352. Beck’s Hybrids’ Brad Fruth on agbiosciences’ go-to market differentiation + the criticality of customer trust

Identifying customer needs – jobs to be done – it’s the core of innovation. But what are the jobs that need to be done? What are those things left undone as we head into the 2025 growing season? And what does the current economy, trade environment and overall farm sentiment mean for innovators and the farmers they serve? Brad Fruth, Director of Innovation at Beck’s Hybrids, joins this week to make sense of it all. We get into:  What’s on farmers minds given the current state of the ag economy Big trends Brad is seeing aside from the macroeconomic headwinds and tailwinds The role of biologicals and seed traits in this current economy Beck’s approach to innovation and helping emerging companies bring new ideas to market The differentiation of go-to market in ag versus other industries and the criticality of patient capital from VCs Areas for great impact in agtech right now as Brad sees it The importance of staying lean when you’re starting up and recalling really great technologies that didn’t hit the market because they ballooned and got too big, too fast