The Maturing Ag Tech Landscape: Practical, Profitable, Proven

Season 5: Episode 211

As the ag tech sector matures, the industry is finally shifting its focus from flashy innovations to solving real problems on the ground. In this episode of North American Ag Spotlight, Chrissy Wozniak explores how the ag tech space is becoming more practical, profitable, and proven — especially when it comes to addressing the core issue that keeps most farmers up at night: labor. Joining the conversation from St. Louis, Missouri is Connie Bowen, Founding Partner of Farmhand Ventures, a venture firm focused on the future of work in U.S. agriculture.

Connie shares how her background — spanning from engineering to hands-on farm work in Oregon’s Willamette Valley — shaped her laser focus on labor as agriculture’s most pressing challenge. She discusses how investor enthusiasm surged after high-profile acquisitions like Monsanto’s purchase of Climate Corp, but notes the disconnect between capital flowing into ag tech and the slow pace of on-farm adoption. That’s where Farmhand Ventures comes in — helping startups build with the farmer, not just for them.

Throughout the conversation, Connie breaks down what makes an idea investable in the ag space, why founders must collaborate closely with growers and farmworkers from day one, and how including the voices of those doing the work creates smarter, more successful tools. She explains that while sustainability and climate concerns may attract outside capital, these investors often fail to understand the farmer’s “hair-on-fire” problems — like labor shortages and razor-thin margins — which must be addressed first.

Connie also talks about mistakes she sees ag tech startups making, including overpromising, chasing the wrong markets, or designing without true farm-level feedback. She emphasizes the importance of field trials, user input, and ongoing proof, comparing startup success to a sports team that has to earn its wins every season. Looking ahead, she predicts robotics will play an increasingly critical role in specialty crops and emphasizes the need for tech to help elevate workers into higher-value roles rather than displacing them.

This episode highlights a turning point in ag tech — one where the best solutions come from close collaboration, practical thinking, and a deep respect for the realities of farm work.

Learn more about Connie and Farm Ventures at https://www.farmhandventures.com/

#agtech #smartfarming #agriculture

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Transcript

00;00;28;04 - 00;00;46;29
Chrissy Wozniak
From buzzword laden pitches to real, tangible tools making a difference in the field. But as the industry matures, so do expectations. Farmers want technology that isn't just innovative, but also practical, profitable, profitable and proven. Gone are the days of solutions in search of a problem.

00;00;47;01 - 00;01;14;15
Chrissy Wozniak
Today, successful agtech needs to meet growers where they are and solve real challenges with measurable results. In. In this episode, we're diving into what a maturing agtech industry looks like, how investor mindsets are shifting, and why a deeper understanding of labor and practical deployment is critical to the success of new innovation. Joining me today from Saint Louis, Missouri, is the founding partner of a venture studio committed to shaping the future of work in agriculture.

00;01;14;18 - 00;01;19;29
Chrissy Wozniak
Lonnie Bowen, a farmhand, ventures. Thank you so much, Connie, for joining me today.

00;01;20;01 - 00;01;23;02
Connie Bowen
Yeah, thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

00;01;23;04 - 00;01;26;21
Chrissy Wozniak
So let's start with your background. How did you get where you are today?

00;01;29;00 - 00;01;42;14
Connie Bowen
I think it's kind of a it's like an obvious road to me, but it's also, I've done some skipping around, so I'll give the high level kind of background here. I have I grew up, in the, in new Jersey and like the New York City suburbs kind of commuter town. My sisters live in

00;01;42;14 - 00;01;49;09
Connie Bowen
Manhattan and, you know, they're very much like, how the heck did Connie end up living in Missouri and working in agriculture?

00;01;49;11 - 00;02;08;28
Connie Bowen
And I learned that, but at the same time, my dad's family is from the Midwest. We have a farm in Iowa. So, like, we have some tight family ties, right? But I just have always been obsessed with food. Really? As, like, a kid. Even so, I actually worked in restaurants, back of house, and I thought about doing that instead of kind of the college route.

00;02;08;28 - 00;02;32;13
Connie Bowen
But, you know, as a kid in the Jersey suburbs who was good at math. So I did what kids in the suburbs who are good at math do. And I got into the best college I could and got an engineering degree. And I think that that kind of led me to intersect, you know, and I also kind of have had this long held concern around conservation and climate change and all that jazz.

00;02;32;15 - 00;02;55;23
Connie Bowen
And I think when you combine all those things together, actually very naturally intersects with Agtech, because, you know, food is great. But you got to really go all the way down to the sauce and understand where it's coming from and understand how we can, create a system that works for all parties, and in delivering us what delicious, nutritious food.

00;02;55;25 - 00;03;29;03
Connie Bowen
Plus fiber fuels pride in my work is quite a bit. So that's kind of the high level that I ended up. I was really fortunate to run into an entrepreneurial fellowship program called Venture for America right after college, that focuses on economic development via entrepreneurship so that in cities like Saint Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, and that's how I ended up in Saint Louis, working with the yellow lab, which is one of the first at the food tech specific accelerator and venture funds in the world.

00;03;29;05 - 00;03;52;14
Connie Bowen
So I got really lucky to be in on the ground floor of that and to get to help to expand that internationally. Now, that's a family, a federation, really a funds. And there's a European fact, branch as well as Latin American as well as Asia Pacific. So it's a really interesting network. But as I was doing that, I was watching, tech investment climb, climb, climb, right.

00;03;52;14 - 00;04;18;09
Connie Bowen
Like, there was a lot basically post Monsanto acquiring Climate Corp in 2013 for like, almost $1 billion. Just shy. Everyone got excited about the Agtech investment or enough people got excited about the Agtech investment opportunity. But what I was noticing is as more VC dollars were piling in on farm, adoption rates were in no way correlating.

00;04;18;11 - 00;04;37;11
Connie Bowen
And I thought, oh, that's that might catch up with us. That could be a problem. So I left DC, to try to get, you know, again, like, my family's the farmer in Iowa. The guy who farms it is a very close family friend comes to, you know, weddings and funerals and whatnot. But not a direct family member.

00;04;37;13 - 00;04;55;18
Connie Bowen
And I, you know, I know Barry, and I know how that works, but I felt like I needed to learn a lot more, really, and spend more time boots on the ground. So I moved to, Willamette Valley, worked with a small farmland investment fund, was pretty involved in management of our six, hazelnut, blueberry and half properties out there.

00;04;55;21 - 00;05;30;26
Connie Bowen
And that's really where I came to my current day focus at Farm Hand, which is labor. Labor is the problem. It's the whole problem. Obviously, particularly in specialty crops. And you get one of the weeds on it. But I basically have been obsessed with labor as kind of the blocker to practice and agtech adoption. And like the, the thing that is missing and no one's talking about and it's obviously it's a politically complex topic, but it is the thing that keeps every farmer up at night, almost.

00;05;30;28 - 00;05;50;11
Connie Bowen
And I know because, you know, I've, I've done it from the management standpoint and I've been at the bottom of the foot hole. The stakes are expensive. The irrigation tech system that I dug. You know, it's like. It's like there's nothing like that to help you really get a, reality check on your irrigation tech investments on the east side.

00;05;50;14 - 00;06;13;09
Connie Bowen
So, yeah, that's kind of how I came to. I spent some more time with a farmer network in the Mid-South called AG launch in between, but started Farmland Ventures three years ago. And we are we we do some venture builder work with the University of California extension system. But we're a venture firm. We invest in startup companies all around the world that solve problems for us growers.

00;06;13;09 - 00;06;25;25
Connie Bowen
Really, with a real center on the folks who do the work actually in agriculture and making sure that tools are good for users, which seems obvious, but somehow isn't.

00;06;25;28 - 00;06;51;04
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah, well, that is remarkable. And, and what an interesting, you know, variation or diversity in your background. I think just think that's so cool. And, you know, in the last 5 to 10 years, I've really I really noticed kind of this, this shift. You know, it used to always be, look at this cool thing the university made, you know, look at this cool thing this company wants to bring out.

00;06;51;04 - 00;07;17;07
Chrissy Wozniak
And yes, it was amazing, but there was really, like you said, there wasn't the on farm adoption. And there also it didn't always make sense to to the the producer to actually put out the money to buy this thing that did this amazing thing. So, so I think it's been it's been really interesting, especially over the last five years, to see this maturity take shape.

00;07;17;10 - 00;07;27;27
Chrissy Wozniak
And, so let's let's take a look at the big picture. How do you define this maturing ag tech landscape?

00;07;28;00 - 00;07;48;16
Connie Bowen
I guess I'm really glad to hear you say that. First of all, that there's like a little progress there because I still often feel I call it tech Rose. Fixing the farm. It's kind of, you know, not it's it's, you know, if someone who doesn't know anything actually about how to even grow, you know, tomatoes in his backyard and he is like, oh, you don't know anything about how you're farming, let me throw some.

00;07;48;16 - 00;08;20;25
Connie Bowen
I am, but yeah, whatever year we're in, whatever buzzword it is to like, do this better for you. So I'm glad you're noticing something better than that. I think it's still few and far between, and I think there's a couple of, like. Okay, I guess there's, like, macro dynamics behind this, right? You've got a situation where it continues to be true that the percentage of the US population who is actually exposed to agriculture continues to decline, and that's going to keep happening.

00;08;20;28 - 00;08;46;14
Connie Bowen
Like there's almost although I actually see Agtech as a lever to keep people in agtech to bring new people to attack and to make us add more competitive. And you like that. That to me is like a really interesting that's part of this kind of workforce, way that I see, and I guess when we say maturing, you know, we've had the past three years, I would say for agtech investment have been bad.

00;08;46;17 - 00;09;17;19
Connie Bowen
2 or 3 years. We've we've dropped from that ever increasing dollar amount. And I, I think that we do need more dollars to continue to invest in agtech solutions. But I think we have a really I think we have a real challenge in that most risk capital or startup venture capital is coming from venture capital. And like that is the class of investment that has gotten the most airtime.

00;09;17;22 - 00;09;43;14
Connie Bowen
And you know, you know, obviously deservedly so. It's gotten some blockbusters. You've got a lot of the companies that effectively drive our stocks today, our our venture backed things. But in ad we've got a really fragmented market. Actually, I'd like to say that funds are like snowflakes. Like there's actually there's a cost to customization. It tends to be incredibly relationship driven.

00;09;43;17 - 00;10;11;04
Connie Bowen
And so that again, that means people that means cost. I doesn't do relationships actually as good as as good as our arms can get. Quad ChatGPT. And that you're not the best, best friends, actually. And so that just means that there are some different considerations with scaling and therefore with financing at tech companies that I think we are having more of an opening of a conversation there.

00;10;11;07 - 00;10;30;11
Connie Bowen
But at the same time, you know, AG was responsible for depending on the stats you want to follow, somewhere between 10 and 33% of global emissions. I mean, so us, you know, like we can we can argue about the in between, but whatever. Like that's a fair amount. And I think we do want to cut greenhouse gas emissions generally.

00;10;30;11 - 00;10;53;12
Connie Bowen
The broader public agrees with that. But so then what you have happening is like that, like 99% of people who don't have any exposure. But, you know, the majority of that percentage, but is like, climate change, you got to reduce emissions is like, okay, so AG is an interesting area that to reduce emissions. Right. And you know, we've got the other side of like can soil carbon also can we be aware.

00;10;53;13 - 00;11;03;10
Connie Bowen
But whatever, let's just say we're only focused on reduction. That means that you're attracting capital that is trying to solve kind of a secondary problem. Right. Like that's not yeah.

00;11;03;10 - 00;11;03;25
Chrissy Wozniak
That's true.

00;11;03;25 - 00;11;40;10
Connie Bowen
Actually the first problem. And that capital doesn't that understands the secondary problem incredibly well, but it doesn't understand the primary problem very well. And so that results in failures a lot of failures. It's really hard to invest in something where you don't understand the primary user very well. And so I don't know, like I guess I see that happening and I don't know that I would that that to me is an what I hope maturing looks like.

00;11;40;13 - 00;12;06;03
Connie Bowen
I will say that what I am I and you know, a select number of kind of tech investor peers I think are trying to do is help those investors who are well-intended, right, to make better investments in this space. And to me, that means flipping it around and saying, wait, actually, I don't care about a vitamin when I'm tapped.

00;12;06;04 - 00;12;22;25
Connie Bowen
You know, like if I outscored my grandma about corn prices other day, like when, like, we'll be lucky if we don't lose money this year, right? Like, so like it's. And then, you know, I talk to a lot of I do a lot of work, especially crops. And you know, it's like I can't get my berries out of the field.

00;12;22;25 - 00;12;52;01
Connie Bowen
What are you talking about? Trying to improve my soil health. Like I don't have I can't even I can't even think about that. And so I think really focusing on the hair on fire problem, which tends to be labor and focusing on how if you're going to integrate something new into a farm operation, then you'd better have buy in from all the users, and you'd better think about where there's some perverse incentives along the supply chain.

00;12;52;01 - 00;13;23;27
Connie Bowen
Even within a farm operation, for adoption of some of the tools. And this particular is relevant in the context of automation, where absolutely, robotics have a role to play on the farms of the future. And also, I believe as well, like for the rest of my life, I think there will be humans working on farms. And so those things need to coexist, and workers need to see the benefit of coexisting, and they need not to feel threatened by incoming technology.

00;13;24;03 - 00;13;53;05
Connie Bowen
And so I like that is all. You can really only start to uncover all that stuff. The relationships and farm organization, farmers, farm workers, all that jazz. So I try to co-invest generously with more generalist folks and shift the narrative a little bit more towards like, well, I get that you want to sequester all the soil carbon. I get that you want to reduce inherited emissions, whatever.

00;13;53;07 - 00;14;08;22
Connie Bowen
But remember that particularly in times like these, where you've just got such instability and you've got decreased farm income, like you've just got to be ultra pragmatic about what your customer base can bear, right?

00;14;08;22 - 00;14;38;20
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah. I think all of that, what you said is just so interesting. And from a marketing standpoint, when I see manufacturers, and like you said, that all the the players are all from different backgrounds and from like wildly different backgrounds. And I find that a lot of manufacturers, instead of appealing to the person who's going to use the product, they would rather appeal to the ideological ideological base of where the investors coming from.

00;14;38;23 - 00;15;04;13
Chrissy Wozniak
And then I think that's a huge part of why this adoption isn't as fast as it should be, because they're very focused on investor dollars instead of, okay, how are we going to complement and make the farmer more profitable and do what they need? And it and it's really showing in their marketing. And yeah, that is definitely one caution I would say to these manufacturers.

00;15;04;13 - 00;15;05;01
Chrissy Wozniak
Right.

00;15;05;03 - 00;15;29;10
Connie Bowen
Yeah. No, I was having a conversation with one of the the founders I'm invested in actually late last night about this very thing of like, you know, John Deere is doing feedback sessions has been doing feedback sessions with growers. So we can we could critique here on a few things. But look they've obviously got staying power and they've moved some product.

00;15;29;13 - 00;15;49;25
Connie Bowen
So many startup companies it feels like are doing the listening sessions exclusively with venture capitalists. And that won't ever work. It might raise you a lot of money, but you'll go out of business eventually and you'll lose it all by fear, or you'll pivot outside of that and then like, fine. But I don't. That's not I'm not interested in supporting that.

00;15;49;28 - 00;16;20;20
Chrissy Wozniak
Right. I love that. And at, Echo Robotics, where I also work with, the the main selling feature is labor. Just what you said. You know, we think it's input savings on inputs. We think it's all of these different things precision. But labor is the number one solution that that we provide to that grower. So tell me why is labor so often overlooked in in agtech discussions.

00;16;20;23 - 00;16;41;09
Connie Bowen
Yeah. You know I, I it's kind of mind blowing right. Like it's like I don't really I actually don't fully understand why I think part of it is like, I don't know very many, if any VCs who have spent time doing manual labor, I have spent I'm actually I actually like doing manual labor. And that's part of why I'm like, I can take high risks.

00;16;41;09 - 00;17;06;07
Connie Bowen
I don't like if I need to go work backup house, no problem. But, I actually think that that is a real factor in it. It just that, like, finance is like you inherently tend to have less exposure to working class folks, actually. Yeah. I also think a really big factor is the political kind of kind of entanglement.

00;17;06;07 - 00;17;38;02
Connie Bowen
And of like, agricultural workforce has generally been folks who have less than full citizenship rights and so therefore are quite vulnerable, to exploitation. And it's a really complicated thing where I think you and I both know a ton of awesome farmers and most farmers I love. And there are a couple of bad apples out there. And then you end up with this like narratives that like, you can't as agriculture, there's this pressure to be, you know, an advocate and lift everybody up.

00;17;38;05 - 00;18;09;00
Connie Bowen
And at the same time it's competitive space. So it's like, you know, it's a it's a politically fraught issue. I often say with investors like I am walking, I feel like often I'm walking a balance beam and like, this is just like a landmine laden space to even talk about. But it's also the most important space. And that's because one look at crop budgets, particularly in specialty crops, I mean, you're looking at sometimes 70 or 80% of your an annual spend is in labor.

00;18;09;03 - 00;18;32;17
Connie Bowen
To look at macroeconomic trends and birth rates independent of policy. We don't really have more workers coming. Like this is not a unique problem to the United States. We simply don't have folks who are willing to do the work outdoors, and that is hard work. Also, look at the safety or the lack thereof of some of that work, right?

00;18;32;19 - 00;19;09;00
Connie Bowen
Farmworkers are some of the most likely to die of heat related illnesses. And like there's tons of worksite accidents. And so like that's something that we as society have an opportunity to improve. No one wants that kind of stuff to be happening. So like and it's like the this gets me to my like I think the thing that we don't think about enough sometimes in tech, but even that which is behavioral economics, like you can talk about the actual economics of the thing and you can say you're saving money on chemistry, but at the end of the day, like, my headache might not be fully driven by my finances.

00;19;09;00 - 00;19;28;02
Connie Bowen
And also you run in this realm of like, not all farmers really know their finances that well. But they do know the thing that's stressing them out better. And the thing that's pressing them out is usually related to people and labor. And so if you can try to solve that problem, I think you're going to break the adoption curve.

00;19;28;02 - 00;19;39;27
Connie Bowen
And the last point I'll end on this is the fastest, technology that I'm aware of that's ever been adopted is Roundup Ready genetics right.

00;19;39;27 - 00;19;40;09
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah.

00;19;40;12 - 00;20;04;06
Connie Bowen
Faster adoption curve than iPhones. Why. Oh my God what labor savings that created I mean that was obviously there's been some implications that are not so great from that. But in general like and this is what I try to explain to some of the folks on the sustainability side is like if and I think of myself as a folk, that's somewhat on the sustainability side to, to be clear.

00;20;04;06 - 00;20;27;09
Connie Bowen
But like, of course, farmers are going to do what makes their operation more de-risk, more resilient in the context of all of its pressures. And if that means that instead of spot spraying, instead of like, obviously, you know, the next generation of this is that for like Google robotics or C and spray, where you can start to be more precise, they apply this stuff.

00;20;27;09 - 00;20;36;29
Connie Bowen
But that that just was such an obvious it enabled one guy to farm thousands of acres. What a game changer.

00;20;37;02 - 00;20;57;13
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah, that that is, is so, so true. What do you what differentiates a good idea from an investable one in your eyes? So when you're looking at these products, what's like. Yeah, that's good. You know, what are one of those things that you're looking at.

00;20;57;16 - 00;21;31;28
Connie Bowen
Humans as like the number number one thing. So I usually say sometimes I say I invest stupid early. Someone's had a much better time than that recently that I should really start using, but I can't remember what it is, so I'll stick with it. Meaning, generally precipitously in in venture jargon or I am very much at idea prototype tends to be a little bit pre product market fit, but something that I look at that I think is unusual for a VC is so far every single investor.

00;21;32;04 - 00;21;59;04
Connie Bowen
And I'm writing half a million or less tracks. Right. So pretty early pretty small. I tend to invest in a team that is like three or fewer people, right. And every single company I've invested in so far, I've co-investment with farmers, farmer customers. So I've taken a lot of the market risk away sometimes in venture capital. And this is where you get kind of the like product looking for a problem thing.

00;21;59;06 - 00;22;38;02
Connie Bowen
Or I try to actually say, oh, this problem is very real. It is validated by the fact that X farmer class farmer has put money behind this thing. And that's important. You know, obviously you want there to be a market if you actually build the thing and it works. So you still got that risk. But I think that, the other reason that that's really important is like, again, to the point so few people have access and networks in agriculture and you cannot build for farms in a garage or a workshop.

00;22;38;04 - 00;23;00;18
Connie Bowen
It won't work. So you need some kind of the sandbox, like you need access to a sandbox. And you know, you've got a couple of these extra tech guys who have the luxury of like buying a farm to like, build their product out on. But that is obviously not a majority of humans. And I think that the more shots on goal and the more people who are working in this space, the better for us solving access problems.

00;23;00;20 - 00;23;30;04
Connie Bowen
So when I look at maybe an entrepreneur who invented their product in like Brooklyn or something, I am looking for them to have a partner with skin in the game who they can conduct experiments with in a reality realistic context. So that's like that to me. And then, you know, founders are all kind of superhuman crazy folk. And I really look for self-awareness.

00;23;30;04 - 00;23;41;25
Connie Bowen
Probably more than anything. Everyone has gaps and that's fine. It's only a problem if you're not willing to acknowledge them, you know? Yeah, that's kind of how I think about it.

00;23;41;27 - 00;23;55;22
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah, a great point. And then how do you advise the founders of these companies to test these ideas in a way that respects and includes the the farmers perspectives? And like you said, they're not they're not always on farms. So what do they have to do?

00;23;55;24 - 00;24;27;00
Connie Bowen
Yeah, I mean, I think I can even tease out some of the stuff and due diligence. Right. Like I always ask, you know, I talked to farmer customers before I make the investment and, you know, I, I can't name names because I just won't do that. This is a small space. But yeah, there are some companies who, when you talk to their farmer partners, you don't get the oh yeah, they actually listen to me feedback.

00;24;27;02 - 00;24;54;21
Connie Bowen
But then there are some and these tend to be the ones I am more interested in investing in who the farmers love, the humans who are building that product, and that really matters. And being able to show that I usually get to know people for a pretty long time before I invest in them. Really. And I like, you know, again, it's like so relational and like it's it really helps to see how the founder and the farmer or maybe it's the farm work.

00;24;54;21 - 00;25;21;04
Connie Bowen
You know, it depends on the structure of the operation and the, you know, obviously a dairy in a row crop up are quite different from a row crop bed job in a, strawberry operation. Right. So, but then the other piece that I do that is quite unusual is I always ask founders what farm workers think of the product, because especially in the specialty crop context, you know, more labor intensive the crop, the more relevant this is.

00;25;21;04 - 00;25;50;03
Connie Bowen
Right? But like, people don't realize that some workers have almost. Oh, we don't know, labor scarce market. We're going to continue to be in a labor scarce market. You talk about empowerment and all that stuff. But like farmers have all the power to reject your technology, actually, and sabotage it. And I personally like I have former colleagues who are farm workers who I also I'm like, I actually really care about and respect their opinions.

00;25;50;03 - 00;26;09;03
Connie Bowen
And if you don't include them, you're leaving money on the table, you're leaving knowledge on the table. Like it's just stupid. It's economically the smart thing to do. But it's interesting because founders, I'm always the only person who's ever asked a question, and some founders respond to that with, oh, you don't understand. We're trying to displace them.

00;26;09;05 - 00;26;34;06
Connie Bowen
And I'm like, oh, no, I do understand, but you will not get to displacement if you are not thoughtful about how this integrates into an operation. And you need to be thinking about what displacement means, because good farms, the strong, healthy farm operations see the value in their workforce, and they're trying to retain people and they're trying to move them into higher value jobs.

00;26;34;06 - 00;26;53;05
Connie Bowen
So this is where you can get it again, like you get into obviously job displacement, like you can get into a lot of political challenges here. But if you actually talk to everyone involved and you look at the complexity of the situation, there's just so much opportunity to leverage technology to move people out of really crappy jobs like Strawberry Harvest.

00;26;53;05 - 00;27;16;17
Connie Bowen
Like you can do that, like what, 3540 before you're back is so wrecked? What if we can move the folks who are doing that today into robot wrangling, packing? What if we can start to move some of those workers further downstream, such that strawberry farms can get a larger slice of the farm of the food dollar? Like, that's ultimately how I see all of this kind of mechanization, automation space.

00;27;16;19 - 00;27;38;18
Connie Bowen
And that can only work if you're designing in parallel with these operations and understanding, oh, this is actually like you can't just rely on like, oh, we're going to get a premium from Whole Foods. Like, that's not a, not it. You have to really understand where you're going to be able to improve farm margins. And it's not just about decreasing the bottom line.

00;27;38;21 - 00;27;44;11
Connie Bowen
It's also about exploring where you can creep into different parts of the supply chain to take more control of the top line.

00;27;44;13 - 00;27;56;05
Chrissy Wozniak
Absolutely. Yeah. I could not agree with you more. And what kind of mistakes are you seeing startups making when they're trying to get to market too soon?

00;27;56;08 - 00;28;01;11
Connie Bowen
Well, I mean, don't ever overpromise and underdelivered. Yeah. That have.

00;28;01;12 - 00;28;02;21
Chrissy Wozniak
They're done.

00;28;02;24 - 00;28;22;28
Connie Bowen
And I think a lot of I think I think that's really I mean, I've been in this space almost a decade and I still like I can't even tell you I can I can get a lot of county by county, like what crop is dominant. But not every county like the US is enormous. And also crop acreage shifts and also like the public data is like not obvious, let's just say.

00;28;22;28 - 00;28;51;21
Connie Bowen
And also perhaps not the highest quality. And so like you run into this challenge where startups are kind of like blindly chasing the wrong geographic market. And that's where like this like Vine Connect program that we do with the University of California AG Natural Resources, I think, can really come in because we can be really intentional about being like, all right, here are the farmers that are going to adopt technology and be like, second move.

00;28;51;21 - 00;29;22;12
Connie Bowen
We're doctors within a two hour drive of this rec center. And it's it's not onion, guys. In the case of robotics, in this one, I'm talking about like, yeah, there's an investor. But like if it's not, you know, if it's not a fit for what you're trying to focus on, that's all a bit like you've got to focus because there's so many venture capitalists, it seems, want to hear that you're solving a problem for your and your team is global agriculture.

00;29;22;15 - 00;29;44;27
Connie Bowen
But again, farms are snowflakes. The market is fragmented, and you have to be very focused and practical about how you expand into the space. And then you have to I think there's sometimes a lack of attention to kind of nurturing and supporting customers. And so like, you might land, but you might not, I, I see a lot of companies fail to expand.

00;29;44;29 - 00;30;08;26
Connie Bowen
And that's the usually the way that it works in AI. Right. Like you, you do a service based trial, then they do one block or one field, and then eventually you get on to that whole operation. But he's probably got places in other geographies, like you've got to really nurture these customers and know where some of these enterprise customers can be multi-million dollar contracts, and even.

00;30;08;26 - 00;30;14;22
Connie Bowen
Right. You just got to do whatever it takes to get to make it right for that customer.

00;30;14;25 - 00;30;27;11
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah. Yeah, that that totally makes sense. And then what does proven mean to you? Is it labs success field trials, long term adoption. When when can you say yeah, we're here to stay?

00;30;27;13 - 00;30;57;01
Connie Bowen
Yeah, that's an interesting question. It's certainly field trials at least. And I guess, like one of the challenges is like, you might be launching new products. That's totally cool and fine and good. So you might have proven that one product works in a certain context. Let's say irrigation system works in vineyards. Maybe. But you haven't tried it in table grapes yet or, you know, some close, but but actually different crop.

00;30;57;03 - 00;31;16;25
Connie Bowen
And you might need to reprove it in every geography. And I mean, actually, I'd be curious like about that. Right. You've got like, a European company who is trying to get in the U.S. and you've I've seen a lot of companies from Europe who have really struggled with the broader U.S. market, because it's quite different. Yeah.

00;31;16;25 - 00;31;36;24
Connie Bowen
So, yeah, I that's a hard question. Like, I, I, I think you have to keep proving it right. Like, I guess like like I'm going to throw like sport analogy there is like, you haven't even, like you can win a championship one year and your team better come back and be trying to prove it every single day, right?

00;31;36;26 - 00;31;37;06
Connie Bowen
Yeah.

00;31;37;06 - 00;31;58;05
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah. I actually I love that and I, and I really agree with that is that you're never just done right. You're never you're, you know, no company will ever just be John Deere. Wake up and just oh yeah we're John Deere now right. Yeah we're we're case now. It's just not not going to happen. You're right that you know especially at the the speed of change right now.

00;31;58;08 - 00;32;09;02
Chrissy Wozniak
If you're not fluid and flexible then then you could lose that spot. Just like football. Just like hockey right. Yeah. You're right. I like that analogy. Yeah. Yeah.

00;32;09;03 - 00;32;25;22
Connie Bowen
That's that's really dynamic space. So yeah I guess I guess you've never totally proven it. Yeah. But you know, the other the other really answer is sales. Well, yeah, it's good sales and reacts. Right.

00;32;25;24 - 00;32;40;16
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah. Good point. So are there regions or sectors of AG that you're seeing that you think are especially ripe for innovation today going forward?

00;32;40;18 - 00;33;16;03
Connie Bowen
Yes. Lots of them. Again, fragmented in general I do think we are going to see I just wrote a piece on like the robots are coming. I think that because also I think there's a lot of interest in tech markets around AI for dirty jobs, right? I think we will see and because of the threat TBD, if reality of deportation of up to 70% realistically of our agricultural workforce, I mean, like that is has the potential to break U.S agriculture, actually, I would argue.

00;33;16;03 - 00;33;47;23
Connie Bowen
So I really hope it doesn't happen. But it certainly it has changed the conversation with big growers, especially crap growers, especially from oh, robots are cool keeping in the loop to like, are the robots ready yet? And it's like, you know, I, I, I think that that's a real opportunity. I also think, I mean, candidly, I think it's just chaotic right now, and I think it's going to be chaotic for the next four years.

00;33;47;25 - 00;34;20;19
Connie Bowen
And so I also think on a farm land, on like a farm basis, we're going to see consolidation. I think we're going to see more farm bankrupt bankruptcies. And I obviously don't want to see that. But I think maybe the opportunity there is identifying kind of the winners, the folks who are going to be winners. Those are probably also the folks who are adopting technology and doubling down, like, you know, for so long, I feel like we focus an attack on like, okay, you've got the early adopters, how do you get the middle group?

00;34;20;19 - 00;34;41;28
Connie Bowen
How do you get the laggards on board? And the laggards are going to go out of business, and some of the middle are going to go out of business to is the reality of it. And so find those. If you're a startup, find those early movers, partner with them and stay alive. And like that's going to be there and again land and expand grow with them.

00;34;42;00 - 00;34;46;05
Connie Bowen
And you're going to be able to create a pretty healthy business.

00;34;46;08 - 00;35;03;16
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah. Yeah. That's very good advice. And finally, what excites you the most about where Agtech is headed? Especially short term over the next five years, but then long term as well.

00;35;03;18 - 00;35;32;08
Connie Bowen
Like to me, the most I mean, the opportunity to do it right is kind of what excites me the most, right? Like, I, I really love bringing in more people, with different types of backgrounds and most importantly, people who have both have non ad backgrounds and who respect people with ad backgrounds. And that's a big that is the perfect combo when you can find that and it exists actually like that totally exists.

00;35;32;11 - 00;35;53;26
Connie Bowen
And there's it's like almost something of a self-selecting group. Right. Like this is so much like that where like on 5 million podcasts all the time. But when you talk about it, you know, where people kind of find you. And yeah, like, to me, I am very excited by the people I work with every day. And like, we're all trying to tackle pretty hairy problems that really, really matter.

00;35;53;26 - 00;36;20;11
Connie Bowen
I think, and most of us are going to be wrong most of the time, statistically. And all this startup stuff. But I, I was at, I went to a little bit of Climate Week in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, just on my way out from family meetings in Central Valley. And, yeah, this was like, my advice is like, look like we're in a time where we're not allowed to use the word climate change anymore.

00;36;20;11 - 00;36;46;22
Connie Bowen
But you can see that I'm still doing it because, like, I'm going to look at science, but the people who are still in the room and are still talking about and still trying to solve the problem, are trying to do so in a way that is bipartisan, respectful, and like, you know, I, I live in the middle of the country and I very much care about including farmers and rural America and all of this.

00;36;46;24 - 00;37;11;09
Connie Bowen
The people who are really trying to do that are really trying to do that and are going to keep trying to do that no matter what the cycles are, even through losses that they take. I can think of. We're going to continue to lose ag tech startups this year because the funding environment is bad. But there's a number of those founders who I absolutely will back when they come back for round two or 3 or 4, in some cases.

00;37;11;12 - 00;37;16;21
Connie Bowen
Yeah. So yeah, the people who are like, committed to this is what I'm most excited about.

00;37;16;24 - 00;37;40;03
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Well, it is definitely clear Agtech the ag tech world is growing up. This it's yeah, this conversation is just really a great reminder. The innovation in AG isn't about chasing the next shiny thing, right? And it's really about solving real problems in practical, profitable, proven ways. So just thank you so much, Connie, for joining me today.

00;37;40;03 - 00;37;47;21
Chrissy Wozniak
It was great to pick your brain and and, you know, see, you know, a better insight into what's happening on that side.

00;37;47;23 - 00;37;50;02
Connie Bowen
Yeah. Thank you for having me. It was a lot of fun.

00;37;50;04 - 00;38;02;12
Chrissy Wozniak
Yeah. And thanks to all who are watching or listening. If you want to learn more, the links are provided in the show notes. Don't forget to subscribe to North American Spotlight on Spotify. Apple Amazon. Lesson notes or if you prefer, a video, you can watch us on Rumble.