Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
As a business and community focused bank working all day, every day with business leaders, we discuss what's effective in highly successful businesses today. Each episode features an interview discussing business practices on topics such as: company culture, fraud prevention, change management, economic data, wealth management tips, and more.
You can find more content like this on our website: https://www.nw.bank/newsroom/education/podcasts
Northwest Bank. Equal Housing Lender. Member FDIC.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Northwest Bank podcast. I'm your host, Luther Lampert, Director of Digital Banking Strategies for Northwest Bank. With me today is Mikayla Mooney. At 19, she started an ag tech company called Kinosoul. They built solar powered food dehydrators for farmers in developing regions.
Luther Lampert:Over the next six years as CEO, she led the company in launching their product in over 50 countries. When the pandemic hit, she jumped over to the venture capital side as the first hire at ISA Ventures, a $22,000,000 seed stage fund in Iowa. After a couple years there and a desire to focus back on food and agriculture, she had the opportunity to join Ag Startup Engine as a venture partner, building and leading their third fund. In her free time, she can be found training for half Ironman races or planning her next international adventure. Mikaela is here to talk about her experiences starting her own business and how she now helps other businesses procure the capital they need to get their idea off the ground.
Luther Lampert:First off, hi, Mikayla. Thanks for joining me today.
Mikayla Mooney:Hi, Luther. Thanks for having me.
Luther Lampert:So we're excited to have you here to talk about your experience through various roles in the startup lifecycle, being a founder, now working as a venture partner. I wanted to start first with your time as a founder. Just tell me about Kino Soul.
Mikayla Mooney:Yeah, so I started Kino Soul back when I was at college at Iowa State University. So my freshman year I had attended this conference called the Thought for Food Challenge and it was focused on how do we feed our growing population. Attending that it was amazing to see all of these young people solving challenges around food security. So the following year, I had the idea to actually enter the competition, reached out to some other students within our program, and we came up with the idea for Kinosol which was a solar food dehydrator specifically focused on reducing post harvest loss. Instead of trying to increase production, we wanted to preserve the third of food that went to waste.
Mikayla Mooney:So we went through various prototypes, built and scaled a commercial food dehydrator, and most of our work was centered over in Eastern Africa working with smallholder farmers there.
Luther Lampert:So that's great. So as you were getting started, was that, did that program help you with funding or how did you go about securing funding for Kinesol?
Mikayla Mooney:Yeah, think we were really fortunate being student entrepreneurs. We were able to enter a multitude of various pitch competitions. We went after grant funding. And in total, we were able to raise about a quarter of 1,000,000 in non dilutive funding. We got really good at telling our story and entered quite a few pitch competitions over the first few years of getting started, and that's where all of our funding came from.
Mikayla Mooney:So we didn't raise any outside investor capital. We did leverage some of the non dilutive funding programs, whether it was grant funding, pitch competitions, and then some low interest loans.
Luther Lampert:Throughout that process, what would you say your biggest challenge was just getting getting Kinesol from your ideation stage to off the ground?
Mikayla Mooney:Yeah, I think for us the biggest challenge was we were specifically trying to solve problems for smallholder farmers, and most of those farmers were not in our backyard. So most of the farmers we worked with were in developing regions. We definitely had a focus on Eastern Africa, but at kind of the scale of it, we had products in over 50 countries. So we were building a product, but we weren't directly next to our customers. So getting feedback and going through product iterations and making sure that we understood the needs and challenges that our customers had, that was probably one of the biggest challenges is just the distance and the time zone differences between building a product here in Iowa and then shipping it halfway across the world to get in the hands of smallholder farmers and get feedback there.
Mikayla Mooney:So I think as we continued to build and scale the company, we did a few things to mitigate that, hiring local team members, working with local partners that could kind of run our on the ground operations. But it's definitely challenging when you're not close to your customers, especially early on, because that's where all of the feedback comes from and that's how you continue to iterate and build your company.
Luther Lampert:And so you spent roughly six years, I believe, with Kiena Sole and then COVID hit and that had its challenges that came along with it. And you decided to change paths And then you worked your way over to the venture capital side. And now you're working with Ag Startup Engine. Tell us about your role there and what Ag Startup Engine does.
Mikayla Mooney:Yeah, so when COVID hit, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do, but I felt like I had a lot of things I'd learned from being a founder, building and scaling a company, and really wanted to work with founders. And so I was able to jump in, with ISA Ventures over in Cedar Rapids, which was a generalist fund and got to get my feet wet in the world of venture capital, having never raised outside capital. So realized I love being on the investor side, but wanted to get back to food and agriculture. So about a year and a half ago, I jumped in with Ag Startup Engine to help raise the next fund. So a bit of background on Ag Startup Engine.
Mikayla Mooney:It started back in 2017, and it was really focused on providing early stage capital and mentorship to founders solving problems across the food and egg value chain. And I would give a lot of this credit to Kevin Kimley, and it was really his brainchild. So he led the entrepreneurial programs, or he still leads the entrepreneurial programs at Iowa State University, had a lot of students, alumni reaching out, working on interesting technologies to solve problems for farmers and producers here in the Midwest. And so the idea was, what happens if you put together a small amount of capital and surround these founders with people from the industry, whether it be farmers, producers, or retired executives who've kind of been there, done that? And so that really was where Ag Startup Engine got started, bringing together those that were engaged in food and agriculture, put together a small amount of funding and invest in companies that were coming out of primarily Iowa State University or had some affiliation with Iowa State.
Mikayla Mooney:That went really well. Had a couple of early exits through that first fund, and that led to raising the second fund, expanded the scope to looking at startups across The United States and bringing some more investors into the network. But I think when it comes down to it, where I see Ag Startup Engine and kind of the entire focus of what we're doing is how do we build out this community of startups, entrepreneurs, industry experts, farmers, producers, how do we tackle some of these challenges to improve our food system. And so we do a lot more than just write a check, but really trying to build out this community and learn from each other and bring new technologies to market.
Luther Lampert:And, you know, you just mentioned that. Obviously, the funding is extremely beneficial as you're trying to get these ideas going. But what sorts of mentorship, what sorts of resources are available to the founders that come to Ag Startup Engine?
Mikayla Mooney:Yeah. I think if you talk to most of our founders, the resounding feedback will be, you know, Ag Startup Engine might not be one of the largest checks, but the reason I wanted to be a part of it was truly for the network that comes with an investment from Ag Startup Engine. So we've seen a lot of our investors, farmers, producers, small to midsize companies, and I roll up their sleeves and provide feedback to founders as they're building their ideas and iterating on their prototypes. We have producers and farmers that are willing to open up their land and their barns to test out new products. And I think that's been instrumental in really helping founders build a solution that truly solves a problem and get to commercialization faster.
Mikayla Mooney:So I think that's one of the biggest resources is really just the network that we bring to the table. But then all four of us that run as Startup Engine, myself, Kevin, Joel, Colin, we've all been founders before. So we take a pretty founder centric approach. And so we do quite a bit to try to build out and strengthen the founder community. So whether it's founder dinners, roundtables, an online community for founders to learn from each other, I think as you're going through it, you learn best from people who are in the trenches with you who have been there, done that.
Mikayla Mooney:And so if we can provide that support, you know, a shoulder to cry on or someone to talk to that's gone through a similar pain, I think that's been pretty instrumental for a lot of our founders as well.
Luther Lampert:So as you've had founders come to you, what are some of the main, the frustrations, hurdles, questions that they have or that they're looking for help with as they've got their idea and just aren't sure what to do next?
Mikayla Mooney:Yeah, I think there's probably a couple of main things that founders struggle with, and I don't think it's just founders and ag. But, you know, part of where we, I think, can add a lot of value is access to potential customers. So a lot of early stage founders are looking, how do I get in front of customers, whether that's farmers, producers, or companies in ag? And if we can open up our networks to them, that makes their journey easier. And honestly, I think that's one of the biggest things we can do as an investor to be helpful.
Mikayla Mooney:And then the second thing is, you know, founders, most of the time when we talk to them, they're thinking about funding. So they need capital to get their business up and going. They need capital to scale. And so we spend a lot of time working with founders, thinking through fundraising strategies, connecting them to other co investors, or pointing them in directions for non dilutive funding. And right now, with the current ag market, you know, is a challenge for everyone, and it's not just venture capital, but I think the broader funding ecosystem.
Mikayla Mooney:And so founders have to get creative. And I think what we've seen from a lot of our founders is the ones that are truly successful are able to do more with less.
Luther Lampert:As founders come to you either for mentorship or, you know, for funding, do you have tips for founders who are looking for funding from a venture partner? Is that process different than, you know, coming from the banking world, walking into a bank and looking to secure a loan? You know, what, how do they have to prepare to present themselves differently or do they have to prepare differently?
Mikayla Mooney:Yeah. So most of the founders that we're talking to, a lot of time it's very early, you know, it might be a founder or a small team. They built their product. They maybe have a couple of early customers or even before that, that they're at a point where they're not cash flowing. They're not profitable.
Mikayla Mooney:And so for most of them going after debt financing, it's not an option. So when they come to us, I think the biggest things that they can be prepared for is a very clear narrative of here's the problem, here's what I built to solve it, and here's my plan going forward and how I'm going to execute on that. And so we spend a lot of time with our existing portfolio, helping them kind of think through that. And I spend a lot of time working with students and prospective entrepreneurs who want to raise capital and just understanding, you know, when you take investor dollars, what does that mean? But I think if if any founder is looking to raise capital and they're talking to investors, most of the time investors are going to want to see that you have a pitch deck, some sort of visualization and narrative around what you're doing.
Mikayla Mooney:You have a very clear ask around, here's the amount of capital I need, and here's the milestones it allows me to accomplish. And then there's probably kind of the back end data room side where we're going through reviewing all the documents, dotting our I's, crossing our T's. But most of the time, before it even gets to that stage, someone at a venture fund differently, but you'll have an intro call and spend time with someone from the investor side and they'll ask you a bunch of questions and you'll kind of go through your pitch deck and your narrative. And I think ultimately your goal is to get to a second meeting or kind of keep them moving forward on their diligence process. So first and foremost, I would say have a clear pitch deck, something that's simple, not over complicated, but very clearly tells the story of what you're trying to accomplish.
Luther Lampert:Alright, Mikaela. Last question. In all of your experience, your time as a founder, a CEO, your time as a venture partner, what is the biggest piece of advice that you would give to an aspiring founder?
Mikayla Mooney:I think one of the biggest pieces of advice and lessons that I learned through being a founder is it's so easy to get in your head and operate on an island and think that you kinda know what you need to do. But so much of being a founder, I think, is trial by fire and learning through mistakes. And we made so many mistakes early on in Kinesso. And I think the one thing that I wish we had done better is just be more vocal and ask for help. I think it can be really scary.
Mikayla Mooney:And sometimes there's this chip on your shoulder of, hey, I want to prove that I can do this, and I deserve to be running this company. But I think we're fortunate enough to be in the Midwest where so much of the community is very much a give first mentality, and everyone is willing to give you some portion of their time to answer questions, especially founders who have been there and done that. And I think if we had asked better questions or not been if I had not been so afraid to feel like I really needed to prove myself and that I could do this, we probably would have made leaps and bounds of more progress faster than what we did. But I and I think that's that's probably the biggest thing is so much of the time we get in our own way and we're afraid to talk about what we're doing. But I would say that's probably the number one piece of advice is don't be afraid to ask for help or share what you're working on and get perspective from someone who's been there, done that.
Mikayla Mooney:Because oftentimes they're willing to open up their network and their network becomes your network and you can get to an answer or a solution faster.
Luther Lampert:Makayla, thanks so much for joining me today and for sharing your experiences with us.
Mikayla Mooney:Perfect. Thanks, Luther.
Luther Lampert:And thank you again for joining us on this episode of the Northwest Bank podcast. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Mikaela Mooney, CEO and founder of Kinosoul, currently working as a venture partner with Ag Startup Engine. As she mentioned, if you are an aspiring founder working in the agricultural field and you're looking for mentorship, resources, or funding, please check out Ag Startup Engine online at agstartupengine.com. If you're looking for other resources or are looking to expand your circle of trust on your way to entrepreneurship, please reach out to a Northwest Bank business banker today. You can also find more resources on our website or by subscribing to our Biz Buzz blog newsletter.
Luther Lampert:The newsletter focuses on helping you grow your business. You can learn from the success stories of others and get useful ideas and information that could help your business grow. You can sign up for the newsletter or find more blog articles online at nw.bank/bankbizbuzzblog. Thanks again for listening today. Keep checking nw.bank for more episodes of the podcast.
Luther Lampert:You can also find us online at YouTube, Spotify, Google, or Apple podcasts. Subscribe to get notifications every time we release a new episode.