Attorney: 5 Things Every Silicon Valley Startup Should Know About Farming

For nearly the last 100 years, agriculture has witnessed only consolidation. This has been true across the board, from machinery manufacturers, to seed companies, to farm cooperatives and grain elevators, writes Ag Law Attorney Todd Janzen in a recent blog post.

The last few years, however, have reversed the trend. We are seeing startups and venture capital gravitate towards the ag sector. Technology and big data are leading this resurgence.

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But I also see new ag technology firms making mistakes because they assume farming is just like any other business.

Farming is different.

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Here’s my list of the five things every Silicon Valley startup should know about Midwestern farmers:

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  1. Farms are collection of small, medium, and large businesses. Farmers are not consumers. Of course farmers consume all sorts of products for their farms, but these are business decisions, not made as lightly as picking salad dressing at the grocery store. New companies entering the ag market should treat their potential farm customers as sophisticated business owners, not relatively uneducated consumers who make split second purchasing decisions.

Head on over to Janzen’s Ag Law Blog to read the rest of his salvo to Silicon Valley startups.

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