This week Sarah is joined by a guest host, Cass Mao, Principal Advisor at AgThentic, to chat with Pete Nelson of AgLaunch about how growers and agtech companies can work together in a model that they call "farmer-centric innovation"

Pete Nelson, originally a farmer and an English major at University, has been actively involved in building the support ecosystem for new agricultural enterprises for over 15 years. He has worked with a variety of public and private sector partners and helped to launch multiple startup companies. More recently, as President of AgLaunch, Pete has been working on sector-specific initiatives to fund, incubate, and accelerate agricultural companies with high growth potential by working with farmers.

In this episode, Pete explains what “farmer-centric innovation” means, how AgLaunch is driving it, and how having growers at the table fundamentally changes outcomes for startups and regional communities.