FARMCON Conversations

Listen in as KVT and Benson Hill CEO, Matt Crisp talk unfiltered about the future of agriculture, some of their favorite investments, new books they are reading, and how they are collectively working to bring premium crop opportunities to growers across the U.S. This is a great conversation with the CEO of the most talked-about ag-tech startup in the industry.  

Benson Hill recently closed a $150 million Series D funding round led by Wheatsheaf Group and GV (formerly Google Ventures). The company’s leading food innovation engine CropOS taps nature’s genetic diversity to develop and commercialize healthier and more sustainable food and ingredient options that benefit farmers, food companies of all kinds, and ultimately, consumers. This funding round accelerated the food-tech company’s efforts to deploy its platform technology, expand partner development across the supply chain, and scale product commercialization efforts.

The funding round attracted diverse investors recognizing the company’s strategic business model and potential including Argonautic Ventures, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Emart, GS Group, Louis Dreyfus Company, iSelect Fund, Fall Line Capital, Mercury Fund, Prelude Ventures, Prolog Ventures, S2G Ventures, and additional strategic and family office investors.

Benson Hill leverages Cloud Biology®, a discipline combining the power of data science, machine learning and AI techniques with plant biology and genomics. CropOS is the platform that makes this discipline actionable, significantly accelerating the precision and speed of product development. Benson Hill’s technology platform and collaborations empower the creation of healthier and more sustainable feed, food and ingredient options that consumers are seeking, while also delivering strong crop performance that farmers demand. 

 The group talks about their current and longer-term investments and outlooks. Topics discussed included the current agricultural markets, what’s happening on Wall Street, investments in precious metals, cryptocurrency, real estate, energy, and more. This is a great conversation that you don’t want to miss. We start talking more ag market specifics later in the conversation, so make sure to stick around!

Emily is one of our good friends and considered one of the absolute best in the business. If you have any money invested in agriculture this is a must-listen. As usual, Emily delivers and provides some very interesting insight. I am truly blessed to know so many smart people and happy that I can share. Take the time and listen to her thoughts on prices moving forward and her overall global perspective of agriculture. We all have to guide our own ship through these waters but it’s nice to get a look at someone else’s map who regularly travels to other lands and sees things from a different persepctive than our own backdoor. Take the time and fully digest this one!

Kevin Van Trump and Andy Daniels host a roundtable discussion with their sons Jordan Van Trump and Drew Daniels. Both Jordan and Drew trade and invest, so the topics of conversation are very interesting and offer differing perspectives. 

The discussion starts with current thoughts on the ag markets and how the group plans to play their hand into 2021. The topics then move to other outside investments, such as stocks, gold, land, guns, bitcoin, etc… There are a lot of interesting thoughts and perspectives shared that make it worth the listen. Hope you enjoy.

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

NEW “Highly Volatile” Zoom Call:  Farming, Food and Conversations About Our Future with Mary Shelman, Carter Williams, Travis Potter and Kevin Van Trump. This is one you don’t want to miss as I speak with Mary Shelman, Founder at the Mary Shelman Group and Advisory Board Member at Village Capital; Carter Williams, CEO at iSelect Fund; and Travis Potter, founder at Tractor Soda.

This is one you don’t want to miss as Jordan and I discuss the current grain markets, what’s happening in Bitcoin, the shift towards a paperless money world, post corona thoughts, Thanksgiving turkey news, AgSwag updates, and current investment ideas.

NEW “Highly Volatile” Zoom Call: Corona, Crop Prices, the Election, and Investments with Tom Willis and Greg Beck. This is one you don’t want to miss as I speak with Tom Willis, CEO at Conestoga Energy; Greg Beck, Senior Vice President of the Grain Division at CGB; and Andy Daniels about some hot topics of debate. Overall, we will be discussing our latest thoughts on the upcoming election, crop prices, how coronavirus is popping up again, and current investment ideas.

This is one you don’t want to miss as it features Andy Daniels, Carter Williams, John Newton, Darwin Melynk and myself. Overall, we discuss hot topics that are having and will have impact on our businesses and lives including the China trade deal, grain markets, our overall economy, the upcoming Presidential election, the growing wealth gap, and much more!

Jim Meyer is an accomplished CEO and CMO in marketing services and technology with more than 30 years of experience in media, advertising, research, and technology. Senior advisor in growth strategy and transformation. Team builder, motivator, change agent. Ad tech pioneer. Experienced board director and compensation committee chair in public and private companies.

Jim is currently the Managing Director at Golden Square, which is a company that works with CEOs and their executive leadership teams to design and activate transformational growth initiatives. Before Golden Square, Jim served as the Executive Director as well as CMO at GroupM for three years. At GroupM, Jim helped take to market the [m]PLATFORM technologies and service organization, which helps clients apply deep audience insights throughout their campaigns so they reach their customers and achieve their marketing goals. 

Before both of those positions, Meyer was the first North American CMO at Ipsos, a global market research agency, where he built a robust marketing team. Meyer has deep experience in the creative and research sides of advertising, with leadership roles at WPP’s JWT and Kantar TNS, among others. He was also the CEO and co-founder of Mindset Media, a strategic partner to WPP and GroupM prior to its acquisition by Meebo and Google. In addition, he also served on the Boards of ON2 Technologies and TheStreet.com, during crucial commercial development phases. Meyer has also applied his strengths in marketing strategy and brand development leading consulting practices in market segmentation, customer management, and pricing at Novantas and The Cambridge Group. 

Meyer also attended Duke University earning a Bachelors Degree in Management Science and a Masters Degree in Organizational Behavior. In addition, Meyer has a strong passion for quail hunting and horse racing.