Launching and running a startup can be terrifying. It’s not like there is a guaranteed roadmap to success. But funny enough, it seems like success in Clean & Agri-FoodTech is most often found when we drive off the beaten path.
This is why it’s so enlightening to hear from other leaders, founders and visionaries who have been there and done that when it comes to ag and food tech. What kept them going when everything seemed overwhelming? What made a difference to their success?
In September 2020, I launched the first CS Partners “Leaders on a Mission” podcast. I interview leading names in Agri-FoodTech about everything and anything they’ve experienced on their path to career and business success. Fifty-two episodes later, the podcast is a repository of Clean & Agri-FoodTech startup inspiration, taken straight from the people with the most skin in the game- mission-driven entrepreneurs like you.
Here’s a quick roundup of five inspiring and illuminating “Leaders on a Mission” podcast interviews and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.
#1 – Follow Your Heart and Stay True to the Mission
Rachel Konrad, Chief Brand Officer at The Production Board, a venture foundry supporting businesses dedicated to improving human health and solving the climate change problem.
Rachel Konrad’s career in Agri-FoodTech has been driven by her personal passion for reversing climate change. Konrad started where she thought she could make the most significant impact, decarbonizing the auto industry. That led her to Tesla Motors, reporting directly to CEO Elon Musk. But it was Pat Brown, CEO of Impossible Foods, who convinced her that if she wanted to make a difference, she needed to be in foodtech.
“I was at the COP21 conference in Paris, and I got the opportunity to meet Pat Brown from Impossible Foods. We started talking (about making a difference in climate change), and he said, ‘You know what the problem is, Rachel, you picked the wrong industry… The food industry is the only industry we can really use as a really strong lever to decarbonize the earth within a 10-year timeline… And he was right. I called him back and said, let’s do this. I want to do this,” – Rachel Konrad, CEO, The Production Board.
Watch: Leaders on a Mission Episode 50 – Rachel Konrad
Listen: Apple Podcast or Spotify
#2 – Taking on Risks and Challenges
Charlie Dimmler, CEO and co-founder of Checkerspot Inc., a company designing and biomanufacturing sustainable performance materials by optimizing microbes.
Charlie Dimmler is no stranger to taking on new challenges and risks. He’s switched gears between premed studies to working on Wall Street. He worked in biopharmaceuticals and then transferred to biomanufacturing. For Dimmler, taking on risks and overcoming challenges is part and parcel of being a winning startup entrepreneur. And it helps to have a supportive family behind you.
“We had two children and another on the way. My wife and I had the conversation around risk… She ended up finding this quote from Martin Luther King that basically says, ‘Faith is taking the first step without knowing where the staircase leads.’ I was about to leave for a long trip, it was one of those you get up before the rest of the house and turn on the lights for a quick cup of coffee, and it was sitting there. It was her way of saying, ‘take a leap; this is important to you,’” – Charlie Dimmler, CEO and co-founder of Checkerspot Inc.
Watch: Leaders on a Mission Episode 2 – Charlie Dimmler
Listen: Apple Podcast or Spotify
Podcast interview with Charlie Dimmler.
#3 – Raising Money for Your Startup
Alan Hahn, CEO of MycoTechnology, a food ingredients company harnessing mushroom technology for sustainable and healthy food ingredients.
Alan Hahn is a serial entrepreneur, starting at age 13 with a home tie-dye business. He’s founded four companies and led successful exits worth billions of dollars. Over his career arc, he’s developed a highly effective sales strategy process (with an over 80% closing rate!) and learned the three critical principles of successfully raising money for your startup.
“First of all, however much money you need, you need twice that amount. Make sure you raise a proper amount of money. Second of all, it’s your team. It’s not your company. It’s not your product. It’s your team that people invest in. So, if you’re going to raise money to build your company, you have to have the right team members. Thirdly, whom you get money from really matters. They can destroy your company with the wrong personality. If they don’t fit your thinking. You’ve really got to, when you are looking for money, make sure you can live with the personality on the other side of the table,” – Alan Hahn.
Watch: Leaders On a Mission Podcast Episode 9 – Alan Hahn
Listen: Apple Podcast or Spotify
#4 – Succeeding as a Female AgTech Entrepreneur
Amy Yoder, CEO of Anuvia Plant Nutrients, producing bio-based plant nutrients that optimize plant health while reducing greenhouse gases and improving environmental outcomes.
Amy Yoder grew up a sixth-generation farm kid. She built her career in agtech, putting in the years learning all aspects of the agricultural value chain at large companies like Dupont and Monsanto. And all at a time when few other fellow women were working in agtech. While she sees more women entering agtech roles today than when she started, women agtech leaders still face an upward battle.
“People always ask me about how it was when I started. You did have to work twice as hard and not make mistakes, right? And if you did, you had to correct them. But I also took (on) things that might not have been attractive to a man at the time for him. For example, when I worked at Monsanto, I had secondary crops…wheat and canola…I did that because it was an opportunity for me to be seen… If you could make something like that be successful, then they really attributed it to the accomplishments that you and your team had done,” Amy Yoder.
Watch: Leaders on a Mission Podcast Episode 36 – Amy Yoder
Listen: Apple Podcast or Spotify
#5 – What You Need to Scale
Alan Shaw, CEO and co-founder of Calysta, an alternative protein company producing sustainable solutions to feed and food.
A hardworking lad raised in a working-class family in England’s industrial heartland, Alan Shaw hasn’t had any shortcuts to entrepreneurial success. He spent seven years at night school while working on getting his first degree, eventually earning his Ph.D. and founding four successful companies. His self-avowed hallmark to startup success has been his ability to identify new technology and its market potential and understand the process it will take to apply and scale up from science to marketable product.
“If there is one thing that I know you have to be able to do to be successful, you have to have technology that scales both economically and sustainably. And I don’t mean sustainably as in saving the planet, I mean sustainably as it will operate in January, it will operate in December, and it will operate five years later. It has got to be real. It can’t just be a lab experiment, something some VC dreamt up, some pump and dump story. It’s got to be real, and it’s got to work at scale,” Alan Shaw.
Watch: Leaders on a Mission Podcast Episode 24 – Alan Shaw
Listen: Apple Podcast or Spotify
