The Entrepreneur's Ethic

40. The Pirate of AgTech: Craig Rupp, Founder & CEO of Sabanto

Craig Rupp has spent years building at the frontier of autonomous agriculture, helping pioneer systems that allow tractors to operate autonomously in real production environments. Before Sabanto, Craig played a foundational role in the creation of FieldView, which eventually landed at Climate Corporation. It’s a technology that remains central to modern precision agriculture and ultimately part of the story  of Monsanto’s acquisition of Climate and the downstream impacts on what today we call agtech. Craig’s career sits at the intersection of agriculture, engineering, software, and entrepreneurship. We spoke about the origins of FieldView, lessons from building hard technology companies, working with David Friedburg, what autonomy changes economically for agriculture and where he believes the future of farming is heading.”

39. The State of Agtech with the Ag Startup Engine team

Our latest podcast episode features my compadres from Ag Startup Engine [https://www.agstartupengine.com/], the AgTech fund that we started ten years ago, Joel Harris, Colin Hurd, and Mikayla Mooney.  We discuss the state of agtech investing. To borrow from Dickens: It is the best of times. It is the worst of times. Entrepreneurs at Ag Startup Engine portfolio companies continue to do great work in building impactful businesses. And we discuss some of those. But you don’t have to look far in the agtech venture investing world to find zombie businesses, dead businesses, and billions in investment that’s went up in flames. What have we learned? How can we build the right kind of muscle memory in the Midwest for effectively deploying risk capital and building the next generation of great businesses? I enjoyed the conversation with my teammates and know you will too.

38. Entrepreneurs Impacting Rural with Brady Sidwell

Brady Sidwell is an entrepreneur from Enid, Oklahoma who runs Sidwell Enterprises [https://www.sidwellstrategies.com/fccp-companies-21926], an agricultural conglomerate with multiple businesses including a grain elevator, local food distribution, a flour mill, and a brewery.

37. Culture of Agriculture with Vance Crowe

Entrepreneurs tell stories. And some get others to tell their stories. Vance Crowe is a communications expert, widely sought-out speaker, a podcaster, and the founder of Legacy Interviews [https://www.legacyinterviews.com/]. Legacy Interviews creates professional video recordings of individuals or couples telling their stories and the lessons learned along the way. www.kevinkimle.com [www.kevinkimle.com]

36. Fish Stories with Jackson Kimle

Jackson Kimle is CEO of Midland [https://www.midlandseafood.com/], a business that’s developed land-based seafood technology and a business model aimed at scaling shrimp production. Using innovative Algae-Based RAS™ (recirculating aquaculture systems) technology, Midland Co. now has three contract farms raising shrimp in Iowa. Midland's farms are dedicated to quality, handling each batch from tank-to-table. Seafood played a key role in the early development of the economy of what became the United States. Cod caught off the coasts of New England and Canada were a significant export for centuries. Whaling was the deep-history source of what today we call venture capital. And American founders like George Washington harvested fish as part of their farm enterprises.  I enjoyed the discussion with Jackson about Midland, shrimp, seafood, and the state of aquaculture, and know you will too. https://www.midlandseafood.com/ [https://www.midlandseafood.com/] https://www.kevinkimle.com/ [https://www.kevinkimle.com/]