Programming Note: Although I see content and community as one whole, I heard from many subscribers and members that they would prefer to keep content and community separate. And hence I have unpaused Substack paid newsletter. I am changing the domain name to Krishidotsystem.com soon. Substack will continue to remain the repository if you want to follow my content-led learning journey. Townhalls and Events will be housed in Nas.io KrishidotSystem community.
Upcoming Events in K.S Community
→ Decolonizing Indian Agriculture: A Critical Look at my great-grandfather’s 117 Year Old Handbook on Indian Agriculture and its implications for Indian Knowledge Systems. Date & Time: 15th November 8 PM IST You can sign up here
→ Towards Regenerative Cardamom: A Dialogue with Abraham Chacko, a regenerative cardamom farmer, who has gone the full cycle from chemical to natural to regenerative and has incredible lessons to share. You can sign up here. It’s free for KS Members.
The fundamental tension between the impulse to see the system (and its hard constraints) for what it is and transform the system is something I deeply think about whenever I talk to my venture capitalist friends.
Over the past few years, it has become an annual ritual here at Krishi.System to talk all things agritech with the industry OGs. This year was no different with Mark Kahn and Hemendra Mathur.
October’22: Agritech Dialogue with Mark Kahn → October’23: “Is Agritech Party Over” with Mark Kahn and Shubhang Shankar? → December’24: State of Agritech 2024 with Mark Kahn, Hemendra Mathur and Ritu Verma
Fundamentally, VC business is a pattern matching business that operates by the dynamics of power law. VCs at large operate with a vehicle that is driven by Finance-First horse and Impact (as defined in a checklist) Carriage.
The Jet-fuel of VC capital works effectively as a system change lever when it operates within clear, proven archetypes that have demonstrated success patterns elsewhere (Consumer Brands, B2B marketplaces fintech, deeptech). It catalyzes change when deployed within proven playbook structures adapted to agricultural contexts.
In this podcast with Mark and Hemendra, we explored
- What has changed in the agritech sector and what hasn’t?
- Should we move past our obsession (or is it fetish?) with smallholder farmers? - What are the unlocks required to bring more capital in agritech?
- What is the potential for SME IPO for agritech ventures? What are the tradeoffs?
- What are the four fundamental agritech business models that are VC investable in Indian Agriculture? - What are the three dimensions of consolidation unfolding in Indian Agriculture?
- What is the potential for Agristack in India? How do we scale up? - What is the roadmap for Viksit Krishi in 2047?
From a system lens, what really fascinated me was Mark’s elaboration of four models that are VC investable.
