The thing that a lot of people tend to get confused about is the difference between an innovation that can delivery some sort of ROI for a farmer and a venture-backable opportunity.
It is true that there is a lot of misunderstanding on the ag and tech sides, but also a lot of mis-application of 'templated' thinking - we've written quite a bit about it - one key piece is here: https://tenacious.ventures/notes/how-silicon-valley-set-agte...
Also, it is important to understand the difference between genuine innovation in the agrifood value chain, and on-farm efficiency improvements. As has been pointed out here, farmers are only part of the story, and whilst they are often the user of an innovation, it is often the case that others downstream of them are the true economic beneficiaries - this can only really be solved with business model design, not just technological innovation. There is a tendency to confuse the user with the beneficiary - https://adnause.am/notes/confusing-user-beneficiary-messy-mi...
In terms of how we review investment opportunities from founders, we need to see both elements of technological innovation and business model innovation. All the comments about the challenges in providing solutions for agriculture are valid and often present major challenges for adoption. But in my experience, adoption at scale is more often a business model problem, not a market or technical problem.
It is definitely the case that many problems that are present in the agrifood value chain aren't inherently 'venture scale' - and often that can be a big challenges for founders who can't self fund. Creating and running a profitable, self-funded company is a great endeavor; possibly very rewarding and impactful, but that is not the same as looking for investment for a company that hasn't yet solved their own venture-scale business model challenges.
Things Silicon Valley gets wrong about agriculture
131–135 of 135 posts
Re: Things Silicon Valley gets wrong about agriculture
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've often wanted to look into AgTech (grew up chasing sheep in Canterbury) but people I've talked to in that space say that it's incredibly hard to grow sales, farmers are inherently conservative on new expenses, what was your experience of that?
I can answer this one. I have an AgTech startup that deals with sheep. The industry is incredibly conservative (which I knew, having worked in it for over a decade) but on top of that, it's also incredibly insular. You get one shot to get something right. You get one short per year due to seasonality. You better be prepared to travel a lot. In-person training is not negotiable for farmers using a piece of new technol…
Out of curiosity, did you try approaching any of the Universities with big agricultural programs (Texas A&M as an example)? They'd have alumni willing to invest in Ag.
Re: Things Silicon Valley gets wrong about agriculture
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can answer this one. I have an AgTech startup that deals with sheep. The industry is incredibly conservative (which I knew, having worked in it for over a decade) but on top of that, it's also incredibly insular. You get one shot to get something right. You get one short per year due to seasonality. You better be prepared to travel a lot. In-person training is not negotiable for farmers using a piece of new technol…
Out of curiosity, did you try approaching any of the Universities with big agricultural programs (Texas A&M as an example)? They'd have alumni willing to invest in Ag.
Texas A&M have some of my gear they are using with goats. Haven't really tried leveraging that as travel to Texas has been off the cards for a few years.
Re: Things Silicon Valley gets wrong about agriculture
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
your pitch doesn’t fit into three bullet points that’s why it ain’t working
Not sure what you mean by this. Pitch to YC? Have you ever applied? I think they do a pretty good job of having you describe things succinctly. I can't criticize YC at all. Not everyone can get in. I'll keep trying until I either get in or don't have the need because I secured funding elsewhere. That said, the YC ecosystem is valuable, so, yes, I am very interested in coming into the fold.
i’ve raised but not from YC
my comment is a bit flippant, but the succinctness and by extension clarity of though is highly valued by many? all?? VCs
Re: Things Silicon Valley gets wrong about agriculture
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vertical farming can do 10X, GMOs can do 10x, urban farming can cut out 90% of transportation costs, (not exactly what you mean but getting people to eat less meat would 100x our efficiencies) there is still room for improvement.
Let’s see you sell your easy ten thousand percent increase in farming efficiency. The reason it’s hard to sell hype to farmers is they live in the real world and they’re not impressed by idiots that are so wrong that stupid isn’t a big enough word to describe them.
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