Showing posts with label AgInvestor. Show all posts

#AgInvestor: Investors Share What They Look For

We had a panel of three investors tell you:  What does it really take to get an investor to back your technology?

To see what they said, check out the webcast and other resources including slides, videos, and funding directories in the Partnering for Innovation Knowledge Network.

As a preview, Joseph Steig  shares the secret of getting funding and investment for your organization, whether you're a for-profit or non-profit in the video below:

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#AgInvestor: Think Big, Act Small


The following blog is based on a presentation given by Francisco Viteri, General Manager, Popoyán, at the AgInvestor Lab hosted by Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation.

Francisco Viteri has served for 30 years as the general manager of the Agropecuaria Popoyán, S.A., which exports fruits and vegetables from Guatemala to the United States, Canada, Holland, and Spain, among other countries. Popoyán has become a leader in Central America transferring technology to small farmers. Francisco described growing his business by learning from early failures, developing sales first in the domestic market before expanding, and the importance of organizational flexibility and establishing partnerships to grow. Believing in the importance of shared social responsibility as part of the business model, Popoyán has established a Research and Innovation center with a Dutch company to train farmers on horticultural technologies for high value export crops. Since March of this year, they have worked with 400 growers, well on their way to their longer term goal of training 2,000 growers in two years. Francisco also explained the importance of understanding farmer risk, including environmental disasters and climactic variations, when working with smallholders.

Francisco’s key factors for business success are:

1)    Be open to change
2)    Continuously improve your business
3)    Education/training is essential to customer adoption
4)    Be hands on as an entrepreneur
5)    Benchmark your business globally to keep track of progress
6)    Maintain a positive attitude
7)    Do not give up easily; persevere and endure through difficult times
8)    Keep good people at the center of the equation

In the video below, Francisco explains the importance of keeping the end customer in mind as you grow your business and “thinking big, acting small”. 

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#AgInvestor: Start by Getting Clear


The following blog is based on a presentation given by Peter DiGiammarino, CEO of Intelliven, at the AgInvestor Lab hosted by Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation.

Peter DiGiammarino, Intelliven CEO, has more than 30 years of experience leading software product and professional services firms that target niche public and private markets in North America and around the world. In addition to running companies, he has served public, private, private-equity-owned, and venture-capital-backed technology and service firms as an adviser or board member and has consistently helped these firms achieve sustained growth and profitability, and he shared with us a few basic steps for entrepreneurs to establish successful initiatives.

Get Clear:
Know whose problem you solve, how, and how well.

Get aligned:
Decide what kind of leader to be and collect followers.


Plan change:
Decide what must change, why, and how.

Do and Review:
Continually review your efforts. The number one reason initiatives fail is a lack of management attention. What happened? How and why did it differ from our expectations? What do I need to do differently?

Get Help:
Build a board that can offer accountability and retain technical expertise to advise on technology development.

Grow:
Increase value, impact, and opportunity.

Focus:
Act intentionally, persist variously. Doing too many things lowers the odds of success for each of them.

Check out this video to hear directly from Peter about how to clarify and align your approach:



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#AgInvestor: When it comes to your technology, understate and overdeliver


The following blog is based on a presentation given by Edwin Quattlebaum, Chairman and CEO of AquaAnimal Health Corporation, at the AgInvestor Lab hosted by Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation.

Edwin Quattlebaum, PhD is the Chairman and CEO of AquaAnimal Health Corporation and has extensive experience raising investment capital to commercialize agricultural technology. In a morning session at the AgInvestor Lab, Ed highlighted investor risks, rewards, milestone-based payments and methods for companies of any growth stage to attract financing for agricultural technology. Encouraging companies to “understate and overdeliver”, Ed explained that two common mistakes are not acknowledging investor risks and overvaluing the technology.

Ed outlined the seven selling points that, when packaged together, are likely to attract investment. These include:
 
1)    A large and defined market
2)    An explanation of how the technology fulfills an unmet need
3)    A clear picture of how the business and investor are going to make money
4)    The novelty of the technology and ability to patent it
5)    Expertise of the management and board to execute the business plan
6)    A credible exit strategy—how will the investor achieve liquidity and receive a good ROI?
7)    Benefit of the technology to mankind and/or environment.

In the video below, Ed explains the challenges facing off-the-shelf technologies and what opportunities there are to commercialize technology for smallholder farmers.




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