SproutX engaging with future leaders of agriculture at Marcus Oldham College
There comes a point in one’s career where the existential question is posed “Do I try to get a good job or be the boss of my own career and start my own business? Despite all the well told stories from the tech hall of fame at Silicon Valley, very few know where and how to begin their own entrepreneurial journey. Questions like “where do I even get the money?” or “What happens if I fail?” often make a compelling road block towards that first step in becoming a founder.
Bachelor of Agribusiness students (Ag2 Cohort) at the Marcus Oldham College
Right after the launch of SproutX’s second Business of Agriculture cohort (spring 2022) earlier last week, the team together with Paul Voutier, founder of Ambit Robotics popped through to Marcus Oldham College to meet with the Bachelor of Agribusiness students, the future agriculture industry leaders. In a casual fireside chat, Maxie Juang (Head of Programs), Ashlee Tayler (Program Officer) Adrian Soe Myint (Marketing and Community Officer), Paul Voutier, Dr Jessica Roberts (Lecturer Precision Agriculture and Precision Livestock Management) covered topics ranging from: issues in the agriculture sector, technology trends in the ecosystem and agtech deal flow.
Key takeaway notes
Dr Jessica Roberts: “We are really proud of the network we have at Marcus Oldham and their willingness to share any data and knowledge to solve problems in agriculture. Regarding the sentiment around how the industry works in silos, the future ag leaders in this room are in a great position to change the perception with their critical thinking, method of working, curiosity, and initiative to challenge the status quo.”
Left to Right: Maxie Juang (Head of Program, SproutX), Dr Jessica Roberts (Lecturer Precision Agriculture and Precision Livestock Management, Marcus Oldham College)
Paul: “There are different sources of funding available for pre-seed startups, including angels, family offices, and accelerators. In the early stages their investment decision to invest is usually based on the people in the startup rather than the idea or product - they want to know if the founder has the right skillset and propensity to take calculated risks.”
Maxie: “The thing about the startup world is that failure is often celebrated, like a medal for the trials a founder has endured. Founders are encouraged to fail fast - the whole idea is for startups to have the agility to test, validate and get feedback quickly, and pivot as necessary.”
Maxie Juang (Head of Programs, SproutX)
Ashlee: “Adoption of Agtech on farms is so important to improve efficiency, probability, and sustainability. Agtech helps farmers gain more control over their data and results, allowing them to make better decisions. Growers don't distrust Agtech solutions, they just first want to establish a meaningful relationship and have founders understand their problems. Most Farmers are innovators and some can even have the capacity to guide founders on better ways of building their tech”
Adrian: “Despite having many differences between farming communities across the globe, they all share a common characteristic within the communal spirit to help one another. For your agtech to be adopted by farmers, word-of-mouth is your best bet.”
Q&A
Bachelor of Agribusiness students (Ag2 Cohort) at the Marcus Oldham College
Marcus Oldham College Bachelor of Agriculture students (MOC Ag2): Where can you get the funding for your agtech startup?
SproutX: Friends, family, and fools is a start for startups in the very early stage. Angels and family offices are there to support with ticket sizes ranging from 30K to 100K, while accelerators are there to train the founders and the team to be investment ready with a pre-seed size funding and/ or in-kind support.
Moc Ag2: Can you talk about how a startup will approach SproutX? What process do they go through and how do SproutX go about facilitating investor relationships?
SproutX: Agri or Food tech startups can submit an EOI on SproutX’s website to join one of the two programs, namely the Business of Agriculture (Pre-accelerator) and the Accelerator program. We will then vet the candidates based on the information they have provided in the EOI. For the Pre-accelerator, the SproutX team will make phone calls to candidates to gauge their level of interest in the program and outline the expectations before placing them in the cohort. For the Accelerator, vetted candidates will go through two-rounds of interviews; one from the SproutX team and one from the industry experts, before being accepted into the program. Regarding investor relationships, pre-accelerator candidates will be given an opportunity to give a pitch at the end of the program to SproutX’s network consisting of investors, community managers, and ecosystem professionals. The accelerator program is more investor relations heavy as the program contains several investor firesides where many investors are invited to engage with the cohort.
Moc Ag2: What do you see as the biggest areas of growth in agtech?
SproutX: With soaring input costs due to a combination of geopolitical conflict, climate change and ongoing supply chain disruptions, SproutX believes farmers are seeking alternative products and technologies that “squeeze the most value from each acre”, i.e precision farming tools. We’re also seeing an uptake in carbon sequestration/ reduction space as well as alternative proteins and bio-fertilizers to address environmental, climate and ethical concerns.
Moc Ag2: What do you think are the biggest barriers to Agtech and technology adoption that you experience?
SproutX: Connectivity is the biggest issue out there when it comes to Agtech implementation when many of the precision farming tools rely on connectivity on farm to transmit/receive data. Our friends at Zetifi are tackling this issue with rural connectivity solutions (they also brought together 30 leading Australian and international AgTech companies for a fast-paced discussion of the latest and greatest on-farm digital technology options for farmers, peek here). On the startup side-of-things, many startups fail to gain traction because there is a disconnect between what founders think is the solution to the problem and what growers actually need to solve the problem and therefore, it is important for founders to understand what drives the most value for growers before building a product.
Moc Ag2: What is the first step someone should take if they have an idea about a new agtech?
SproutX: SproutX’s pre-accelerator program is a great start because it provides founders with a great sandbox environment to stress test their products/ ideas while validating them with real growers. The founders will receive mentoring from experts to build a business blueprint around the agetch idea so that it has been tested and validated to increase the chance of success during commercialisation. The founders will also receive up to AUD 10,000 in equity-free support to register their business and build the early traction they need to be investment-worthy.
Left to Right: Dr Jessica Roberts (Lecturer Precision Agriculture and Precision Livestock Management, Marcus Oldham College), Paul Voutier (Founder, Ambit Robotics), Ashlee Tayler (Program Officer, SproutX)
Moc Ag2: How does SproutX evaluate candidates for the pre-accelerator and accelerator programs?
SproutX: SproutX evaluates the human behind the agtech more so than the business model or idea. We welcome candidates that are open to new ideas, true ecosystem builders, have the spirit for innovation and passion for solving difficult problems in the agri and food industry.
FOUNDER JOURNEY with paul voutier (Ambit robotics)
After the fireside chat, Paul shared through his founder journey at Ambit Robotics with the students and demonstrated his autonomous robot for fruit counting and yield estimation. The free form conversation flowed from Paul’s stories on how his passion to build robotics led him to build one to tackle the challenges in horticulture through to the room’s interest in valuations and negotiations during a fundraise.
Paul Voutier (Ambit Robotics) demonstrating fruit counting autonomous robot at the Marcus Oldham College
The trip wrapped with a hearty canteen lunch of shepherds pies and scones, some lingering conversations between the class and the SproutX team, all brimming with ideas after having had a peek into both the agriculture and agriculture tech worlds.
Many thanks to David Cornish, Director of Centre for the Study of Agribusiness at Marcus Oldham College, and Dr Ben Jones, an OG Agtech founder behind PA Source circa 2010 and now Lecturer in Agronomy and Agricultural Technology, both who popped in for the session.
