362: From Salesman to CEO with Dan Lindberg, CEO of Meras Water Solutions
Release Date: 08/06/2024
386: The First Startup Incubator Facility Dedicated to Ag Robotics
The Modern Acre
Danny Bernstein is the Managing Partner of Reservoir Ventures and the CEO of the Reservoir, an ecosystem of nonprofit and for-profit ventures tackling California’s most urgent challenges and opportunities. Before founding the Reservoir, Danny spent 20 years in Silicon Valley leading business development, partnerships, and developer programs at Google and Microsoft. At Google, he worked across products like Search, Chrome, Firebase, and Google Identity after the acquisition of Meebo, a Web 2.0 startup that was sold to Google 2012. At Microsoft, he led critical product lines for Microsoft...
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385: Carbon Robotics Founder on Their $70M Raise and "Robots-As-A-Service"
The Modern Acre
Paul Mikesell is the founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics. Paul has deep experience founding and building successful technology startups. Paul co-founded Isilon Systems, a distributed storage company, in 2001. Isilon went public in 2006 and was acquired by EMC for $2.5 billion in 2010. In 2006, Paul co-founded Clustrix, a distributed database startup that was acquired by MariaDB in 2018. Prior to Carbon, Paul served as Director of Infrastructure Engineering at Uber, where he grew the team and opened the company’s engineering office in Seattle, later focusing on deep learning and computer...
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The 2024 Acre Awards - Part 2
The Modern Acre
Listen: | Tune in for our end of year award, recap, and predictions show! Part 2: Biggest Change for 2025 Podcast Recap and Goals Nuss Farms Recap and Goals Boring Business of the Year 2024 Obsession 2025 Predictions Tim's Surprise Category — This episode is presented by Corteva Agriscience. Learn more . — Links Join the Co-op - Tegner Mill - Polaris Energy Services - Subscribe to the Newsletter -
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The 2024 Acre Awards - Part 1
The Modern Acre
Tune in for our end of year award, recap, and predictions show! Part 1: Favorite Episode of the Year Business We'd Invest $10,000 In Ag Person of the Year Favorite Business Person Craziest Person We're Following Favorite Content — This episode is presented by Corteva Agriscience. Learn more . — Links Join the Co-op - Zac Ellis Episode - David Friedberg Episode - Ohalo - Polaris Energy Services - Travis Potter Episode - FlavCity / Bobby Parrish - Peter Levels - Bryson DeChambeau - Craig Fuller on MFM - The Psychology of Money - Subscribe to the Newsletter -
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382: California Ag Outlook - Trade, AgTech, Labor, Water & Energy with Walt Duflock
The Modern Acre
Walt Duflock is a 5th generation California farmer (cattle, wine grapes, leafy greens), 30-year Silicon Valley startup veteran (eBay and 3 other acquisitions), and 7 years as an AgTech Innovation leader at SVG-THRIVE and Western Growers (where he’s focused on solutions for labor, water, and food safety) — This episode is presented by Corteva Agriscience. Learn more . — Links Western Growers - Walt on Linkedin - CA Ag Labor Deck - Join the Co-op - Subscribe to the Newsletter -
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381: Netafim's Corporate Partnership Program & Digital Farming Platform
The Modern Acre
Mike Hemman is the SVP of Netafim North America. Mike joined Netafim in 2019 as the President of Netafim USA and was promoted to Senior Vice President of North America in 2024. He has been instrumental in driving strategic growth and expanding profit margins through innovative market strategies, customer segmentation, product lifecycle management, and improvements in supply chain and manufacturing efficiencies. With multiple decades of experience in the crop protection and seed industry, Mike has held key commercial leadership positions at DuPont, Corteva, and Pioneer Seed. — This...
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380: Buying (Then Building) A Small Business in Ag with Cody Agee
The Modern Acre
Cody Agee is the Owner & CEO at Sierra Dairy Laboratory. After getting his degree in finance and a career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, Cody decided to search for a business to buy. He ended up acquiring Sierra Dairy Laboratory and joins the podcast to tell the whole story. — This episode is presented by Corteva Agriscience. Learn more . — Links Sierra Dairy Laboratory - Cody on Linkedin - Join the Co-op - Subscribe to the Newsletter -
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379: Understanding Math in Agriculture - Topsoil Series with Ariel Patton
The Modern Acre
This month, Tim and Tyler talk with Ariel about her latest Topsoil edition - "How to do better napkin math - A framework for units and measures in agriculture." is the creator of , a newsletter bringing you monthly frameworks to help make sense of agriculture, at just the right depth. Ariel has focused her career on driving digital transformation of agriculture to help farmers manage their businesses more profitably and sustainably at Monsanto, Granular, Corteva, Mineral, and now, Innerplant. — This episode is presented by Corteva Agriscience. Learn more . — Links Topsoil - Ariel on...
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378: Founder of Tractor Beverage Travis Potter on His New Venture
The Modern Acre
Travis Potter is the founder of Tractor Beverage, an innovative beverage company that offered the first and only Certified Organic, Non-GMO beverage solution for foodservice. Travis is now working on his next project - bringing Green Lightning to market. Green Lightning has developed on farm technology that produces liquid fertilizer from only air and water. — This episode is presented by Corteva Agriscience. Learn more . — Links Green Lightning - Join the Co-op - Modern Acre Newsletter -
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377: Scaling a Simple Idea into Successful AgTech with Tracey Wiedmeyer, CEO of Gripp
The Modern Acre
Tracey Wiedmeyer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gripp. From independent growers to national co-ops, Gripp is focused on providing the ultimate platform for connecting operations teams, keeping tabs on their equipment whereabouts, interactions, and bringing organization to their unique collection of operational knowledge & routines. — This episode is presented by Corteva Agriscience. Learn more . — Links Gripp - Tracey on Linkedin - Polaris Energy Services - Join the Co-op - Modern Acre Newsletter -
info_outlineAfter graduating with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Sacramento State University, Dan moved to Kerman, CA to work on a ranch for his now father-in-law. Working on his father-in-law’s ranch, Dan learned quickly about the farming industry and realized his heart’s desire was working with primarily almond, pistachio, grapes, and cotton. He also gravitated toward research, development, and applications primarily on nutrition programs, irrigation, water treatment, and regulations that come with the agricultural industry. In 2010, Dan took what he learned in the field and went to work for an irrigation company and began working with water treatment products and drip irrigation systems. It was there that he learned the importance of maintaining irrigation systems. Shortly after, Dan was intrigued and wanted to be part of the fast-growing company in Meras. In 2012, Dan went to work for Meras and quickly realized the relationship between water treatment management and service, and its effect on crop yield and crop health. Dan has helped Meras build a team of like-minded individuals with similar mindsets in doing what is right for the grower.
Dan’s “hands- on “experience allows him to continue to grow and learn about what is new in the
industry. Water quality, irrigation systems, water related challenges are always changing. Dan is
constantly keeping up with not only new rules and regulations, but also research and development on new products and equipment to properly treat the ever evolving water related issues. Dan is licensed by the Department of Agriculture as a Qualified Applicator in Aquatics. Additionally, he continues his education and licensing in irrigation maintenance, pumps, food safety, chlorine dioxide training, and water treatment chemistries.
Dan started out installing equipment, servicing irrigation systems, and remediation micro irrigation systems. He has worked his way through the Meras org chart to involve service, sales, managing the sales team, President of Meras Water Solutions, and now CEO. His passion for creating a good customer experience continues to be his main goal in developing and improving water treatment programs.
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This episode is presented by American AgCredit. Learn more HERE. Check out Matt Woolf's episode on the California ag market HERE.
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Links
- Meras - https://meras.com
- Dan on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-lindberg-43927b89/
- Buy Nuss Farms Watermelon - https://pickedtoporch.com/products/watermelons?variant=43732339916853
- Join the Co-op - https://themodernacre.supercast.com