Observers vs Players...Also Ag Nepobabies

[00:00:15] Hey everyone, another little take on things in the ag tech world, maybe even the general ag tech space, depending on how you want to look at it.

[00:00:33] So, I saw this video the other day, and it kind of caught to me in a certain way. It's from Barbara Cochran. I got it on my phone here. Yeah, so she was one of the ladies on Shark Tank.

[00:00:54] Kind of one of the older gals, and I don't know her background, whatever, but you'd recognize her. I will also post that. I might try to get it on here if I can link it up. We'll see. I don't know. I'm not a big editor on the video side.

[00:01:12] Anyways, though, something that struck me, and it's gone around different social channels in the past, but she doesn't invest in rich kids. More so in poor kids. And then she talks about it, and like I said, I'll link it up somewhere here. And it got me thinking, is this some of the problems in agriculture? Or even in ag tech specific?

[00:01:43] You know, as she points out, and this quote is kind of interesting. From a rich kid's perspective, they maybe go to the top school, and they meet all the business people, and all the connections from their family or friends, whatever it is. But here's the quote. They know business as an observer. They don't know business as a player. I think you can see where I'm going here on the ag side.

[00:02:11] So let's take a first jab, I suppose, at the ag tech space. As I've talked about before, written about, you know, there's been different kind of time frames of how this has all worked. And I've been in it a long time, so I've kind of seen it all, and I've been in the heat of it. But I've seen it as a player.

[00:02:37] But I also saw it as an observer, even from my dad starting it. So I would see it as an observer from there. Of course, then I became playing within it. But it's maybe kind of a hybrid thing. Whatever. You know, with some of the, you know, fandangled in the last 12 years of ag tech, in all different sides of it, it doesn't really matter. It's not just software or this or that or sensor biological. It really doesn't matter.

[00:03:06] It all kind of maybe plays the same way. You know, many of the things out there, yeah, were created by maybe well-educated rich kids. I'm not saying all. I don't know the actual numbers. But I know some of the premier ones that were done were, yeah, maybe it's that, you know, it was that kind of rich kid Silicon Valley. Went to Stanford or Harvard or U.S. I don't know.

[00:03:36] Whatever. The high floating schools. And it was all done there. And they're like, yeah, we know how to do this. We know business. We know investing. We know how to make things and software. And everyone does it. And I wondered, was that actually the problem maybe? Is whether they're rich or not, but that same kind of attitude. They were an observer. Not a player.

[00:04:03] And, you know, at the same time, that's not a terrible thing. There's a lot of people that have came in the ag tech space that weren't in ag. And they've came in. They've learned a lot. Probably had some ups and downs. But they're still in it. And they've learned now. Now they're kind of in their next level of things if they got stayed around. Now, at the same time, they had a tougher time because they came in as an observer, not as a player.

[00:04:33] Now, that can cause problems. And it did. Let's be honest. Now, there's also people that were playing within it. And it didn't work for them. Great. I mean, as much as I heard from it and even played within it, you know, my family company, we're not made of millions of dollars. You know, we own software. And we kind of figure it out as we go.

[00:04:59] And there's others that have kind of stayed low because they haven't, you know, maybe they didn't get the big round or they didn't get the big deal. And, you know, there's ups and downs in all of it. And bad beats. And, you know, just timing, honestly. So, you know, it plays into it, too. Of course, then you think, okay, farmers. Okay, they've played the game of farming and ag. Or maybe it's even ag business people that kind of got into ag tech.

[00:05:25] And, you know, they also, you might think they know it and they could create it. They could create a software. It's like, yeah, well, they observe how software maybe was developed, not played how it was actually developed. Or some of these other pieces of the puzzle, sensors and tech. And, you know, that's where a lot of outsiders came in. It's like, hey, we know this tech well. It could probably fit into ag. So there's, it's just been kind of this odd balance.

[00:05:54] But at the same time, we have to kind of look at farmers, too. And we want to, in the ag tech space, we want to help them make sure this tech works. Talk to them. Learn from it. All that fun stuff. At the same time, there's a lot of rich farmers out there, too. Not everyone. But there's a good chunk of them. I know quite a few. I've met quite a few over the years.

[00:06:23] You know, some of these large mega farms and even just maybe mid-sized farms, even small farms that, you know, own all the land, own all the equipment. And, you know, maybe it was built up over decades, even a century. And the guy coming in, you know, the young kid, the son, the grandson, you know, daughter, whatever. You know, and they're now on the farm and there's all this infrastructure there. The land's paid for and, you know, everything's good. Like, well, they're the rich kid, too.

[00:06:54] Aren't they? You know, do we think of it that way? Just because, you know, they're on the farm. Do they really, did they really play the game to get to that point? Well, no, they're coming in as an observer from their grandpa or their mother. Mother, father, whatever. Maybe uncle or, you know, aunt. They have the same problem, too.

[00:07:21] And part of it, you know, farmers can have a similar condition that, like, movie stars have and their kids. You know, they may be, it's easier for them to get into acting jobs because their parents acted or their grandparent acted or was an actress, whatever it might be. And what do we call that? We call that nepotism.

[00:07:48] Is this actually the core reason of why some of the problems in ag exist? Now, yes and no. And a lot in between. A lot of gray area in between. And I've brought it up to a few people. And I was like, you know, farmers, there's quite a bit of nepotism in agriculture. Of course, it's a lot of it's a family business, family farm.

[00:08:16] Like, you just kind of grow up into it. It's a little different. Because it is. It's not like acting or being famous. But then again, many times in the ag business side, more so now than ever with different ag influencers and all that, we are putting a certain celebrity to farmers. Once again, it's not so bad or good. There's a lot of gray area. Some are doing great things.

[00:08:44] Some are maybe a little too much. You know, it's all kind of a personal preference in what they're trying to do. But do we then, you know, especially with some maybe the younger farmers coming in that are very social and on there, are some of the big companies maybe following that too much? And kind of assuming, yeah, we got to build it for them. You know, we got to build for the future of ag.

[00:09:10] Well, that person's more coming in as an observer, not a player. You know, unlike the, you know, 60-year-old dad, grandpa, whatever. I mean, it might be a grandpa at the same time that has been chugging along at it forever. And like I've talked about before, you know, or that 90-year-old grandparent that still owns the whole farm. They haven't even given up to their son or daughter that's in their 60s or maybe even older.

[00:09:42] And, yeah, there's this level of also nepotism. Like, well, it's so expensive to get into farming. Just like it's so hard to become a really good actor or getting those acting roles unless you're grinding through and all this. Like, you need nepotism to exist, in a sense. It makes it easier for guessing movie makers. It's easier just to hire the kid that's been on camera forever and been around it and understands the game due to their parents.

[00:10:13] It's much like in farming. Someone might get a grain contract or get special treatment from the equipment dealer or input provider because they're the son or daughter of X. This big farm here, this big farm there. And also, didn't that happen in ag tech? Like, it did. Like, it really did. Like, oh, I started this company here that wasn't in tech, say, in Silicon Valley and turned out to be whatever.

[00:10:42] Or I used to work at Google. I came from Apple. Like, this was happening. Or I came from whatever big corporate and I started my own business. Like, you see it on LinkedIn all the time. Former this, former that, former this. And I'm like, oh, okay, I get it. But isn't it also that kind of, that. That rich kid syndrome that Barbara's talking about.

[00:11:10] Don't you want somebody that kind of went through the hard knocks and really saw it and sees it for what it is? Experience the ups and downs, the pains, the triumphs. Is that maybe why some of the ag technology things have been a little harder? Is because some of it came out in this more nepotistic way. I don't know if that's a word. But it's like, oh, I have all the connections.

[00:11:39] I know the investors. I know how to run a business. I know how to run a startup. All this stuff. And I mean, yeah. That was the case for a lot. I graduated YC Combinator. And that makes me awesome. Good for you. Cool. I was on Forbes something under something. These problems are going away. I'll be honest. In the ag tech world more so. But then you still see it.

[00:12:09] You know, this person has a PhD here and got this. And that's awesome. Doesn't mean they know how it really works in the real world. Like through experience. They might like this happens in university research a lot. And I've seen it on the ag tech space and other technology things. I'm sure others have other examples in other sectors of the university system. You have someone that does.

[00:12:35] And they might be, you know, 20 years research, PhD, did a fellowship, all this stuff. And they're like, they're coming in and they created this new process. It could be a biological. That's a big thing now. And those people exist. They know how the science works and all that. And that's needed. But some have probably come in and, yeah, just think they can do it. They could just, well, just work this way.

[00:13:00] And I've seen it on the university side research with data many times with like processes. Like, oh, we just processed yield data this way. And we processed imagery data this way. And now we have yield estimation for like an entire country. Like, well, thanks for doing the work of that and creating this model. But shit, it doesn't also work everywhere.

[00:13:26] But you think it does because you've solved it for this specific case. And that's, you know, that's one example. And it's not saying that they're not good. They're not proceeding to do awesome things. But what I'm getting at is this has been some of the problems that we've had in, we're still facing in ag tech side of agriculture.

[00:13:52] And I know I just said it's not just there's different parts of ag tech. There's, you know, there's finance. It's just part of agriculture. Yeah. But and it's maybe just synonymous. You just call it business. It's maybe just ag business. This is a problem or whatever. It's an easier word to say. But we have this problem in general agriculture to this. Yeah. The big popular, you know, rich farmer got given all this land.

[00:14:20] And then they they could have a successful farm and they could move on while the one that is smaller or they had to rent most of the land. It's hard for them to expand. And then they didn't get free equipment. So they had to buy it and they had to loan it out. And you have interest rates. You have all these things. There's all these things stacked on top of that person. But that person also learned some insane lessons on how to manage it. Be really specific with money. Keep it really tight. Make deals, network, all this stuff.

[00:14:49] And maybe the other person doesn't. Or maybe it's a mix. It's probably more of a mix for a lot of people. But neither are bad. I'm not saying that. It's a do we look at those things? Do we look at those different situations of how that person got into it and how they work within it versus someone else? Instead of lumping it all into one big, oh, they started this company. They started this company.

[00:15:18] Well, where did that person actually come from? Where did this person actually come from? I feel like many times in ag, and this is cross industry. This is just people problems, really. We don't look into that and have that perspective. And I talked about this many times. And I just can't stop because I'm not going to stop. And I've said that, too.

[00:15:48] Is we have such a tough time understanding perspective from another person's point of view. And we perceive this, perceive that. And then we get angry and we get wrong. I mean, heck, I've done it in the past. We're all humans here. Unless there's some dogs watching because they like my ag tech dog walk stuff. I don't know. I might have fans there. It's possible.

[00:16:13] All joking aside, I just think it's really important. And it's very important to be aware of, you know, I'll look into the text things that are built in agriculture. Of that person, like, where does this come from? Where does this build up? Even the other people on the team, maybe, that they hired other founders or their other owners.

[00:16:42] Where are they coming from? What's their story? Like, I'm more interested in that. And that's all those things that I've always tried to kind of figure out. It's like, where did they get there? They didn't have to come from ag. They maybe were from a wealthy family and came in. Or maybe they were kids scrapping off the streets and learned through the school of hard knocks. You know, I'm not perfect on this. And I'll say that right away.

[00:17:11] I can critique myself because I grew up on a farm, sure. And I grew up within an ag tech company. One of the first ones kind of in that realm in the mid-90s. There wasn't many of them, I'll tell you that. And I could see that. But then I guess I kind of, I might be one of the few ag tech nepo babies, if you want to call it that.

[00:17:39] I know one other, Matt Waits. So if you're listening, Matt, from SST and I turned to Proagrica. I was dad, Dave, started it. I don't know of really many others. If there's others out there, great. And I maybe could think of another one or two if I really put my mind to it. But I'm in my own like weird new class and I can have those same problems. It's like, oh, well, you know, I saw all these hard things, how hard it was and all this.

[00:18:07] But I didn't really play the game until a little later when I did run the family company and kind of got out of a tough position for a few years. And then I started my family, I had to transition into other stuff. But then I played the game. I didn't play the game as much before because I wasn't writing the checks. But then once I started to, yeah, that was different.

[00:18:32] I can tell you wholeheartedly that changed my whole outlook on just what it all was and what, you know, my dad was doing. And I'm sure like Matt probably saw it the same way when he started running. He's like, oh, shit, this is a little more complicated. And it's also a different time. So that's weird. It's kind of like farming, like, you know, the son or daughter takes over. And they don't really know it until they're trying to get the operating loan.

[00:19:00] They're writing their name off on crop insurance stuff. They're buying that $500,000 piece of land or equipment. Until they really play the game, they really can't know. And that is, it's generally true. It really is. It doesn't make it bad if someone is doing it. It just means it's a different experience.

[00:19:27] And I wonder, you know, in its different light, if that's where some of these adoption problems and issues within technology and ag has existed. And it could be even from, you know, the farmers themselves being the problem of, like I said, this kind of not playing the game.

[00:19:52] And I've talked about it before is, okay, I've seen a lot of ag tech companies, all shapes and sizes and types. You know, they're very optimistic. The young farmers are really excited and they're coming in. They want to do this and all this. It's like, yeah, well, until they write the check, in a sense, their opinion doesn't matter. Because mom or dad is or grandma or grandpa, they're doing it.

[00:20:20] You know, whatever it might be. And that's true. So, like I said, we have to have some good perspective on this. And it's not to naysay any person of where were they safe from or came from or background, whether they observed or played or they're rich or poor and all this. Like, there's all sorts of us.

[00:20:48] We're a large society of people that have a lot of different backgrounds. But I do think it's just important to understand those dynamics. And maybe that's why. Now, I'll take one other position in this too. Or not a position, but a thought. So, I also do some consulting on the side within the tech space of ag and ag in general. But, yeah, I mean more of those two combined.

[00:21:20] And, okay, so I've played. I'm playing. I've played the game. I've ran software. You know, own it. I've done that. The sacrifices. Also, grew up. Saw these things. All this stuff. So, my retrospect to, say, another software group that I'm trying to help. Like, I get that side. I played that game.

[00:21:43] I, my thought process on it is a little more maybe pure in how it all kind of comes together. And the stresses involved in the, and how hard it is to make some of those decisions. Like, I can get to that level because I played the game. And that's made me sometimes maybe not as optimistic on when I've talked to another group. Like, yeah, I see what you're doing. That's great.

[00:22:09] But, eh, you're, this is going to cause too much stress and too many problems. And I try to break it down. And I can do this a lot faster because I've kind of experienced myself. I've made mistakes too. So, I've learned from those and try to pass those on to some of these groups I talk to. And sometimes I'll just dole out the information for free of just my experience and how that could work for them. And they can take it as they want. And there's other, you know, ag tech consultants out there that do good work.

[00:22:36] But, you know, maybe they don't know the full, that full game of it. They might know the corporate game, though, very well. They came from that. And, like, I've dabbled in it, but I don't know it, like, insanely well. So, that's their game they're playing. Like, that can be really good for them. Maybe it wasn't building the software thing.

[00:22:56] And, you know, maybe their advice on that is, you know, you've got to look between kind of the walls to see what they're trying to do there. I don't know. Sometimes it's just people are good at helping as consultants raise money. And that's awesome. Like, I don't, I'm not good at that. But I haven't played that game. I haven't. I've played my game in my specific areas. And some consultants have played their games in specific areas.

[00:23:25] That's why they're getting hired as consultants for those things. All of that is good. But I would suppose there's been ones out there that, you know, have gave advice based on things that they haven't done or that they just observed. Now, is that bad or good? Like, no.

[00:23:46] Once again, it's just a, it's looking at it from a different perspective of if you are trying to find someone to help you consult with, make sure or be more understanding that someone that played the game in that respective area, whatever it is, is qualified to understand that whole process. That can help the overall basis.

[00:24:16] Like I said, if you want to understand of how to do, get investment from BCs or angel funds within the ag tech space, even though I do consulting in the ag tech space, I am not your guy. No, don't touch me. I'll just, I can connect you to some people maybe that know that. But building software and data and stuff like satellite imagery. Yeah. Like I, yeah, I know that maybe too well almost.

[00:24:45] It's just, it's just another piece of this whole thing of, of kind of that, that nepotism quality. But that's not the only thing because, you know, that only goes so far. Anyways, it's just kind of that video and talking about that. It, it, it just kind of caught my attention more. I was like, well, yeah, geez, ag is, I guess there's a lot of that kind of going on.

[00:25:15] But do we realize it? And that's really kind of my point is, do we realize those factors do play in how this all works? And now with, you know, newer people and powerful government positions, how does that stand within this? You know, some might come into a new, you know, there's a, there's a new ag secretary, got some ag experience, I guess.

[00:25:45] I haven't looked too deep into it. Um, is it enough? I don't know. Will other people come in that have played the game better? Or is it just a whole new, whole new bunch of observers that come in and just like, well, we've done it this way before. So we're just going to, or we've seen it done this way. We're just going to do it this way. Will it work? I don't know. Uh, I can tell you that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:13] Someone's probably going to trust someone a little more if they've played the game a little more. You get in, you, you become the star of the team or you're the one that gets the ball on the last play for that, you know, winning. You need a touchdown at the end. You want someone that's played the game a little more, not someone that's just kind of observed it from the stands. Well, observing from the stands is important too. Someone's got to do it at some point.

[00:26:42] And then that's how they become getting into playing the game. It's all important, but maybe to help ag progress in the ways it needs to, especially with tech in mind and all the new changes coming, we have to just look at that a little deeper. Be like, where, where, where, where is that person at in that process?

[00:27:07] And if they are maybe an observer, but want to play more, like how do we help that person transition to that? Much like, you know, a, a kid coming into farming after college and maybe, you know, it's his dad or mom doing, doing the stuff. But that, you know, that parent is, is kind of busy with it all. They maybe can only help that person play the game so much because they're in the game. They're busy.

[00:27:36] They maybe can't help the kid even help play the game, but maybe the grandparent can say like, here, I'm going to take you under my wing and show you these things. And that happens. That happens in farming. That happens all the time. Farmers do things like that. Not all.

[00:27:56] It's all different for everybody, but maybe that's a way we have to think about it in kind of the, the realm of all things within the, the consortium of all the different things that agriculture is with tech or ag tech. We'll just call it what it is. Think that way. It's like, okay, the people playing are really busy and they see these younger startups and newer companies and newer ideas. And they're like, yeah, that's great. But I'm just too busy doing this.

[00:28:25] And that's kind of where I feel like I can help is I can come around and be like, Hey, where are you at? I've seen this. I've seen people do it this way. I've done it myself. It worked. It didn't work. That's how we can help. And farmers that have dealt with some of this different tech, you need to do better too. You need to help the ones that don't understand it because it's not fair if you just sit idly either.

[00:28:56] Like, cause that might harm you actually. And it has harmed the industry adopting some of these things is you haven't helped showcase those observers how to use it. And some of those observers might be, heck, they might be ready to retire or die themselves, but you haven't gone out there and tried to help them understand it better too.

[00:29:18] Just like many in the ag business side, maybe haven't helped those new ones say like, Hey, you know, that's great. But like, let's look at it this way. Anyways, that's kind of all I got for today. I'm up close to my 30 minutes that I've been trying to kind of do my max about at. So both observing and playing the game are important. Have perspective of where someone is at with that.

[00:29:49] And let's help those that need a little more so they can play the game and they can understand. Then this can pass on. This is how ag works. We pass on our knowledge generation to generation. And we have to play these different pieces and timeframes within the whole entire game that is being played within agriculture. And whether you're that rich kid that thinks they know everything or that highly smart person that thinks they know everything, realize that you also might not.

[00:30:19] And there's other people that might, that came from a different side that had to struggle through it too. Be humble and understand those things. Even if you have this big clout to you, otherwise you're just harming the industry that you're trying to help. Everyone needs to work together on this stuff to work, especially if all the big things that people want are actually going to happen. Maybe you call it the infighting needs to stop. And it does.

[00:30:47] Because we're all fighting each other for some glorious position of agriculture. And especially in the tech space, everyone wants to be the big swinging dick. There, here's my uncensored point for the end. But that's true. Like, we need to stop that game too. Like, I don't come doing that saying, I know everything. Like, I don't know everything. I'll be the first to criticize myself.

[00:31:15] Learn to criticize yourself and accept it and learn from it. And learn that you can't play every game. Like I just said earlier, I can't play parts of it. I don't know at all. I'm trying to learn from other parts. And maybe at some point in time, I will play that part and can help those observers down the road. There. There's my two cents. It's good talking to you. Until next week, hopefully. See you later.