially from major brands, and what they might mean for the agtech landscape in the near future.
Today, teammates Komal Patel and Matthew Pryor join Sarah to discuss a few pieces of news from the past few weeks that stood out. We dig into the details, read between the lines, and argue why we think they're worth paying attention to.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Building a Food Business Ecosystem from the Farm Up, with Michael Bosworth of Next Generation Foods

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Agtech has long had an interest in shortening the supply chain between farms and consumers. And yet after years of effort, relatively little progress has been made beyond a proliferation of farmers markets and some new “local” tags at supermarkets. There are a lot of challenges in this space that go beyond a simple technical fix, and overcoming them often requires rethinking the entire business model.
Enter Michael Bosworth, farmer and founder of Next Generation Foods, a California-based food brand and distribution company that's reinventing how food moves from the fields to chefs and home kitchens alike, with a special interest in sustainability, science, and transparency. Michael’s not only growing rice in a highly water-vulnerable region, he’s also growing a valuable food business to market his products and those from nearby farms to ensure that his model is both environmentally and economically sustainable.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

2022: The Year of Risk at AgTech… So What?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 20:00:00 +0000

2022 was a wild year– both in the world of agtech broadly, and for us here at Tenacious Ventures. We’ve covered a lot of ground, spanning everything from scaling soil tech, to the future of ag marketing, to alternative protein, novel investing tactics, and most recently, the next generation of farm inputs.
Today, we’re taking some time to reflect on the most important lessons we’ve learned on the podcast this year– and for us, it all came back to the question of how tech can help mitigate risk in agriculture. You’ll hear snippets from five episodes that we found particularly thought-provoking in relation to the risk question.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Shifting from Climate Measurement to Risk Mitigation, with Cullen Gunn from Kilter Rural

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 20:00:00 +0000

There is a lot of momentum in agtech right now around investing at the intersection of ag and climate– and inevitably, many conversations start with a focus on how to measure impact. The problem we’ve been thinking about lately-- this conversation often gets stuck on the measurement challenge. In our perspective, the real opportunities go beyond just measuring the impact of decisions like practice changes. The future is in taking actions that meaningfully mitigate climate risks to agriculture.

To dig into this challenge, we’re joined this week by Cullen Gunn, CEO and Executive Director of Kilter Rural, which has been operating in the natural capital space since 2004, specifically investing in rural landscapes, water, and ecosystem protection.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Why is autonomy in ag so hard? With Ray Russell and Connie Bowen

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 20:00:00 +0000

We’ve talked and thought a lot about autonomy this year, and despite what we think are some promising developments, overall, we continue to be struck by just how hard it is to bring solutions to market. From the technology to the use case, from the regulations to data, there are barriers and problems to solve in every direction.

So today we’re covering a ton of ground to understand why bringing autonomous solutions to agriculture is so hard. First, we talk to Connie Bowen of Farmhand Ventures, who is not particularly bullish on the near term viability of full autonomy, and has instead chosen to focus on what she calls “collaborative robotics”. Then we check in with Ray Russell, Principal Hardware Engineer at Locomation on specifically why technical problems stand in the way of progress in the autonomous space. Finally, we check in briefly with Kevin Andrews, Strat Marketing Manager for Autonomy at Trimble Agriculture to understand how more established equipment players are thinking about tackling autonomy’s biggest challenges.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

From Buyer Beware to Seller Beware in Agtech

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 19:00:00 +0000

We’ve been thinking a lot recently about how much the world of agtech has changed over the last two decades, and how companies, and more importantly, their customers, are adapting to an increasingly digitally native world. For years, the focus was on educating farmer-customers and post-sales training. But today, sophisticated growers tell their tech partners, and their peer networks, what they want, need, like, and dislike about their tools, often in real time.
Today we dig into this transition, which we think of as the shift in agtech from ‘buyer beware’ to ‘seller beware’. First, we talk to Leet Wilksch of Agbyte, who sits on both sides of the buyer/seller table as farmers have evolved from tech skeptics to discerning buyers. Then, we gain some industry perspective from Jason McNeice and Darren Walford of Trimble Agriculture.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The Future of Fertilizer - Nitrogen: Part 2, with Jupiter Ionics and Kula Bio

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 2 Nov 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Today we're tackling part two of our future of Nitrogen fertilizer discussion, focusing on the realm of business models and strategies. We chat with two companies exploring how we might reimagine the way farmers around the world buy and sell this critical input, including through distributed, rather than centralized, supply chains.

We’ll continue our conversation with Bill Brady, CEO and Director at Kula Bio and Charlie Day, CEO at Jupiter Ionics* We also add in some on the ground perspective around how farmers are handling the pressures of the fertilizer market right now by chatting with Jason McNeese, software specialist for the Asia Pacific region at Trimble Agriculture, and Darren Walford, APAC Sales Manager for Trimble Global Positioning.
In this episode, our guests speak about:

A future of small scale production of N, and how farmers have reacted to potential changes away from today’s centralized model
What benefits, especially in terms of Scope-3 emissions, might be realized by thinking differently about how and where fertilizer is made
How new N companies are tackling the challenge of creating trustworthy brands and products in the face of the many false starts in the fertilizer space.

For more useful resources please visit our website.

*Disclaimer: Jupiter Ionics is a portfolio company of Tenacious Ventures

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Trimble Agriculture, who are building technology to make farming better through precision.

The Future of Fertilizer - Nitrogen, with Jupiter Ionics and Kula Bio

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 19:00:00 +0000

This is the first episode in our series on the future of fertilizer, starting with Nitrogen - the N in NPK.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has collided with natural gas supply chain disruptions and sent the price of fertilizer skyrocketing. But, this isn’t the least of the crop nutrient industry’s problems. It’s a space renowned for being complex and confusing. It also relies on an emissions-intensive value chain that has been around now for more than a century.

Today’s episode looks at two different visions for the future of nitrogen fertilizer. Our guests are Charlie Day, CEO of Jupiter Ionics, and Bill Brady, CEO of Kula Bio. Both lead teams that are attempting to bring cutting edge nitrogen production methods to market.

Charlie and Bill join to speak about:

Reducing the chemical intensity of production - How new approaches to producing nitrogen work and why they are key to a cleaner industry.
Reinventing nitrogen fertilizer - Why reinventing fertilizer production makes sense
Scaling the science - Why scaling production from grams to tonnes is so tough, let alone trying to get it into the hands of customers.
Designing for adoption - What Charlie and Bill have learned from other novel ag inputs that failed to fit into the production systems of farmers.

We’ll follow up with a Part 2 on the future of N - stay tuned! For more useful resources, visit our website.

On-Farm Climate Risks and the Future of Ag Finance with Clay Govier

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 19:00:00 +0000

For a year that has already seen so much downside for US farmers in the form of extreme weather - from droughts to soaring temperatures - there’s another risk looming: rising interest rates.

Adapting to an increasingly unpredictable and extreme climate is not cheap or easy. For farmers planning for the resilience and longevity of their business, the intersection of climate and fiscal risk has us wondering: how are farmers financing future growth, and where does resilience to climate change factor in?

This week’s bonus episode gets into the details of how one farmer is planning for growth in the midst of enormous uncertainty. Clay Govier is a multi-generational farmer in Nebraska growing a diversified mix of grains, and he joins to speak about:

Extreme weather in 2022 - What Clay’s exposure to heat and drought has meant for his business this year
Financing resilience - What financing options Clay and his family have used for generations, and what is driving change in the future
Generational transition - Why the $500B of US farmland changing hands in the next 10 years is driving new strategic thinking from farmers
Alternative financing models - What the risks, opportunities, and skepticism looks like toward new modes of finance

For more useful resources, visit our website.

Legacy Finance Eyes Agtech, with Wells Fargo

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 5 Oct 2022 19:00:00 +0000

While early-stage agtech tends to play in the venture world, it pays to check in with how folks sitting in banking think about their role as partners to startups. Traditional lenders can draw on the best part of a century of connection to agriculture, and potentially offer significant options for financing the growth of later-stage companies.

This week we heard from Romie Basra, Senior VP, National Sustainable Tech Practice Leader, and Karol Aure-Flynn, Food and Agribusiness Industries Advisor at Wells Fargo. As investors and lenders in traditional agriculture, as well as to other tech movements that have boomed (and busted) in recent memory, Romie and Karol joined to speak about:

Cleantech vs. agtech. How investors in the previous waves of cleantech think about the challenges facing the new generation of startups in ag
Financing options for startups. What role a legacy provider of finance like Wells Fargo wants to play for growing agtech companies
Scaling in indoor ag. How a bank thinks about the barriers to scale for companies in a space like indoor agriculture
Value props to institutional lenders. Why the “unsexy” elements of startup scale matter most to institutional lenders

For more useful resources, visit our website.

Systems Thinking and the Legacy of Big Food, with Dr Nigel Hughes, Kellogg

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 20:00:00 +0000

The decisions by major food companies impact consumers, farmers, and the environment at every stage of the agrifood value chain. But the status quo strategies of ‘Big Food’ don’t always acknowledge the complex, interconnected systems at play around the world.
Our guest this week is Dr. Nigel Hughes, Senior Vice President of Global R&D at Kellogg. After spending a career in what he would unwillingly call Big Food, Nigel now advocates for the urgent recoupling of the many smaller systems, from farming to processing to distribution, that have become detached as they’ve been optimized over decades.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Changing the Risk Profile of Agriculture: a farmer's perspective on parametric insurance

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 7 Sep 2022 06:00:00 +0000

We recently launched a three-episode deep dive into the future of risk and insurance in agriculture. Over the course of the series, we heard from one listener who offered to share his experience using novel insurance products to manage the risks of both too little and too much rainfall in his own farming operation. This from-the-field perspective was packed with insights, and was such a powerful contribution to our learning that we asked his permission to use the audio for this episode.

Tom Ferguson is a farmer in Northern New South Wales, Australia, and this week you’ll hear a conversation between him and Tenacious Ventures Co-Founder Matthew Pryor. They speak about:

Tom’s specific exposure to climate-risk, and why this has led to him exploring new options for insurance
His process for collecting data, identifying high-impact risks to hedge against, and using this data to strike tailored, parametric policies with insurers
What the impact of using more data on the farm can be for new insurance products, and what’s holding back the integration
His adoption of new agtech on the farm, and what factors enabled or inhibited uptake within the business.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

What Commodity Agriculture Can Learn from Organic Farming, with Amy Bruch, Cyclone Farms

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 20:00:00 +0000

While the term “organic” tends to be associated with small-scale production and a preference for manual tools over the latest technology, organic farming advocates claim their methods can reduce the need for expensive inputs like fertilizers and herbicides, improve soil health, and allow farmers to differentiate their product in otherwise global commodity markets. So, what can commodity agriculture learn from organic farming?

Our guest this week is Amy Bruch, a sixth-generation farmer of row crops, small grains, pulses, and oilseeds, and 2021 Organic Trade Association Organic Farmer of the Year. After starting her career as a systems engineer in food manufacturing, Amy travelled to work on large-scale soil improvement projects in Brazil. This experience “farming in another postcode” then led to her approach managing the family farm back in Eastern Nebraska, and turning nearly 2,500 acres into organic production.

In this episode, Amy talks about:

How her experience improving degraded, acidic soils in regional Brazil makes her a better farmer at Cyclone Farms today
The benefits of combining organic production techniques AND new innovations in technology
How a focus on soil health is a gateway for more farmers to not only sequester more carbon, but also realize meaningful benefits for their crops & bottom line
Why current organic farming standards are a potential onramp for farmers to adopt more “climate smart” agricultural practices

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Defining the Future of Ag Advocacy, with Emma Germano, Victorian Farmers Federation

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Agriculture is exposed to a complex tangle of laws, trade agreements, and competing visions of the future. For farmers, adjustments by legislators at any level of government can have an impact. So while policy is often an afterthought for operators in tech, the pressure for farmers to be engaged and represented in the formulation of new policy is real.
It’s for this reason that ag has always invested deeply in advocacy groups. Our guest this week is Emma Germano, President of The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) and Managing Director of her family’s fruit and vegetable business, I Love Farms.
Almost two years into her tenure as President of an advocacy group that positions itself as “the voice of Victorian farmers and rural communities,” Emma joins us to speak about:

What interests and skills led her to advocacy and working with the VFF
The role of ag advocacy groups and the ROI they deliver for growers
Why advocacy groups are under pressure to engage a new generation of members in regional communities
What Emma sees as the central issues for Australian agricultural advocacy

For more information and resources, visit our website .

Bonus Ep: Audience Responses to "The Three Fears of Farm Data"

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 3 Aug 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Back in May, we published an experimental bonus episode called “The Three Fears of Farm Data”. The conversation centered around the legitimacy of fears held by farmers about sharing their farm data, and kicked off with a particularly hot take:
“We in agtech have completely f*****d farmers by making them afraid of sharing their data.”
The episode got a huge reaction from around the industry - both positive and critical. It’s clear that the conversation around farm data is one that everyone in agtech, from farmers and startups to analysts and operators in agribusinesses, seem interested in continuing.
Our latest bonus episode features Tenacious Ventures Partners and Co-Founders Sarah Nolet and Matthew Pryor analyzing the wide range of reactions that have been sent through over recent weeks. They’ll be discussing responses from:

Bernie Byrnes, farmer and 2020 Nuffield Scholar
Eric Taipale, CTO at ag insights platform Sentera
Dan Shultz, agtech marketer
Nigel Kleinschmidt, agtech industry professional and friend of the show
Pip Grant, an operator and listener working in agtech and research
Rhishi Pethe, author of Software is Feeding the World

It was the engagement of our audience that made this episode possible, and we are deeply grateful to these contributors and to everyone else that submitted a response we did not get to include. If you loved this week’s episode or hated it, get in touch. We might ask you to be on next!
For more information and resources, visit our website .

The Three Categories of Autonomy in Agriculture, with Andrew Bate, SwarmFarm Robotics

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Autonomous farming equipment and robotics in ag is more crowded than ever. Every new acquisition from an incumbent or deployment of venture capital into the space creates more buzz to sort through in the inboxes of analysts, entrepreneurs, and farmers.
With the industry growing so quickly, it’s helpful to have a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening, and what it means for the future of agriculture.
So, in this week’s episode we give listeners a framework to understand the rapidly moving world of autonomy in ag. Our guest is Andrew Bate, Co-Founder and CEO of SwarmFarm Robotics, who joins us to share his observations on the three major categories of autonomy that are emerging in ag.
Drawing on his experiences as a farmer and founder, and insights from SwarmBot customers around Australia, Andrew speaks about:

How his experience growing the family farm led to the creation of SwarmFarm Robotics
What three categories are emerging in the marketplace of autonomy in agriculture
Examples of the new farming practices that autonomy unlocks
How SwarmFarm Robotics’ plan to scale differs from the dealership model

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The Incentives, Barriers, and Willingness to Pay for Carbon Programs in Agriculture, with Emma Fuller, Corteva Agriscience

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 20:00:00 +0000

When it comes to designing carbon programs in agriculture, there is a very real tension between the science and the commercial realities of drawing down carbon at scale. Particularly, the question of how to incentivize on-farm practice changes is one that many companies in ag carbon have failed to answer.
Working at the intersection of these tensions is our guest this week, Emma Fuller, Carbon and Ecosystem Services Portfolio Leader at Corteva Agriscience. An accomplished data scientist and ecologist, Emma began her career in agrifood systems publishing research on West Coast fisheries in the US, before jumping into the world of startups at Granular. After their $300M acquisition by what is now Corteva Agriscience, today Emma designs programs that credit farmers for reducing greenhouse gas emissions or sequestering carbon in their soils.
In this episode, Emma talks about:

How it felt to move from academia into industry, and how Emma realized that the barriers to scaling carbon programs had little to do with science
Why Corteva decided to partner with carbon marketplaces, and how this strategy is unlocking more scale and delivering value to both parties
Conflicts of interest in carbon markets, and whether one company can both measure an intangible commodity and sell it

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Ag Insurance...So What?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 20:03:00 +0000

This week we're bringing you the final episode in our three-part series on the future of ag insurance.Our journey started with learning the ins and outs of how the sector currently operates (check out the ag insurance 101 episode here) and then talking to key players about new products and technologies entering the industry (check out Damon Johnson on parametric insurance here).Today, Sarah is joined by Matthew Pryor to talk through their learnings in a live attempt to develop an investment thesis for ag insurance. They cover:

Technologies and business models shifting the CAC/LTV equation in ag insurance
How insurance is likely to change as agriculture faces more and more extreme weather events
What entrepreneurs disrupting ag insurance need to be excellent at
Possible areas for venture investment in ag insurance, from new products to enabling infrastructure and digitally-native business models

We hope you enjoy this peek behind the curtain of how we think and work, but if you didn't, or you think we missed or got something wrong, we'd love to hear from you! Shout out at @agtechsowhat or via our website.

The Future of Insurance in Agriculture, with Damon Johnson, Global Ag Risk Solutions

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 20:00:00 +0000

For a traditionally low innovation industry, things are starting to heat up in agricultural insurance.
While it remains something of a black box for many people in agriculture, the forces of climate change and technological innovation are creating the right mix of incentives that could change how the whole industry approaches risk.
This second episode of our exploration of ag insurance (check out the first, a 101 on ag insurance, here!) considers a digitally-native product in the hands of farmers today. Reimagining insurance like this will be the difference between farmers spending hours, days, and weeks dealing with brokers and getting payouts, compared to almost instant quotes, claims, and reimbursements.
In this episode, our guest Damon Johnson, Director of Strategic Projects at Global Ag Risk Solutions, speaks about:

What incentives are changing to increase the use of more data in agricultural insurance
How parametric insurance works as an alternative to traditional agricultural products
What’s involved in developing a parametric product to create new value for customers as well as vendors
Where digitally-native insurance products might emerge as a value-add for sustainable farming systems and inputs

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Bonus Ep: Ag Insurance 101

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Climate change will mean more frequent, extreme weather and more risk exposure for farmers around the world. This increased risk should be a driver for the business of agricultural insurers. But, it’s not easy to predict how climate change and digital-disruption might transform one of the world’s oldest industries.
Actually, we’ve come to realize it isn’t easy to understand how agricultural insurance works at all.
So, in the spirit of learning out loud, we’re releasing TWO episodes this week. This first one dives into the mysterious world of ag insurance with a 101-style conversation with Matt Coutts, Chief Investment Officer of Coutts Capita, and Tenacious Ventures General Partner Matthew Pryor.
We talk about:

How farmers think about risk and forms of insurance
What ag insurance products actually do, how they work, who is involved, and what the dynamics are between different players from brokers to master agents
Why ag insurance, as it is structured today, is a zero-sum game played out between insurers and farmers
What the different forces are that will shape the industry into the future

For more information and resources, visit our website.

From the Vault: Mark Wootton on Carbon-Neutral Farming at Jigsaw Farms

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 1 Jun 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Recently the whole team here at Tenacious Ventures had the chance to get out of town and on to the farm. And not just any farm – we visited Jigsaw Farms, home to sheep farmer and long-time friend of the show Mark Wooton and his wife Eve. While out at Jigsaw, Mark and Eve gave us an update on their vision for “sustainable intensification” and their ethos for farm management.
In that spirit we wanted to revisit our original conversation with Mark that was published nearly two years ago. After the recent visit to Jigsaw, it’s clear there are insights from this first discussion that are still valuable and relevant today, as Mark talks about:

Balancing the social imperative to farm ethically with production methods that can keep businesses profitable,
Keeping an eye on emerging trends like ecosystem services markets, and being open to the possibility of accessing premiums where they might emerge
The growing regenerative agriculture movement, and the need for farmers to think critically about guidelines and principles that are often put forward as dogma
The primacy of data in every decision that gets made on the farm

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Making Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty, with Hallie Shoffner

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 18 May 2022 20:00:00 +0000

It isn’t surprising that most farmers have to be expert planners and investors. But getting an inside view into how a farmer plans for the future of their business is a rare opportunity.
In this episode, you’ll hear firsthand how Hallie Shoffner, a sixth-generation row crop farmer in the Mississippi Delta, makes decisions for her farm and company, SFR Seed. While Hallie is an enthusiastic adopter of new farming innovations, this conversation shows that every decision must be well supported by reliable data and the right incentives.
Listen in to hear Hallie speak about:

Investing in conservation practices as a tactic to mitigate financial and environmental risk
What farmers like Hallie want to see from potential partners and vendors in agtech
How COVID-19 impacted a large project to electrify operations on the farm
Why many farmers are skeptical of participating in carbon programs and markets

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Bonus Ep: The Three Fears of Farm Data

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 11 May 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Our latest bonus podcast episode is an experiment.
Rather than organize the contributions that usually make up an episode, we decided to hit record on one of the conversations that are always happening internally at Tenacious Ventures.
It’s a snapshot into how we think, form and test our assumptions, and decide on what might be next.
It also captured the team taking on a pretty hot topic on the mind of everyone in agtech battling with adoption and scaling digitally-native solutions:
Have we in agtech completely f*****d farmers by making them afraid of sharing their data?
Listen in to Matthew Pryor and Sarah Nolet from Tenacious Ventures, and Shane Thomas, agronomist and author at Upstream Ag Insights, work through an emerging theory that uncertainty and fear about farm data is a largely unfounded barrier to adoption.
Throughout this recorded conversation, the team explores questions like:

Which barriers to adoption are actually grounded in reality when it comes to farmers and farm data?
How did the agtech industry create such fear around farm data, and who has the greatest leverage to change the conversation?
Why could improvements in data migration unlock greater adoption of digitally-native solutions by farmers?

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Services and Software for On-Farm Autonomy, with Iftach Birger of FieldIn

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 4 May 2022 20:00:00 +0000

There are many different views about the future of autonomous farming. One is that, out of the emerging autonomous equipment providers and established blue chip suppliers, there will be clear winners and losers in the battle for on-farm dominance. Another is that farming in the future will involve all kinds of autonomous solutions. This second possibility presents tons of opportunities to add value for farmers.
Our guest on this week’s episode is Iftach Birger, Co-Founder and COO at FieldIn, a farm data and autonomous equipment startup founded in Israel. Rather than wade into the fray playing out between new autonomous equipment players and established corporations, FieldIn is attempting to create a platform that allows a mixed fleet of equipment to interact seamlessly.
Iftach joins us to speak about:

Lessons for the agtech world from being born and raised on a high-value crop farm in Israel
What’s more important for a scaling agtech startup - building what customers say they want, what they actually need, and what is even possible within the present day constraints
The intricacies of the farm labor debate as it relates to on-farm autonomy
How to provide the service alongside the software in an industry that values (but might not pay for) boots-on-the-ground partners in the future

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Navigating Economic Development and the Social Fabric of Agriculture, with Elizabeth Brennan, Wide Open Agriculture

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Every decision made by founders, farmers, and leaders in agriculture shapes the future of our food system. Whether it’s the cost per hectare of a biological or the value of a ton of carbon sequestered, the different goals and outcomes that end up in business plans inevitably define how time, energy, and capital are spent.
But there are many outcomes of a healthy food system that don’t fit in a business plan. How do leaders today account for the broad connections between people, ideas, and identities? It’s this fabric that reflects who we are, what we value as a society, and how we interact as humans along the agricultural value chain.
Elizabeth Brennan is Non-Executive Director of publicly-listed regenerative food company Wide Open Agriculture. She is a leader across many other organizations dedicated to innovation, equality, and diversity in our agrifood system, and has a long connection to the Western Australian wheat belt, as well as communities overseas.
In this episode Liz shares her insights on:

What Australian farmers can learn from other cultures, communities, and different forms of agriculture less geared toward the economics of export
How her definition of “impact” helps her navigate multiple roles of influence across publicly-listed companies, not-for-profits, and family farming business
How her experience working in subsistence agricultural communities in Papua New Guinea applies to her work in Australian agriculture today
What the role social fabric in rural and regional communities means, and how to make sure it isn’t lost in the future

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Unscrambling Go-to-Market and Brand in Alternative Protein, with Tanja Bogumil, Perfeggt

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 6 Apr 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Let’s talk about eggs.
Hardly anything can match the egg for complete versatility. Eggs are a crucial ingredient that unlocksthe tastes, textures, and experiences we take for granted in everything from the simplest home omelette to food manufactured on an industrial scale.
So, how would you approach replacing the egg with a plant-based alternative?
This week on EggTech…So What?, we spoke with alternative-protein entrepreneur Tanja Bogumil. Tanja is the Co-Founder and CEO of Berlin-based Perfeggt, a company working to bring plant-based egg alternatives to market, starting with a liquid substitute used for scrambled eggs and baking.
In this episode, Tanja shares her insights on:

Her story moving from digital entrepreneurship into food, and finding the best team to “crack the egg”
How Perfeggt mapped the “jobs-to-be-done” of the egg in the food production value chain, and how this informed their initial product focus
Why initial alternative-protein products are “a means to an end” to start shifting consumer behavior and creatingpathways to scale
What future strategies for category dominance in alternative-proteins could look like

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Bonus Ep: The State of Fundraising in Agtech

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Life is moving pretty fast for founders and investors working in agtech.
Recent years have seen record flows of capital into agrifood, driven in part by agriculture potential to provide climate solutions. And the massive disruptions of COVID-19 meant developed markets received a historic taste of what changes will be needed in a world impacted by climate change and further uncertainty.
So, how have the last few years impacted agtech founders looking to raise capital, and investors on the lookout for opportunities with impact?
For this bonus episode, Tenacious Ventures’ Partners Sarah Nolet and Matthew Pryor asked a group of founders and investors to share what they’ve learned and observed about the state of agtech investing in 2022. As a dedicated agrifood venture fund “born in the teeth of COVID-19”, Sarah and Matthew also offer their take on what has changed and what has stayed the same as we look to the future.
In this episode, you’ll hear from:

Dr Jasmin Hume - CEO & Co-Founder of Shiru
Olympia Yarger - Founder & CEO of Goterra
Alex Logan - Co-Founder of Cecil
Max Elder - Co-Founder & CEO of Nowadays
Michael Dean - Founding Partner at AgFunder
Mark Kahn - Managing Partner at Omnivore

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Investing Beyond the Farmgate with Ben Barlow, New Edge Microbials

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Biologicals in agriculture have a wildly exciting future. It’s a segment responding to innovation in science, changes in markets, and the urgent pressures of adapting to climate change. New startups coming into the space are generating plenty of buzz, but there are also established players with products in the hands of farmers today.
Ben Barlow is a veteran executive and the Managing Director of New Edge Microbials, a company that has been supplying farmers with legume inoculants and other biologicals for over 20 years. Growing a business in the biologicals space has been just one more step on Ben’s path from his early days as a bank teller with a front-row seat to new opportunities both on and off-farm, and through to expanding his investment thesis to include companies along the value chain globally.
While Ben has plenty to share about the realities of corporate agribusiness for founders and executives, his story as a family farmer investing beyond the farmgate has lessons for producers as well.
In this episode, Ben shares:

How farmers can diversify their portfolio to manage for the seasonality and cyclicality of farm production
Trends in the biologicals market, and what it takes to succeed in a sector with high barriers to entry and costs for R&D
What it takes for globalized agribusiness to succeed in local markets where people and communities are
What will be needed for Australia to avoid having a massive disadvantage in biologicals in the coming years

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Meeting in the Middle on Sustainable Supply Chains - Jessie Deelo, Vayda

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 9 Mar 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Sustainability in food and agriculture has come a long way. Far from being “the dirty word” it used to be in boardrooms and at farm-gates, it’s now business as usual to expect CSR policies, ESG strategies, and decarbonization targets from all major agri-food companies.
But, according to Jessie Deelo, Chief Hub Officer at Vayda, sustainability is moving beyond typical “top-down” commitments. In her work improving the environmental and social impact of supply chains, Jessie sees a huge opportunity for farmers that already embrace sustainable production methods to connect with brands that need products and, incredibly, good stories to tell. As she tells it, the solutions appearing where grassroots meet top-down imperatives will be the most fair for all parties.
For more information and resources, visit our website.

The Authenticity Premium in AgTech Marketing with Camille Grade from Bushel and Travis Martin from Magnetic Ag

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 19:00:00 +0000

AgTech companies make promises to investors to grow fast and be quick to iterate or change direction. But they also make promises to customers who think more in seasons instead of product development cycles, and who value long-term relationships with a mutual investment.
These are difficult pressures for agtech marketers to manage. In this episode, we hear from Camille Grade, Chief Marketing Officer at Bushel, and Travis Martin, an agtech marketing consultant and founder of industry newsletter Magnetic Ag, on how they balance the demands of fast-growth tech with the long memory and unique market structure of agriculture.
Hear both guests share their insights on:

Why authenticity and integrity are more important than ever when communicating your agtech brand
How to reconcile new media and marketing strategies with an industry that still relies heavily on in-person connection
What opportunities exist with your early adopters and biggest fans
How to manage your brand promise over crucial periods of growth, experimentation, and change

For more information and links to the resources mentioned in this podcast, visit our website.

Win-Win Business Models for Farmers and Startups with Marissa Cuevas Flores of MicroTERRA

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 9 Feb 2022 19:01:00 +0000

Balancing the desire to do good with the need to build a business that can scale is a challenge for every entrepreneur. Particularly in agriculture, finding strategies that solve for both the users of the product as well as beneficiaries of the solution is key. For Marissa Cuevas Flores, Founder and CEO of MicroTERRA, it took several iterations before her team settled on a workable value proposition that could contribute to massive global challenges like preserving fresh water and feeding the world.
In this episode, you’ll hear more about:

Why farmers, for the most part, cannot afford to carry the financial burden of sustainability
What it took to shut down one circular economy startup and transition into a new field & business model
Tips for new-to-agtech entrepreneurs when it comes to pitching new solutions to farmers
How MicroTERRA turns duckweed into a high-value product that pays farmers and powers the plant-based food industry

Learn more at https://www.agtechsowhat.com/episodes

Genetics, biosecurity, and the cutest sheep in the world with Dr Belinda Cardinal, Caprotek

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 19:01:00 +0000

Managing the genetic quality of a herd can be a wicked challenge for Australian farmers. We’re a country with a small number of animals relative to the rest of the world, and formidable, complex biosecurity protocols.
Fortunately, Belinda Cardinal, Founder of breeding and genetics company Caprotek and career dairy goat farmer, enjoys spending time on wickedly difficult problems. After years spent strengthening the genetic diversity of her herd of dairy goats, Belinda attracted all kinds of coverage after importing the genetic material to breed the nation’s first Valais Blacknose Sheep in 2021.
In this episode Belinda shares her insights on:

What it’s like to transition from researcher and scientist to a full-time farmer
How diversifying genetics and improving herds of livestock in a small country can be uniquely challenging for farmers
What it’s like to tackle an industry challenge no one has attempted in over 100 years,p
The similarities between farmers and startup founders when it comes to scaling novel technologies and doing hard, controversial things

Learn more at https://www.agtechsowhat.com/episodes

The Tricky Business of Scaling Soil Tech - Adam Litle, CEO, Sound Agriculture

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 19:01:00 +0000

The science and technology of soil is rapidly evolving, but translating it into a scalable business that can offer viable products to farmers has long been a tricky proposition. But it’s one that Adam Litle, the CEO of Sound Agriculture, has devoted much of his career to answering.
Adam was part of the executive team at Granular, the farm management software company acquired by Dupont (now Corteva) for $300M. Now, at Sound Ag, he’s leading a company that’s raised more than $95M to develop a product which activates microbes in soil to increase the uptake of nitrogen and phosphorus, thereby enabling farmers to use less fertilizer.
In this episode Adam shares his insights on:

Striking a balance between scientific rigor, technological innovation, and investor returns
Why the SaaS business model is challenging in agriculture
How to build trust in a startup team of scientists and industry people, while bringing in commercial experience.
Why soil innovations are receiving an increase in attention as farmers continue to grapple with the rising costs of fertilizer.

For more information, visit our website.

FROM THE VAULT: Mark Ferguson on science, sheep, and the tech-enabled future of genetics

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 19:01:00 +0000

Originally released: 20 February, 2020
We’ll be back with new episodes in January 2022, but for the holidays we thought we’d bring back a favorite episode from the vault!
Mark Ferguson or “Ferg,” is a sheep geneticist who’s paying attention to how both consumer demands and emerging technologies are impacting growers. He’s the co-founder and Director of neXtgen Agri, an online livestock consultancy, and Genesmith, a startup applying facial recognition and machine learning to the global livestock industry.
Drawing on his experience with dozens of clients around Australia and New Zealand, Ferg shares his insights on:

How to build relationships in a digital world.
What the future of extension and consulting in livestock holds.
The role of cutting edge technologies in the sheep industry (facial recognition for sheep!)
His vision for a future where consumer expectations are met and growers are profitable.

For more episodes, visit our website. Catch you in 2022!

What's the role of government in agtech ecosystems? Salvatore Lavallo, Abu Dhabi Investment Office

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 19:01:00 +0000

It’s fair to say most entrepreneurs (and farmers!) aren’t big fans of government rules and regulations for fear of being slowed down by red tape and bureaucracy. However, the political environment in which a startup develops can have a big impact on its ability to find investment and support, especially in agtech, where ecosystems are still very new for most countries.
The United Arab Emirates is investing heavily in agtech, seeking to make Abu Dhabi the global center for innovation in agriculture. Their focus is on vertical farming, aquaculture, and hydroponics. And they’re working to be strategic in attracting investment and solving for food security, while also developing a knowledge economy.
Salvatore Lavallo is the Head of Foreign Direct Investment at the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. He’s had a unique, and perhaps unlikely journey, to this position. Growing up in Indiana, his interest in economic development led him to become, at the age of 27, one of the youngest people to travel to every country in the world. Along the way, he became a farm owner in Tanzania, and later, a consultant with McKinsey in Africa and the Middle East.In this episode, Salvatore discusses:

Challenging conventional economic indicators to understand what actually benefits local communities
Abu Dhabi’s bold plan to create Food Tech Valley, a hub for agtech innovation in desert environments.
The tension between too much government regulation and too little

For more information and resources from this episode, visit our website

Bonus Ep: Later-Stage Agtech Startup Wrap, feat. Anastasia Volkova, Regrow

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 8 Dec 2021 19:01:00 +0000

Where are all the women founders in agtech, especially at later-stage startups? What does an acquisition really feel like, and when does it make sense? In this Bonus episode, we answer both these questions, as well as build on the key insights from our latest series: “Later-Stage Agtech Startup Lessons”.
This episode features:

Anastasia Volkova - co-founder and CEO of Regrow*, an independent measurement reporting and verification platform. Regrow, (formerly Flurosat), recently acquired US agtech company, Dagan, and raised $17 million in Series A funding.
Matthew Pryor - co-founder of Tenacious Ventures, and partner at the Agthentic Group. He previously co-founded Observant, a precision ag water management company, which was acquired by Jain Irrigation.

Our guests also examine some of the key lessons from the entrepreneurs featured in this series: Michael Gilbert of Semios, Paul Lightfoot of BrightFarms and Charles Baron of Farmers Business Network.
For more information visit our website.
*Disclaimer: Tenacious Ventures is an investor in Regrow.

Later-Stage Agtech Startup Lessons #3 - Charles Baron, Farmers Business Network

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 1 Dec 2021 19:31:00 +0000

Farmers Business Network is one of the most well-funded startups in agtech. Just recently, they announced a $300M Series G round, bringing their total funds raised to $870M and their valuation to nearly $4 billion.
So, where did it all begin?
In this episode, FBN co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Charles Baron, explains how his Silicon Valley upbringing unexpectedly collided with rural Nebraska, resulting in an idea for a new kind of agribusiness- one that would connect farmers and increase their bargaining power for chemicals and seeds.
In the eight years since the startup began, FBN has frequently encountered opposition from incumbents due to its push for competition and transparency for input pricing. In this episode, the last in our three-part series, Charles talks about several key factors in the company’s success, including:

Questioning Silicon Valley’s ‘founder obsession’ to instead create a ‘farmer-centric’ ideology
The importance of telling your company’s story through your own channels (rather than relying on others).
How FBN makes decisions about which strategies to pursue, including their Gradable platform and recently announced partnership with ADM

This is the third episode in our “Later-Stage Agtech Startup Lessons” series. Listen to episode 1) Michael Gilbert of Semios and episode 2) Paul Lightfoot of BrightFarms. For more resources visit our website.

Later-Stage Agtech Startup Lessons #2 - Paul Lightfoot, BrightFarms

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 19:01:00 +0000

“When you say, ‘can I have your money?’ Then, people speak the truth.”
Paul Lightfoot is a serial entrepreneur who has learned several lessons the hard way, from raising money to communicating purpose to hiring (and firing). After spending much of his career as a software CEO, Paul wanted to follow his “calling” to enter the world of sustainability and foodtech.
But this meant moving from a familiar career trajectory to an industry that, 10 years ago when Paul was entering it, barely even existed. In 2011, Paul founded BrightFarms, which uses hydroponic greenhouses to produce locally sourced packaged salads in the US. Along the way, he has made several critical decisions for his startup’s success. This includes an incredibly rare and difficult decision for any founder to make- Paul voluntarily stepped back from the role of CEO and hired someone he believed could do a better job.
Now, BrightFarms has 300 employees, five greenhouses, and in 2021, it was acquired by Cox Enterprises. In this episode, Paul talks about:

How to distinguish between what your ego is telling you and what’s best for your company.
How he raised capital in the early days, as well as more recent strategic partnerships to support the growth of BrightFarms.
Why establishing core values and purpose is not simply human resources ‘fluff’, but rather integral to success throughout every phase of a startup.

For more information on this episode, visit our website. This is the second episode in our “Later-Stage Agtech Startup Lessons” series. Listen to the first episode with Michael Gilbert of Semios.

Later-Stage Agtech Startup Lessons #1 - Michael Gilbert, Semios

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 3 Nov 2021 19:01:00 +0000

In this 3-part series, we’ll share the lessons from agtech startup founders who have grown their agtech companies from idea to at least 100 employees. We’ll be examining what’s worked (and hasn’t), differences between agtech and other industries, and what the founders have learned along the way about the industry and themselves.
This episode, the first in the series, features Michael Gilbert, CEO and founder of Semios, a crop management platform initially focused on tree fruit, nuts and vines, based in Canada. Michael has a PhD in chemistry and started his career in pharmaceuticals and biotech, before realizing his knowledge could be applied to agricultural inputs. This initial idea has led him on a journey from biologicals, to creating a company with more than 300 employees and over $225 million in external capital raised to date.
Michael discusses:

The importance of iterating your idea, technology, and business based on customer input
Hiring tips and challenges as you expand from needing generalists to specialists
How to create a culture that rewards failure (and why this is hard in an agricultural context)

For more information and links to the resources mentioned in this podcast, visit our website.

Bonus: Investing in tech to enable regen ag

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 19:02:00 +0000

Venture investment into technology companies that have the potential to scale regenerative agriculture is accelerating. However, it is a relatively new domain for venture capital, and it comes with its own unique set of challenges.
So what role can VCs play in the regen ag landscape? And what technologies and trends are VCs looking at to guide their investments?
This bonus episode features a discussion from a live panel conversation at the Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum (RFSIF), in California, with:

Renee Vassilos - Director of Agriculture Innovation at The Nature Conservancy.
Mark Lewis - Managing Partner at Trailhead Capital, and owner at Lewis Family Farm.
Sarah Nolet - co-founder of Tenacious Ventures and the Agthentic Group.
Paul Lightfoot (moderator), President of BrightFarms and author, Negative Foods Newsletter

Thank you to RFSI for the recording- this episode is a lightly edited version of the live event. For more information and resources from this episode visit our website. You might also like to catch up on our regen ag series.

Why You Should Give a F*ck About Farming - Gabrielle Chan

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 19:01:00 +0000

Does the average citizen actually need to care about how their food is produced? This is the central question Australian author and journalist, Gabrielle Chan, set out to answer. Her latest book, “Why you should give a f*ck about farming” details her firm conclusion that, yes, if you eat food, you should in fact care about agriculture.
While the old days of agriculture as the top contributor to GDP are over for most Western countries, Gabrielle argues the future of food and farming is becoming increasingly important for a raft of other reasons such as climate change and food security.
In this episode, she talks about:

Her own introduction to farming, including what shocked her when she first moved from the city to marry a farmer.
The emergence of ‘food tribes’, where people view what they eat as part of their identity.
How politics is failing agriculture by not having a “backyard plan,” a strategy to value natural capital and make considered decisions about land use.
The role of agtech in bringing outsiders into agriculture, reinvigorating rural communities, and re-establishing connections between consumers and farmers.

For more information and resources, visit our website

Farmers and Startups: Lessons and Tips for Collaborating

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 6 Oct 2021 19:00:00 +0000

The divide between farmers and startups can seem like a chasm. Tech culture and agriculture have evolved from completely different backgrounds, and even seem to have their own languages. So how can agtech bring together two very different groups?
In this episode, you’ll hear practical tips from farmers and agtech experts on how to build mutually beneficial relationships. For startups, this includes approaching farmers as partners, rather than ‘customers,’ and understanding ‘grower economics’. And for farmers, it’s about finding opportunities to access and help shape new products as the startup iterates. This might look like an equity partnership, an advisory relationship, or even becoming a co-founder.
On the panel:

Walt Duflock - Vice President of Innovation, Western Growers
Emma Weston - CEO & Co-Founder, AgriDigital
Pete Nelson - President & Executive Director, AgLaunch

This episode is an edited version of an AusAgritech Meetup, sponsored by Foodbytes! by Rabobank. For more information and resources, visit our website.

Bonus: The Economics of Valuing Natural Capital - Ken Henry, former Treasury Secretary of Australia

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 20:01:00 +0000

Dr. Ken Henry became well-known in Australia for his bold economic reforms as the Treasury Secretary throughout the 2000s. His approach to conservation and agriculture is equally as bold, advocating for the natural environment to be valued, and even predicting “an explosion” in financial instruments to measure soil carbon, vegetation, biodiversity and other aspects of nature.As an economist, former Chair of the National Australia Bank, and current board director of Accounting for Nature, he brings a unique perspective to agtech and agriculture.In this bonus episode, Ken talks with Agthentic co-founder, Matthew Pryor, about:

How his father’s career as a timber worker sparked an interest in measuring natural capital
Why economic incentives are needed to further encourage landowners to protect the environmental condition of farms (and what these incentives should look like).

How Australia (or any Western nation) can market itself as having quality, “climate adaptive” produce to capitalize on the growing middle classes in China and India.
Why we can expect farm bank managers to be increasingly interested in how a farm’s environmental condition is managed.

For more information, you can visit our website.

100th Episode Special: our most popular guests on soil carbon, regen ag, and the future of agtech

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 20:01:00 +0000

For our 100th episode (hooray!), we’ve brought back some of our most popular guests to check in on what’s changed in their businesses and in agtech since we spoke, and the new technologies and opportunities we can all be looking out for.
These guests were popular for a reason:

Mark Wootton - dubbed the ‘carbon neutral farmer,’ Mark is a pioneer in measuring natural capital… yet, he’s also highly skeptical of the regenerative agriculture movement.
Stu Austin - manager of Wilmot Cattle Co, which recently secured a landmark deal to sell $500,000 worth of soil carbon credits to Microsoft.
Sarah Mock - sometimes controversial, but always well-researched in her views, Sarah is an agricultural journalist and author, who just released a book examining what makes a ‘good farm’
Derek Norman - VP of venture investment at Leaps by Bayer, Derek shares the latest on emerging technologies in agtech, including in fertilizer and soil carbon.

This podcast also features insights on the future of agtech from YOU, our listeners! Thank you to all who sent in voice messages. For more information, visit our website.

Getting Off the Commodities Treadmill - Loran Steinlage

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 8 Sep 2021 20:01:00 +0000

Loran Steinlage has been labeled a ‘regenerative’ farmer and branded a conservationist, yet as a farmer in Iowa, in many ways he’s far from the stereotypical image of either. He lives in the heart of the Iowa corn belt, but says he now doesn’t care whether he grows corn or not.
In this episode, Loran shares how his drive for innovation has come from a series of difficult and life-changing events in his personal life. This, coupled with his love of tinkering with machines has helped him unlock new ways of farming, such as cover cropping, interseeding and relay cropping, that have not only won him awards and improved profitability, but also caught the attention of machinery manufacturers and helped him spend more time with his family.
While other farmers in the area are focused on growing row crops at scale, Loran is focused on increased crop diversity, reducing the costs of production, and ultimately getting off the commodities treadmill.In this podcast, Loran talks about:

How he’s able to grow a crop 365 days a year, even under snow.
How modifying equipment has allowed him to reduce inputs and run a low cost production system.
Why he hopes sharing his innovations will help other farmers consider alternative farming practices and different markets.

For more information, visit our website.
Also, we want to hear from YOU! We're planning our 100th episode and are looking for stories about how you have used any of the agtech or food innovation ideas discussed on this podcast in your business or workplace. Did it work? Or did it fail?You can record a short voice message by following the link on our website here, and you might just end up on the show!

Designing Crops to Change the Plant-Based Food System - Matt Crisp, Benson Hill

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 20:01:00 +0000

Benson Hill is designing crops and ingredients for some of the world’s most popular plant-based food brands. But the company has no intention of becoming a brand itself. Instead, it’s focused on revolutionizing the entire food system, from how plants are grown, to what they taste like, to the range of crop varieties on offer.
Founder and CEO, Matt Crisp, started Benson Hill nearly a decade ago as a plant biology company, using analytics and machine learning to increase yields. Now it has grown to become a technology platform as well as a vertically integrated food and ingredients business, designing high protein soybeans and yellow peas to fuel the growing plant-based protein industry.
In this episode, Matt shares:

His journey from venture capital in the life sciences industry, to becoming an agtech startup founder.
How the business model of Benson Hill has evolved and why it’s betting on the growth of the plant-based protein industry.
How to involve farmers in testing crops and products on a commercial scale so growers benefit, as much as the company.
Benson Hill’s recent SPAC deal and upcoming public listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information and resources, visit our website.
Also, we want to hear from YOU! We’re planning our 100th episode and are looking for your stories about how you have used any of the agtech or food innovation ideas discussed on this podcast in your business or workplace. Did it work? Or did it fail?
You can record a short voice message by following the link on our website here, and you might just end up on the show!

Bonus Episode: Did Silicon Valley Kill Agtech?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 20:01:00 +0000

The Silicon Valley model for innovation has worked famously for many software based companies, such as Facebook and PayPal. However, when it comes to agtech, the Silicon Valley template for startup success hasn’t translated very well. This template, of either “user is the customer” or “user is the product” is rather limited in agriculture, where the farming population is small (restricting scale) and the stakes are high.
This episode features Rob Trice, the founding partner of Better Food Ventures and The Mixing Bowl, along with Sarah Nolet and Matthew Pryor, who both lead the Agthentic Group and Tenacious Ventures. All three guests have a solid tech and business history in Silicon Valley and discuss why the business models typically used by venture-backed software companies, can’t just be copy-pasted to agriculture.
They also dig into:

The early days of Silicon Valley, the dot-com boom and bust and where Agtech 1.0 went wrong.
How understanding the whole supply chain and embedded incentives , will be critical to success.
How financing models from venture capital to SPACs can better fit with the agtech revolution (or evolution), as well as the positive signs for the future growth of the industry.

For more information visit our website. You might also like our recent article: “How Silicon Valley Set Agtech Back a Decade”

Carbon neutrality and tackling misinformation in red meat - Jason Strong, Meat and Livestock Australia

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 20:01:00 +0000

Red meat is increasingly seen as the “bad guy” when it comes to climate change. Undoubtedly, animal agriculture has an impact on the environment, with 10 percent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions coming from livestock. But Australia's leading red meat marketing and R&D organization, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) says the negative environmental impacts from red meat are often overblown.
While lamb and beef are still very popular in Australia, and cattle farmers are currently enjoying record prices, red meat consumption is becoming more contentious, and conversations about sustainable food and agriculture are increasingly susceptible to emotional debates and even misinformation.
In this episode, MLA’s Managing Director, Jason Strong speaks about:

The MLA’s commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030, and how the red meat industry plans to use technology and improvements in animal husbandry to achieve it
The battle between the Australian meat industry and the plant-based protein industry over the use of the word “meat” on labels
Jason’s experience with groups that he claims are unfairly “denigrating” red meat as they push their own products and agendas
Why the MLA isn’t supportive of regulations to meet environmental targets

For more information and links to resources mentioned in the podcast, visit our website

Is the Future of Farming Hands-Free?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:00:00 +0000

For some, the concept of hands-free farming is terrifying; for others, the prospect is game-changing and exciting. But, is fully autonomous farming really possible?
In this episode we chat with Kit Franklin, senior lecturer in agricultural engineering at Harper Adams University in the UK, who in 2016 set out to prove an entire crop cycle could be done autonomously. The project was called Hands Free Hectare, which later expanded into Hands Free Farm after garnering worldwide attention and for producing what is believed to be the first crop to be planted, cultivated, and harvested - completely autonomously.While Kit started this farming experiment simply to prove robotic farming was possible, how transferable is his autonomous trial crop to the real world? And is it how we want to be farming our food in the future?
In this episode, Kit discusses:

The role autonomy can play in making small-scale farming viable and lowering chemical use.
How media exposure of even a small scale project can change perceptions of agriculture and attract unlikely entrants to the industry.
The key enablers required for autonomy to take off, and the business models that may bring it to scale.

For more resources from this episode, visit our website.

Biologicals and chemistry: finding ways to commercialize the science

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 20:20:00 +0000

Just because something can be done, doesn’t mean it should be. In agtech, this is a reminder that no matter how cutting edge the science or technology, when it comes to commercialization, functionality and novelty are simply not enough. This is especially true in the complex area of chemistry and the emerging industry of biologicals.
This episode features two scientists who, instead of viewing the publication of their research as an end point, have made it the beginning of a venture-backed startup journey. Dr. Jacqueline Heard, CEO of Enko Chem, a US agtech startup that has raised over $50M to develop novel crop protection solutions, and Dr. Nancy Schellhorn, CEO of RapidAIM, a Tenacious Ventures portfolio company that spun out of Australia’s CSIRO, join us to discuss:

The journey from researcher to founder within the deeply technical landscape of ag inputs
The challenges of transitioning from scientist to venture-backed startup founder
Two business models that, as mentioned in Part 1 of this series, are helping overcome some of the challenges in bringing new inputs to market

For more resources, please visit our website.

BONUS EP: Capitalism for Good, feat. David Lee from AppHarvest and Impossible Foods

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 7 Jul 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Can capitalism be a force for good? David Lee left the traditional corporate world to work for some of the most bullish startup companies in agrifood tech, including Impossible Foods and AppHarvest, where he was appointed the company’s President earlier this year. David did this out of a belief that the levers of capitalism and consumerism are the fastest ways to transform the food system. He says the key to address the world’s urgent food sustainability problems is by creating consumer movements.In this bonus episode, David speaks to Sarah as part of fireside chat at the recent Future Food Asia 2021 conference. They discuss:

The role of impact investing in agrifood tech, including using venture capital and SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies), and why David believes ‘funding failures’ is okay.
Why changing consumer behaviors around food is so difficult.
The growing opportunities for agrifood tech, particularly in Asia.

Thanks to ID Capital, the organizer of Future Food Asia, for hosting the discussion and providing us the audio. For further resources, visit our website.

Biologicals: snake oil or science, and how do we know?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Farmers are under pressure to shift toward lower chemical intensity production. Biologicals are touted as one possible solution, promising natural, chemical-free alternatives to inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. But biologicals also have a reputation for being ‘snake oil,’ with companies making claims that seem too good to be true, or that don’t stack up outside the lab.
So what’s the science behind biologicals, and how do we know they work? And when they do work, how do we get them in the hands of more farmers?
This episode features Jarrett Chambers, founder and President of ATP Nutrition, a Canadian plant nutrition company, and Shane Thomas, agronomist and author of Upstream Ag Insights, to discuss:

What biologicals are, and how to think about the different categories
What’s driving interest in biologicals from farmers, agribusinesses, and investors.
What characteristics, business models, and incentives can help ensure biologicals fit into established farming systems.
How digital tools can be used to bring credibility to the biologicals market

For more resources from the episode, visit our website.

What's caused the farmer protests in India and what does it mean for innovation in Ag?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 20:39:00 +0000

Agriculture in India has been thrust onto the international stage as the world watched and celebrities tweeted about the tens of thousands of farmers camped out in Delhi to protest against governmental reforms which loosen rules around the sale, pricing, and storage of produce. Farmers say these changes prioritize corporate interests and threaten livelihoods, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi argues they will lead to greater efficiency and ultimately income for smallholder farmers.
In this episode, Sarah is joined by colleague Komal Patel to unpack why farmers are protesting, what’s working (and what’s not) in India’s agricultural system, and what it means for agtech and innovation. It features:

Mekhala Krishnamurthy - Senior Fellow at the Center for Policy Research and Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Ashoka University.
Venky Ramachandran - agritech consultant and author of Agribusiness Matters

The discussion covers:

How can India open up agricultural markets without hurting the livelihoods of its farmers?
How can public policy incentivize agtech and private investors, while also ensuring a fair system that doesn’t just benefit the powerful?
The slippery slope of policy reforms
How India’s agricultural system can move forward sustainably and successfully

For more information and resources, visit our website. We would also love your feedback! Fill out our super quick survey on what you’d like to hear more about on the podcast (and thank you!).

Bonus Episode: The five forces shaping the future of food and ag, with Sarah Nolet

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 9 Jun 2021 20:02:00 +0000

We’d all like to be able to predict what the next big technological disruption or trend will be. But while we can't exactly do that, we can look at signals happening today, and use them to drive our thinking about the future. In this bonus episode, Sarah Nolet presents five future forces shaping innovation in food and agriculture, and shares insights about what these forces mean for producers, investors, and entrepreneurs today.
You may know Sarah as the host of this podcast, but in this bonus episode you’ll hear a slightly edited version of a keynote talk she gave based on research Agthentic Advisory conducted for AgriFutures Australia.
In this talk, Sarah examines the interconnecting technologies, trends and market signals which are poised to change how society produces, eats and even conceptualizes food.The five forces she discusses are:

Viral disinformation in the food system
Interconnected digital infrastructure
Rewiring the grid
Domesticating the cell
New geographies of climate change

This keynote address was given as part of the Digital Innovation and Smart Agriculture festival, in Hamilton, Victoria (Australia). Audio courtesy of the Southern Grampians Shire.
We want your feedback! Fill out our short survey, so we can make sure we're delivering you the content you want to hear. Thank you!

Sustainable Supply Chains: eliminating waste and unlocking business opportunities

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 2 Jun 2021 20:01:00 +0000

Agrifood value chains are known for their efficiencies: they’ve been optimized to grow, process, and deliver massive amounts of safe food all over the world. But efficiency is no longer enough. Consumers and investors want supply chains that are climate resilient (or positive), sustainable & ethical, and free from waste.
How can we deliver against these pressures? What changes in technology and practices will be needed? How do we build trust so consumers and industry alike have confidence in the sustainable promises farmers, companies & brands make?
In this panel we examine how farmers can capitalize on the increasing value of growing sustainable food, the opportunities for new players and new technologies to remove food waste and packaging from the supply chain, and signals indicating that the mood around sustainability might be about to shift.
Our guests include:

Olympia Yarger, CEO and Founder, Goterra
Jessica Vieira, Senior Director of Sustainability, Apeel Sciences
Lachlan Monsbourgh, Head of Sustainable Business Development, Rabobank

This episode is an edited version of a recent AusAgritech Meetup, sponsored by Foodbytes! by Rabobank and brought you by the Agthentic Group, Sprout X and Platfarm. For more information visit our website.
We want your feedback!! We’d love to hear what you want to hear more of on this podcast, so we’d appreciate it if you could fill out this short (we promise!) survey.

Lean Farming - Jana Hocken brings Toyota's famous operating model to agriculture

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 19 May 2021 20:01:00 +0000

Jana Hocken is a dairy farmer and “lean farming” consultant. After an international career in engineering and lean manufacturing at Toyota, Jana moved to a farm in New Zealand with her husband. At the time, she knew very little about agriculture. But, after witnessing inefficiencies on her own farm, such as people regularly making multiple trips to the same paddock, she quickly realized the principles of lean could be applied. Jana has now released her own book and training materials, to help other farmers work smarter.In this episode Jana speaks about:

How lean has revolutionized farming at her 1000 cow dairy by increasing team involvement, improving systems, and getting rid of inefficient practices.
How adopting lean has allowed their farm to experiment with and adopt more technology
Lessons in how to bring your team along with you through changes

This episode is hosted by Sarah Nolet and Kirsten Diprose (an Australian farmer interested in using the lean principles and a member of the Agthentic Group team). For more resources from this episode visit our website.

New Zealand's Dairy Pollution Problem - how an urgent issue is driving innovation

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 5 May 2021 20:01:00 +0000

Nitrate leaching in New Zealand, largely driven by the rapid expansion of dairy, has left waterways so polluted that some are unsafe to swim in. But the government is on a mission to fix this and restore the country’s ‘clean and green’ reputation. To tackle this issue, as well as other environmental concerns, the government is mandating that all farmers (not just dairy) report on water contaminants and other sustainability measures, including greenhouse gas emissions.In this episode hear from:

Mat Hocken - owner/operator at Grassmere Dairy and a 2018 Nuffield Scholar focused on innovation in farming
Bridgit Hawkins - Chief Sustainability Officer at CropX, NZ

They discuss what these new regulations mean for innovation and whether it could act as a driver for agtech adoption. They also look at the possible effects the regulations will have on established supply chains and whether this sort of government-enforced approach to sustainability is in fact the future for farmers all over the world.
For more resources from this episode, visit our website.

Bringing the public with you... lessons in social license and plant genetics, with Vonnie Estes

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 20:01:00 +0000

Vonnie Estes has been at the forefront of genetics in agriculture for 30 years. She’s witnessed the public backlash over GMO crops in the 1990s, as well as the hype over biofuels in the U.S in the 2000s. Vonnie has also seen great advancements in plant breeding and genetics, working for Monsanto, Dupont, and Syngenta, as well as with multiple ag and biotech startups.
In her current role as Vice-President of Technology at the Produce Marketing Association, Vonnie helps companies navigate the confusing agtech landscape, investigating the sorts of food innovations consumers want (such as better taste), as well as innovations the world will increasingly need, such as drought and flood resistant crops. In this episode she talks about:

The communications challenges in navigating science vs. emotion when introducing new technologies in food
What business models will win as new innovations in gene editing and soil carbon come to market
How emerging ag and biotech companies will transform supply chains

For more resources from this episode, visit our website.

What's the incentive? Drivers and barriers to turning soil carbon into a commodity

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 7 Apr 2021 22:38:00 +0000

Experts and tech companies alike are claiming that soil carbon payments hold huge potential as a new revenue stream for farmers and a weapon against climate change. Yet, others say it’s all hype. One thing is clear though: it’s a confusing and rapidly evolving space, with new technologies and incentive schemes emerging weekly.
In this week’s episode, we feature a panel of experts from across tech, policy, and corporate agribusiness. We tackle issues and barriers in soil carbon, and the potential benefits and consequences of moving from practice-based to outcomes-based approaches to measurement and verification. We also discuss why a focus on accuracy in soil carbon measurement is actually holding the industry back, as well as the role of big food companies in soil health.
On the panel:

Richard Heath - Executive Director, Australian Farm Institute
Rob Waterworth - CEO, FLINTpro
Paul Scoullar - Strategic Sourcing Manager, Mars Petcare

This episode, brought to you by the AgThentic Group, was recorded at a live AusAgritech Meetup sponsored by FoodBytes! by Rabobank. For resources from this episode, visit our website.

The agtech adoption dilemma: Irrigation

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 19:01:00 +0000

We have the technology to measure and improve water efficiency on farms, yet adoption remains low- why is this?This episode explores our hypothesis in our recent report: that the problem is not with the technology, but rather with a limited understanding of the nuances of farmer psychology.
We explore how tech developers, both startups and incumbent firms, can design business models that encourage irrigation tech adoption. We also discuss how farmers can make sure they’re getting the information they need to implement irrigation technology that will have a positive impact on the bottom line.
This episode features:

Inge Bisconer - Managing Member, Surf ‘N Earth Enterprises and Director, Irrigation Association
Shane Thomas - agronomist and creator of Upstream Ag Insights
Euan Friday - Director and Chief Investment Officer, Kilter Rural
Matthew Pryor - co-founder, Tenacious Ventures and partner, Agthentic Group

For more information, check out our free report: The Agtech Adoption Dilemma: Irrigation, made in collaboration with Upstream Ag Insights. You can also visit our website for more resources from the episode.

The promises and pitfalls of making livestock sustainable

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 19:01:00 +0000

Livestock, and especially cows, get a bad rap when it comes to climate change. But is this fair? There’s no doubt that cows emit methane; however, scientific advancements are increasing our understanding of how methane contributes to global warming, and emerging companies are developing solutions to reduce enteric emissions through advancements such as feed additives and methods to accelerate genetic progress.
The path to sustainable livestock is fraught with controversy, but this week’s guests, Professor Frank Mitloehner, air quality specialist at UC Davis, and Kerryann Kocher, CEO of Vytelle, are up for the challenge. In this episode, we discuss livestock’s role in climate change, and both challenges and opportunities for a future of sustainable protein.
For more information, visit our website.

Can a small non-profit farm near NYC change the food system?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 20:01:00 +0000

The Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture has a lofty mission: to change the food system. It’s an idyllic 400 acre farming property just north of New York City. It features an on-site, partner restaurant called Blue Hill, which has been made famous by chef Dan Barber and his book The Third Plate. Stone Barns also runs education programs and regenerative agriculture trials in crops and livestock, and welcomes the public to watch how it’s all done.
Jason Grauer is their Crops Director. He left his career in asset management to follow his passion for what he calls “soil-based” agriculture. His research focuses on seed genetics and organic seed trials to improve soil health, biodiversity, and taste. But how can a small, non-profit farm influence practices in large, commercial farms, let alone the entire food system?
In this episode, Jason talks about:

How he managed the transition from asset management to regenerative farming
The importance of seed genetics and the creation of a digital seed database
The experiments Stone Barns is running to make a difference to the broader food system

For more from Jason and our insights from this episode, check out our website.

Busting food and farming myths - Rob Paarlberg on a scientific approach to food policy

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 19:00:00 +0000

In a world where food and farming are highly polarized issues, Rob Paarlberg’s approach is to follow the evidence. This has earned him great respect, but also means his well-researched views tend to land him in no-man’s land between traditional industry views and the new food movement.
For instance, Rob supports modern commercial farming and the use of fertilizers; however, he’s not a blanket supporter of ‘Big Ag’. He is highly critical of the state of animal welfare in modern American livestock production, but he’s not against eating meat. As an author and Associate in the Sustainability Science program at the Harvard Kennedy School, Rob is renowned for debunking the popular myths about food and farming.
In his latest book, “Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat, Rob argues that food policy, rather than farm policy, should be the focus for reform when it comes to the American food system.
In this episode, Rob discusses his latest book and:

Why returning to the ‘old ways’ of farming is not sustainable
How US farm subsidies make food more, not less, expensive
The cause of the obesity epidemic in America (and the food policies that could actually make a difference).
Why the agriculture industry needs to improve its treatment of animals (and the relatively low costs involved).

For insights and resources, visit our website.

How can big companies like Coca-Cola impact the sustainability of our food system?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 19:01:00 +0000

There’s always going to be some skepticism about the motives of ‘Big Food’ companies. But, for reasons such as risk management, consumer pressures, and more, the Coca-Cola Company is becoming more focused on the sustainability of its supply chain.
While Coca-Cola doesn’t deal directly with farmers, its interest in how products are sourced and grown is increasing. In this episode Ulrike Sapiro, Senior Director of Global Water Stewardship and Sustainable Agriculture at the Coca-Cola Company, discusses:

The role Coca-Cola can play in taking- and instilling- ownership of sustainability outcomes in its supply chain.
The role of pre-competitive collaborations in catalyzing and piloting sustainability projects in countries such as Brazil, Australia and India.
How Coca-Cola is investing in innovation and new technology to find sustainability solutions.

For more insights and links from this episode, visit our website. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

What it's REALLY like to work in an agtech startup

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 19:01:00 +0000

If you’re looking at a career in agtech, chances are you’re going to spend time working with startups. But what’s it like to work IN an agtech startup?
A fast-paced environment, no red tape, significant responsibility, and a big vision may come to mind. But there can be downsides, too, such as long hours and setbacks due to the inevitable trial and error that comes with bringing new innovations to the world.
The agtech industry is increasingly drawing top talent from all different industries and backgrounds. This episode explores why there are opportunities for everyone- from engineers to electricians to artists- to use their skills within high-growth agtech startups that focus on building the food supply chains of the future.
So, whether you’re just starting on your career path or mid-way through, tune in to learn if working in an agtech startup is right for you. Featuring:

Soroush Pour - Head of Engineering at Vow and 15th employee at Plaid (Visa recently tried to acquire Plaid for $5b+)
Alissa Welker - Farmer Acquisition and Engagement at Steward and 60th employee at Farmers Business Network
Kerryn Thomas - Head of Operations at Goterra and former electrical technician in the mining and concrete industries.

For more links and resources from this episode, visit our website.

Breaking into agtech when you're not from a farm and "don't look the part"

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 19:01:00 +0000

How do you get a career in agriculture or agtech, when you’re not from a farming background? In this episode, we meet four women who’ve become agtech leaders, despite not having grown up on a farm. At the intersection of two largely white and male dominated industries (agriculture and tech), they have succeeded despite, as they say, ‘not looking the part’. You’ll hear how they first got their foot in the door (from scoring discounted tickets to conferences, to setting up their own networking events, to making elevator pitches to gain on-farm experience), and what challenges they’ve had to overcome to thrive. This episode is for employers looking for talent, as well as anyone looking to get into agtech and agriculture who isn’t sure where to start!On the podcast:

Rayali Banerjee - Communications Manager, Syngenta Australia and New Zealand
Cass Mao - Program Manager, Farmers2Founders and Venture Partner, Tenacious Ventures
Samantha Wan - Wool Business Specialist, Elders
Amy Wu - Writer and Creator, From Farms to Incubators

This is episode has been brought to you by the AgThentic Group in collaboration with Future Farmers Network.
For links from the episode and to find agtech job listings, visit our website.

Scaling up Soil Carbon Markets - feat. guests from Cargill, Nori and more!

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 2 Dec 2020 19:01:00 +0000

The race is on globally to scale carbon markets, where farmers can sell the carbon they sequester in their soil to buyers who want to offset emissions. But right now, the space is often confusing for buyers, sellers, and the intermediaries working between them. And further, both public and private market schemes have been criticized for inefficiencies and high costs to participate.
But the game is changing as new technologies and business models seek to lower barriers to entry and improve transparency, and the demand side continues to explore, driven by consumer and regulatory pressures. But with all this activity, what will it take to scale up and deliver worthwhile returns for farmers?In this panel discussion, you’ll hear a variety of perspectives - from those developing new technologies and carbon market methodologies, to organizations helping farmers operate within existing emissions trading schemes.
Today's guests:

Aldyen Donnelly - Co-Founder and Director of Carbon Economics, Nori.
Sam Duncan - Founder, FarmLab
Matt Schmitt, Senior Director of Commercial Carbon, Cargill
Dave Moore - Chief Operating Officer, Green Collar

This episode is an edited version of a live AusAgritech event, organized by the AgThentic Group, Sprout X and Platfarm.
Check out our insights and more on our website.

Farming eggs the startup way - Sarah Sivyer on continuous improvement and customer intimacy

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 19:01:00 +0000

Sarah Sivyer had multiple roles in the corporate world before she decided to start farming eggs. She grew up on a farm, but was completely new to chickens, and this was the challenge she wanted: to grow her own business from scratch and apply her corporate knowledge.By tapping into consumer demand for convenience, freshness, and sustainability credentials, Sarah now runs 2500 chickens for her subscription-based egg business, Just Been Laid. Sarah also completed a Nuffield Scholarship on continuous improvement and branding, bringing lessons on global best practices back to the farm.In this episode Sarah Sivyer discusses:

Building a successful farming business by developing ‘customer intimacy.’
Using business concepts like Six Sigma to eliminate waste, remove variation, and be more efficient in farming.
Offsetting the high cost of labor through branding, quality, and business model innovation.

For more information and links from this episode, check out our website.

Changing human behavior - how Matt Crozier introduced technology to a 200 year old sheep station

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 4 Nov 2020 19:01:00 +0000

Cavan Station might have well-known owners today (the Murdoch family), but the large property in southern New South Wales has long held a place in Australian history, as pioneers of the fine wool industry.
And Cavan Station is still innovating today. In fact, the 25,000 acre (10,000 ha) farm has undergone a significant transformation over the past 10 years, including adopting the latest technologies, from genetics and genomics, to data analysis and software.
At the helm of this change is the General Manager of Cavan Station, Matt Crozier.
In this episode he discusses:

The challenges and benefits of encouraging a farming team to use more technology and different farming methods.
Shifting to “regenerative” agriculture (a term Matt doesn’t love), and focusing more on animal welfare, including stopping mulesing.
The economic and ecological performance of the farm, since incorporating new tech and alternative farming methods.

For more resources and our insights on the chat with Matt, check out our website here.

From defense to disruption, how companies are approaching sustainability in the food system, with Mary Shelman

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 19:02:00 +0000

Mary Shelman is an internationally recognized agribusiness consultant and speaker, and the former Director of Harvard Business School’s Agribusiness program. Mary grew up in Kentucky, watching her father sell farm equipment; now, based in Boston, she helps corporations and governments tackle agriculture’s biggest problems. In Ireland, for example, she helped boost exports and build a national brand through Origin Green, a national sustainability scheme.
In this podcast, Mary talks about:

How companies are responding to the sustainability demands of customers - from defending traditional methods, to defying or even disrupting agriculture supply chains and markets.
Why her agricultural upbringing helps shape her work as much as her formal qualifications and experiences in agribusiness case studies.
How technology can help farmers and businesses better understand and use their resources as the food system changes.

For our insights, Mary's research, and a picture of the framework she mentions in this episode, visit our website.

"Not a cheerleader, not the enemy", journalist Sarah Mock on making windows in the walls around agriculture

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 7 Oct 2020 19:01:00 +0000

Sarah Mock isn’t afraid of having tough conversations and shining light on thorny issues in the agriculture industry. A journalist with experience in international development and agtech, Sarah recently began a Twitter firestorm with an article asserting that all farming is inherently exploitative.
While sometimes accused of being anti-farming, Sarah says this couldn’t be further from the truth. She describes herself as being “not a cheerleader; not the enemy”. Sarah grew up on a farm in Wyoming and has worked in agriculture her entire career - from high profile agtech startups such as Farmers Business Network, to reporting on ag politics under the Trump administration.
In this episode, Sarah Mock discusses:

The reluctance of some farmers to change their farming practices, despite strong data evidence indicating the benefits.
Why the agriculture industry needs to start telling the truth about what farming looks like, and start addressing what customers want.
How agriculture policy and incentives can actually lead to poor business decisions & outcomes.
What it feels like to stick up for controversial beliefs, and the pushback she receives from being provocative and “making windows in the walls around farming”.

Regen Ag Series #5: Our Verdict

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 20:01:00 +0000

Regen Ag Series #5: Our Verdict, with Sarah Nolet and Matthew Pryor from AgThentic and Tenacious Ventures
In this final wrap up episode of our regenerative agriculture series, the team from AgThentic is giving you OUR verdict. Sarah is joined by Matthew Pryor, Partner at AgThentic and co-founder of Tenacious Ventures, to discuss:

what it will take to move beyond the polarizing debate over whether regen ag is good or bad;
how agtech can unlock cost effective ways to measure, monitor, and verify what’s actually working;
impacts of consumer’s push for carbon neutral produce and reducing the use of chemicals; and
emerging business models and incentives that can help shift the risk/reward equation of transitioning to new practices.

Sarah and Matthew are joined by Kirsten Diprose, Marketing Manager at AgThentic, farmer and guest host for this episode.
Check out our blog for more wrap up insights, and if you’ve missed the regen ag series, you can catch up here.

Regen Ag Series #4: Greenwashing or Good Business? Live debate.

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 9 Sep 2020 20:00:00 +0000

The gloves are off as our expert panelists debate whether regenerative agriculture can improve farming businesses… or if it’s all hype.
Host Sarah Nolet is joined by:

Richard Leask, a wine grower and 2019 Nuffield Scholar who traveled the world studying regen ag, and now uses the best of what he discovered back home in his vineyard in South Australia.
Toby Grogan, a natural capital specialist from Impact Ag, who advises farmers and investors on how regen ag can increase soil health and farm profitability.
Will Bignell, a regen ag skeptic and Tasmanian mixed farmer, who is committed to a simpler, commodities based farming business.

This was recorded at the live AusAgritech Meetup in September 2020, organized by AgThentic, Sprout X and Platfarm.
For insights on the episode and links to useful resources, check out our website.

Supplying sustainable beef to McDonalds with Nicole-Johnson-Hoffman of OSI Group

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 20:00:00 +0000

Is it possible for large food corporations like McDonald’s to “scale for good?” Nicole Johnson-Hoffman is in charge of supplying beef to McDonalds through the OSI Group, and doing so sustainably.
She believes it’s only the big companies that have the power to change entire supply chains and therefore that the future of sustainable food is up to them.
Nicole grew up on a small dairy farm in Minnesota and is now a world leader in sustainable beef production.
But the industry today is a long way from where it was in the not too distant past. It has moved from highly defensive and secretive, like when Oprah and the American Cattleman’s Association squared off in the late 1990s, to embracing the need for more transparency and input from stakeholders.
In this episode, Nicole talks about:

The feud between the US beef industry and Oprah.
How major companies like McDonald’s are taking responsibility for the sustainability of their supply chains, and what this means for farmers.
The rise of frameworks for food sustainability, like the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef

Regen Ag Series #3: Why major food companies are supporting regen ag with Jay Watson of General Mills

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 20:03:00 +0000

When a company commits to regenerative agriculture practices - it can be accused of ‘greenwashing’ - making people believe it’s doing more to help the environment than it really is.General Mills, the U.S. company behind iconic brands such as Yoplait, Betty Crocker and Cheerios, made a commitment to bring regenerative agriculture practices to one million acres of farmland by 2030.Jay Watson is responsible for this task - connecting farmers in various commodity supply chains with support, tools, and pilot programs to enable regen ag practices.
In this podcast, Jay discusses:

The criticisms around regenerative agriculture and why General Mills has decided to invest in it.
How General Mills is educating farmers to view their land as an ecosystem.
Overcoming the misconceptions held by some ‘foodies’ about where their food actually comes from.
The current and future prospects of agtech in regenerative agriculture.

For our insights on the episode and links to useful resources, check out our blog here.

Regen Ag Series #2: Sam Trethewey on applying startup business model insights to produce carbon positive beef

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 20:01:00 +0000

Sam Trethewey believes ‘regenerative agriculture’ is not a dirty word - but simply the future of farming. Astonishingly, he produces wagyu beef in Tasmania without actually owning any cows. He does this by combining insights about business models from startups such as Uber and Airbnb with the farming practices of regenerative agriculture.
Sam grew up on the family farm in Tasmania before working in corporate agribusiness and marketing. In 2016, he co-founded SproutX, the first agtech accelerator in Australia.
But in the last few years, he has returned to his first passion - the land itself. Sam runs the Tas Ag Co with his wife, Steph. After seeing increasing demand from consumers who are more conscious about what they eat, they’ve taken on the challenge of producing ‘carbon positive beef’.
In this episode, Sam shares his insights on:

Tas Ag Co’s innovative business model that avoids traditional finance and allows them to produce beef without owning cows.
How the marketing and branding of their product as ‘carbon positive’ is a major driver for the business.
The debate over what regenerative agriculture actually means and where it is headed in the future.

Want to know more? Check out our blog for insights and additional resources.

Regen Ag Series #1: Mark Wootton on carbon-neutral farming at Jigsaw Farms

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 20:03:00 +0000

Mark Wootton is well-known in the Australian agriculture industry as a pioneer in carbon-neutral farming. In 2011, Jigsaw Farms, his family property in south-west Victoria, achieved carbon neutrality - undergoing a process he openly admits was at the time, both “arduous and not necessarily commercially rewarding”.
Yet, Mark and his wife Eve Kantor operate a very successful mixed grazing farm where they run 20,000 sheep for fine wool and prime lamb as well as 500 cows. The farm also incorporates a 600 hectare hardwood timber plantation and indigenous plantings for biodiversity.
Mark was instrumental in the creation of the Climate Institute - a not-for-profit focused on climate science and policy in Australia. He remains a champion of finding new ways to lower methane emissions on farms - through both feed efficiencies and new technologies.
His latest venture is a “Super Ewe” - where he’s using genetics to create a dual purpose sheep through focusing on muscle and fat in the selection process.
In this episode Mark Wootton shares his insights on:

Using Sheep Freeze Brand (liquid nitrogen) as an alternative to mulesing.
Turning sustainable agriculture practices into a driver for productivity and profits.
The importance of flexibility in farming operations.
Finding the right times to make big decisions for your business.

Want to know more? Check out our blog and additional resources from the episode on our website.

Ep 70: Karmen Mehmen on growing a family farm through 40 years of change

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 1 Jul 2020 19:57:00 +0000

Karmen Mehmen is a corn and soybean farmer in Iowa alongside her husband Stan and their son Kyle and daughter-in-law Kerri. Their farm, MBS Family Farms, has grown from 160 acres and 40 cows back in the ‘60s to an operation that today supports 20 families.
In this episode, Karmen talks about:

How technology has enabled them to manage through substantial growth
Learnings from transitioning the farm to the next generation
How structured coaching and support has helped them become better farmers & business owners

For more insights from the episode and links to resources Karmen mentions, check out our write up here.

Ep 69: Renée Anderson "Cotton Farm Girl" on social media and social license

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 19:57:00 +0000

Renée Anderson is a farmer in Emerald, Queensland, Nuffield Scholar, agronomist, and overall champion for the cotton industry. In this episode, she shares her insights from Australia and around the world on social license, science communications, and the role that tech can play in helping farmers both improve production and change the narrative about agriculture.
Visit our website for our top five insights, Renee’s favorite science communicators, and the resources on racism in agriculture mentioned at the end of this episode.

Ep 68: David Carter on becoming the world's only carbon neutral fishing company

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 3 Jun 2020 20:09:00 +0000

David Carter is the CEO of Austral Fisheries, one of Australia’s largest integrated commercial fishing companies. Austral Fisheries is notable for being the only commercial fishing company in the world to be certified Carbon Neutral, offsetting their emissions to zero since 2016.
In this episode we talk about:

David's path from deckhand to CEO
Austral's journey from commodity to branded, premium product
The bold goals that Austral have set on issues like bycatch and carbon emissions
How technology is helping Austral respond to consumer demands and address social license issues
The 'unlikely alliances' powering Austral Fisheries’ market leading position

For the resources mentioned and more on David, visit our website: www.agtechsowhat.com/agtechsowhatepisodes/david-carter-carbon-neutral-fishing

Ep 67: tips from three leading farmers using tech everyday (live from evokeAG)

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 20 May 2020 20:01:00 +0000

This episode, live from the 2020 evokeAG conference in Melbourne, features three innovative Aussie producers: Brad “Jonesy” Jones; Sue “Chilla” Middleton; and Mark “Mort” Mortimer.
We also cover:

the different techs being used in their businesses today
their tech wishlists for the future
what’s driving adoption of agtech and what’s preventing it
where to look for the best agtech solutions
how they’re getting involved as more than customers of agtech

For links to additional resources (and all the agtech mentioned), check out our website: www.agtechsowhat.com/agtechsowhatepisodes/tips-from-leading-producers
This is yet another live episode- do you like it? Hate it? Let us know on twitter @agtechsowhat or reach out on our website.

Ep 66: Jim Chambers (Trimble) and Derek Norman (Bayer) on agtech acquisitions

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 6 May 2020 19:55:00 +0000

Today’s episode is all about corporate investments and acquisitions in agtech. Two guests, Derek Norman (VP at Leaps by Bayer) and Jim Chambers (President and General Manager of the Worldwide Agriculture Business at Trimble) cover different ways startups can engage with corporates, from early stage direct strategic investments, to channel partnerships, to acquisitions.
We also discuss:

what Bayer and Trimble are looking for and tips for startup to get investment- and acquisition-ready
how the M&A environment is changing with consolidation and coronavirus
why we haven’t we seen more successful agtech exits
what spaces are hot (and not), including how Bayer and Trimble are looking at autonomy, e-commerce, biologicals, indoor agriculture, and more

This episode was recorded LIVE at an event we co-hosted with Tim Hammerich, host of the Future of Agriculture podcast. If you're not yet a FoA listener, check out episode 201 featuring AgThentic Partner Matthew Pryor.

Tim's interview with Derek: 2:00 to 26:18
Sarah's interview with Jim: 26:18 to 49:48
QnA with both Jim and Derek: 49:48 to end

What do you think of this format? Do you want more live events, or partnerships with more podcasts? Please reach out!
More resources and links available on the AgTech...So What? website.

Episode 65: The Alternative Protein Debate: live from Australia's first virtual, national agtech meetup

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 20:03:00 +0000

Coming to you live from Australia's first national, virtual AgTech Meetup, this episode explores what alternative proteins are, how big they'll become, and whether this is a pending disruption or untapped opportunity for agriculture.
Panelists included:

Catherine Tubb- chemistry PhD and Research Fellow at RethinkX
Paul Wood- internationally recognized veterinary immunologist, inventor, and Chairman at AusBiotech
George Peppou- chef and CEO/Co-founder at cellular ag company VOW Foods

In this episode, we cover:

The different types of alternative proteins, from plant-based to cultured meat;
What’s driving their cost, and when it will come down;
When they'll hit the market, and how much market share they’ll get; and
What all this means for farmers, investors, and consumers.

This meetup was co-hosted by us (AgThentic) alongside SproutX and Platfarm.
Check out our website for the live video, slides, and more resources.

Ep 64 Pete Nelson on partnering with growers to build better agtech

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 8 Apr 2020 20:22:00 +0000

This week Sarah is joined by a guest host, Cass Mao, Principal Advisor at AgThentic, to chat with Pete Nelson of AgLaunch about how growers and agtech companies can work together in a model that they call "farmer-centric innovation"
Pete Nelson, originally a farmer and an English major at University, has been actively involved in building the support ecosystem for new agricultural enterprises for over 15 years. He has worked with a variety of public and private sector partners and helped to launch multiple startup companies. More recently he's been working on sector-specific initiatives to fund, incubate, and accelerate agricultural companies with high growth potential.
AgLaunch, which includes accelerator programs, a fund, and more, is focused on commercializing early stage agricultural innovation by working with farmers.
Cass and Sarah wanted to speak with Pete after writing a report last year on innovation ecosystems, and how best practices in the US can be applied to Australia. Rather than just look at hotspots like Silicon Valley, the report explored ag-focused places, like St. Louis and Tennessee, where AgLaunch is located. The report, called Building a globally Recognised AgTech ecosystem in Australia, is available here: https://agthentic.com/reports
In this episode, Pete explains what “farmer-centric innovation” means, how AgLaunch is driving it, and how having growers at the table fundamentally changes outcomes for startups and regional communities.
For additional resources and info, check out our blog: www.agtechsowhat.com/agtechsowhatepisodes/2020/4/8/ep-64-pete-nelson-on-partnering-with-growers-to-build-better-agtech

Ep63 Evan Fraser on 3 barriers to agtech adoption and impacts of COVID-19 on agriculture

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 19:31:00 +0000

Evan Fraser is a food systems innovation expert, the Director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph in Canada, and the Founder of Feeding9Billion.
Though he didn't grow up on a farm, he brings a multi-disciplinary and systems approach to his work, with degrees and work experience in various fields from anthropology to atmospheric chemistry to agriculture. His passion for agriculture comes from his love of good food and summers spent spent working on his grandfather’s farm (more on that in the episode).
In this episode, Evan and I cover two main topics:

Three big barriers to agtech adoption, and what’s being done to overcome them; and
The impact of COVID-19 on agricultural supply chains.

Thanks to Connie Bowen for suggesting Evan. We're always open to suggestions and feedback from our listeners!
Additional Links and Resources

Arrell Food Institute (check out the videos and card game!)
Feeding9Billion
Evan on Twitter
Evan on LinkedIn
More thoughts from Evan on COVID-19
Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations (Evan’s book)
Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN)

Ep 62 Allison Kopf on indoor ag business models and women in agtech (rebroadcast)

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 19:59:00 +0000

We hear all the time that we need to "feed the world" and that "agtech can help" But what role will indoor farming play? How do these systems work, what can they grow, and how do they make money?
Today’s guest, Allison Kopf, is an agtech entrepreneur and indoor ag expert. Her company, Artemis, builds software for indoor farms and specialty crops. In this episode, rebroadcast (with updates and edits) from a couple years ago, Allison shares an indoor ag 101.
We also cover the challenges for women in agtech, and how we can increase gender diversity in big and small ways. Happy (belated) International Women's Day to all our female listeners.
Resources and Links

Artemis (formerly Agrilyst)
Allison’s Forbes 30 under 30 interview
2017 State of Indoor Ag Report
List of women in agtech that Allison started (and some press on it here)
Allison and Artemis on twitter

BONUS Episode: Live panel from evokeAG 2020 featuring global agrifood tech experts

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 19:19:00 +0000

evokeAG, Asia Pacific's largest agrifood tech event, brought together 1300 innovators earlier in February this year in Melbourne, Australia. The jam-packed event featured international experts, innovative farmers, dozens of startups, and much more, showcasing what the region has to offer in agrifood tech innovation.
This bonus episode gives a taste of evokeAG and a live recording of the first panel on the main stage: The Asia-Pacific region and how we are rising. Panelists included:

Andrew Coppin - Farmbot
David Downs - NZTE
John Hartnett - SVG Ventures/THRIVE
Liza Noonan - CSIRO
Sarah Nolet - Tenacious Ventures and host of AgTech...So What?

For additional shoutouts and relevant links, check out the AgTech...So What website here.

Ep61 Alisdair Tulloch on the first-mover advantages of going carbon neutral

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 4 Mar 2020 19:25:00 +0000

Agriculture is often vilified for its environmental impact. But what if agriculture could be carbon neutral? Is that even possible? And what would it cost?
Alisdair Tulloch, a fourth generation grape grower, believes it’s not only possible but also profitable.In this episode, Alisdair shares his family's journey to carbon neutral. Why did they decide to take action? How are they measuring? What improvements have they made, and how did they prioritize?
We also cover:

The practices and management decisions Alisdair has made, and what’s working (or not);
Why there’s a first-mover advantage of going carbon neutral;
The ROI of carbon neutrality; and
The potential of policies and carbon markets to unlock value for farmers.

To follow Alisdair’s journey

Instagram @keithtullochwine and @alisdairtulloch
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KeithTullochWine/

Looking for Keith Tulloch wines?

https://keithtullochwine.com.au/
info@keithtullochwine
The Fine Wine Specialist, their national distributor: https://www.tfws.com.au

Ep 60 Mark Ferguson on science, sheep, and the tech-enabled future of genetics

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:29:00 +0000

Mark “Ferg” Ferguson is a sheep geneticist who’s paying attention to how both consumer demands and emerging technologies are impacting growers. Drawing on his experience with dozens of clients around Australia and New Zealand, Ferg shares:

insights for agtech companies, like the importance of personas and how to build relationships in a digital world;
what the future of extension and consulting in livestock looks like;
the role of cutting edge technologies in the sheep industry; and
a vision for the future where consumers expectations are met and growers are profitable.

For more from Ferg and resources mentioned, see:

https://www.nextgenagri.com/
https://twitter.com/neXtgenAgri and https://twitter.com/Fergenetics
https://www.nextgenagri.com/articles/farmer-people-that-farm-article-1
Artificial Intelligence work: https://www.nextgenagri.com/articles/seen-one-seen-them-all
NZ Merino: https://www.nzmerino.co.nz/

Ep 59: Mic Fels on startup buzzwords and where the real value is in agtech

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 5 Feb 2020 19:18:00 +0000

Mic Fels is someone I’ve wanted to speak with ever since I read an article he wrote about how his agtech is really making him money.
Mic not only crops about 11,000 hectares in Esperance, Western Australia, but has also built and commercialized a range of software products and machinery through his company, iPaddock.
Mic and I chat about where the real value is in agtech, and what building products has taught him about startups and about farming.
We also talk about:

hard earned lessons and tips for working with tech;
whether ideas or execution matter more; and
which is harder…farming or building agtech.

For more from Mic and to check out the iPaddock products, see:

https://twitter.com/ipaddockapps
https://www.ipaddock.com.au/
https://www.ipaddock.com.au/how-i-make-money-out-of-ipaddock/

Ep 58: Fiona Aveyard on drought, dust storms, and value-adding

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 19:50:00 +0000

Agtech is about more than the technologies. It's about new business models in agriculture,and of course the innovators driving changes along the value chain. Today’s guest, Fiona Aveyard, a 5th generation mixed farmer, is definitely an innovator and an entrepreneur.
We talk about how she’s working on a new supply chain and newvalue add products that can bring more profits to the farm and create jobs in herlocal community. And she’s doing all of this while facing dust storms and the worst drought inhistory.
This episode is again part of our series in partnership with Farmers2Founders, aninnovation program designed specially for primary producers. Fiona is one of thebusinesses in the program. Applications are open now for the Ideas Program. So, if you’re a producer with an invention to commercialize or an idea for a new product, check it out!
For more from Fiona, check out:https://www.outbacklamb.com.au/https://twitter.com/outbacklamb

Ep 57 Fee Turner and Lee Coleman on being farmers and agtech founders

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Tue, 7 Jan 2020 19:13:00 +0000

Fee Turner (Bitwise Agronomy) and Lee Coleman (FarmSimple) are both farmers as well as founders of agtech startups. They, along with six other farmer-led businesses, have been selected into the Farmers2Founders Bootcamp program, an intensive 3 month accelerator that is helping them take their business to the next level.
In this episode, Fee and Lee tell us about their farms, startups, and the challenges they're facing being farmers and founders.
Relevant links:

This episode is produced in partnership with Farmers2Founders. To learn more, check out https://www.farmers2founders.com/ or follow @farmers2founder on Twitter.

Stuart Austin on the tools for regenerative agriculture

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 18:46:00 +0000

Stuart Austin is a regenerative farmer and self-proclaimed early adopter of technology.
In this episode we cover everything from how Stuart got involved in regenerative ag, to the tools he's using (and helping build) to make 6 and 7 figure decisions at Wilmot Cattle Company.
Stuart also shares his views on alternative proteins, transparency in agriculture, and the books and movies that he's found inspirational.
Relevant links:

Wilmot Cattle Company- https://www.wilmotcattleco.com.au/
Write up of the 2019 Field Day- https://www.maiagrazing.com/250-plus-graziers-attend-field-day-on-drought-resilience/
RCS Grazing for Profit course- https://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/products/family-business/grazing-for-profit-2/
Allan Savory’s TED talk- https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_fight_desertification_and_reverse_climate_change
You inc. by John McGrath- https://www.amazon.com.au/You-Inc-Attract-Amazing-Business/dp/0732276365
Remember the Titans (trailer)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir1OH33uiwA
Maia Grazing- https://www.maiagrazing.com/
FarmBot- https://www.farmbot.com.au/

Meet two of the farmer-led startups in the Farmers2Founders Bootcamp

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 4 Dec 2019 18:38:00 +0000

Ashlea Miles and David Ricardo are Australian farmers and founders of agtech startups Training Paddock and Farm Service Manager. They, along with six other farmer-led businesses, have been selected into the Farmers2Founders Bootcamp program, an intensive 3 month accelerator that helping them take their business to the next level.
In this episode, Ash and David share the story behind Training Paddock and Farm Service Manager, and reflect on the differences and similarities between running a farm and building a startup.
Relevant links:

https://www.trainingpaddock.com.au/
https://farmservicemanager.com/
https://twitter.com/FarmServiceApp (@FarmServiceApp)

This episode is produced in partnership with Farmers2Founders. To learn more, check out https://www.farmers2founders.com/

Aidan Connolly on facial recognition for cows

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 20:10:00 +0000

Aidan Connolly is the CEO of Cainthus, and agtech startup using cameras and machine learning to help farmers make better decisions. Before that, Aidan helped Alltech grow from $24 million to $2.3 billion. During that time he was, among many things, Director of the Pearse Lyons Accelerator where he saw hundreds of agtech startups in all different sectors.
Aidan shares his insights on:

What it's like to go from a global agribusiness to a startup
How cameras are transforming agriculture
How to get engineers off the keyboard and onto the farms they're trying to help
Why it's so important for farmers to help entrepreneurs, even when it's frustrating

For more from Aidan, check out:

Other resources:

HBR on the average age of successful founders

(Live Panel) What does it take for researchers & startups to collaborate in agtech?

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 6 Nov 2019 18:59:00 +0000

Coming to you live from the AgTech Meetup in Sydney, this panel explores what it takes for startups and researchers to collaborate successfully in agrifood.
Panelists for the evening were: Dr Peter Thorburn, Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO; Tegan Nock, Co-Founder at SoilCQuest; and Nick Hazell, Founder and CEO at V2 Food.
V2 Food: https://www.v2food.com/SoilCQuest: https://www.soilcquest.org.au/CSIRO: https://www.csiro.au/
The AgTech Meetup is proudly sponsored by SproutX, Australia’s first agtech accelerator.

Murray Scholz on the GMO and Sheep Controversies

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 18:54:00 +0000

Murray Scholz farms with his wife Emma in Southern NSW and the Eastern Riverina on the foothills of the snowy mountains. They grow wheat, canola, lupins, and barley, and run beef cattle and prime lambs.
Murray’s family is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year, after his great-grandfather came to the area in 1919. They’ve always been an innovative family, adopting new practices and striving to run a profitableand sustainable business. In this episode, Murray shares several stories of how his thinking has changed through overseas travel and exposure to new perspectives, and the business decisions he’s made as a result.
Tune in to learn about:

What it’s like to be in the middle of the GMO controversy, where no one seems to listen to what you’re really saying
Why Murray decided to run sheep, after publicly criticizing them for years
How a hiking trip in Switzerland challenged his views on ag policies
The decisions you can make when you’ve been collecting data for over 30 years
Tips for agtech startups to better engage with farmers

To hear more from Murray or follow what Scholz farming is up to, check out:

Practical tips from Murray on integrated weed management and water use efficiency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b4QRvoma1o
Murray on why they integrated sheep and how they’re benefiting from a mixed farming operation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KjUfhCDzkU and https://www.theland.com.au/story/6272468/lifting-profit-to-cut-risk/
Find Murray on twitter and Facebook @ScholzFarming

Victor Friedberg on Systems Investing and Transition from Commodity to Identity

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 9 Oct 2019 18:31:00 +0000

Today’s guest, Victor Friedberg is the co-founder of S2G ventures, a Chicago-based firm that has backed companies across the ag and food industries such as Beyond Meat, Maple Hill Creamery, Benson Hill Biosystems, and Mercaris. Victor is also the founder of Foodshot Global, a non-profit consortium of companies focused on creating a food system that's more healthy, sustainable, and equitable.
In this episode, Victor and I chat about:· How Victor went from tech entrepreneur to food and ag investor· How a systems approach to investing can decrease risk· Opportunities for farmers to benefit from consumer trends· Victor’s reflections on the agrifood tech opportunities down under
Additional resources:

Check out our "getting agtech ready" eBook here: https://www.agtechsowhat.com/getting-agtech-ready-ebook

Tim Hammerich on Careers in AgTech

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 20:01:00 +0000

Tim Hammerich, who grew up on a hobby farm in Northern California selling pigs, goats and ducks, is the Founder of AgGrad and the host of the Future of Agriculture podcast. In this episode, Tim and I chat about careers in agriculture, including what companies are looking for, tips for getting a job, and what’s different about jobs in agtech.
For more on Tim, check out AgGrad (https://aggrad.com/) or find him on Twitter @TimHammerich and #FutureOfAgriculture Podcast

Ep 49: Rachel Hay on the role of women in agtech adoption

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 20:00:00 +0000

This week, Dr. Rachel Hay, social scientist at James Cook University and boutique pig farmer, shares insights from her PhD on the role of women in agtech adoption. Published in 2014, Rachel’s findings still hold true and could be helpful for agtech companies looking to understand the industry and develop marketing strategies that can cut through the noise.

Ep 48: Peter Thompson (responding to climate risk)

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 19:29:00 +0000

Today’s episode is the 4th in the theme Responding to Climate Risk, brought to you in partnership with the Australian Farm Institute. Check out episodes 42, 44 and 46 to hear more on this theme.
Today’s guest is Peter Thompson, a farmer based in rural Queensland, Australia that has been farming regeneratively before the word existed. He and his wife Nicki run grassfed beef cattle, do broad-acre cropping, and have about 6000 acres of wilderness conservation country.
His farming philosophy has developed over a lifetime on the land, and in this episode he shares his insights about:

Finding compromises that are truly win-win;
Avoiding the temptation of silver bullet solutions;
The long list of technologies they’ve adopted; and
The importance of balance.

Find out more about Peter and his project's here:

EchoCattle: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Agricultural-Cooperative/Echo-Cattle-228388813850666/
PeterPointT, his invention that’s now sold globally: https://www.facebook.com/433620400044090/videos/1219724138184212/
Soil2Soul: www.soil2soul.com.au
Walk over weighing project: https://futurebeef.com.au/projects/walk-over-weighing/

Episode 47: Live Q&A with Dan Harburg of IndigoAg

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 7 Aug 2019 11:52:00 +0000

Today’s episode is a live recording from the Sydney AgTech meetup. Our guest is Dan Harburg, senior director at Indigo Ag. IndigoAg is one of agtech’s biggest startups. They’ve raised over $650M, have over 1k staff, and are working to expand in the US and internationally. Dan was visiting Australia to learn more about carbon farming, and the work happening here that might be helpful to Indigo and farmers around the world.
Indigo Ag - https://www.indigoag.com/
Episode produced by Grow Love Project.

Ep. 46 - Ben Krasnostein (responding to climate risk)

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 20:56:00 +0000

In this episode we hear from Ben Krasnostein, co-founder and managing director of Kilara Capital, a company that helps facilitate investment opportunities that provide both commercial returns and environmental impacts.
Ben believes that we as consumers, primary producers, and global economies need to shift away from a mindset of extraction to one of regeneration. And he believes that business and technology are tools to enable this transition.
When it comes to agriculture, Ben sees great opportunities for farmers to benefit during this transition.
This episode is the 3rd the theme, responding to climate risk, brought to you in partnership with Australian Farm Institute, an independent organization conducting research into the strategic issues facing Australian farmers and the agriculture sector. Find them on social media @AustFarmInstitu
Other links from the show

E45 Andrew Whitlock (Theme: getting agtech ready)

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 06:34:00 +0000

In this episode we hear from Andrew Whitlock, a farmer and precision agriculture consultant. Andrew has worked with many farmers over the years, both as a government extension officer and as a private consultant. Andrew believes in keeping it simple, sticking to the science, and being really clear about the problem you are trying to solve before implementing any innovation.
For Andrew, big is not necessarily better when it comes to data, and agtech is no substitute for sound soil science. But he is excited to see where new innovative technologies can complement agronomy to inform good decision making.
Finally, Andrew says that farmers young and old need to be brave and take a leap of faith when it comes to trying new things to improve their farming systems.
This episode is the 4th and final in the theme, Getting AgTech Ready, brought to you in partnership with Decipher, a precision agriculture solution that helps growers and agronomists make data driven decisions. Find them on social media @DecipherAgTech

Ep 44: Karin Stark and Jon Elder (responding to climate risk)

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 20:36:00 +0000

Cotton farmers Jon Elder and Karin Stark have looked to technology (and their neighbors) for innovation to help them respond to climate risk. The 500 kW hybrid solar-diesel pumping system they’ve installed- Australia’s largest- is helping them combat rising energy costs and improve the bottom line.
As farmers who are passionate about the environment, Karin and Jon say it’s a win-win for the business and the environment. The system is reducing their carbon footprint and building financial resilience. On top of that, Karin has been organizing field days and conferences to share her message that communication and trust are key to building knowledge and confidence when it comes to adopting new technologies that can help farmers respond to climate risk.
This episode is the second in the Responding to Climate Risk theme, brought to you in partnership with Australian Farm Institute, an independent organisation conducting research into the strategic issues facing Australian farmers and the agriculture sector. Find them on social media @AustFarmInstitu
Other links from the showNSW Rural Assistance Authority government incentives - www.raa.nsw.gov.auAgriFutures Rural Women’s Award - www.agrifutures.com.au/people-leadership/rural-womens-award/Reaqua Solar Pumping - www.reaqua.com.au

Episode 43: Jess and Matt Fealy (Theme: getting agtech ready)

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 22:30:00 +0000

Which countries are best prepared for agtech? And what can farmers do to get started today?
In this episode we hear from a farming couple, Jess and Matt, about social media, robotics, and picking low hanging fruit when it comes to innovation. Jess and Matt Fealy returned to farm life after a long stint in the corporate world to grow avocados, mangoes, and limes in Far North Queensland.
For them, being agtech ready is about having an open mind, trying new things, and thinking beyond business-as-usual. Their advice is lean in and take control of what you can. But when it comes to implementing technology, to remember that innovation is not a band-aid for sound business practices- it’s a natural progression of good decision making.
Matt also shares insights from his recently completed Nuffield scholarship on robotics and automation in horticulture.
This episode is the third in the theme, Getting AgTech Ready, brought to you in partnership with Decipher, a precision agriculture solution that helps growers and agronomists make data driven decisions. Find them on social media @DecipherAgTech
Jess and Matt’s farm - blueskyproduce.com.auKeeping in simple on social media - instagram.com/p/ByD-mFep8SSMatt’s Nuffield report and video presentation - https://nuffield.com.au/matthew-fealy/Future Agro Challenge - fac.startuptablelands.orgInsights from the episode on our blog here

Episode 42: Anika Molesworth (Theme: responding to climate risk)

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Thu, 30 May 2019 00:09:00 +0000

Anika Molesworth is a passionate advocate for sustainable farming and climate change action. She can be heard on stage and in classrooms in Australia and abroad on the balance of rural landscapes and includes managing climate risk in agricultural systems.Anika’s PHd work takes here between cropping systems in the Riverina in NSW to the rice paddies of SouthEast Asia looking as aspects of sustainable agricultural development.
In this episode we talk about managing climate risk and how Anika’s family experience taking on a property in far west NSW sparked her interest in this style of agricultural study. We also look at the differences she sees between the Riverina and South East Asia and what we can learn from each other. We also touch on technology of course and its role in managing climate risk and its barriers to adoption.
This is our first of four episodes in partnership with the Australian Farm Institute on the theme, "responding to climate risk".
You can read more about Anika here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anika-molesworth-93519187/?originalSubdomain=auAnd watch her TEDX Talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8R3Al3fgNE Follow Anika on Twitter

Episode 41: Lachlan Sutton, Southern Cross Farms (Theme: getting agtech ready)

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Tue, 14 May 2019 04:35:00 +0000

Lachlan Sutton, Agribusiness Manager for Southern Cross Farms, has been involved with agriculture for his whole life. He was born and bred on his family’s sheep and wheat farm, worked in various rural services roles for over a decade with Elders, and now looks after agtech for the Corporate farming outfit Southern Cross Farms. Southern Cross Farms is an agricultural management business, over 2000 ha in size, with a particular focus on citrus and wine grape production, as well as almonds and avocados. In this episode, Lachie shares his views on the differences (and similarities) between family farms and corporate farms in terms of how they think about adopting new tech. He also has tips for farmers of all types that are thinking about agtech: build relationships, simple is best, and don’t forget about support! Lachie on LinkedIn Lachie’s Southern Cross Farms profile Lachie on Twitter
This episode is part of the “getting agtech ready” theme, brought to you in partnership with Decipher (www.decipher.com.au).
Find more episodes at https://www.agtechsowhat.com/ or @agtechsowhat on Twitter.

Episode 40: Tim Rethus (Theme: Getting AgTech Ready)

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 02:45:00 +0000

Tim Rethus and his family are cropping farmers near Horsham in Victoria who have made a commitment to “sustainable, low cost farming”. As early adopters and innovators, the family has always been on the cutting edge of building and buying agricultural technology.
Now, as the skills and experience of two generations combine, Tim has some valuable insights to share about adopting (and building) new technology, where to look for inspiration, and how to make the decision to shift to a whole new farming system.
To see a picture of the incredible planter Tim mentions plus a summary of Tim’s insights with additional links and resources, visit
https://www.agtechsowhat.com/bushtechpodcast/2019/4/30/episode-38-tim-rethus-getting-agtech-ready-1
You can follow Tim at @TRethus on Twitter.
This episode is part of the “getting agtech ready” theme, brought to you in partnership with Decipher (www.decipher.com.au).
Find more episodes at https://www.agtechsowhat.com/ or @agtechsowhat on Twitter.

Episode 39: An Update from AgTech - So What

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Mon, 8 Apr 2019 04:29:00 +0000

Sarah here with a quick update on what's new and coming soon at AgTech - So What!

Episode 38: Angus Street, AuctionsPlus

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 12:02:49 +0000

Angus Street - CEO, Auctions Plus

This week AgTech So What? Comes to you live from the Sydney AgTech Meetup. Sarah Nolet hosts a conversation with Auctions Plus CEO Angus Street.

It's one of the Top 10 websites visited every day by rural Australians, AuctionsPlus has used simple technology to redefine livestock trading.

Founded in 1986, its fair to say AuctionsPlus has been well tested in the market and has seen some changes over that time in the AgTech and startup scene in Australia. Remaining a privately held company, Auctions Plus is now facilitating more than $630 million worth of livestock sales annually. In July 2018 AuctionsPlus appointed Angus Street as their new CEO. Having worked within the organisation as the Sales Manager he knows every inch of the business and it shows in this conversation with Sarah Nolet.

The Startup Phase is gruelling and AuctionsPlus has experienced exponential growth due to as Angus describes it 'the perfect spot where the value proposition met market conditions'. Now that they enter the next phase of growth how does the organisation navigate the changes. How do they keep culture in tact, and the agility to continue to innovate? 'No way in hell are we going to be corporatised' is Angus's response!

More about the Sydney AgTech Meetup group

More about AuctionsPlus here

Follow Angus Street on Twitter

Connect with Angus on LinkedIn

Follow AuctionsPlus on Twitter

Follow AuctionsPlus on LinkedIn

Episode 37: Anthony Rudd, I-AG

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 12:57:00 +0000

This week's conversation is with Leeton, NSW based managing director of I-AG Pty Ltd Anthony Rudd.

Anthony Rudd has a unique insight into the integration of machine automation and data adoption in agriculture and has worked in this space for John Deere Australia, a Chinese company and also in software writing and development.

In 2008 Anthony was employed as John Deere Australia's first ever integrated solutions manager. The concept was extremely new but it had been tested in the United States. Basically his work involved joining technology to the dealership and then to the grower, so essentially moving from machine guidance to full automation and then into integrated data.

He tells Sarah Nolet that his company I-AG is busy working with an external partner developing software that will hopefully unlock the efficiencies in the space at the moment.

"We've built the base software, so it will ingest data from anywhere and any type you can store it safely and you can share it safely with whoever you want to share it with at the moment, in a few weeks we will have the map generation module available."

Anthony's website explains that "I-AG specialize in providing data and software solutions tailored to suit your individual operations. From simple data management all the way to building complex software to enable you to access the data you need instantly and easily enabling our clients to make quick informed decisions based on what their data is telling them."

You can find more information on I-AG here

You can find I-AG on twitter here

You can find Anthony here on Twitter.

View Anthony's LinkedIn Profile here

Episode 36: The Digital Ag Collective

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 10:22:20 +0000

The Digital Ag Collective with Kelly Pearce and Tanya Kilminster from the West Australian wheatbelt.

This podcast conversation is about the development of an Australian farmer owned and controlled group that utilises and shares the most relevant data systems and programs available in the Ag Tech sector.

Kelly Pearce and Tanya Kilminster both live and farm in the West Australian wheatbelt. More notably they both hold Agricultural Science PhD's with the CSIRO.

In their chat with Sarah Nolet they explain the climatic and economic imperatives that are changing the way farmers in their regions conduct business.

Tanya works with the WA Department of Agriculture and Food and says, "in the last decade we have really had some challenges from a climatic and economic point of view - so every decision we make has to be really critically thought out. We really need to utilised the data available us to make much more informed decisions. From about 2010 onwards we have had some really 'doozey's' of seasons and so farmers have really challenged us as a Department for solutions."

Both Kelly and Tanya have been interested in making better use of the business intelligence becoming available to their own farming systems and found that once they delved deeper they became frustrated with what they found.

This has led to the establishment of the Digital Ag Collective (DAC).

"We went to Sydney and we put a call out there for data scientist, analysts, IT experts come and meet with a group of WA producers who are really interested in pursing technology for data integration and business intelligence and we were overwhelmed with the response," says Kelly who is the Collectives chairperson.

Kelly says the aim of the DAC is to, "drive industry wide, producer led frameworks and standards for providers to incentivise and allow us the opportunity to give our experience, to be involved in the assessment of these technologies, share our pain points and help co-develop solutions together."

"What we are proposing that farmers are a critical part of the solution and that tech needs to be developed from the ground up."

Right now the Collective is busy working out who are their best collaborators and partner as well as setting up their right legal entity to allow for a true hub of business intelligence - that is owned and run by farmers.

You can find Kelly here on Twitter

You can find Tanya here on LinkedIn

For anyone interested in more information about the Digital Ag Collective you can email Kelly at http://pearcekelly@bigpond.com

The Digital Ag Collective can be found https://digitalagcollective.com/

Episode 35: EvokeAG Special 2. Live Panel - Faster, Smarter Farms

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Sat, 9 Mar 2019 12:21:40 +0000

EvokeAG LIVE Special!

In this Episode of AgTech So What we take you to a panel Sarah hosted at the recent Agrifutures EvokeAG Event.

Get ready for even faster, smarter farms.

Precision farming, using satellite imagery and drones to monitor crops along with farm-management software tools to maximize decisions are powering smarter farms. Uptake of these and other AgTech innovations are set to expand with the imminent introduction of faster, cheaper connectivity.

Panel members:

• Anastasia Volkova - Flurosat • Flavia Tata Nardini - Fleet Space Technologies • Jonah Williams - Airbus • Will Wells - Hummingbird Technology • Martin Clough - Syngenta

Episode 34: EvokeAG Special. Live Panel - Alternative Farming

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Sun, 3 Mar 2019 20:14:53 +0000

This week we come to you live from EvokeAG. EvokeAG is an exciting event showcasing the best of the best hosted by Agrifutures.

Sarah Nolet hosts this panel on Alternative farming - a new frontier.

With global population expected to reach 10 billion people in 2050 and urban sprawl encroaching farmland how do we maximize dwindling resources to feed everyone? Farming practices are undergoing a radical transformation to produce more from less and make the most of what is there.

Panel members:

• James Pateras - Modular Farms

• Dror Tamir - Hargol FoodTech

• Olympia Yarger - Goterra

• Emma Parsons - Agrigate

Episode 33: Matt Roesner

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 09:42:00 +0000

Matt Roesner is the technical director for his family's machinery business Roesner Pty Ltd. based in Harvey, Western Australia has been in existence for more than 100 years..

The Marshall Multi Spread was the first Australian multi purpose fertiliser spreading machine spreading lime and gypsum at the same time. Since that time 10,000 machines have been built by Matt's family.

Matt says, "we've stayed relevant by spending a lot of time getting to know what our customer base wants and what their needs are. I think one of the challenges these days is the cost of capital equipment, it's continually rising and they are spending large amounts of money on machinery that can only be used for a few months of the year and so we have concentrated on building something simple, that is easy to maintain, that will last multiple seasons and has a long service life."

These days the business is reputable as a leader in the development of agricultural technical data. A few years ago the business built a mobile app for IOS and Andriod to send out calibration data to its client base.

"We got a really good response and so we decide to build a variable controller app for an Ipad and there was immediately a lot of interest in it too," says Matt.

"We see the importance of the data ecosystems that exist around our products is important to the growth of our business so in March 2018 we purchased the Precision Agronomics Australia business, based in Esperance, WA and formed the i4M (Internet For Machines) brand - with the aim of having flexible and open systems that are simple and cost effective and independent from other brands. Our whole plan is to be able to have equipment talking back to the internet to allow applied data usage."

Matt speaks with Sarah about the importance of the agricultural agronomist keeping up with the rapidly developing pace of technology, why he's eagerly awaiting the arrival of artificial intelligence and, the opportunity for Australia to become leaders in autonomous agriculture and how trust between growers and service providers will be pivotal in the evolution of data use in precision farming.

Download the Marshall Multi Spreader App here

Watch the Marshall Multi Spreader YouTube Channel here

Learn more about the Marshall Pty Ltd business at roesner.com.au

Episode 32: Jennifer Medway

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 11:44:37 +0000

Jennifer Medway,

Sheep farmer, Gunning NSW

Manager for research and innovation with AgriFutures Australia.

Jennifer Medway is a 5th generation farmer from Gunning in southern New South Wales running a sheep and wool farm with her Mum, Dad and Husband.

In this podcast Jen shares her perspective as a farmer, who's also had career in agricultural policy and governance and now agtech. She explains how she uses a combination of these pursuits to leverage technological progress within the farm business, board rooms and in her role as manager for research and innovation with AgriFutures Australia.

Despite the drought, their farming operation continues to scale driven and inspired in part by the MLA's Producer Innovation Fast Track program which has enabled the adoption and utilisation of tagging, profiling and data management technology to build the best flock they possibly can. It means a lot of investment in new machines, consultants, tags, technology and time but has completely changed their growth mindset. To enable to set-up of their new system, the business has worked closely with agtech and providers such as MerinoLink (EID's), and ClipEx (infrastructure).

Jen lovers her work AgriFutures for its diversity and she says there is much 'horizon scanning.' Her portfolio the National Rural Issues program is the perfect fit for her to leverage her experience in farming and policy issues.

Jennifer Medway - LinkedIn

Emerging Opportunities - AgriFutures Australia

Episode 31: Viv And Margaret

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 06:15:45 +0000

Viv McCollum and Margaret Ayre

We're trying something new on the podcast today - a joint conversation with two admirable women in the Ag Tech space - Viv McCollum and Margaret Ayre.

Vivienne McCollum is the founder of agricultural consultancy AGKServices (AgKnowledge) and has been heavily involved precision agriculture for about 18 years (before smartphones and in some instances the internet!). She shares her insights into the role of young people in the adoption of precision agriculture in Australia, as well speaking about what advisors are struggling with. Viv also speaks with Sarah about the tools available to help farmers adopt and get greater value from innovative precision ag in their individual farming operations.

Margaret Ayre is a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne and more recently she's been working the faculty of Science's Rural Innovation Research Group. Margaret shares her insight into the importance of the qualitative and emotional side of agricultural innovation, things like trust and confidence and the pivotal role they play in tech adoption in agriculture.

University of Melbourne Rural Innovation Research Group

Research Paper, Key Findings: Stimulating private sector extension from Australian Agriculture to increase returns from R&D.

Episode 30: Rob Sharkey, The Shark Farmer

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 09:36:02 +0000

Rob Sharkey describes himself as a farmer, podcaster and an outfitter. He's a grain farmer from Illinois in the Unites States and has morphed into somewhat of a social media celebrity in Agriculture circles for his commentary and questioning on rural issues.

Rob has an inquisitive take on his commentary and tries to incorporate humour and a bit of cheek into his works on his blog, podcast's and occasional TV show as well as 12K following on Twitter.

This conversation explores what he's learnt about podcasting and voicing his opinions to the public - as well as his opinion on how to bridge the rural urban divide through the media.

This is Rob's website sharkfarmer.com

Rob's podcast The Shark Farmer comes out each week - he can also be found at the Farm and Rural Ag Network. His second podcast is the What the Farm podcast.

Episode 29: Will MacSmith

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Sun, 6 Jan 2019 07:50:26 +0000

Will MacSmith is a farmer from Manildra in Central West New South Wales.

Will and his business partner Hamish are trying to develop a system to realise profit margins for sheep through the collection of real time data of feed efficiency and conversion for individuals rather than the mob.

They're doing this through trial and error in confinement and feedlotting on Will's family farm where he's been living and working for the last 10 years. Over a period of two years they have been building a facility, using microcontrollers, that measures individual feed intake and live weight at the same time, in real time.

"Every time the animal leaves the stall where they feed from that piece of information gets sent to the cloud and allocated against that individual animal's tag number," says Will.

"We had sheep in the feedlot and we would have varying levels of performance and we found that using growth rates as an indicator for performance was a bit flawed, and doesn't really tell you much about feeding efficiency and cost efficiency."

It's about finding better ways to feed, and better varieties of feed and also looking at the effects of environmental factors such as shearing or heat or lack of water and measuring that against cost benefits and of course they also consider genetics. Will also says similar systems that are already available on the market are cost prohibitive for most farmers.

"At this stage in Australia we can't really get around the cost of labour for the construction of individual stalls on a large scale. At the moment the question probably is, 'would it be cheaper to build it overseas."

Will is working with feed companies interested in comparing and monitoring their feed products and he says there is a lot of interesting coming for sire evaluation and the genetics side of the industry as well.

In this podcast, will also speaks about pushing the Ag industry in Australia forward, and the challenges of ageing demographic in farming.

Will is new to Twitter and so the best place to contact him or his business partner Hamish is via email

william@crownagriculture.com.au

hamish@crownagriculture.com.au

Episode 28: Mark Mortimer

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 13:13:59 +0000

As a child Mark Mortimer didn't like computers. It's a different story now - Mark has evolved to become an early adopter of technology in the field of sheep genetics and stud breeding in Australia. Computers have changed his livelihood.

Mark speaks with Sarah Nolet from his farm office at Albert near Tullamore in Central West New South Wales, Australia. It's a family farming partnership with his father and brother and it's Mark's job to look after the businesses genetics, so sheep genetics, embryo's and semen for clients. He see's it as his responsibility to stay at the cutting edge of the industry, genetically.

You can find Mark on Twitter @sheepGeekCP

Episode 27: Carl Lippert - FeedX

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 06:18:49 +0000

Carl Lippert is a American dairy farmer and AgTech developer. He's one of the only people I know who has qualifications in dairy science and computer science.

Right now Carl is busy as the co-founder of new Ag Tech company FeedX which will become an app for US dairy farmers. It will be a one-stop shop where farmers can calculate, source and deliver feed from paddock to farm.

The platform is a partnership of 2 startup's in the animal feed space, Carl's FeedMNGR app and e-commerce marketplace feedforless.com and will include additional aspects to help farmer and suppliers source and buy feed.

They describe it as, 'a holistic set of solutions designed to increase efficiencies in how farmers and feed manufacturers interact to create a win-win scenario'.

Carl will be pitching their work at the US based Farmers Business Network Farmer2Farmer conference.

Find Carl on Twitter @CarlLippert and @feed_mngr

Learn more about Carl on LinkedIn

Episode 26: Chris McLoughlin - Mycelia Organics

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Tue, 4 Dec 2018 09:55:57 +0000

Chris McLoughlin, organic mushroom farmer, Mycelia Organics

Chris McLoughlin's forae into farming is a great example of a new generation of investor backed agricultural innovation.

Chris has always had a fascination with soil, dirt and technology and his organic mushroom operation, Mycelia Organics is a mixed of all these things. With a whole lot of self education on the internet, including some online courses he has taught himself how to operate an organic farm that answers what supermarkets and consumers want.

Chris tells Sarah Nolet he didn't necessarily have a specific hankering to buy a mushroom farm but when the opportunity presented itself, with investor backing, Chris jumped at it. In the space of three years since the inception of his company, Mycelia Organics has become the largest organic mushroom farming company in Australia and Chris supplies 90% of the market and sells to more than 600 retailers as well as major supermarkets.

Chris on Twitter

Mycelia Organics website

Chris on LinkedIn

Season Two Teaser

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Tue, 4 Dec 2018 09:39:28 +0000

More Soon

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 21:25:29 +0000

Just a quick note to say we will be back soon with more great episodes and amazing guests

Episode 25 : Dr Jaci Brown : On The Weather And Researchers Working With Agtech Startups.

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 18:30:18 +0000

Dr Jaci Brown is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO, and an expert in weather and climate science.

Episode 24- Brooke Sauer On Closing The Gap Between Growers, Agronomists And Technology

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 6 Jun 2018 08:25:17 +0000

Brooke Sauer is on a mission to close the gap between growers, agronomists, and technologies. Brooke is a digital agriculture manager at McGregor Goulay, an agricultural services company that offers cropping inputs, agronomic services and, increasingly, digital ag solutions. Although Brooke's background is in agricultural genetics, she is rapidly becoming an expert in precision agriculture, as she supports farmers to explore and adopt precision agriculture tools.

In talking to Brooke on this episode, it's clear that she cares a lot about her farmers. She knows just how important it is to build personal relationships in the world of AgTech. In this episode, we explore the significance of people skills in an industry that can sometimes be too focused on flashy technologies. We also talk a lot about adoption precision ag technologies, Brooke's journey with drones, and her experience of working with startups, including:

an honest story about drone usage, and how Brooke encourages startups and farmers to be more focused on the data, rather than the machines
how important farmers' confidence is in the adoption and success of precision ag technology
the ups and downs of working with fast-paced, high-energy startups
how Brooke exercises interpersonal skills on a daily basis to build trust with growers

Episode 23 - Allison Kopf On Redefining What It Means To Farm

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 30 May 2018 11:02:43 +0000

Episode 23 - Allison Kopf on redefining what it means to farm

Episode 22 - Kevin Heikes With Perspectives On Agtech From Over 20 Years In The Space

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 23 May 2018 09:15:57 +0000

Kevin Heikes was part of agtech before it was agtech. He's been involved in four different agtech startups, including his latest venture, In10t.

In this episode, we dig into his perspectives on agtech from over 20 years in the space, including:

Hard earned lessons from 4 agtech startups, and what it feels like to have a farmer customer call to say you've made their life better with your product
The importance of tech companies partnering with farmers
Why having an ag background matters in agtech
What farmers are looking for when they agree to trial a new product (e.g., with FarmerTrial.com), and why trials are so tough for venture-backed companies
Just how hard it is to balance working ON the business and IN the business

Episode 21 - Seana Day On What's Hot In Livestock And Dairy Tech

marketing@tenacious.ventures (Sarah Nolet) — Wed, 16 May 2018 09:45:54 +0000

Seana Day brings a diverse background in agriculture, finance, and technology to the agtech sector where she is a Partner at BEtter Food Ventures. Seana also tracks nearly 1,500 agtech companies in her "Market Maps" through her role as Partner at The Mixing Bowl.

Seana's background gives her a unique and valuable perspective on the evolution of the agtech sector, and what the future holds. In this episode, we discuss:

how more and more growers are adopting a digital strategy, and what it means for agtech entrepreneurs and investors
whether the specialty crop market is behind or ahead in terms of tech adoption, and why
silicon valley vs. agtech ecosystems around the world
the fundamentals that agtech VCs look for when making investments, and when VC might not be a good fit
what it's like to be raising a $30M venture capital fund for agtech
what farmers are looking for (and not) in the livestock and dairy sectors