The Entrepreneur's Ethic

Our latest podcast episode features Rian McDonnell, founder and CEO of FloVision, the AI-powered computer vision company transforming food production from the inside out.

FloVision deploys AI-driven inspection systems in beef, pork, and poultry facilities on three continents. Nearly 100 million kilograms of food processed. More than 10 billion inferences through their models. Named Food Tech Equipment of the Year in the 2026 AgTech Breakthrough Awards. Their hardware runs inside environments most tech companies wouldn't walk into — steam, cold, stainless steel, high-pressure wash-downs, production lines that run 175 birds a minute and never stop on weekdays. They install on Saturdays, with a Sunday backup day if something goes wrong. Because agriculture and food never stop.

www.kevinkimle.com

Rob Cressy is founder of Cressy Creating and one of the leading voices in human-first artificial intelligence. What I found most valuable in our conversation was Rob's framework for working with AI — what he calls the "human AI sandwich."

www.kevinkimle.com

To honor the holiday, we’ll re-release my interview of John Berlau about George Washington. The Founding Father, Revolutionary War leader, first President, model for Mount Rushmore, face on the one-dollar bill, namesake of a Capital City, a state, and much else. But in many ways, he was not just the Father of a country, but the Father of American entrepreneurship. The current occupant of the Oval Office is not the first to have their name attached to a business brand.

Craig Rupp has spent years building at the frontier of autonomous agriculture, helping pioneer systems that allow tractors to operate autonomously in real production environments.

Before Sabanto, Craig played a foundational role in the creation of FieldView, which eventually landed at Climate Corporation. It’s a technology that remains central to modern precision agriculture and ultimately part of the story  of Monsanto’s acquisition of Climate and the downstream impacts on what today we call agtech.

Craig’s career sits at the intersection of agriculture, engineering, software, and entrepreneurship. We spoke about the origins of FieldView, lessons from building hard technology companies, working with David Friedburg, what autonomy changes economically for agriculture and where he believes the future of farming is heading.”

Our latest podcast episode features my compadres from Ag Startup Engine, the AgTech fund that we started ten years ago, Joel Harris, Colin Hurd, and Mikayla Mooney. 

We discuss the state of agtech investing. To borrow from Dickens: It is the best of times. It is the worst of times. Entrepreneurs at Ag Startup Engine portfolio companies continue to do great work in building impactful businesses. And we discuss some of those. But you don’t have to look far in the agtech venture investing world to find zombie businesses, dead businesses, and billions in investment that’s went up in flames.

What have we learned? How can we build the right kind of muscle memory in the Midwest for effectively deploying risk capital and building the next generation of great businesses? I enjoyed the conversation with my teammates and know you will too.

Brady Sidwell is an entrepreneur from Enid, Oklahoma who runs Sidwell Enterprises, an agricultural conglomerate with multiple businesses including a grain elevator, local food distribution, a flour mill, and a brewery. 

Entrepreneurs tell stories. And some get others to tell their stories. Vance Crowe is a communications expert, widely sought-out speaker, a podcaster, and the founder of Legacy Interviews. Legacy Interviews creates professional video recordings of individuals or couples telling their stories and the lessons learned along the way.

www.kevinkimle.com

Jackson Kimle is CEO of Midland, a business that’s developed land-based seafood technology and a business model aimed at scaling shrimp production. Using innovative Algae-Based RAS™ (recirculating aquaculture systems) technology, Midland Co. now has three contract farms raising shrimp in Iowa. Midland's farms are dedicated to quality, handling each batch from tank-to-table.

Seafood played a key role in the early development of the economy of what became the United States. Cod caught off the coasts of New England and Canada were a significant export for centuries. Whaling was the deep-history source of what today we call venture capital. And American founders like George Washington harvested fish as part of their farm enterprises. 

I enjoyed the discussion with Jackson about Midland, shrimp, seafood, and the state of aquaculture, and know you will too.

https://www.midlandseafood.com/

https://www.kevinkimle.com/

Welcome to season TWO of The Entreprneur's Ethic Podcast! Throughout this season, we'll be tracing the arc of American entrepreneurship.We’ll kick off the season with an interview of John Berlau about George Washington. Yes, THE George Washington. The Founding Father, Revolutionary War leader, first President, model for Mount Rushmore, face on the one-dollar bill, namesake of a Capital City, a state, and much else. But in many ways, he was not just the Father of a country, but the Father of American entrepreneurship.Find John's book herehttps://cei.org/www.kevinkimle.com

In the last podcast of 2024, we take a shot at interpreting the spirit of the time for change-makers, what I call the entrepreneurial zeitgeist. What’s potentially interesting or notable for innovators and entrepreneurs in late 2024? I had a great discussion with two people I’ve learned a lot from, Rob Trice of Better Food Ventures and The Mixing Bowl and Brett Wong of Anterra Capital. Rob’s home base is the Bay Area, California and Brett’s Boston, Massachusetts so our viewpoints are mix of West Coast, East Coast and No Coast.