Joining Lumo: Why I Came Back to Agtech

I was employee #49 at Granular. 

When I started, we worked out of a basement. 

Less than three years later we were a team of a thousand working out of two floors of a downtown San Francisco office space. 

Not long after, Dupont (now Corteva) acquired the company for $300 million. 

I got that job at Granular because I had ag experience.

I ran operations at a macadamia nut farm in Hawaii for a couple years out of college. Built up a team and oversaw the creation of the company’s first in-house processing plant. I identified the best international markets to sell to, took the company through an organic certification process, and eventually secured direct contracts with the two largest macadamia nut producers in Hawaii. 

But eventually, I got home sick, came back to the Bay area and have been working in sales of some kind or another ever since. 

Now that I’m with Lumo, a few people have asked me why I decided to get back into the agtech industry. 

Let me give you a couple reasons why I’m excited about the opportunity. 

#1: Sid Gorham referred me. And, as the founder of Granular and an advisor at Lumo, Sid’s recommendation goes a long way. He understands what’s required to be successful in this industry. He’s lived it himself. 

#2: I was impressed that Devon and Henry, two of Lumo's cofounders, both have had successful exits in the past (to Yelp and Moen respectively). It means a lot. 

Joining any startup has risks, but successful leaders with proven track records tend to know how to build strong teams and motivate them to overcome hurdles at a fast pace.

#3: Lumo has a truly innovative product. There’s very little direct competition in the market, which almost makes it difficult to do a competitive analysis. 

It didn't take long for me to see the value we bring to vineyard operations, while also supporting sustainability initiatives that are prevalent in the wine industry. 

With labor shortages, water scarcity, and an increasing regulatory burden, Lumo’s built to help growers meet this moment by automating manual work, irrigating with precision, and maintaining an accurate record of their water usage. 

It’s always easier to sell a product that solves real problems. 

#4: High-caliber, world-class customers are signing up. I don’t know a ton about the wine industry. But I grew up in the Bay and I know the big names like Treasury, Clos du Val, and Pine Ridge. 

Seeing traction with reputable growers always gets me excited about an opportunity. 

#5: I loved the early focus on trying to be exceptional with a single crop in a single region—serving winegrowers in Napa and Sonoma. That’s something I heard Devon come back to time and time again in a few of his podcast appearances.

And I think it’s just a tremendous insight. I’ve seen new agtech startups try to say they can support 25 different crops across all of North America, and everyone knows they likely only do half a dozen of those crops well and offer very little in the way of in-field support. Plus, beyond the bad customer experience, as a company it just makes it really hard to know where to focus, where to devote resources, how to drive momentum in the market and so on. 

I think staying aligned and focused for a couple of years is a great way to get close to your customers, to figure out what it takes to support them in the field, and to create a product that can scale to new markets when the time is right. 

#6: I was quietly always hoping to find another opportunity to bring me back into the agtech space because I genuinely like talking to farmers. 

The conversations are less corporate, less stuffy, more grounded and down to earth. They always seem to have a greater appreciation for what’s important in life, things like family and having a real connection to the land. 

It’s refreshing, and it makes sales feel less like sales and more like helping family businesses solve the practical day-to-day challenges they’re facing. The way it should be. 

#7: And finally, I’m also just really excited to work for a company that I truly believe is doing a lot to improve the future of our environment and the efficiency of our freshwater usage. 

My family has always cared a lot about sustainability. It was a big part of my childhood and had a huge influence on the things I care about and how I want to show up and contribute to the world. 

As water becomes more scarce, weather patterns continue to change, and the regulatory burden continues to build, it’s a critical time for growers to put technology to work in ways that optimizes their use of resources and drive gains in both productivity and sustainability.

I’m excited to be a part of that movement. 

If you want to learn more about how Lumo can help you dial in your irrigation precision and run a more sustainable and efficient vineyard operation, request a demo or send us an email at [email protected]