You have proven your technology works. You have a small, hard-working team that has come together, all pointing in the same direction. You have investment capital. The journey ahead for your Agri-FoodTech startup is an exciting, but challenging one.

The road to commercialization is filled with roadblocks, potholes and getting lost along the way. It will, invariably, take a lot more time to get there than anybody anticipated (especially your investors). But the act of “maturing” is, ultimately, the litmus test separating the big ideas from the marketable ones.

The Agri-FoodTech sector, as a whole, is growing up. It’s moving from an early-stage innovation hub exploding with energy, ideas and disruption to an industry with legs that can deliver on a promise of marketable, commercialized, real-world products.

Those companies that successfully navigate operations, manufacturing, supply chain, sales, and business development will find their way to their destination even if it ends up looking a lot different than initially envisioned. AeroFarms, the New Jersey-based vertical farm company founded in 2004, didn’t just go public with a $1.2 billion valuation because the marketplace is enthralled with the potential of indoor, controlled environment food production. They went public because they have proven their technology works, built the farms they promised, entered the supply chain, and produced, packaged and delivered a product that consumers will buy.

For early-stage Agri-FoodTech CEOs and founding teams, the path to maturity means recognizing that your future company will look a lot different than the one you started with. and making the strategic moves you must, to get there.

Accelerators are Filling the Innovation Pipeline, Now the Challenge is Building a Commercialization Strategy

Business accelerators as an innovation engine have been wildly successful. They have proven themselves to be remarkably good at fostering tech innovation and creating that first, crucial launching platform (and access to investment) for Agri-FoodTech startups.

Accelerators like Yield Lab, one of the few agtech-only focused accelerators and IndioBio, a life-science’s accelerator run by SOSV a multi-stage venture capital investor, have launched hundreds of new companies. They have fostered companies like ucrop.it, an Argentine-based agricultural blockchain platform that just raised $1.1 million in seed money. Or the closely-watched Memphis Meats, a cultured meat company famous for creating the world’s first cultured meatball, that recently raised an impressive $161 million in a second-round funding stage.

These accelerators have contributed to an “open innovation” mindset in food and agricultural systems. They have allowed new ideas to flourish in a free-wheeling, collaborative platform versus stagnating within internally-focused corporate R&D, something Dr. Nabil Sakkab, a thought leader in the open innovation movement, chat about in my Feb. 21 Leaders in a Mission podcast.

But, while accelerators have been fantastic at filling the innovation pipeline, fostering hundreds of great ideas and technologies, they have graduated a slew of typically young and often first-time CEOs. As they move beyond their tech inspiration, these frequently inexperienced business leaders face the daunting challenge of navigating the cutthroat, conservative and slow-moving food systems sector.

Ninety percent of startups across all industries eventually fail, a depressing figure. There is no indication that Agri-FoodTech as a sector will be any less forgiving than any other when it comes to separating the wheat from the chaff of viable business models.

Adopting Growth Strategies for Your Agri-FoodTech Startup

As Agri-FoodTech startups move from idea to commercialization, it is common for CEOs and lean startup teams to encounter business challenges they are unfamiliar with and are unprepared to handle.

You have to find out where and how to play and your great idea has to navigate marketing channels, ramp up production, find distribution and differentiate itself from competitors. And while doing all that, you must always, always ensure the “tech-nomics” make sense.

So, what strategies can startups employ to navigate the roadmap to scaling up?

• Take a long hard look at your team and talent. Be prepared to upskill your team and do so with a view of the attributes you will need for the next two years.
• Add a non-executive director onto your board that is not part of your financing. Choose someone with credible experience in your industry. A seasoned business professional that has been there, done that and knows what it takes.
• Shift the conversation to customer needs. It’s not solely about what your tech can do. It’s about what problems your customers have and how your tech solves them. Your marketing should be focused on a “customer pull,” as much as a “technology push” strategy.
• Make liberal use of strategic partners and consultants. They can help you keep your fixed-cost base low while still giving you high-level industry expertise.
• Be aware of realistic timescales. Agri-FoodTech companies underestimate the time and challenges of striking deals with food and ag companies.
• Vet and trial the supply chain partners you will need. Find the right manufacturers you can work with to build production capability.
• Continue filling up your pipeline whilst maintaining a laser focus on your priority projects.
• Be realistic that there is an actual demand for what you offer. More than one startup has failed for the simple fact that needed what they had to offer.

You are not alone on your scale up challenges, and there is help out there. Take consulting companies like ScaleUp Nation out of Holland, a new kind of business serving the ‘startup market’ itself by bringing another round of industry support and expertise to the issue of scaling up and commercialization. Consider them a mid-stage version of an accelerator. But instead of committing several months of your life to a cohort-based immersion program, you focus on tailored programs and individual assessments.

ScaleUp Nation bills itself as focusing on “transformational leadership” for driving scale, leadership really being the key to maturing your company (and yes, they do have a food-focused program, ScaleUpFood). My own company, CS Partners, is an expert at helping Agri-FoodTech companies shape and conduct executive searches to find the right talent and skill set for their level of need.

That infuriating (but all too true) cliché, “If it was easy, everyone would do it” might have been coined with Agri-FoodTech startups in mind. As your business matures and you move toward commercialization, don’t make the mistake of thinking your challenges will get easier. They won’t.

Your problems will change but not become any less cumbersome. That isn’t a sign your startup isn’t viable, it is simply the nature of the beast and the journey all successful businesses have to traverse. Those CEOs who recognize they have a new set of challenges to address from the get-go, identify them and take action, will be the ones most suited to surviving and thriving through the stages of scaling up and commercialization.