Revolutionizing Agriculture Insurance: How Layer One AG is Using AI to Transform Farm Risk Assessment
Release Date: 07/22/2025
Uniting Iowa’s Private Colleges: Dr. Paula Kueter on Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and AI in Northwest Iowa
Iowa Tech Podcast
On this episode of the Iowa Tech Podcast, host Kaylee sits down with Dr. Paula Kueter, professor at Morningside University and director of the Joan and Larry Arnold Entrepreneurship Center. Paula shares her journey across Iowa’s private colleges and her mission to elevate entrepreneurship beyond the state’s flagship institutions, spotlighting smart, creative students who often fly under the radar. She details how Morningside is scaling its MBA, integrating AI across the business curriculum, and partnering closely with Sioux City, SIMPCO, and neighboring schools like Dordt, Buena Vista,...
info_outline
Krista Martin from Novy on Building a Healthcare Venture Studio (and Fixing ER Scheduling)
Iowa Tech Podcast
On this episode of the Iowa Tech Podcast, host Kaylee sits down with Krista Martin, Partner at Novy, a healthcare-focused venture studio building software companies from the ground up. Krista shares her path from Iowa-born product leader to venture studio operator, influenced by her time in Indianapolis and exposure to High Alpha’s model. She breaks down Novy’s six-stage approach—ideation, validation, creation, and growth at its core—and how the team co-founds with physicians and industry experts to move ideas from back-of-napkin to market. Novy runs a highly selective funnel (their...
info_outline
Pivoting in Biotech with Dr. Tony Vanden Bush of Syntherna
Iowa Tech Podcast
On this episode of the Iowa Tech Podcast, host Kaylee Williams welcomes back Dr. Tony Vanden Bush, CEO of Syntherna, for a candid look at how the biotech startup has navigated a shifting market. Since their last chat in August 2024, attitudes toward RNA vaccines have cooled and animal-health regulatory timelines have lengthened - two forces outside the company’s control. Tony explains Syntherna’s dual pivot: opening their in-house RNA manufacturing capabilities as a CRO-style “pick-and-shovel” service to generate non-dilutive revenue, and elevating their slow-release vaccine implant...
info_outline
Welcoming the 12th GIA Cohort with Dan Israel
Iowa Tech Podcast
In this New Year’s kickoff episode of the Iowa Tech Podcast, host Kaylee welcomes back Dan Israel, Managing Director of the Global Insurance Accelerator (GIA), to preview their most international cohort yet. Six startups selected from roughly 75 applicants have descended on Des Moines for “day 2 of 100,” with founders hailing from Sweden, the UK, Germany, Wales, Canada, and across the U.S. Dan explains how AI has shifted from flashy differentiator to expected infrastructure—what matters now is using it thoughtfully to solve real industry problems in approachable ways. He outlines the...
info_outline
Poking Holes in Tradition: ReEnvision Ag’s Seed Spike and the Future of Precision Planting
Iowa Tech Podcast
Jayson Ryner, founder and CEO of ReEnvision Ag and entrepreneurship professor at NIACC, explains the Seed Spike planter—the first ultra–low soil disturbance planter built for the soil-health era. 🗞️ Be first to get new interviews: 🐖 Get a free $30 gift card from Jethro's BBQ: 💡 Find this show on your favorite player: Chapters: 01:42 - Reenvision Ag: Revolutionizing Planting 08:50 - Challenges and Innovations in Agriculture 20:26 - Challenges and Opportunities in Market Gardening 23:46 - Innovations in Agricultural Technology 28:55 - Future Vision and Business Strategy...
info_outline
Building an Entrepreneurial Culture at Drake University with Chase Spencer
Iowa Tech Podcast
Host Kaylee welcomes Drake University’s Chase Spencer to the Iowa Tech Podcast from the Jethro’s Barbecue Studio for a lively conversation about cultivating entrepreneurs in Iowa. Chase shares his path from Monroe, Iowa to Drake—pivoting during 2020 from a dream of theme park design to politics, and ultimately to entrepreneurship after a formative class sparked his venture “Chasing Cars,” a QR-code storytelling tool for classic car owners now used by hundreds across the country. He explains his evolution at Drake from contractor to program manager overseeing entrepreneurship...
info_outline
Mental Health, AI and Turning Tragedy into Purpose with Jeff Johnston of Brightn
Iowa Tech Podcast
In this episode of the Iowa Tech Podcast, host Kaylee welcomes back Jeff Johnston, founder and CEO of Brighton, for a candid conversation about loss, purpose, and building a mental wellness company. Jeff shares the deeply personal journey that led him from a successful 32-year wealth management career to advocacy after losing his son to fentanyl and, later, his wife—ultimately inspiring Brighton, named in honor of his granddaughter. He explains Brighton’s unique approach to “mental wellness planning,” translating principles from financial planning into a human portfolio of health,...
info_outline
Angels in the Krause (House) with Diana Wright
Iowa Tech Podcast
Host Kaylee welcomes back guest Diana Wright, Startup Community Builder at the Greater Des Moines Partnership, to recap the Iowa Angel Investor Summit. They cover what angel investing is, when founders should seek it (typically very early), and why Iowa’s investor base is broader than many realize—even if many stay humble and private. Diana shares how this year’s Summit expanded to a full-day program with a fundamentals workshop the night before, drawing about 50 attendees. The event balanced investor education with founder energy: a keynote from Billy Asmus of Repaint Tray (fresh off...
info_outline
Inside the Digital Transformation of Community Banking with Tara Seible
Iowa Tech Podcast
Tara Seible, founder of In the Green Marketing, joins the Iowa Tech Podcast to share how she transitioned from the traditional media world to launching a fast-growing digital agency serving community banks. She reveals how burnout from corporate life became the catalyst for entrepreneurship, and why community banking—despite its conservative roots—is ripe for digital transformation. In this episode, Tara outlines the power of combining sales expertise with strategic problem-solving, offers insight into her agency's hybrid team model, and teases her next big move: a software platform...
info_outline
The Midwest Startup Taking on Billion-Dollar FMCs with Donuts and AI
Iowa Tech Podcast
On this episode of the Iowa Tech podcast, host Kaylee Williams welcomes Proaction CEO and co-founder Drake Bauer to unpack the startup’s rebrand (formerly Flete) and its mission to modernize fleet management. Drake shares how Proaction streamlines asset operations - inspections, maintenance, compliance, and reporting - into a single pane of glass, replacing a tangle of spreadsheets, sticky notes, and legacy tools. He credits early traction to obsessive customer service and “doing things that don’t scale,” from overnight fixes to mapping clients’ workflows on-site. The team’s...
info_outlineIn a recent episode of the Iowa Tech podcast, host Micah Walker welcomed Roberta from Layer One Ag, a promising startup in the agricultural insurance space, to discuss their innovative approach to managing crop risk. Recorded from the Jethro's Barbecue Studio, the episode delved into how Layer One Ag is leveraging AI to reimagine risk assessment at the farm and field level, enabling precision underwriting for farms that have traditionally been priced out of the market. Roberta, whose background ties deeply with Brazil's rich history in sugar and ethanol production, shared insights into how her experiences in bioenergy and agriculture informed the development of Layer One Ag’s risk assessment methodologies. She emphasized the limitations of traditional risk assessments that focus heavily on historical yield data, which can often miss the nuances of farm resilience to pests, disease, and climate shocks.
Layer One Ag is navigating the complex landscape of agricultural insurance by using a wealth of agricultural data, including inputs from IoT devices and satellite data, to create a new dimension of risk evaluation. Their platform, L1A Risk, provides predictive risk scoring akin to a FICO score for farms, assessing risk across multiple dimensions such as crop practices, location-based vulnerabilities, and resilience strategies. This approach allows for the creation of more tailored crop insurance products that better serve the needs of diverse agricultural operations, beyond the conventional row crop insurance. The podcast also highlighted the strategic advantages of building such a company in Iowa, a hub for insurance and ag-tech innovation, which has provided Layer One Ag with invaluable connections and resources. As Layer One Ag looks to expand its reach, the company is also eyeing the Brazilian market, where regulatory landscapes and data availability present both challenges and opportunities for growth.
Find this show on your favorite app: https://iowapodcast.com/layer-one-ag