By Joel Harris, co-director Ag Startup Engine
This was published on Medium.
Two minutes… 120 seconds… The amount of time given to the 205 winter cohort of Y Combinator’s 90 day program over two days. Out of over 12,000 applicants (30% higher than the previous cohort) 205 founders or companies were chosen to go through the exclusive startup accelerator program. Previous graduates include “unicorns” like Dropbox, Coinbase, Reddit, and Instacart. The pressure was on to live up to high expectations and present to the more than 1400 investors attending a two-day demonstration day on Pier 48 in the San Francisco bay area.
Luck is just preparedness for opportunity, said Louie Pasteur a monumental influencer in human health and modern biotech. I hate to say I was lucky, instead I was fortunate to be co-directing the Ag Startup Engine which is an early seed investment fund focused on agriculture technology startups in Iowa.Two of our portfolio companies, Nebullam and LEAH Laboratories, were apart of the 205 startups to go through the YC program. Being co-director sealed my invite to the exclusive event. With all the hype and preparation going into a 120 second pitch, I was grateful Nebullam and LEAH Labs agreed to have breakfast with me at Dottie’s True Blue Cafe in downtown San Fran on their pitch day
Brick walls, chalkboard menus, and endless amounts of coffee was Dr. Wes Wierson's kind of breakfast place. We were joined by co-founder and COO, Zachary WareJoncas. LEAH has the moonshot mission in companion animal health to cure cancer in dogs utilizing CAR T-cell therapy which is a form of immunotherapy that uses specially altered T cells — a part of the immune system — to fight cancer. Wes had put together an impressive team of four PhDs, all of which were experts in veterinary pharmacology, gene editing patent authors, or CAR T-cell patent authors.
Clayton Mooney, CEO and founder, and the Nebullam team consisting of CTO, Danen Pool, and Chief Software Architect, Mahmoud Parto. Nebullam was one fo the first Ag Startup Engine investments. Nebullam’s work focuses on building ultra local indoor farms that provide produce to grocers and restaurants year round. Currently, they supply central Iowa-area businesses and residents with weekly and bi-weekly deliveries of indoor grown lettuce and sweet basil.
Two opposite sides of the #agtech spectrum. Animal health mixed with latest in gene-editing and cancer therapeutics sharing a pot of coffee (or tea) with a year-round lettuce and micro green supplier that also utilized artificial intelligence, machine learning, vertical farming techniques. And yet, their shared experience of being a YC cohort alumni kept them at the same level of an up and coming startup about to raise some serious seed funding.
Relief was in the air, like the smells of crisping bacon, for both companies to have the end of Y Combinator program upon them. Whether they were looking forward to getting back to the Midwest or close on their seed round of funding, I could sense their anticipation to move onto the next phase of their startup journey.
As food started overcrowding the table in the back of Dottie’s we covered a range of topics:
We discussed their overall positive experience with the YC program. How the resources, discipline, and network that has opened up so many doors and their minds to the possibilities. There were long nights of problem solving and some short 10 minute eureka moments like simplifying Nebullam’s mission as the John Deere for Indoor Farming.
We discussed how investors were matched up with startups through the schedule which would lead to follow on discussions and possible investment.
We discussed how surprising it was to have such a large venue and logistically difficult program to pull off.
We discussed how disappointing the coffee was at the event for some reason.
Then Parto poured maple syrup in his coffee by mistake.
We discussed why there didn’t seem to be a cocktail hour.
We laughed about how some VC’s were coming to YC with signed SAFE agreements prior to ever hearing the company pitch.
We talked about issues like legal expenses, both operational and for intellectual property.
We talked about the back and forth disconnect between West Coast and Midwest no-coast. How investor folks in the Midwest would get perturbed that companies went West to raise significant funding. But then how when companies from California came to the Midwest they got raised eyebrows seeming to imply that if one couldn’t raise money in their headquarters of southern California were the capital is loose and abundant. Asking, “why were they coming to the Midwest?”
We talked about 10Ks, half marathons and ultra marathons that were on the calendar for myself, Wes, and Clayton respectively.
As the Founders and Innovators packed up, we had a laugh about the abundance of eggs, chorizo sausage, cornbread with jalapeño jam, zucchini cakes, and bottomless coffee should be enough calories to fuel them for the event. “Calorie Capital,” I joked.
In the end, Nebullam and LEAH Labs covered their mission, total addressable market, team credentials and investor ask in two minutes. I CHALLENGE ANY ENTREPRENEUR AND FOUNDER TO DO THE SAME! They are now in the midst of raising a significant seed fund from domestic and international investors who value the graduates of YC. Less than 5% of startups are successful, it is my personally opine positive odds in favor of Nebullam and LEAH Labs.
Joel Harris is co-director of the Ag Startup Engine (ASE) which has a vested stake in Nebullam and LEAH Laboratories. ASE focuses on early seed investment in companies focusing on solving the biggest problems in agriculture. Visit www.agstartupengine.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn more. Watch our Investor and Community Insight Interviews on YouTube!
Joel also helps startups and founders in the Animal Health, Biotech, Petcare, Agtech, and Software Development. Visit www.charteroakcreative.com to find out what you’re missing to make your startup successful. From networking to capital fundraising.