Venture Capital in Agriculture
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Andrew Minarick is still early in his career but has already been a part of two successful ag startups. Now he’s back with his third company, BovEye, and an MBA from Stanford. He says two of the biggest lessons he’s learned is that not all investment money is right for all businesses. And sometimes, venture capital isn’t the best fit.
Minarick… “Venture capital is a very unique type of capital for a very unique type of business. And sometimes I worry that that gets applied a little too broad-based. And I don't know if everyone's always honest with themselves about either what kind of company they're trying to build or what kind of a company they're trying to invest in. And the reason that hits home is, there are certain things in the term sheets in the way that those deals are structured, things like, you know, the preference stack and the liquidation preference. And those really matter as far as what kind of business you're building. And now I think that there's a lot of reasons to start a business. I think one is to solve a real problem and one is to be compensated for that. And I think maybe the number one would be compensate the people that take a risk on you in the early stages. And so that's just something that I think that's close to home is a little too often. It seems like, oh, congratulations, you took venture capital, or I'm a venture-backed company and that's like a signal of success. And I think that that's a dangerous way to frame it. I think that there needs to be caution and model out what kind of business you need to be a successful investment, both for your venture investors, but also for yourself.”
Again that’s Andrew Minarick, founder of BovEye and Flyover Whiskey.
