The Exchanges

Q I'd love to kick off today with a little about you. So tell me, how did you make your way into the world of startups and come to found Farmers Business Network? What's that founding story?

A Well, my history is a long dated in agriculture. I got into agriculture really through my father when I was in graduate school, 15 or 16 years ago. He introduced me to an entrepreneur who had Actually invested in a fish farm, an indoor fish farm at Cornell University in New York, and I went to work at that startup, so I kind of fell in love with ag. I'm in agriculture and farming. Went on and started a plant breeding business and vegetable seed. I went and worked at Cargill, the large agribusiness, and then about 11 years ago was recruited to Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm out here on the west coast, and that was sort of my foray into the world of Silicon Valley venture capital, I would say. Learned a lot there, and then about three and a half Four years ago, really wanted to do something big in ag and specifically related to working with farmers, and that was the genesis of FBN. Myself, Charles, a bunch of other people actually were researching topics that could change the game in this industry. Came up with this concept of information transparency because it's so lacking right now in the ag market. Discovered that farmers would actually share information if they could believe that it would benefit them in return. So this concept of network Like anonymized information to create transparency, to create leverage in their business. That was a concept. That was the genesi…

AI assessment note: “That was the genesis of FBN. That's how we started four years ago.”

Q So the candidate's bought into the mission, he's signed on to Farmers Business Network, and he's ready to go, but it turns out six months later that he's not scaling with the company or as fast as one would like. I'd love to know, what are the signs that a stretch VP or a stretch candidate is a stretch too far?

A Well, the number one is not being able to build a team of their own or gain credibility internally in a non-capital sort of way. So what I mean by that is a really senior person who's confident, who knows how to manage is going to attract a lot of other talent. We have some really good examples. Two people at FBN that I think of are Maria Olide, our CFO, and Ed Rowe, our VP of engineering. And if you look at the people that, that they've now attracted to their team over the last couple of years since joining FBN, it's really remarkable the quality of Talent that they've brought in. They're a magnet for talent. People want to work with them. They know how to manage their teams. They care about their teams. And that is the number one sign that somebody can do the job. If somebody can't build a team, if they can't attract talent, that's a clear sign that somebody's probably not capable. The second I would say is, is the internal credibility. You, you can quickly determine how credible a person is internally by watching the interaction with others in the company, right? How do they talk and interact with others in the business? Do people who are both subordinate, both peers, do they respect them? It's very easy to tell when you're in a meeting with someone whether they have the respect of their peers, and if they don't, it's pretty easy to tell why. So those are probably the one in…

AI assessment note: “the number one is not being able to build a team of their own”

Q Before we dive into the incredible scaling that you've experienced, I do have to ask, you mentioned Kleiner there, one of the most famous venture institutions in the world, the home of John Doar, the home of Mary Meeker. So talk to me, what were the biggest learnings for you from that experience that you've maybe taken with you to FBN today?

A Yeah, good questions. Well, I remember I was hired there in the 2007, 2008 timeframe. So it was a different era. So the most beneficial lessons were from really the first few years when I initially joined, when a lot of the old partners of Kleiner were there, I was hired by a fellow named Ray Lane and then Joe Lacob who eventually went out of the Warriors. And I got an opportunity to work with all those people. And the number one thing that I took away is don't spend your time on small ideas. If you're going to take risks, then take real risks. Try to do something big. Try to do something differentiated that'll change the world and go for it. There's not good reason to invest in or to spend your time on as an entrepreneur, a smaller incremental ideas. Life's too short. Your career's too short. So if there was one central lesson it was at, the second was that there's a big gap between the best company in a sector and the best entrepreneur and the best team and really the next five. And any big business and any big idea is going to have multiple entrants, multiple people in and around it. But you really Need to bet on if you're an investor or as an entrepreneur, you need to distinguish yourself as being that best company in the sector you're in because you'll attract the most capital. You attract the most attention and ultimately your odds of winning are going to be the highest. …

AI assessment note: “And the number one thing that I took away is don't spend your time”

Q I'd love to kick off today with a little about you. So tell me, how did you make your way into the world of startups and come to found Farmers Business Network? What's that founding story?

A Well, my history is a long dated in agriculture. I got into agriculture really through my father when I was in graduate school, 15 or 16 years ago. He introduced me to an entrepreneur who had Actually invested in a fish farm, an indoor fish farm at Cornell University in New York, and I went to work at that startup, so I kind of fell in love with ag. I'm in agriculture and farming. Went on and started a plant breeding business and vegetable seed. I went and worked at Cargill, the large agribusiness, and then about 11 years ago was recruited to Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm out here on the west coast, and that was sort of my foray into the world of Silicon Valley venture capital, I would say. Learned a lot there, and then about three and a half Four years ago, really wanted to do something big in ag and specifically related to working with farmers, and that was the genesis of FBN. Myself, Charles, a bunch of other people actually were researching topics that could change the game in this industry. Came up with this concept of information transparency because it's so lacking right now in the ag market. Discovered that farmers would actually share information if they could believe that it would benefit them in return. So this concept of network Like anonymized information to create transparency, to create leverage in their business. That was a concept. That was the genesi…

AI assessment note: “wanted to do something big in ag... and that was the genesis of FBN.”

Q Can I ask, you've been on both sides of the table as an investor, investing in, in those founders, expressing their mission. You are now one of the founders expressing the mission and the vision. I'm intrigued. Where do you see many go wrong in how they approach Developing that kind of core credibility and trust within the relationship?

A Well, I can tell you that I've, I've experienced all sides of it. I would say that one big way to lose credibility is to lose your nerve. So pitch me, sell me on a big idea, and then tell me you're going to sell the business or tell me you're going to sell short of what the mission or vision could be of the business. That kind of thing, you can lose credibility fast because, you know, you come in and you say, I'm going to build the world's next great business in this sector and You know, our sector's agriculture and farming. There's obviously many sectors out there. And then, you know, a year or two later, things are not exactly as you hoped they would be. You're losing some patience, and you say, well, you know, there's somebody who may want to acquire the company. I think you can lose credibility really fast by losing your nerve or changing your mind about what it is you believe about the business and its potential. So that's one. And that's true of if you're a CEO talking to an investor or talking to an employee, it's also true of just talking to your customer. You know, a lot of times your customer is working with you because they're excited about the prospect of what the business is going to be. And if that changes very quickly, then their sentiment could change as well. So I think that's one way. I think another way is not being present and not being accountable for So if…

AI assessment note: “one big way to lose credibility is to lose your nerve”

Q Really interesting one that I'm always super intrigued by. What are the secrets to successful board management?

A Without a shadow of a doubt, it's communication. I think boards don't like or want to be surprised. I know when I was on a board, that was my pet peeve. Showing up at a board meeting, it was like, rude surprise after rude surprise. I try to do my best, and in startup companies, Things are going to happen. You're going to have ups and downs. That is just natural. I think everybody knows that in growth companies, that's going to happen, even in public companies, that's going to happen. But as best you can to prepare people for what you're doing, what you think the outcomes are going to be so that you're not lurching from disaster to disaster versus setting up expectations with the board and making sure that they understand what's going well in the business. What's a challenge. What am I trying to accomplish this quarter, this year, whatever. That I think is the biggest thing. The second is You know, having some experience with the board, I have a phenomenal board at FBN, like an incredibly experienced board, and a good board member is someone who adds tremendous value, but isn't in the weeds of everything you're doing or being, uh, interfering with the operation of the business. My board is amazing at adding value, and they know exactly what their role is and what it is that the management's supposed to be doing, so those lines aren't blurred. So I think that's the key, is making…

AI assessment note: “Without a shadow of a doubt, it's communication.”

Q So tell me, Amol, what's the favorite book, and why should I read it?

A The book that I read a couple years ago that I really liked was A Team of Rivals. It was a book about Abraham Lincoln and, you know, how he was able to work with people who were political adversaries of his and others for the betterment of the country in a time of war, and so it was an extremely long book, but in terms of leadership and thinking about, you know, how would you navigate through things that are hard, and how do you value and utilize the talents of other people Appropriately. Treat them properly. All that stuff. I kind of remember a lot of things from that book, so I would say it's probably that from six out in my head.

AI assessment note: “The book that I read a couple years ago that I really liked was A Team of Rivals.”

Q Before we dive into the incredible scaling that you've experienced, I do have to ask, you mentioned Kleiner there, one of the most famous venture institutions in the world, the home of John Doar, the home of Mary Meeker. So talk to me, what were the biggest learnings for you from that experience that you've maybe taken with you to FBN today?

A Yeah, good questions. Well, I remember I was hired there in the 2007, 2008 timeframe. So it was a different era. So the most beneficial lessons were from really the first few years when I initially joined, when a lot of the old partners of Kleiner were there, I was hired by a fellow named Ray Lane and then Joe Lacob who eventually went out of the Warriors. And I got an opportunity to work with all those people. And the number one thing that I took away is don't spend your time on small ideas. If you're going to take risks, then take real risks. Try to do something big. Try to do something differentiated that'll change the world and go for it. There's not good reason to invest in or to spend your time on as an entrepreneur, a smaller incremental ideas. Life's too short. Your career's too short. So if there was one central lesson it was at, the second was that there's a big gap between the best company in a sector and the best entrepreneur and the best team and really the next five. And any big business and any big idea is going to have multiple entrants, multiple people in and around it. But you really Need to bet on if you're an investor or as an entrepreneur, you need to distinguish yourself as being that best company in the sector you're in because you'll attract the most capital. You attract the most attention and ultimately your odds of winning are going to be the highest. …

AI assessment note: “number one thing that I took away is don't spend your time on small ideas”

Q I'm so pleased you said that about the credibility, because we were chatting about it before the show, and you said about kind of building credibility amongst the three different groups being the invest The employees and customers. For you personally, how do you fundamentally think about developing that credibility with these three core pillars?

A I think the key to credibility is consistency, and I'm not talking about, you know, you take a high growth company like ours, things are going to happen. I just, I tell my board, our investors, they know that sometimes we're going to exceed the expectations people have of us, and sometimes we're going to fall short. We're trying to do something really big, and that stuff will happen, but the question is, is the consistency in terms of, The thinking, the mentality, the singular vision of what the company wants to be at the end of the day, has that remained the same? And when you think about investors, whether early or later investors, and then of course your customers, they want to see the same thing. They want to know that what they got involved with is, and what they choose to sign their career onto as an employee, or their capital onto as an investor, or their dollars onto as a customer, that it is what they thought it was. And that To me is the biggest thing in credibility, right? That you're consistent, that you don't change with every whim that's out there, that you don't get whipsawed and moved around by every little thing, and that you stay consistent. And again, that isn't just about, here's my plan, I signed up, I hit it, I'd like, you should do that too. But it's also about how you talk about the vision of the company, what it is you're trying to accomplish, the missi…

AI assessment note: “I think the key to credibility is consistency”

Q Can I ask, we've seen a record number of hundred million plus rounds over the last year. I'm really interested, when do you think about kind of the right time to Pour fuel on the fire. What's the framework for deciding that that is the right time? And how do you think about that moving forward?

A Yeah. Well, a lot of people want to ascribe financial metrics to that moment in time. They want to say when I get to a certain amount of revenue or a certain number of clients, or it's really a tends to be a financial analysis because a lot of the investors who write those kinds of checks are typically financially oriented. I think that's a little bit short sighted. I actually think the time to pour the fuel on the fire is when there's unanimity or certainty. Into what it is you're trying to become and that you feel you're on the path to get there. And that may be when you have two million dollars of revenue and an amazing technology built, but it's not fully commercial yet. Or it may be when you have two hundred million of revenue in your scaling. It depends on the industry, the technology, the market, all of those things factor in to the right time. But I think that it's important not to just ascribe a financial metric to it. Like, okay, once I get to Twenty million dollars of revenue. That's, that's when I go raise a bunch of money. I don't think that's the right way to think about it. You have to be more strategic than that. I have to be more thoughtful. Think about all the other aspects of the business. There's plenty of companies that are pre-revenue for many years who can and should raise hundreds of millions of dollars because they're building a phenomenal new technolog…

AI assessment note: “the time to pour the fuel on the fire is when there's unanimity or certainty”

Q Andy Ratcliffe on the show and he said, Ratcliffe's law, there's a law for it. And he said that great team, poor market, market wins. And then poor market, great team, team wins. So in terms of kind of the market being central to success and that even the best entrepreneurs in a poor market can't make it work. How do you think about that given the centrality of entrepreneurship?

A You know, the definitions of those things, it's a nice rule. I think the definitions of those are vague. I don't know what constitutes a bad market. Is it a market where there's a lot of competition? Is it a market that's small? I would say a good team who's working towards something in a small market will never create something big because it It's going to be limited by the size of the market, right? But I'm not sure there's a Different markets take different levels of sophistication, capital technology approaches, but if the market's big and the team is good, then there's a chance that you could do something great from a investment shareholder perspective. So I would say that I think as a broad rule, I'm not sure it would apply across the board, but I think I understand the spirit of it, which is that if you pick a small or a not growing type market that doesn't have any success, Scale to it, then no matter how good your team is, they're not going to be able to grow the business into something huge. I will say though, if you, if you asked me, if I ever went back to investing again, I would most definitely bet first on the team. I would absolutely focus all of my energy on who am I investing in, and do I believe that they can figure this out? Because there's no way to know exactly the path it's going to take, but again, if it's the right idea, the right mission, and I've got t…

AI assessment note: “I would most definitely bet first on the team.”

Q How do you stress test that pre-hire? What are the signs that maybe they are or they aren't ready? What questions unveil maybe the truth about the candidate?

A Well, the thing I like to look for in say, well, it depends on the stage of company, Harry. I mean, I would say that in the stage, say, where FBN is or in where we were headed in terms of what we're trying to accomplish as a company with our investors and everything. What I actually look for in the management team is some degree of success. In their background, Because a lot of times the reason that people management or others will panic when something bad happens or not be able to deal with the tough environment that a startup may go through or face is because they're worried about the financial side or they're worried about how will I pay my mortgage or how will I pay my kids college tuition and all that stuff. When you, when you get management people on your team who have had enough success, they can weather those storms and they're more prepared. So that's one thing I look for someone who's had some success Because I know that they have that to fall back on when times are tough. The second is you definitely have to pay attention to the questions the candidate asks you. Meaning, are they asking questions that are frivolous, surface level, or only related to, say, their own compensation or what matters for them? Or are they asking questions that are related to the people they're going to manage, the balance of the team, scenarios, what happens if we raise another round, what …

AI assessment note: “you definitely have to pay attention to the questions the candidate asks you”

Q Can I ask, you've been on both sides of the table as an investor, investing in, in those founders, expressing their mission. You are now one of the founders expressing the mission and the vision. I'm intrigued. Where do you see many go wrong in how they approach Developing that kind of core credibility and trust within the relationship?

A Well, I can tell you that I've, I've experienced all sides of it. I would say that one big way to lose credibility is to lose your nerve. So pitch me, sell me on a big idea, and then tell me you're going to sell the business or tell me you're going to sell short of what the mission or vision could be of the business. That kind of thing, you can lose credibility fast because, you know, you come in and you say, I'm going to build the world's next great business in this sector and You know, our sector's agriculture and farming. There's obviously many sectors out there. And then, you know, a year or two later, things are not exactly as you hoped they would be. You're losing some patience, and you say, well, you know, there's somebody who may want to acquire the company. I think you can lose credibility really fast by losing your nerve or changing your mind about what it is you believe about the business and its potential. So that's one. And that's true of if you're a CEO talking to an investor or talking to an employee, it's also true of just talking to your customer. You know, a lot of times your customer is working with you because they're excited about the prospect of what the business is going to be. And if that changes very quickly, then their sentiment could change as well. So I think that's one way. I think another way is not being present and not being accountable for So if…

AI assessment note: “one big way to lose credibility is to lose your nerve.”

Q We've spoken before about kind of your background as an investor. You've fundraised incredibly successfully with Farmers Business Network, raising a hundred and ninety three million dollars, according to the very trusty Crunchbase. I'm interested there. How do you think your time with KP maybe altered how you approach the Fundraising game, and maybe is there elements that you would have done differently if you hadn't have had that experience?

A Yeah, very good question. You know, the thinking big, going back to the topic of thinking big, when I think back to my time at Kleiner, especially early on, as I said, when all the older partners were there, some of whom have moved on and done other things now If, it's a great idea. Why shortchange it? So when you think about things like fundraising, I'm not willing to, as an entrepreneur, shortchange the idea of changing the entire agricultural market for farmers. So, one hundred ninety four million dollars we've raised in the last three, four years. That, that to me is like a drop in the bucket of what it probably will ultimately take to become a huge company. I don't know what the exact amount's going to be or number someday. Hopefully, we'll go public. All of those things are unknowns, really, but at the end of the day, one thing that I learned and that shaped me from Kleiner is that if you're going to think big, you have to also scale that thinking across Other elements of what you do, including things like raising money, the quality of people that you're going to hire. Are you going to settle for the next best candidate? I won't because I know that you're not going to build a great company that way. So I think that that definitely did influence me because before Kleiner, I probably thought of it maybe a little more like a small business person, you know, where equity is o…

AI assessment note: “before Kleiner, I probably thought of it maybe a little more like a small business person”

Q So tell me, Amol, what's the favorite book, and why should I read it?

A The book that I read a couple years ago that I really liked was A Team of Rivals. It was a book about Abraham Lincoln and, you know, how he was able to work with people who were political adversaries of his and others for the betterment of the country in a time of war, and so it was an extremely long book, but in terms of leadership and thinking about, you know, how would you navigate through things that are hard, and how do you value and utilize the talents of other people Appropriately. Treat them properly. All that stuff. I kind of remember a lot of things from that book, so I would say it's probably that from six out in my head.

AI assessment note: “The book that I read a couple years ago that I really liked was A Team of Rivals.”

Q Can I ask, we've seen a record number of hundred million plus rounds over the last year. I'm really interested, when do you think about kind of the right time to Pour fuel on the fire. What's the framework for deciding that that is the right time? And how do you think about that moving forward?

A Yeah. Well, a lot of people want to ascribe financial metrics to that moment in time. They want to say when I get to a certain amount of revenue or a certain number of clients, or it's really a tends to be a financial analysis because a lot of the investors who write those kinds of checks are typically financially oriented. I think that's a little bit short sighted. I actually think the time to pour the fuel on the fire is when there's unanimity or certainty. Into what it is you're trying to become and that you feel you're on the path to get there. And that may be when you have two million dollars of revenue and an amazing technology built, but it's not fully commercial yet. Or it may be when you have two hundred million of revenue in your scaling. It depends on the industry, the technology, the market, all of those things factor in to the right time. But I think that it's important not to just ascribe a financial metric to it. Like, okay, once I get to Twenty million dollars of revenue. That's, that's when I go raise a bunch of money. I don't think that's the right way to think about it. You have to be more strategic than that. I have to be more thoughtful. Think about all the other aspects of the business. There's plenty of companies that are pre-revenue for many years who can and should raise hundreds of millions of dollars because they're building a phenomenal new technolog…

AI assessment note: “the time to pour the fuel on the fire is when there's unanimity”

Q with you. I do absolutely agree with you. I had Fuad El-Nagar from Safo on the show, and he said that there's, and I'm by no means saying you're old. He was, he's 41 and said he was old. So just to caveat this question, um, but he said there's great benefits to being old as a founder. Would you agree with that? And just changing old for more seasoned?

A Yeah. I started at FBN. I was 35. I'm 40 now, and I would tell you that I think back to when I first started a business in my early twenties, and then again, shortly thereafter, and it's kind of comical to me how inept I was. I mean, I didn't even know the most basic things. And I was flying blind. And of course, there are people who are brilliant enough or lucky enough to maybe make that work. And especially in Silicon Valley, which is a magnet for talent, you'll find those people. But by and large, you're better off having the benefit of experience. I mean, if I think about where I was in terms of the experience as I've had when I started FBN versus going back 12, 1314, 15 years to when I was first started a business, I, I is night and day in terms of my capabilities and my experience and my ability to deal with issues. So I think it's a huge benefit, and I think it's also misguided thinking to believe that people who are, say, in their thirties or forties or whatever can't start a business, or that people who have kids or whatever is gonna be harder to be an entrepreneur. You just gotta manage yourself. You gotta manage your day, and you gotta be committed to your trade. You can be committed to your family and your kids and everything else, and also be committed to being a great entrepreneur. It's very possible. You don't have to be a twenty-something single person to be an …

AI assessment note: “So I think it's a huge benefit, and I think it's also misguided thinking”

Q I'm so pleased you said that about the credibility, because we were chatting about it before the show, and you said about kind of building credibility amongst the three different groups being the invest The employees and customers. For you personally, how do you fundamentally think about developing that credibility with these three core pillars?

A I think the key to credibility is consistency, and I'm not talking about, you know, you take a high growth company like ours, things are going to happen. I just, I tell my board, our investors, they know that sometimes we're going to exceed the expectations people have of us, and sometimes we're going to fall short. We're trying to do something really big, and that stuff will happen, but the question is, is the consistency in terms of, The thinking, the mentality, the singular vision of what the company wants to be at the end of the day, has that remained the same? And when you think about investors, whether early or later investors, and then of course your customers, they want to see the same thing. They want to know that what they got involved with is, and what they choose to sign their career onto as an employee, or their capital onto as an investor, or their dollars onto as a customer, that it is what they thought it was. And that To me is the biggest thing in credibility, right? That you're consistent, that you don't change with every whim that's out there, that you don't get whipsawed and moved around by every little thing, and that you stay consistent. And again, that isn't just about, here's my plan, I signed up, I hit it, I'd like, you should do that too. But it's also about how you talk about the vision of the company, what it is you're trying to accomplish, the missi…

AI assessment note: “I think the key to credibility is consistency”

Q Andy Ratcliffe on the show and he said, Ratcliffe's law, there's a law for it. And he said that great team, poor market, market wins. And then poor market, great team, team wins. So in terms of kind of the market being central to success and that even the best entrepreneurs in a poor market can't make it work. How do you think about that given the centrality of entrepreneurship?

A You know, the definitions of those things, it's a nice rule. I think the definitions of those are vague. I don't know what constitutes a bad market. Is it a market where there's a lot of competition? Is it a market that's small? I would say a good team who's working towards something in a small market will never create something big because it It's going to be limited by the size of the market, right? But I'm not sure there's a Different markets take different levels of sophistication, capital technology approaches, but if the market's big and the team is good, then there's a chance that you could do something great from a investment shareholder perspective. So I would say that I think as a broad rule, I'm not sure it would apply across the board, but I think I understand the spirit of it, which is that if you pick a small or a not growing type market that doesn't have any success, Scale to it, then no matter how good your team is, they're not going to be able to grow the business into something huge. I will say though, if you, if you asked me, if I ever went back to investing again, I would most definitely bet first on the team. I would absolutely focus all of my energy on who am I investing in, and do I believe that they can figure this out? Because there's no way to know exactly the path it's going to take, but again, if it's the right idea, the right mission, and I've got t…

AI assessment note: “if I ever went back to investing again, I would most definitely bet first on the team.”

Q What do you believe that most around you maybe disbelieve?

A Well, I believe that you don't have to be flashy or talk a lot or be in the news media a lot to be successful. I think that you can break the mold. I think I mentioned to you, I'm, I'm a middle-aged guy with two kids. One of my kids has autism. I'm an entrepreneur, just like anybody in their twenties. I don't think you have to fit the mold of what Say some people will say is the appropriate mold for an entrepreneur. I think you can be who you are and still do what you want to do from a career standpoint, and I'm not sure, especially in Silicon Valley, I'm not sure everybody believes that. I think they probably believe that there's a certain mold, and that's the mold that they have to invest in, and I don't think that's true.

AI assessment note: “I'm not sure, especially in Silicon Valley, I'm not sure everybody believes that.”

Q of the financial backing there. The one side is absolutely they could kind of have that as a backing, and so not be completely freaking out, so to speak. The alternative kind Could be that they don't spend 24 hours a day trying to fix the solution because they have that backing. How do you think about that as almost a comfort barrier that inhibits them from giving it everything?

A Well, there's one thing I didn't mention that's probably the most central thing, but I almost take it as a given, is that the people you hire, they have to be completely and totally bought into the mission of the business. So when they come on board, when I'm hiring somebody, I take a lot of time to educate them on what it is we're trying to do and why we do it. Like, FBN, we serve family farms. If that's not something you're passionate about, or have an interest in doing, or really want to fight through any hardship that may occur, any issue that may come up in the company, if that's not your goal to serve family farms, if that's not a mission that you can buy into, then you're not going to work 15:20 hours a day when things are hard, or when things are good. You're looking at it as a high growth company, a rocket ship, where I can get some stock options and do pretty well. I would say that that is probably the number one core thing, but I, I take that as a given. I look at that as like a must have. If a candidate's not bought into the mission of what we're doing, if they don't prove to me that they're bought into the mission of what we're doing, then no matter how good they are, I wouldn't hire them because they'll be on to the next hot deal as soon as either there's an issue or as soon as a new opportunity comes up. I mean, you really want What it is that the company does an…

AI assessment note: “the people you hire, they have to be completely and totally bought into the mission”

Q thinking big. Often we hear kind of the peace teal school of thought that you start in tiny markets, your Facebook's of the world, and you need to have that iterative approach to the huge vision. How do you think about the contrast between starting small and expensive? Expanding to the big market, and then also kind of presenting an exciting and realistic vision to VCs to attract that capital?

A Well, starting small and iterating to a big vision is a strategy, and the question is whether the, and it's a very viable strategy, I actually like that idea, but first and foremost, what is the prize that you're focused on? What are you trying to build as an entrepreneur? Are you trying to build a company that can be bought? You know, whenever I hear talking to other entrepreneurs, oh, I might sell the business, or there'll be acquirers interested, I'm like, okay, well, you've Largely given up before you start. If your vision is, I want to build a gigantic independent business in the sector I'm in, I want to change the world for the consumers that I serve, the customers that I serve, then there's multiple strategies to getting there, including starting in niche markets and expanding to bigger ones. But the question is, how determined are you? How certain are you of the end vision? And how willing are you to stay on that track? Whatever meandering path or paths that it needs to take. Depending on market conditions or competitive environments or whatever the case is. So I would say that the strategy that you described is totally viable. My thought on it is only that is the end vision or the end goal the same, which is to build a gigantic business.

AI assessment note: “starting small and iterating to a big vision is a strategy... a very viable strategy”

Q of the financial backing there. The one side is absolutely they could kind of have that as a backing, and so not be completely freaking out, so to speak. The alternative kind Could be that they don't spend 24 hours a day trying to fix the solution because they have that backing. How do you think about that as almost a comfort barrier that inhibits them from giving it everything?

A Well, there's one thing I didn't mention that's probably the most central thing, but I almost take it as a given, is that the people you hire, they have to be completely and totally bought into the mission of the business. So when they come on board, when I'm hiring somebody, I take a lot of time to educate them on what it is we're trying to do and why we do it. Like, FBN, we serve family farms. If that's not something you're passionate about, or have an interest in doing, or really want to fight through any hardship that may occur, any issue that may come up in the company, if that's not your goal to serve family farms, if that's not a mission that you can buy into, then you're not going to work 15:20 hours a day when things are hard, or when things are good. You're looking at it as a high growth company, a rocket ship, where I can get some stock options and do pretty well. I would say that that is probably the number one core thing, but I, I take that as a given. I look at that as like a must have. If a candidate's not bought into the mission of what we're doing, if they don't prove to me that they're bought into the mission of what we're doing, then no matter how good they are, I wouldn't hire them because they'll be on to the next hot deal as soon as either there's an issue or as soon as a new opportunity comes up. I mean, you really want What it is that the company does an…

AI assessment note: “people you hire, they have to be completely and totally bought into the mission”

Q thinking big. Often we hear kind of the peace teal school of thought that you start in tiny markets, your Facebook's of the world, and you need to have that iterative approach to the huge vision. How do you think about the contrast between starting small and expensive? Expanding to the big market, and then also kind of presenting an exciting and realistic vision to VCs to attract that capital?

A Well, starting small and iterating to a big vision is a strategy, and the question is whether the, and it's a very viable strategy, I actually like that idea, but first and foremost, what is the prize that you're focused on? What are you trying to build as an entrepreneur? Are you trying to build a company that can be bought? You know, whenever I hear talking to other entrepreneurs, oh, I might sell the business, or there'll be acquirers interested, I'm like, okay, well, you've Largely given up before you start. If your vision is, I want to build a gigantic independent business in the sector I'm in, I want to change the world for the consumers that I serve, the customers that I serve, then there's multiple strategies to getting there, including starting in niche markets and expanding to bigger ones. But the question is, how determined are you? How certain are you of the end vision? And how willing are you to stay on that track? Whatever meandering path or paths that it needs to take. Depending on market conditions or competitive environments or whatever the case is. So I would say that the strategy that you described is totally viable. My thought on it is only that is the end vision or the end goal the same, which is to build a gigantic business.

AI assessment note: “the strategy that you described is totally viable.”