KVT, Andy Daniels, and Special Guest Emily French Talk About the Markets and the Future of Agriculture!
Political Uncertainty, Social Media, and Our Nation’s Future
Highly Volatile with Special Guest Joel Ross… All Kinds of Interesting Topics!
The Importance of Culture, Scaling Innovation, Landing Google Ventures, and Cutting-Edge Soybean Varieties
In this podcast, Matt and I will cover his appreciation for his staff, the importance of culture within a company, his introduction to the ag space, getting laid off at Intrexon, his passion for wanting to start Benson Hill, his secrets behind innovation, the best ways to go about raising money as an ag-tech startup, the road to landing Google Ventures, the story behind the Benson Hill name, his decision-making process, his family, coming back online after the Coronavirus Pandemic, his love for St. Louis, Benson Hill’s new headquarters, the importance of branding, how important the protein shift is right now, Benson Hill’s new product launches, and what’s next for Benson Hill.
Surfing, Learning to Innovate, Leading Billion Dollar Businesses, and Changing Agriculture
Working for American Pickers, Getting Offered a Job at AirBnb by Joe Gebbia, Collecting Motorcycles, and Creating The Hustle
Great Conversation with One of the Most Influential Voices in Agriculture!
Just a little background… Lucy Stitzer‘s great-great-grandfather W.W. Cargill, founded the business as a single grain warehouse on the end of an Iowa railroad line in 1865. Today Cargill is our nation’s largest private business and the largest food company in the world. Lucy and her cousin were the first of her generation to sit on the Cargill Board. And Lucy served as a Director of Cargill from 1992-2010. Since 2011, Lucy has been chairman of Waycrosse, Inc., the family office of the Cargill and MacMillan families, where her primary focus is to ensure a successful future for both Cargill and the family. In 2016, Lucy founded “Dirt to Dinner” where she and her team are committed to helping consumers learn more about where their food really comes from, as well as highlighting the hardworking farmers who provide it. Lucy and her team are trying to help all of us in agriculture battle the onslaught of misinformation circulating amongst our consumers. This is a great conversation that touches on so many hot topics.
Taking Ag Retail to Scale, Exotic Hunting Trips, and the Future of Biologicals
Jordan Van Trump sits down with Grant Wells, Owner & CEO at Wells Ag Supply, to talk about what it was like growing up on a farm in Iowa, being a top salesman for Cutco Knives, his ideas about changing the family business, getting chemical giants like DOW to believe in him at 20-years-old, his first big idea in the fertilizer business, how to take ag retail to scale in multiple states, building the right company culture, what to look for when hiring good employees, the importance of delegating as well as not micro-managing, family, exotic hunting trips he has been on lately, his new company BW Fusion, Bodie Kitchel, and the future of biologicals in the ag space. Enjoy!
Your Outsourced Ag CTO featuring Pattern Ag
Pattern Ag predicts next season’s risks to avoid costly crop protection and fertility mistakes by detecting the most damaging pests and pathogens in your field.
By analyzing soil biology, Pattern Ag can predict key field agronomic outcomes with 90% confidence before the season starts. This accuracy and advanced timing unlocks farm profitability by enabling precise product placement for your key agronomic inputs.
Overall, the company envisions a future where conventional agricultural inputs are enhanced and eventually replaced by precision microbiome engineering, improving farm productivity and sustainability.
Your Outsourced Ag CTO featuring EarthOptics
EarthOptics is a soil data measurement and mapping company. The companies technologies create accurate, real-time data maps – including compaction, carbon, moisture, nutrients and more – that give you all the insights you need to unlock the full potential of soil.
Unlike conventional testing, EarthOptics is able to deliver comprehensive insights with significantly fewer samples – and at much lower cost.
EarthOptics proprietary sensor technology and data analytics make intelligent soil data accessible on a large scale, for increased agricultural yields and carbon market acceleration.