Planning for Success(ion)

My wife and I had our first child late last year. As any new parent quickly discovers, having a baby comes with an impressive list of things to worry about. Some are immediate and often. Is he eating enough and when did he last eat? Why won’t he sleep? Why is he crying? Does he like me? Is having the TV on really that bad for him? 

Others are considerably less immediate, but much more uncomfortable. What happens to him if something happens to me?

From Handshake to Evidence: Bridging the Gap Between Trade Practice and NGFA Rules

Most grain companies run on muscle memory.

Contracts get written, confirmations go out (or should have gone out), trucks roll in, grain gets shipped out, the year marches on... It’s a system held together with an unspoken understanding among everyone involved. 

When something unexpected happens, it usually gets resolved. It always does…until it doesn’t.

From Commodity Trading to Contract Law: What Entrepreneurs Can Learn About Risk

Before I became a transactional attorney, I was a grain trader. If you’re ever in an airport, you can spot a grain trader rather easily. They will be the person in a polo, grain company brand over their heart, pacing back and forth, trying to get just a little more phone time in before they take off to someplace else. On any given day, I might have fielded a hundred phone calls and reviewed well over a hundred pages of contracts before heading home. The pace was relentless, but what mattered most was precision. If you didn’t know the rules, the actual, technical rules, and understand the “industry rules,” you could expose the company to hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses from a single mistake. The margin for error was zero.

Lessons from FARMCON: Kevin Van Trump’s Wisdom on Investing in Startups

Last week, I had the privilege of attending FARMCON in Kansas City, MO. Hosted by Kevin Van Trump, FARMCON brings together some of the sharpest minds in agriculture for a few days of networking, learning, and inspiration. For those unfamiliar, FARMCON isn’t your typical conference—it’s half market overview, half start-up incubator and designed to push boundaries and equip agricultural entrepreneurs with tools to thrive in an industry that’s as challenging as it is rewarding.

Kevin Van Trump, who is the man behind The Van Trump Report, is a well-known name that is synonymous with innovation and insight in the ag sector. Kevin started from the bottom of the commodities world in Chicago and built his reputation by not only understanding market trends but by helping others navigate them. Through his report, read in over 35 countries, and his consulting firm, Farm Direction, Kevin has become a trusted voice for farmers, investors, and executives alike. Kevin has an overarching passion for rural America—a passion that shines brightly at FARMCON.

While FARMCON covers a range of topics, Kevin ran a panel that offered insights on investing in startups, and his comments stood out as particularly impactful. His decades of experience investing in ag-tech startups and other ventures have taught him hard-earned lessons, many of which he shared during the conference. Here are my top five takeaways:

Fall, Football, and Figuring it Out.

I love September. When the calendar flips to September, it means a lot of things to a lot of people - it’s the arrival of Fall (Fall is the best season, by the way), students begrudgingly returning to school to the delight of their parents, and for a lot of Americans, its marks the return of their favorite sport, FOOTBALL.

About 72% of Americans identify as football fans, that’s more than 241 million people. Football is big business. The NFL generated roughly $20 billion of revenue in 2023 and during the Super Bowl, companies paid $7 million per 30-second commercial. College Football TV rights alone accounted for roughly $4 billion in 2023. That doesn’t include College Football’s merchandise, ticket sales, sponsorships, or any NIL deals, including the recent deal with EA Sports to use the Name Image and Likeness of current College Football players in their new videogame, “creatively” named (in a generic way my trademark colleagues would hate) “College Football 25.” Football is America’s favorite sport, but its also becoming the favorite business of many Americans too.

Lessons from the Roadside: Embracing Failure in Entrepreneurship

I identify as an entrepreneur - more accurately, a failed entrepreneur - but an entrepreneur, nonetheless. My personal experiences have taught me that failure is not a destination, it’s that strange, potentially intimidating rest stop you may be forced to visit during your entrepreneurial journey through the start-up desert, inching toward the oasis on the other side. Failure is that detour that makes you go “huh…” once its finally in your rearview mirror. In my younger years, I have had the opportunity to stop off at three of these less-than-ideal roadside attractions, each teaching me something new.