Memes and Pre-Thoughts for the World AgriTech Innovation Summit next week
March 10th, 2023 - My 30th Edition of Easy Observations in AgTech
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Opening Thoughts:
While so far this year I’ve been a little all over the board, I thought in the spirit of next weeks calamity in AgTech known as the World AgriTech Innovation Summit (yes, sort of a pretentious name) I though I’d throw out just a bunch of simple and straightforward memes as it seems that is what most mention to me about my newsletter. Note, I’ve used some of these same pics before but leave me alone.
I won’t be attending this “summit” this year (I haven’t ever been as it’s stupidly expensive if you ask me, plus I just can’t travel much these days) though I will try to do my best to also be optimistic about it while shooting out some of my weird and controversial flavor I suppose. I’ll write more on the summit next week.
For now though, enjoy my stupidly potentially amazing and odd memes.
As a result of growing up in a bootstrapped AgTech company with Satshot (we oldies call it precision ag still), I will always have a soft spot for the ones that build a business the old fashioned hard way. While I don’t have anything against ones raising money or getting outside investment, there is just something about these groups that you have to appreciate no matter what. There’s a few out there and I tip my hat to you good sirs and madams. If you’re at the summit next week find these groups and talk to them.
If you can’t laugh at this then you have no place at this newsletter. I mean, common…it’s sort of true. While I don’t particularly hear these groups complaining out loud themselves, I think they know they get plenty of grief and likely well deserved at that. It’s really not the employees fault as a whole and while there are some individuals within them I could blame more than others for their troubles, we are all human and are not perfect. Just enjoy it and hopefully the reps at the summit next week from these will just stay relatively silent.
I have this feeling that there are still plenty of newer VCs that have some yearning to get into Ag and AgTech at any cost. Some for good reasons and some for likely unknown reasons beyond FOMO (Fear of Missing Out.) All in all, there will be plenty of these lingering around next weeks summit and beyond for the foreseeable future.
I and others in this space have gotten plenty of emails around being part of this or that list or featured piece for X amount of money. I mean literally the Forbes 40 under 40 is a paid list/award that you for the most part have to spend money to be in. Some of these Top AgTech XYZ things or best apps are much the same way and some startups use these to make themselves look better. While not all these lists work that way, some do. If you do this or have, I get it sort of but good lord…you’re the problem why AgTech gets a bad name at times. Be better and if you have done it, don’t call it out next week.
Considering the entire VC space and its statistically lower success rate for most of their investments to be winners, I feel Agriculture in general is going through a new phase in investment thought processes. Mainly this one is around some of the original VCs that invested in Ag in whatever and are becoming a lot more conservative and picky. Not a bad thing really so yeah… I wonder who will or won’t be at the summit in this space?
If you’ve met this guy/gal then you know… They’ll be around at the summit. I’ll just say when I’ve seen/heard it I just have to chuckle and I think to myself they mean well yet are very naive. It’s okay honestly, but I’d rather these founders instead say that the are just naive to Ag. Pretty much everyone can connect themselves to a farmer/rancher at some point in life as that is literally what most people were 75 years ago and beyond. Things change and it’s okay, just be honest and don’t try and sugarcoat what you don’t know.
I feel you’re seeing this more and more and while many corporates mean well and have more money to spend and more connections to farmers, sometimes they just need to stay in their own lane. Most smaller and younger startups or companies have just more passion towards a problem. I’ve written about this before around AgTech and in reality I think farmers are more receptive to smaller entrepreneurial groups as they themselves think and act in a very similar way. I can’t say all Corps in Ag are this way, they aren’t, but yeah it’s sort of true too. You’ll see it next week…
This has been sort of common lately. Not for all, but enough that it’s becoming funny/sad. Nothing new in the business world in general, but sort of newer to Ag. If you’re a Star Wars fan though you best have a smirk and appreciation for this one. I wish and hope any AgTech group that has been purchased has a successful future within their new overlords per say, but sometimes that strips the passion out and creates a harder world to live in. Combined with more oversight, politics, and limits to how marketing and one pushes the product it really isn’t a surprise this happens. All the best for those out there in this position, though if it doesn’t really help the company or farmer clients then what is the point? Then again, I’ll take a big check.
Oh Carbon… The last two years have been crazy in this world and while I have seen a little calming of the initial storm lately, it’s is not over. I’ve said to many that the real answers to this will be dependent on what the new USDA Farm Bill will state and I will stick by that. There does need to be more ESG related things in it for sure. The biggest question is who are the groups that will hold, manage, and regulate the cards. Personally, I think it’ll be between the RMA (Risk Management Agency i.e Crop Insurance) combined with the FSA (Farm Service Agency). Both are a natural fit to adhere to government oversight and the creation and management of rules governed with subsidizes in mind. I could be wrong though. We will see and it’ll be interesting the convos next week around this.
Good ole/new SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) in Ag. There are a few biological groups that did this out there and of course Farmers Edge who I love to pick on and rightly so. If you’ve seen any news around SPACs lately in any industry you can see they are not doing very well for the most part. They happened because the group involved basically ran out of options and the main investors needed a cash out in some realm. I was hopeful for this process to work, but was also pretty skeptical. Either way, it’s a meme now and will be mentioned next week.
Closing Thoughts:
None really, I think the memes and my comments did it all. So if you liked what you saw and read give it a good ole share or subscribe if you haven’t already. Also, for those going next week to the summit let me know how it all went either publicly or privately. I also call out whatever you seen/hear if wanted. Someone has too at times right?
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