Q. Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
Ans : Groundwork BioAg, a leading bioagriculture company headquartered in Israel with corporate presence in all of the world’s major breadbaskets, produces highly effective mycorrhizal inoculants to tackle the global challenges of food security and climate change. Following more than 30 years of R&D, Groundwork BioAg was the first to crack the code on the mass production of high-quality, supremely concentrated mycorrhizal inoculants for the global commercial and regenerative agriculture markets. Groundwork BioAg has developed a Nature-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal Solution (NBR) that leverages the role of mycorrhizae as carbon’s main pathway into the soil. Our products are already supercharging permanent carbon sequestration on millions of hectares globally while boosting crop productivity, improving soil fertility, increasing plant resilience, and reducing fertilizer usage. Groundwork BioAg envisions the world’s cropland regenerating with mycorrhizae and every farmer benefiting from higher yields, fertilizer savings, healthier soils, and verifiable, premium carbon credit revenue – all without altering cultivation practices. Nature’s most potent carbon removal solution is now in every farmer’s hands.
Q. Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
Ans : I am a serial entrepreneur and business development executive, with a passion for sustainable development. My international experience ranges from information technology and communications to agribusiness and cleantech. I hold an MBA and MS, EECS, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a B.Sc., Industrial Engineering, from Tel-Aviv University. I graduated as a Fellow in the Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program at MIT and as a Fellow at the Heschel Sustainability Center.
Q. What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
Ans : Throughout my previous career, I was making people’s lives more efficient. But I wondered: if humans, in general, are driving the Earth into the ground, am I also responsible for destroying our planet more efficiently? I made the decision to change my career path and focus on food production sustainability and climate change. Food is key – we all have to eat. But the way we produce and distribute food is contributing to climate instability. I read a report by the FAO that stated that in the next 40 years, we need to produce as much food as we produced in the past 8,000 years, all while we’re polluting the soil and changing the climate. This to me looked like a grand challenge – and where there are grand challenges, there are grand opportunities. I dove in and haven’t looked back since.
Groundwork BioAg was one of the original pioneers that recognized the advantages of endomycorrhizal fungi. Founded in 2014 by Dr. Yossi Kofman (CEO), Danny Levy (CTO), and myself (CGO), we produce and sell a variety of mycorrhizal inoculants for commercial agriculture worldwide. We realized that cracking the code on the cost-effective production of mycorrhiza would enable us to scale its distribution rapidly to commercial farms worldwide and accelerate the trend towards nature-based solutions for sustainable food security and premium carbon credits.
Q. What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Ans :
- Look for cofounders who complement you – not those who remind you of yourself.
- It’s not your idea, it’s your execution. There are graveyards full of good ideas.
- No business plan has ever survived its first contact with a real customer – so talk to your customers now and start adapting your revenue model to what they will actually buy.
Q. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Ans :
1) Determination
2) Vision
3) Professionalism
Q. How many hours do you work a day on average?
Ans : I am always working and always playing. I’ve reached a good balance between the two that does not define hours per day. For real.
Q. To what do you most attribute your success?
Ans : First, we must define success to answer that question. If my personal definition of success is leading a happy life, then I attribute my ability to concentrate on what makes me happy to my personal success. More specifically: family, determination to make an impact and continuous improvement are the things that drive me the most.
- How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
Ans : Marketing is a catalyst: it helps the market better understand your product or service, faster – for good or bad. To that extent, successful marketing must be backed by integrity and trust. At Groundwork BioAg, we take pride in the quality of our products and our authentic relationships with the farmers with whom we work. Marketing simply brings that pride to light and exposes our product for what it is: the most cost-effective, potent mycorrhizal inoculant on the market.
Q. Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
Ans : Groundwork BioAg is likely the fastest-growing mycorrhiza producer in the world. To support this growth and continue to scale production to meet demand, we raise venture capital – perhaps the only mycorrhiza producer to do so. Our ample funding provides an operational edge over our non-VC-backed competition.
Q. What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
Ans : Plan, execute, embrace change, evolve, repeat. And don’t step on people along the way.
Q. Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
Ans : Through distribution and strategic partnerships in 17 countries, including the four largest agricultural markets, Groundwork BioAg has already regenerated millions of hectares of cropland. Our products improve the efficiency of major crop production, including corn, soybeans, grains, bio-energy crops, fruits and vegetables, and cannabis.
We also recently launched our Rootella Carbon program, which harnesses the power of Rootella® – highly effective mycorrhizal inoculants that are proven to sequester significant amounts of carbon in cropland (1-4 tCO2eq/acre annually). This innovative program represents a transformative approach to carbon sequestration for conventional and regenerative farmers alike and has the potential to sequester one gigaton of CO2 equivalent within one decade.
Groundwork BioAg envisions the world’s cropland regenerating with mycorrhizae and every farmer benefiting from higher yields, fertilizer savings, healthier soils, and verifiable, premium carbon credit revenue – all without altering cultivation practices. Nature’s most potent carbon removal solution is now in every farmer’s hands.
Q. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
Ans : I admire Apeel’s innovative, sustainable and creative answer to the realities of food waste.
Q. What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Ans : I love creating something from nothing.
Q. What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
Ans : This image of a Brazilian soyfield, courtesy of our Brazilian partner Novatero BioAg, shows a 21.6% yield increase in fields treated with our mycorrhizal inoculant despite severe drought conditions. This represents my most satisfying moment in business so far.
Q. What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture?
Ans : Our co-founders complement each other, and each brings a very different element of our culture to the company. Groundwork BioAg has a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural environment, and that’s part of its beauty.
Business Info:
Website: https://groundworkbioag.com/
Business Name: Groundwork BioAg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groundworkbioag/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/groundworkbioag/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTmjog_vNV8AeH8xKigzEDA
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/5022013
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GroundworkBioAg