Celebrating my Agri-versary
I joined Team Agrilyst two years ago. In one respect it seems like only yesterday, and in others it feels like I’ve been here for a decade (okay, maybe not that long, but you get the idea). When you hit milestones, reflection is inevitable.
It’s pretty simple — when you love your job, you do great things. And it’s no secret that I love my job due to the growing impact (pun intended) we’re making on our customers, and the industry. In no small part is that due to the projects we work on at Agrilyst, and the company culture we’ve cultivated here.
The Adventure: what are we actually doing here?
When I joined Agrilyst, I took over day-to-day sales from our CEO, Allison. From there I built out our repeatable sales process and hired a mid-market sales team. Then I focused on doing the same thing for enterprise sales, establishing process and developing the team. Most recently, I’ve taken over our Business Development efforts.
Each day has brought a different adventure, but the one consistent point of satisfaction throughout each adventure has come while working on projects with companies who are solving complex problems.
One of my favorite cases was a deal I worked on with a company that was building two large scale hydroponic lettuce greenhouse operations. To complicate things, both greenhouse sites were located in traditional outdoor ag havens that had unfortunately become food deserts within economies depressed by high unemployment rates. The company was entering these markets to not only provide fresh food, but also bring jobs and training for new, local ag workers.
Since finalizing the relationship and handing it off to our Client Success team, many more projects — challenging but rewarding — have materialized. But recently, I was reminded of that greenhouse project. Our team was onsite at one of the facilities, training the greenhouse’s new team members on how to use our software system, and shared photos of the visit. It was immensely rewarding to see those pictures of the operating facility and the workers using our platform. In one frame, I was able to understand all the problems the company was solving. It’s encouraging to know we are actively enabling that creative solution process.
The lesson? Sure, anyone can say that they’re going to change the world with their product — even and especially without proof — but I witness daily the tangible change which Agrilyst is making, giving operational tools growers and their farms need not only to survive, but to thrive.
The People: are we able to define culture?
We all know someone who has a work horror story related to a toxic company culture where leadership had a fundamentally unrealistic understanding of their business, and it brought the entire enterprise spiraling down to a fiery crash. If you don’t, read up on Elizabeth Homes at Theranos. Yikes.
Agrilyst was (and continues to be) poised for real growth, but before we could make that happen, we had to build internal process; we resolved to codify our core values as a company. And it didn’t stop there. In fact, we talk about those values weekly, during our all-hands meetings. We base our reviews around those values. We base hiring and firing decisions around those values. We’re also transparent about what they are, and maintain a willingness to discuss them with anyone. (You can read more about them here.)
The lesson? Culture isn’t a scary, manufactured thing. Nor is it a cheesy exercise that can be easily written off. Rather, core values are the cornerstones of any company and needs to be actively be worked on with sincerity (and dedication).
The Journey to Agrilyst: how do I know it was the right move?
I don’t have a long history of working in agriculture. Before I joined Agrilyst, I ran a Client Services department at an advertising technology SaaS startup. Aside from helping my mom weed her garden, the most interaction I ever had with growing food was potting plants in Home Depot buckets around my small backyard garden in NYC. That’s it.
Initially, I was self conscious about my lack of industry background. I was never a commercial grower, nor did I go to school for agriculture studies. Furthermore, there’s a stiff sigma around ‘tech bros’ who come into ag just to build an app and cash in on funding. I knew I would have to work extra hard to overcome that.
But shortly after joining the team, I realized that there were plenty of people in the same boat as me coming from diverse, non-agricultural backgrounds — be it technology, finance, or energy — looking to add value and make real change to our food system, partnering with stakeholders already in the ecosystem. One thing all of our new entrants have in common: we all put in the time to climb that learning curve in order to deliver value beyond the fluffy stuff.
The lesson? With all the investment pouring into agtech and the resulting industry growth, bringing in learnings from other industries is a key asset. In order for the industry to undergo actual change, diverse backgrounds are a must-have. Without them a company’s vision misses out on the opportunity for fusion and layering, two qualities that make a team truly dynamic.
Interested in joining our team? Check out our careers page! We’re actively hiring across all departments.
