Episode 33: Matt Roesner

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. 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.

14 Maj 37min

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. 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.

30 Apr 34min

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. 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.

16 Apr 33min

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. 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.

2 Apr 36min

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. 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.

19 Mars 35min

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.

5 Mars 36min

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. 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.

19 Feb 38min

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. 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.

5 Feb 36min