Fintech South 2024: Alex Edquist with Good Agriculture

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, broadcasting live from the Woodruff Arts Center for Fintech South. So excited to be talking to our next guest Alex Edquist with Good Agriculture. Welcome. Thank you. Well, before we get too far, tell us about good agriculture. What’s what’s your business?

Alex Edquist: Yeah. So what we do is we help farmers with their back offices, especially their finance functions. So the two main things we do one is do farmers financial management for them. So that’s their bookkeeping. Getting ready for tax season financial analysis, cash projections, that kind of stuff. And then the second thing we do is there’s actually $11 billion a year in grants and other funding opportunities for farmers every year. So we have one tool that matches farmers to the opportunities they’re eligible for, and then another tool that actually writes the applications for them.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work? Yeah.

Alex Edquist: So I am not a farmer. I actually have a black thumb, which is an entertaining part about me running this business. So I have a lot of respect for what our farmers do. But I have been buying from a specific type of farmers called regenerative farmers my whole adult life. So regenerative farming, and this is probably not what you were expecting for your fintech startup interview. So follow me down the rabbit hole a little bit. But regenerative farming is this method of farming where the farmer cultivates the whole ecosystem, and so the food is a lot healthier because the plants or animals are able to get a lot more nutrients from the environment. And so for me, it started with I would solve some personal health issues by buying from regenerative farmers and eating better food And then, you know, as you might guess, regenerative farming is a lot better for the environment. So, for example, there are regenerative farmers who grow carbon negative beef because they raise the cows in a way that’s good for the environment. And so you learn about that and you’re like, okay, this is cool, I’m going to support these farmers. But I was going to buy the food anyways because it’s just better.

Alex Edquist: But then I was working as a management consultant. I was at McKinsey for a long time, and when I was leaving that job, there was academic research coming out showing that regenerative farmers could also be more profitable because they save so much money on fertilizers and chemicals and things like that. And so when I saw that, I was like, okay, well, the food’s healthier, it’s better for the environment and the farmer makes more money. So it seems like everybody should be doing this, but no one is. So what’s going on there? So I just went out and started talking to farmers about why is this hard, why does no one do this? And the farmers answer was everything is hard. I am doing everything by myself. And this regenerative farming thing is more time consuming and complicated and I just don’t have time. So it was like, well, I can’t help you with the farming piece because again, black Thumb, but I can help you run your business. So we just started offering these services manually to farmers and to see if they would pay us to do it. And they did. And then we we’ve been automating along the way ever since.

Lee Kantor: So it’s one of those stories where you went to the market and listened. Yes. And then learned and solved a problem? Yes. Wow. Did they teach you that in business school? Is that.

Alex Edquist: I actually never went to business school, but, yeah, I mean, I worked as a consultant for a long time. Yeah. It’s amazing. Like, people generally know what the problem is and how to fix it. You just got to. Sometimes you got.

Lee Kantor: To ask, right? Yeah. And so did when you were at the beginning, when you were just going to these farmers. Did you build relationships with them? Are these kind of small mom and pop type businesses, or are these kind of those big, you know, kind of enterprise level farms?

Alex Edquist: Yeah. So most of our customers are those smaller farmers because the bigger farmers, they have a similar need around this, but they tend to have like a full time person on their team who’s doing this stuff. And so when we meet them they’re like, okay, this is cool. Like we see what you’re doing, but also you’re a brand new startup and we don’t trust you yet. Like come back in a few years. Whereas the mom and pops are like, I’m doing this myself and I really don’t want to, and I.

Lee Kantor: Need help And.

Alex Edquist: I don’t care that you’re a new startup. Like, where do I sign up? Right. Um, so I mean, we yeah, I did build some relationships with farmers early on, but really, my co-founder, she is a farmer. And so our first few customers were people she’d known and worked with for like ten years. Um, and then now that we have, you know, we’re a little bit more established, it’s easier for us to just meet a farmer and build that relationship quickly. Um, but yeah, that’s where the initial customers came from. Was not from me. It was from my co-founder.

Lee Kantor: So what is kind of the point of entry for you now? Like what is the first problem you’re solving for them? Or they’re at least saying. Oh, definitely. I want to talk to you because I hate this part of my job.

Alex Edquist: Yeah. Um, so it’s it tends to be one of two things. Um, so one, when we sell, like, direct to the farmer, usually it starts with, let’s talk to you about this funding tool because, hey, there’s free money out there and we can help you get some. And everybody likes free money. So it’s just a good way for us to build that trust and that relationship with that farmer. And then sometimes they are a good fit for one of these grant opportunities. And so we do that with them. And then sometimes they’re not. But then they’ll say something like I’m worried about tax season or I don’t know how much money I made last year. And then it’s like, oh, we do finances too. Do you want help with that? Um, the other thing that happens is we actually work with partners who send us farmers. And so, like, one common thing is like a farmer will go to a bank and need a loan, and then the bank is like, okay, cool, here’s the application for the loan. And then the farmer is like, what is a balance sheet?

Lee Kantor: Right. So now I got another problem. I got to get into the accounting business. Yeah. Not the farming business. Yeah.

Alex Edquist: And so then the bank is like I don’t want to deal with your shoebox of receipts, like go to good agriculture. They will put together your finances and then come back to us. So that’s where half our customers come from.

Lee Kantor: So then what brings you to Fintech South?

Alex Edquist: So we were part of the innovation showcase. Um, so they picked ten fintech startups based in Georgia to go through program. There was a semifinal last week. Uh, top three got to pitch on stage yesterday. We were in the top three and then we actually ended up winning, which was very surprising to me. Um, so yeah, it was just a great opportunity to get lots of exposure to like all the fintech folks. And then you know, win 25 K as well, which is awesome, a bonus.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is agriculture? Are they leaning into kind of fintech world or are they coming, you know, begrudgingly like what’s there? Are they kind of tech friendly or is this new for them?

Alex Edquist: So agriculture is so not digitally enabled. And there’s a few reasons for that. So one, I mean, a lot of these farmers are in places where their internet access is super sketchy. So like, you know, Apple Pay doesn’t work because, you know, your retail store doesn’t have internet. Um, and but the and the other thing that happens is farmers are just slow to adopt technology generally because they have one chance a year to make money. And so there’s a risk aversion that comes with that of like, hey, if I adopt this thing and it doesn’t work, then like, I might go out of business. Um, so there’s a lot of things in agriculture where most fintech people would just be shocked to know that, like, farmers are still writing paper checks and, you know, they aren’t, you know, their banks aren’t digitized. And like when the banks are making loans, they’re not plugged into like a larger bank ecosystem to handle larger loan requests. And so there’s a lot of innovation happening in agriculture. But it is I would say it’s ten years behind most other industries in terms of fintech.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you got into it, was this something that was shocking to you or surprising to you, or did you were you kind of prepared for this, these being such slow adopters?

Alex Edquist: Um, to be honest, I don’t think I came in with any expectations because I don’t have an AG background. So I just came in and just listened a lot and asked a lot of dumb questions.

Lee Kantor: And but your previous clients, I’m sure, were more tech savvy.

Alex Edquist: Yeah. So I mean, when, when I, when I worked in consulting I specialized in non digitally native industries. So stuff like mining and manufacturing and so I’ve seen the full array.

Lee Kantor: So this wasn’t shocking.

Alex Edquist: No no it’s like there are there are many very successful businesses out there that are still running off of pen and paper.

Lee Kantor: Maybe the listener isn’t aware of that, that they assume that because they’re kind of tech savvy, they assume everybody else else’s.

Alex Edquist: Yeah. That’s. Yeah. So my last consulting client before I left, um, they the way they did their forecasting was they had a model, and the model would spit out a number, but then basically, like a semi at the site would just, you know, kind of and you can’t see I’m like, putting my hand against my forehead, like, I think it feels like this this month.

Lee Kantor: It’s the magic eight ball approach.

Alex Edquist: Yeah. But the thing was like the person who just like, made the guess every month was very accurate. So we were trying to build an AI digital twin that would replace that. But like beating the human, just taking a guess was actually quite hard. Um, yeah. Because, you know, sometimes, just like humans are smart and good at stuff.

Lee Kantor: And they can make connections, right? You can’t figure out why.

Alex Edquist: Right, exactly. So yeah, I’ve seen the whole whole.

Lee Kantor: Come on. So now what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Alex Edquist: Yeah. So anyone out there who knows farmers or knows people who work in agriculture, we would love to build a lot more partnerships with banks, insurance companies, nonprofits, university extension, basically just anyone who supports farmers and wants them to be successful. Um. Like, farmers love our products. We’ve had no churn since we started, which is pretty remarkable for a software company. Um, and on average, we’ve helped the farmers get $15 more profitable for every $1 they’ve spent with us. Wow. So we think it works. And we’re really excited to, like, go help more farmers.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to connect, what’s the coordinates? What’s the website? And, uh, the best way to connect with you guys?

Alex Edquist: Yeah. So we’re pretty easy to find. We’re just good agriculture.com. You can reach out to me. My email address is Alex at Good agriculture.com. You can find me on LinkedIn I’m Alex Edquist. The last name is spelled e d q u I s t. It’s a weird last name, so I’m easy to find. And just let me know that you found me via business radio and we’ll connect.

Lee Kantor: All right. Well, Alex, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work, and we appreciate you.

Alex Edquist: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. It’s been fun.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll be back in a few. At Fintech South.