Intro
Rob Leclerc is the Cofounder and General Partner of AgFunder which is $300m AUM venture fund focused on food and agriculture. He also started AgFunder News which has over 100,000 subscribers and is the largest publication and source of news for the world of venture and startups focused on food & ag.
In this conversation we discuss how media and venture have always gone together and how Rob was able to use that as a platform to build the venture business. We also dive into his personal story of why and how he got started in venture capital having no experience in the space.
What people might not know is that AgFunder actually started out as a crowdfunding platform for food & ag startups and was part of the 500 Global accelerator.
Watch on YouTube:
Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
01:55 - From being un-hirable to a PhD and starting a VC Fund
04:03 - The 2008 financial crisis and exposure to the Agriculture space
07:47 - Going from computer science and philosophy to food and bio
13:36 - The “Miserable Failure” of Rob’s first startup
16:40 - Building the TechCrunch for AgTech
22:28 - Going from media to venture and finding your own voice
27:44 - 500 Global and the million-dollar demo day
31:19 - Transitioning from Broker to Principal
37:50 - “Trust can’t be rushed”, how that applies to fundraising
42:21 - AgFunder’s business model and keeping storytelling alive
51:35 - The evolution of AgFunder’s thesis
1:00:26 - Managing customer relationships
1:04:55 - What builds founder resilience
1:08:58 - The true definition of agency and how do you inculcate that in kids
1:13:48 - What’s more important agency or intelligence?
1:14:56 - Rob’s vision for 2050
1:21:42 - Humanoid Robotics and the “Specialized vs. General” debate
1:26:08 - Rob’s lessons in storytelling
1:30:51 - Reputation through Reps: The intentional practice of the pitch
1:38:04 - Closing questions, how does Rob build relationships
