from the crossroads of America in the Hoosier State of Indiana this is get in the podcast focused on the unfolding stories and extraordinary Innovations happening right now in the Heartland I'm Matt Hunter CEO at Powder Keg and I will be one of your hosts for today's conversation I'm joined in Studio by co-host Christopher Toph day CEO Elevate Venture hello Matt and on the show today is Mitch Frazier president and CEO at Agra Novus when you look at crop protection plant science that segment of the Indiana AG bioscience economy for the first time over the last 10 years when we measured this it didn't decline foreign [Music] Mitch Frazier is the president and CEO of agronomist a non-profit leading Indiana's initiative to accelerate Innovation and economic growth at the intersection of Agriculture and Technology before starting agrinovis Mitch was the CEO at Reynolds Farm Equipment VP of marketing at Tinderbox and VP of marketing investor relations in Global Communications at exact target and in today's show we're going to cover Indiana's journey to add billions to the bioscience economy by 2024 transitioning out of tech into a legacy business like farm equipment sales and also the latest advancement in ag Tech Mitch thanks for being on the show man oh my gosh Matt thanks for being here it is fun to bring together Tech and Ag and food all in one place and we get to do it with you heck yeah right before lunch too perfect it's perfect um I'm excited to dive into everything AG Tech but first wanted to talk a little bit about your backstory Tiff and I love just getting to know people better where they came from how they grew up can you take us back to your earliest memories of agriculture Tech sure entrepreneurship yeah I'm a guy who found myself in ag and didn't grow up on a farm I grew up in rural Indiana in Tipton County Indiana and you know it was around tractors was around farming but never thought this would be part of what I do I spent time active duty in the Army it's been five years on active duty worked for the Army as a civilian in Iraq and down in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and then ultimately come came back to Indiana to work for governor Mitch Daniels ultimately in Economic Development it's where I met the team at exact target and anyone who knows anything about tech in Indiana knows the guy behind exact target Scott Dorsey he is magnetic truly one of the most influential leaders on my life setting great examples in business and fatherhood and being a great husband he's just an amazing guy he brought me over to exact target did quite a bit of work in comms Communications then did a lot of work in marketing and then got my MBA and decided hey you know it looks kind of like we're gonna go public and we hired a new public company CEO we'd raised quite a bit of venture and so I literally just went and knocked on the new cfo's door and was like Hey man um I don't know if we're gonna go public but if if we are I'd like to be a part of it I can carry things I can Shuffle things uh and he and Scott came to me about a week later if memory serves and said hey we'd like you to be our investor relations officer and had just an amazing opportunity to be a part of this team that took exact target public as you know exact target had an amazing IPO an amazing run as a public company tremendous outcome that's now the Cornerstone of the Salesforce marketing Cloud at two and a half billion dollar acquisition back in 2013.
and then found my way through Consulting kind of as a fractional Chief marketing officer into the world of Ag and uh fell in love I mean fell in love with this economy that is built on feeding people I mean it's the only economy in the world that touches every person on this planet and when you think about that every day every day every ideally three times a day right and so so you look at this and you go okay well there's something here and then you look at the massive the massive opportunity that is Tech around AG the troves of data that just the effluent off of a tractor in terms of data it's amazing and you see these Worlds Collide and as we went through the global pandemic it just became so clear to me that there will be regions there will be communities that emerge as winners and I you know through a whole lot of discernment on my own decided that you know I think this is the right time for me to go do that and here I am at agronovus Beth Bechtel the founding CEO of agronos did an amazing job of building the infrastructure and I think picked up the ball and we've been running ever since Matt it's been awesome so can we can we pop back real quick sure this is why I find I love these podcasts and I find diving deeper in with people fascinating so so um before we come to there's so many questions I have about present day but we go backwards number one thank you for your service that's amazing it was an honor so so you're in so you grew up in in a rural area and then you go into the services I'm curious what you did in the services where I'm leading with this whole question is like the cross-sector implications of your background um because I grew up in rural Indiana you you go to get into Services I'm curious what you did in the services how did you find your your way into technology how did you meet Scott when you came came to Indiana um and how did you choose marketing and comms right and then we'll eventually get to the whole AG bioscience piece now all those pieces tied together and by the way selling farm implements right on a large scale um so back to the services yeah so would you do that's a great question so I want to first thank my dad and thank my grandparents both both grandpas wearing the service Grandpa was a Navy guy the other grandpa was a marine I never met him my dad was in the Army and so I knew from pretty early age that I would I would serve and I'd you know dabbled in reporting and photography and so I had a chance to join the Army as a public affairs specialist which like that when you do the secret decoder ring what that means is you're a reporter for the the base newspaper and as you grow in terms of rank you become basically a PR guy and so I had the great Fortune of serving as the public affairs leader the soldier leader uh for the largest foreign language training institution following 911 I mean it was Monterey California wow and so the Presidio of Monterey Defense Language Institute that's where we we as a as a country teach people to speak foreign language and so 911 happens and you know I'm on active duty and have an amazing opportunity to see to serve and to be a part of something where we are building the future of the four and it was tofu it was awesome that's amazing I have to share one quick story uh so the the USS John C stennis aircraft carrier I had the the absolute honor of spending a night on that out at Sea so on the on that aircraft carrier for 30 36 or maybe a little bit longer hours and uh I think people don't realize I didn't realize the um the amount of service that our armed services do in in terms of humanitarian efforts like every single day right those aircraft carriers are cruising around the world they're dropping off things to other countries that need help you know famine all those kinds of things it's happening every single day every single week nobody ever hears about it it's true I mean there are so many there's so many stories from those who have served those who are serving and I want to go back to something you said because you say how do we get this yeah how did you get here you know when when you look at all the things that we talk about today in terms of Workforce it doesn't matter whether it's act bioscience pick your favorite sector of the economy we talk about how do we train people the military has been doing this for decades centuries right I mean yeah sincerely I I joined the army if they can teach somebody like me to write like that's a pretty good thing and then ultimately found my way into working for the Army as a civilian and then you know got into comms got into marketing et cetera et cetera but the whole notion of that is is we have a system and if there are young people listening there are all kinds of jobs if there is a job that you're thinking about you cyber security Indiana has a massive cyber security operation in the Army National Guard I mean there are so many things and get your college paid for I mean literally my undergrad and my MBA paid for by you so thank you uh and all the attacks that's awesome I think people don't realize that either that's right it's amazing yeah so how did you get plugged into Tech when you moved to Indianapolis yeah so I'm working at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and uh like any other fast growing company exact targets making big news and I remember having lunch with Scott Dorsey I don't know if he knows this story so it's gonna be good uh I had lunch with Scott Dorsey this was uh I don't know 2000 probably 2007 late 2006 and great meeting a sort of a friend of a friend Connection so we have lunch and I'd leave that lunch I'm like that guy is amazing I don't think I'm set for a startup right like it feels really risky I don't know and fast forward another year and there's another big jobs announcement from exact target and they had just hired a new Chief marketing officer by the name of Tim Kopp and you know there's those people in your life when you first meet them you're like that guy's Gonna Change me and I and Tim had been at these little companies like Coca-Cola right well that that was exactly it is so I meet Tim and I'm like man he is really awesome right like this guy is incredible he's just driven he understands this and then I got to know him and yeah he worked at Coca-Cola he was the first I think VP of digital at Coca-Cola he was the first PNG uh VP of digital like okay listen you know this is probably a life lesson here you don't have to be really smart you just have to know like identify start smart patterns and so I was like okay if that guy's gonna give up that stuff I should probably be thoughtful about this and so I remember it was the day after Thanksgiving I can almost like see myself typing an email to Scott Dorsey and Tim Kopp and I'm like hey um I'd like to come work with you and you know fast forward another four or five months and there I am was there a job opening or were you just saying hey I like what you're doing you know I don't think there was Matt that's a good question I I don't know if there was I mean you just look back at the audacity like good for me then right I don't want to go back and be like high five you uh you just thought that you would go do this I don't know that there was yeah that's one of the beautiful things about startups for sure yeah for sure and if you see an opportunity of where you can help you can plug in it was an incredible ride I mean you both and so many listening know the incredible caliber of talent that was across the board that continues to be across the board and it was uh yeah just an electric ride what was one of your favorite lessons you learned from working with Tim Kopp at exact target you know I always love you know Tim had this idea of we don't have to have the best sort of depth and Industry knowledge as he built his team so if I look at Tim's leadership team even those early chapters there are a couple folks from Tech you had some dude that came from the state me you had some guy who used to run a digital agency you had a gal who had been there for a while Amanda Lee amazing but it was just this this eclectic group of people and I think I think early stage even scaling stage companies can get so fixated on this idea well we have to find people who have done this before and Tim had a very different view Tim was Tim was and continues to be a guy who says look I want to find people who can work hard who can understand problems and not bring problems but bring Solutions as they identify problems and I realize that's one of those macro things you're like oh yeah I think that was on page seven of the book it was and it is but no one ever it's rare that you actually see somebody implement it and then I want to share one story about Dorsey because I think this is a story everybody knows the Scott Dorsey two and a half billion dollar exit amazing guy we all know that but here's the piece that I I think was the greatest influence on my life not my career my life is Scott has four girls I have two girls uh didn't then by the way uh and Scott made time to coach every one of his girls basketball teams and if you think about what happened during that period of time let me just reset the clock here so we're talking early 09 through exit you know we raised a couple hundred million Adventure we took a company public he became he was one of three co-founders who continued to evolve his leadership continue to evolve personally and professionally to become CEO and chairman of a publicly held company and then lead a giant swath of one of the largest SAS companies in the world at Salesforce and he did it while being an awesome dad and an awesome husband and there is so much power in that that you know we can get so fixated on our careers and not realize that career is a piece of life it's not life and and Scott is the example of what we should all strive to be did you get some insight into how he balanced that and and created that space yeah I think there's a there's a handful of things one he is he is a centered guy uh his wife Aaron is an amazing human being and I think she she was also that center right of making sure that everything stayed in place but then those around Scott I mean Sean kiesling has been a long time assistant to Scott and I think Sean would put herself in that category as well if we need to make sure that this works and Scott was really clear if this is how it's going to be and what I what I love is that we I think we've all probably worked with folks who have said these are objectives but living them is different and so he he didn't make a big deal out of it wasn't like oh I'm gonna go coach my kids basketball team it was Scott's going to coach kid basketball team it was just that part of life and so it what's what was wild is is my my girls now are five and three and so we're talking you know a chapter removed uh I didn't necessarily even know it I didn't know that I was noticing it then until now that I'm a dad um and gosh I'm so grateful for Scott's leadership and example that he said that's a great story a quick break from our normal programming I have Erica schweire CEO from Elevate Ventures here in the studio today Erica thanks for being here yeah thanks for having me and you're going to tell us a little bit about this rally Innovation conference that's coming up yep so it's the largest cross-sector Innovation conference in the world um we're going to feature six Innovation Studios so think hard tech software Sports Tech Ag and food Healthcare and Entrepreneurship is going to kind of be our catch-all I love that so tell me what is who's it for yeah it's for innovators entrepreneurs investors honestly anybody probably listening to this podcast it's going to be a multi-day thing that's multi-day in downtown Indianapolis yep people coming in from all of all over the country and maybe even all over the world to be here that's our hope yep and the dates are actually August 29th to the 31st perfect and if people want to find out more information about speakers tickets things like that where can they go yeah so they just go to rallyinnovation.
com and sign up for communications and they can also get their tickets I love it you heard it here rallyinnovation. com we'll see you there well let's talk about some AG tech let's do it it's one of my faves because uh there are so many things I know you accomplished at exact target we might have to do a part two of this just to dive into all of that but you are seeing all kinds of things in agriculture in food Tech and AG Tech can you talk to us about just the overall Market size of the industry we'd love to I'll give you sort of a landscape of what's Happening Here in Indiana and where we're where we've been and where we're going so we are a 58 billion dollar economy in Indiana we talk about the direct economic impact of AG bioscience and we we think about AG bioscience we're intentional in the use of the word because it comprises five key subverticals value-added food nutrition you can think of this as really anything ingredient manufacturing food manufacturing that's one it's the largest subsector by the way it's crazy 30 billion ish 30 billion well yeah I would never would have guessed that yeah so juxtaposed that with production agriculture when we talk AG Tech and AG bioscience people go oh yeah I've driven by a field it's a really critical piece right we cannot have the AG bioscience we have in Indiana without production agriculture but that's a 17-ish billion dollar economy and value-added food is a 30 billion economy doesn't make one greater than the other just contextually I think it's helpful as we drive through the countryside you can start to see where this happens so value-added food nutrition number one number two animal health and nutrition so this is everything from vaccine to feed how do we care for that animal how do we feed that animal this is the fastest growing category over the last decade of Indiana's AG bioscience economy and the the longest pull in that tent is a lanco you know a lanco had their IPO in 2018.
now they're the second largest animal health company in the world second largest in the world and they're here wow right and so they're building a new headquarters in the old GM Stamping Plant uh just across from the zoo here in Indianapolis so that's number two number three is plant science and crop protection now plant science and crop protection think of this is how do we innovate in seeds how do we innovate for resiliency for sustainability and then how do we care for that seed once it emerges and becomes a plant all the way through Harvest now here's a staggering piece so we think plant science crop protection and a guy who did not major in biology just so we're clear um yeah this is crazy so corteva is now their Global headquarters is here in Indianapolis guys they're the fourth largest publicly held company in Indiana by market cap so it's Eli Lilly number one elevance Health used to be Anthem health number two Simon Property Group number three corteva number four I mean this is a juggernaut bigger than Cummins bigger than Steel Dynamics bigger than Zimmer Biomet all really important pieces of the economy but contextually I think we sometimes lose the idea that we have the largest Pure Play AG company in the world headquartered here in Indiana in fact it's just up the street so those are the top three number four is AG Tech so this is the area that often we talk about we talk about this intersection of hardware and software fast growing about a 2 billion two and a half billion dollar market here in Indiana and then I mentioned 17 billion in production AG but here I want to even broaden this out for those who are like man I don't I don't know how big is this right 58 billion I don't know it's it's bigger than 57 and not as big as 60 right like what does it really mean right so if you put this into context so if you look at the economist view of this direct impact is 58 billion but if you look at direct indirect and induced when people talk about well the economic impact of Phil like they're usually talking about that bigger number yep so it's 91 billion when you look at it in that construct when you look at total economic impact that's about 20 percent of the state's GDP wow that's amazing what's that like on a national scale when you can I can compare is that pretty Equitable on a national scope about 20 of the GDP that's a great question I don't know the answer to that I mean when we look at the diversity here I would argue we are above index yeah that's just contextually I don't have raw data to support it and here's the reason why you look at a lanco you look at corteva you look at the number of innovators we have across this this spectrum you know Indianapolis is a really Indianapolis Central Indiana Indiana at large is a really interesting geography when we think about what's here if you think really broadly about why why we're seeing this kind of growth why we're seeing this differentiated above sort of the mean we have this unique asset that is we have plant Health corteva all of those around it we have animal health a landco all those around it we have the nation's largest medical school we have a pharmaceutical Giant and and I I realize that feels maybe like apples and tangerines but if you think about this soil Health really good soil health comes from plant science crop protection right those plants will ultimately feed animals those animals will ultimately feed people and those People's Health will ultimately cared for by the medical system this macro concept is called one Health there is no other Metro not just in America I would argue in the world that has the balance sheet the assets that we have to transform that in a world where sustainability and profitability have to go hand in hand in a world where we have a really unique position to Go Achieve guys I mean this plate this place Indiana is the place this next chapter will be built that that right there is a beautiful example of like cross-sector innovation in its purest form without a doubt direct linkage to each one yeah and it's not abstracted that's a real real thing that's a real thing and you can see how all of those pieces the puzzle fit together yeah can we dive into some macro and micro examples right you know I'm going to leave the macro real quick and go to macro let's do it so um you have all of these incredible organizations number one number two in the world um and that are right here in Indiana so like what we have universities involved as well so what are some examples I'm going to see to a couple examples punited um but uh so I know there's people working on like a favorite story I heard from you once there's a company out there uh working on if you think about a corn stalk this is an amazing company yes and how so what if we could have a seed that the corn stalk was a third of the height instead of whatever according stock is well I have a fun question by the way for the podcast here in a minute because I did grow up on a farm but um but if a corn stock could be three feet tall versus six feet tall it can be much more efficient Etc would be an example there's also a shrimp farm example yes so talk about a couple micro innovations that you see happening happening that you think yeah I want to plug into the Inari example so you mentioned a company called Inari Inari Inari this is a company with a giant operation up in West Lafayette so a company's headquartered out of Cambridge Massachusetts Boston and their CEO her name is Ponzi trevisave this lady is amazing she used to be the president of syngenta seeds North America and she had this vision of how can we use Gene editing technology to improve the efficiency and improve the operations and resiliency and sustainability of production Agriculture and so she's gone down the path of her and her team have gone down the path of how do we use Gene editing to your points can we can we optimize that seed to use less nutrients because it has doesn't have to create as much biomass to create the same yield it's amazing now here's a like the exclamation point on why she and that company is awesome she led the largest series C of any female-led AG tech company in the world in history that's a and that's amazing and the largest the largest operation for Inari is here in Indiana it's bigger than their headquarters this is the place so that's a great example you mentioned Araya adiraya is a shrimp farm that we actually got plugged into through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation hosted them brought them here to Indiana and this is why where were they from uh from Mexico yep so they were from Mexico their first U.
S operation is here in Indiana and what they do is they take a in essence a rail container and they have created a AI system and a software and Hardware system that uses AI that feeds the shrimp that creates the conditions for the shrimp to thrive and they can do that anywhere right because it's in a rail container so you think about macro sustainability pushes this is really interesting right because we can push point of production to close to point of consumption yep so we're just we're lessening Supply chains that's really good but also from a profitability standpoint and this is a really important piece as we go forward is those two have to go hand in hand you can't have you cannot have durable sustainability without profitability it just doesn't work these guys are doing some amazing amazing work but we got to them through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the one of the reasons I believe they're here is because this incredible economy that's here so when they came we hosted them in partnership with iedc but we were able to connect them to elainco we were able to connect them to uh the the folks at the corn and soybean Alliance because well shrimp eat things right right like the idea that we have this system that exists and we have connectivity that exists it is a really easy place to plug in Matt you've done this so long of you know how do we create this connected ecosystem in terms of Entrepreneurship we see a microcosm of that in ag bioscience and it is it is electric and it is differentiated you talk to these guys that come in and they say boy this is this is something unique right like I can just come and talk with tof and like we I can meet anybody I'd ever want to meet and that is happening here and it's creating this magnet that is taking that what was a 52 billion dollar economy to a 58 billion dollar account when what was that growth over oh that was uh that was over a 36 month period toe thanks for the question yeah because here's the here's the beauty guys so we when I joined from Reynolds Farm Equipment you mentioned that earlier a local or Regional John Deere dealer here you know I came in I said look we if we're going to do this we got to have goals right we have to have a measurable metric to get to and the board was kind when we went in some research and we had data from 12 15 and 18 first time we'd ever Quantified this economic impact and it came out 52.
3 billion and so we forecasted based on each of those five sub-verticals of what we thought we could get to we really thought four billion I'll tell you I was like well if we get to three and a half really who's mad but we set four billion so 4 billion was our goal by 2024 we called it and we still call it our grow 2024 ambition and when we delivered a six billion dollar growth reality from data in a 36 month period 14 months of that by the way were the only periods that weren't covered by the global pandemic yep yep it's amazing and just to be clear I want to I want to say this because I hope I hope we have a lot of folks listening that is not agrinovis that is all the companies that wake up every day with a commitment to feed this world whether they're in Animal Health whether they're in food whether in their plant science and crop protection act Tech they're the ones doing the work we get to be the ones that count it to celebrate it to give them high fives but they're the ones that deserve the credit I want to ask you more about these companies because there are so many amazing trends that are happening right now in technology and Innovation and one of those I have to imagine has a huge implication on agriculture and that is Internet of Things sure and Robotics how is how is iot affecting Agriculture and how is agriculture robotics kind of changing the way we do food production Animal Health all the things you mentioned in the AG bioscience World fantastic question Matt when you look at what are the three big trends is driving the future of this economy one of them is labor shortages will drive Innovation and so what we're seeing is a real shift a real in Innovation if you will in terms of Robotics not because it's cool to have a you know automated lettuce Farm plenty a one billion dollar ish Venture Capital backed company they've raised about a billion dollars wow that fasting Walmart's on on the cap table uh Schmidt from Google's on the cap table I mean it's an amazing company but they did it not because boy it'd be really neat if we could have automated lettuce because they don't have people right John Deere made a big move in 2021 they bought a company called Bear Flag Robotics and this was imagine taking a big ag tractor that you would see running through the field and they made it completely autonomous wow it was beautiful I mean it was beautiful as a as a guy who sold tractors for a while but also just a guy who appreciates design I mean it was it was beautiful and so the whole notion there was and we went out and saw them in California they had said look when you plant cabbage and lettuce and cauliflower and broccoli you're planting into a seed bed that needs to be almost like talcum powder so you're running tillage 12 15 18 20 times over the same area to prepare the seed bed wow well if you think about you know that's a guy or a gal in the tractor driver's seat and if we can remove that and apply that labor not replace that labor or set aside that labor put that labor into higher use somewhere well now we can actually scale this production and that's what we're seeing case New Holland made another big move in 2021 as well they bought a company called raven a publicly held company and if you sort of dig into the filings what you find is autonomy was a big reason why they made that move as well and so I think we're going to going to continue to see as we look at you know unemployment rate I think just came out was in the threes 3.
1 if I remember correctly we were at full employment yeah and so what it creates for entrepreneurs My Hope Is those that are listening you are catching fire like you are hearing this you're like man I want to go run through the wall and I want to go solve these problems these problems exist and it's not one of those things that golly it'd be nice to solve because this is how we eat yeah this is how our kids eat this is the future of food and solving real problems here matters and I would argue it matters more than most well it hits home for me Mitch because I grew up riding on my grandpa's lap in the tractor sure in the John Deere tractor all day you know he worked 12 plus hour days I I remember there were a couple years he had a farm hand but for the most part he farmed hundreds of Acres on his own and he had to ride that tractor and then do all the other things to keep that farm going in the Dakotas and you know I wouldn't trade that time on my grandpa's laps or anything in the world but that's because that I grew up in the 90s right if I grew up in the 2020s it would be me watching my grandpa over his shoulder as he programs the the tractor right or as he figures out how to you know which AI tool to use to help get more data and more intelligence to grow and produce more effectively it's exactly right I mean you look at the productivity rate of acreage in the U.
S specifically and what we're able to deliver from a yield perspective some of that is equipment Innovation some of that seed Innovation is staggering I mean the growth the amount of food that we can can create on the Acres we can create is extraordinary so I think it didn't Beck's hybrid seeds take it from in the 1940s or 50s around 50 bushels an acre and I've seen some numbers recently that that I think I saw something even popped up in the 600 but like they're consistently producing 400 ish is that roughly correct might be a little high it's a little high might be a little high but it is it's it's staggering the the rate of growth that we've seen in terms of productivity I think that's such an important piece and it's you know you look at the the technology advances on the science side that's what's making that possible but you also look at it on the equipment side so yeah you know I I'm not a Tesla driver I drive a really big Jeep and I love it um but for those of the two bad nates he's a Jeep driver oh my gosh Nate buddy we need to talk I know uh but people got so excited you know fat rewind five years ago when Tesla had you know semi-autonomous driving or semi-autonomous steering and we've seen that come over time to other brands but um really Tesla was kind of the Forefront guys the first tractor the first John Deere tractor with auto steer was 2001.
wow that's crazy so put that into context I mean there are there are some amazing innovations that are happening here yep that have an application across back to your cross sector piece for us to Rally around that could make uh you see that that could be really really impactful for the rest of the economy yeah well speaking of the the people shortage another huge Trend right now is artificial intelligence machine learning how is AI and ml playing a role in agriculture and food production giant opportunity I mean you look at the complexity I mean let's just look at production agriculture moving we can touch on Animal Health if you want but if you look at production agriculture you're actually building an outdoor manufacturing facility right where you don't control variability so you can do everything you can to care for that seed to optimize that seed to create the conditions weather changes things happen so when you think about that and you think about all the data that is coming off the production system whether it's the the tractor the planter the sprayer drone aerial imagery satellite imagery weather data all of this being able to aggregate that and actually make sense of it I think we're still in early Innings yeah we have all this big data and analytics I I agree with that I think we haven't even started yet like we have but like when you zoom out a hundred years from now it'll look like we haven't even started we haven't started we're just I don't know for scratching the surface yet it's insane it's incredible and and I think that the opportunity in production agriculture specific is so you think about all that data we just talked about now isolate that into a production system where you only have 35 or 40 chances to get it right so this isn't like SAS say it again what do you mean by that you only have 35 to yeah so if you only have 35 to 40 chances to get it right meaning you only have as a career you only have 35 or 40 planting Seasons right so the decisions you make it's not like well we can just push an update well that was a bug was it a feature different topic uh the idea is you can't do that right when you put a seed in the ground you can't you can't push an update it doesn't work that way and so the other piece that is I think really really important as we think about this aggregation of data and applying ML and applying AI is how do we do that in a way that is more coached than prescriptive because when you only have that many chances it's also about risk mitigation yep and and how do we how do we recognize how do we honor how do we establish what that really means and then how do we inform and how do we coach and it's you know we we've seen a couple generations of AG Tech now I would argue we're in the fourth or fifth wave of AG Tech Innovation I think we've seen a lot of folks who have tried to say well this is what you should do right we've used all the data and this is what it is that it doesn't work it doesn't work that way because it is such a multivariate equation and it's such a a legacy in a very positive way of we have to care for this land and we have to make sure that we do everything we can to be responsible to ensure that we continue to produce the food and produce the output that we do because again I as the farmer only have 35 or 40 chances to get this right you have any examples of companies in the agronomics ecosystem that are using some of these things like Ai and Big Data oh my gosh make an impact so many I a couple that just are on the top of my head that I love so taranas is a company that moved their Global headquarters from Tel Aviv Israel to Westfield so just North of Indianapolis these guys are amazing they just raised 40 million last year they are so imagine a system that can you know actually agnostic of how they acquire the data so whether it's a drone or whether it's a satellite or whether it's a plane doesn't really matter but we're taking data from aerial imageries and aerial imagery and we're saying hey look I can spot with sub millimeter precision that's a bug and because of AI I can say that bug is this kind of bug and because of ml I can say well that kind of bug typically has this kind of spread over this period of time and you should go do this tomorrow wow that's happening in Indiana with an incredible innovator called taranas that's an incredible example I love it that's incredible it's it's astounding and that's the kind of innovation that's happening because again there what what did we learn from even the prior example it's not saying hey Matt hey Toph you need to go do this it's saying hey look we've identified this you make the decision but hey you should probably be aware yeah knowledge right no back they'll say knowledge is power amen what what um do you know what what one of one of the drivers the biggest driver or two of why they chose to relocate from Tel Aviv to India to Westfield Indiana yeah I think part of its relationship so I had a chance to join Governor Holcomb on a trade Mission back in 2018 when I was selling tractors I was confounded at the time of why am I going to Tel Aviv Israel I'm pretty sure I'm not going to sell a combine or a tractor there but uh thank God I did and had a chance to meet them fun story it won't take long but it's awesome so you wonder how these deals kind of come together Serendipity is a real thing so uh Beth Bechtel the founding CEO of agronovus reached out to me and I'd been kind of involved in the agronovus ecosystem for a while spoke at a couple other events and she's like hey you're a tech guy find us some really interesting tech companies in Tel Aviv to meet with we're going over with the governor I'm like okay I didn't have any idea like I had no idea you just say yes right right sure sure jump right on that then pick up my television that's right so I use the power of Google because that's you know that's what you do and I you know typed in most promising AG tech companies in Israel and I had a whole list of them and one of them I found mark benioff the CEO of Salesforce was a seed investor in and you know I think Mark makes pretty good choices at least he made two and a half billion good choices that's probably good here in Indiana uh and I was like well if Mark invested him they must be good so literally that's that's how we selected that company and then I didn't have contact so it was like the the you know old sales mentality of like okay I can probably guess this guy's email address right oh for shlom over oh right like all the different permutations of email address he answered one of them holy and and we were able to uh go meet with him and so we brought a delegation we met with them built the relationship and then as they look to continue to grow their Global presence look if you're going to be in this market you need to be in the U.
S they hire a new uh new guy who had some experience who had lived in Westfield or lived all across the country he conducted a really meaningful analysis his name is Mike depala Mike's now their Chief commercial officer and Mike and I spent some time around and they ultimately made the move in 2020 to make this their Global headquarters it's awesome yeah talk to me a little bit more about um agrobiotechnology how do you use techniques like plant breeding you know genetic engineering crispr you know to continue to produce uh healthier livestock healthier plants what are some of the companies that are doing that and what are you excited about in that space yeah I'm really excited so I'll go back to the sort of set the macro scene here when you look at crop protection plant science that segment of the Indiana AG bioscience economy for the first time over the last 10 years when we measured this it didn't Decline and I realized saying didn't decline doesn't sound like an increase but that's a big deal because that industry specifically that segment of the market has really been compressed through consolidation mergers and Acquisitions sure and so to see them jump back into a growth perspective gives me a lot of confidence that Indiana is well positioned to go capture share not just here in the States but globally especially with corteva here when you look at the companies doing that I mean there's so many and there's so many applications we talked about Inari up in West Lafayette earlier you mentioned Beck's hybrid stove doing some amazing work AG Reliant genetics also headquartered in Westfield doing some amazing work but one I want to highlight that I think is I mean this is this gives you Goosebumps I mean it's just amazing so Chuck magro is the new CEO of corteva had a chance to spend some time out in California world agritech this is like the Super Bowl of all things cool AG stuff happening how many people I don't know thousands wow yeah I mean it was it was awesome I mean just electric so Chuck takes the stage uh incredible guy and he announces a partnership between Bungie Chevron and corteva to create a new low-carbon fuel you talk about something that applies to everyone we can talk about food and I think we all conceptually get it you talk about fuel right sustainable aviation fuel sustainable diesel the idea that we could harness the power of plants to actually make that impact powerful now here's context oh my gosh this is amazing I love this so I was in C at CES earlier this year with with iedc and a couple other folks and John Deere was on stage so John Deere cto's name is Jamie heinemann the guy's amazing now the the opening day of CES like the opening day of CES is John Deere that's awesome in and of itself and Jamie said hey look I I know that there are going to be a lot of cool electric cars and Innovations announced here but I want to give you context it alone is not enough and it alone doesn't solve all challenges he talked about a portfolio approach but he had a picture of a giant 8r tractor so big ag tractor behind him and he said listen if we were to Electrify this tractor it would take 38 Tesla Model 3 batteries that tractor would weigh twice as much be twice as big and cost four times as much now here's the real kicker in the re and then the batteries don't degrade correct now here's the kicker when you think about that so we all all think about the energy transition we think you know fossil fuel to battery he said if we were to use sustainable diesel in that tractor it would have the same carbon intensity as if it were electrified there you go wow I love it That's The Power of plant science That's The Power of innovation that is happening and there's a perfect intersection where you see AG Tech in plant science and crop protection coming together to solve real world problems well and this is something that absolutely uh plays into the trend of sustainability without probably the biggest place that Humanity can make an impact is continuing to create more sustainable ways to farm produce food what's interesting and we don't hear um we think about sustainability we we think about fossil fuel right to battery there's no in between in uh it's like why maybe we shouldn't go down that path I don't know but why is that like why why aren't we talking about this more as a society and shouting this from the rooftops that that not only is this possible but it's real in in its there might even be beta testing going on either initial versions of this already in practice there has been a rise in the interest in sustainable aviation fuel I'd say that's probably one of the headline pieces we've seen you know we don't have to go back that many chapters to look at ethanol yeah yeah right I mean ethanol is from corn and we're seeing that as an additive in some cases a complete replacement you know there's a really incredible company we worked with out of Chicago that we they actually owned or operated an r d operation here in Indiana a company called clear flame engines so clear Flame it's incredible they're taking diesel engines and making them run entirely on ethanol so imagine this if you will a John Deere tractor could be another brand but we're only going to talk about John Deere so imagine a John Deere tractor running through a field planting corn caring for corn powered by the corn yeah sustainable sustainable circular economy all of that piece is there and you know it's it's so easy I think for folks to you know say well what about the food system and what's happening or if you look at if you look at producers if you look at farmers at large it is in their very best interest it's in their own economic interest to care for that asset to be wonderful stewards of that environment because that is back to the the analogy of this is an outdoor manufacturing facility that's their palette right that's their place of production and so this notion of well we need to we need to advance sustainability we need to continue to innovate we continue to use all the tools of plant science and crop protection and AG Tech we do and we will and we are but it is an absolute misnomer to think that the the guys and gals who get up every day to feed us aren't thinking about sustainable that's completely wrong yeah it's completely wrong well Mitch you've talked about so many amazing companies so many different Trends happening in ag biosciences uh the conferences that you've been to the different countries you've been to how do you stay plugged in and for those who maybe aren't in the industry but want to keep keep an eye on what's going on in ag biosciences where what do you look at sure and where should they pay attention so there are a handful of things that I do you know find the companies that you really like I mean I am uh as a former investor relations guy I'm a complete junkie for all things stock so watching public companies just really incredible trends that you can discern from earnings calls and those kinds of things more macro AG funder news is a really powerful source of insight TechCrunch obviously has some of those pieces I think in addition to those I would encourage you to go to agronovusindiana.
com of course May 10th actually we have an event coming up that we're going to talk about this idea of of how do you use plant science to fuel the energy transition and so we have folks from Cummins we have folks from poet the the ethanol leaders we have folks from corteva joining us to have this exact conversation about we can do this and it's those kinds of conversations Matt where we we strive to have those conversations and not just to you know have the conversation to have the conversations my my whole ambition we have this grow 2024 Vision or ambition that I mentioned if it's not to growth we're not doing it yeah I mean this isn't like well we're gonna have events because we have events now we're gonna have events because we want people to connect we want people to say hey look I had an idea at this thing and we're gonna go create a company or we're gonna create a new product that is why we exist we exist to grow this economy we don't exist to entertain we don't exist to do those we exist to grow the economy and these kinds of events the work that we do is 100 focused on that that's how it happens so um we're probably getting close to lightning round yeah you want to run it today um uh sure we're down to our final two minutes so we probably have quick time for three questions I'll be brief go I just want to say one last thing the whole the name of this podcast is get in yeah like your history and background is like such a perfect example of just get in right whatever your background is we come from the military you're or you you come from you know less means or you come from the SAS industry and and now all these other Industries have opened up that need all of these different types of experiences and backgrounds and expertise to bring these new Innovations to life it's just get in yeah just get in yeah that's great all right Mitch we have come to the end here on our lightning round session I've never done this this is my first time I've ever done a lightning round either and um so we've come to the lightning round and uh we're gonna ask three questions okay and there's no right or wrong answer it's your answer is the right answer I like it uh and so um uh here we go you ready I'm ready all right outside of the May amazing entrepreneurial ecosystem what is Indiana known for um gosh that's hard first thing that comes to mind the Indiana State Fair there you go we haven't had that yet have I had that what's your favorite thing to buy uh I am 100 of Ben's Pretzel fan nice yeah but you're gonna say fried Twinkie come on come on grateful for them by the way as the chairman of the Indiana State Fair commission I'm grateful for their work uh incredible fried Twinkie vendor thank you yes yes oh yes I had forgotten about that that's true um okay number two what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana I think a hidden gym in Indiana is the existing Talent base that's here that is a generation or two disconnected from production agriculture from AG bioscience we have an inordinate amount of really smart really sophisticated Tech developers data scientists AI engineers and they all have a connection to Something in rural or at least something to food our opportunity is to connect them my job is to connect them with the help of you both I love it number three yes who is someone that we need to keep on our radar someone who is doing big things in terms of a company anything comes to mind somebody's doing big things somebody doing big things uh I'll give you a couple Elliott Parker at high alpha Innovation one of the most incredible most brilliant innovators and just a good human being keep an eye on him the work that he's leading with big codes to create small codes is extraordinary uh you know another one that I would say is I'm going to give it to the Purdue college of Agriculture so the Purdue college of Agriculture they in their Dean Karen plout Dr Karen plow is now the RVP or EVP of research so she is now over all research there will soon be a new Dean of the College of Agriculture and the work they're doing to advance all of those sectors that I mentioned Food Animal Health plant science AG Tech production AG it is a gem I mean what what Purdue does I heard a VC say it's like the MIT of the Midwest and I'm not sure that Purdue would actually like that positioning but I thought it was fascinating the outside in perspective they're doing some amazing work big things are ahead yeah just for the record Purdue's like number one in many categories oh my gosh throughout the globe right well this this has been awesome thank you Mitch the CEO of agrinovus uh amazing life story amazing work story about balance work-life balance I love it and it was awesome to have you on get in thank you thanks Mitch this is awesome thanks so much appreciate it guys this has been get in a powder kick production in partnership with Elevate Ventures and we want to hear from you if you have suggestions for a guest or a segment reach out to Matt or Nate on LinkedIn or on email to discover top-tier tech companies outside of Silicon Valley in hubs like Indiana check out our newsletter at powderkeg.
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