The absolute naivety / arrogance of some of these green tech companies is astounding. The basic assumption of a lot of these types of companies are “We’re smart tech people who are good at fundraising. We are absolutely equipped to solve this problem of indoor horticulture.” Almost all of them think that they have nothing to learn from an existing industry with decades of experience in growing produce at scale in greenhouses.
Warning signs:
1. Not hiring anyone with prior experience working in industrial scale greenhouse ag. (They’re the sort of people you would expect to know about basic operations, labor, pest control, etc.)
2. Not listening to those people once they did hire them.
3. Trying to position / advertise themselves as tech companies rather than agriculture companies for the express purpose of inflating their valuation.
The experience really soured me on green tech and agtech. The problems they need to solve aren’t technological at all. They have to do with distribution of the produce.
Jonathan Webb and the entire AppHarvest leadership team can absolutely go fuck themselves. They are at best disingenuous, at worst, cash-grabbing liars.