He Built A Company Acquired By Merck For $150 Million And Has Now Raised $300 Million To Grow Food In The Middle East Sustainably

Sky Kurtz’s entrepreneurial journey involves grit, transformation, and strategic excellence. His story traces his humble beginnings in Jerome, Arizona, to crafting multi-million-dollar exits in the tech and agribusiness sectors.

Sky’s story demonstrates the power of resilience, self-discovery, and a relentless pursuit of purpose. This interview explores his life’s milestones, from childhood challenges to elite education, investment banking, entrepreneurship, and building Pure Harvest.

Along the way, Sky shares insights into capital raising, scaling businesses, and the art of planning strategic exits. He also talks about his eventual rise as a serial entrepreneur with notable exits, including a $125M acquisition by Merck.

Listen to the full podcast episode and review the transcript here.

A Humble Start and Grit-Fueled Ambitions

Born in Florida and raised in various states due to his father’s military career, Sky’s upbringing was marked by financial hardships and family challenges. These formative experiences shaped his relentless drive for economic freedom.

Growing up in Jerome, Arizona—a town of just 440 residents known for its mix of bikers, music, and hippie culture—Sky’s early years were steeped in hard work. His family owned a restaurant, and Sky was immersed in the world of service from a young age.

However, financial hardships forced the family to relocate to Phoenix, Arizona. Reflecting on his upbringing, Sky shared how working in his family’s restaurant gave him a chip on his shoulder and an undying desire to escape hardship and poverty.

The experience shaped Sky’s pursuit of economic freedom and fueled his ambition to succeed. Determined to break free from these challenges, Sky excelled academically and became the first in his family to graduate high school and attend college.

Sky earned a scholarship to Arizona State University, where he studied finance and economics while working at IHOP to support himself. Serving his classmates and colleagues at IHOP taught Sky invaluable lessons in humility and resilience.

They also ingrained in him the ability to juggle academics and work with unwavering focus. He also realized that good academic credentials could open multiple doors for him.

Sky gives a shout-out to everyone who supported him, including his dad and teachers, who became surrogate parents when things were difficult at home. They became his mentors, guiding and coaching him forward and shaping who he is today.

The Leap to Wall Street and Beyond

After graduating, Sky’s career took off with a position at Lehman Brothers in New York. Despite the demanding nature of investment banking, Sky found the workload manageable, thanks to his years of balancing school and multiple jobs.

Yet, his time in finance wasn’t solely about career progression—it also laid the groundwork for his entrepreneurial aspirations. Initially, Sky’s focus was on earning money and overcoming poverty, but as he progressed, he began to consider the bigger picture and what he truly wanted from life.

After Lehman, Sky joined a private equity firm that was part of the JP Morgan group. Working at JP Morgan inspired him to do his master’s and learn more about business, so he pursued an MBA at Stanford University.

Sky’s education fulfilled a lifelong dream of attending an elite college to get a law degree. He recalls how, up until that time, his career had been in technology and tech investing, which made him a “technophobe.” He worked in chemicals, consumer goods, industrials, and semiconductors investments.

The transformative experience at Stanford exposed him to a world of opportunities but also left him grappling with self-doubt. Surrounded by peers planning on and eventually launching disruptive startups, Sky often felt out of place for not having a groundbreaking idea of his own.

However, Sky built a powerful network that comes with universities like Stanford. He also carried the culture and heritage into his entrepreneurial journey.

Rediscovering Purpose Through Entrepreneurship

Post-Stanford, Sky worked at Francisco Partners, a tech-focused private equity firm. However, the lack of a clear direction left him feeling burned out and unfulfilled. He reveals that he is mission-oriented and needs purpose in his life. This existential crisis prompted a bold decision.

Sky quit his job and embarked on a soul-searching journey, traveling to places like New Zealand, Alaska, and Istanbul and skiing in Queenstown. During this time, he sought to reconnect with himself and the world, staying on a sheep farm in New Zealand.

The sheep farm was owned by one of Sky’s classmates from grad school, Zach Holsworth. Here, Sky met with Peter Holsworth, a brilliant scientist who had developed an innovative composite material made with resin and glass–Pultron Composites.

When combined, the composite had the potential to replace rebar steel in infrastructures. It was stronger than steel but lighter than aluminum with anti-rusting properties. Sky joined Mateen Corporation to lead and build the company and capture a significant global market share.

Building and Exiting Vence

Sky described his travels as a period of serendipity. Being open to the world allowed opportunities to find him. His time on the farm and his openness to new experiences eventually led to founding Vence, a transformative company that aligned with his newfound sense of purpose.

Sky recalls how he began to notice inefficiencies in traditional farming methods. This observation sparked the idea for Vence, his second business, which digitized livestock management. Vence developed smart collars for livestock and was eventually sold to a Saudi company, Aramco.

Vence caught the attention of Merck, whose animal health division saw synergy in scaling the technology globally. The acquisition for $125M resulted from Merck leveraging its global brand, R&D capabilities, and distribution to integrate Vence as a tool in its portfolio.

Sky emphasizes the importance of aligning a business model with potential acquirers from the outset. While many advise entrepreneurs to focus solely on building their businesses, Sky believes that if private capital is involved, it’s crucial to consider exit strategies.

This practical mindset allowed Sky to navigate the complexities of successfully scaling and exiting.

Building a Brand from the Ground Up – Pure Harvest Smart Farms

Sky reveals that his inspiration for Pure Harvest Smart Farms came from the time he was working with Pultron Composites in the Middle East. On a grocery run, he noted that the store carried good quality, expensive, air-freighted imports from Europe or Tunisia, Morocco.

The other alternative was regional or local low-quality and questionably unsafe seasonal production. Shoppers had limited choices and could only pick from these options.

Sky started to think about leveraging technology to use the Middle East’s free sunlight and other attractive production factors. He also recalled the cooling systems his dad had built for large corporations and universities.

As Sky sees it, these powerful refrigerant tools could manage the climate in unique greenhouse, food production, manufacturing, and R&D environments. He started understanding the technology and developing a product-market fit. He wanted to be sure they could manage production costs.

At the time, Sky was leading Vence and wanting to focus his entire attention on Pure Harvest, he opted to bring in Frank Wooten as CEO. He now concentrated on building a technology-enabled agribusiness, which is vertically integrated.

Pure Harvest designs, procures, constructs, and farms the produce. It also markets, sells, and distributes the products through its fully integrated supply chain. Essentially, it is a consumer brand engaging with audiences and social media using traditional FMCG strategies.

At the heart of Sky’s vision is the idea of creating value-added products, leveraging both a strong brand and strategic access to retail channels. Pure Harvest leverages its robust branding, agronomical prowess, and credentials. Farmers are evaluated and GAAP certified.

Sky’s journey began with a line of pasta sauces inspired by premium brands like Rayo’s but with a distinctive twist—using surplus “ugly” tomatoes to craft unique products like chili cherry tomato, cherry tomato passata, marinara, and shakshuka.

The innovation didn’t stop there. Sky and the team are also in the process of expanding the product range to include new creations that can resonate with regional tastes and will further exemplify a commitment to authenticity from the brand.

The approach not only aligns with sustainable farming practices but also transforms agricultural outputs into high-value consumer goods sold across retail, online platforms, and hospitality sectors.

The Challenges of Raising Capital in an Emerging Ecosystem

Raising capital for a first-of-its-kind agriculture technology venture in the Middle East presented significant hurdles. Sky explains that the emerging entrepreneurial and capital ecosystems are in their nascent stages. Pure Harvest is also the first asset-intensive agriculture tech onshore.

Sky and his team raised $287M to date through equity, debt, and grants. However, the path to securing this capital wasn’t straightforward. The complexity of operating in a Middle Eastern legal framework, coupled with the capital-intensive nature of the business, added layers of difficulty.

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Working in the free zones means entrepreneurs can own 100% of their businesses. However, local lands are subject to Sharia law. Reflecting on the early days, Sky recalls raising $5.8M for a pilot project—a daunting task at the time.

They had to purchase a farm and packaging materials and build the channels to market. To make that happen, they needed the largest-ever seed financing in the Middle East and North Africa. Sky leaned on his network of friends, family, and former colleagues.

That’s how he could cobble together the initial funding. But people saw the award-winning product quality. Sky reveals how they won the “equivalent of the Michelin star of tomatoes” in a Belgian international taste competition.

Sky procured large shelf space for Pure Harvest and some of the region’s top retailers. People noted the unit economics as the company started to scale and raise more capital.

Navigating Complexity and Innovating Financial Solutions

To scale his business, Sky didn’t just build an agricultural empire; he pioneered financial solutions to support it. Faced with limited traditional funding options, he engineered a sukuk—a Sharia-compliant bond structured as venture debt.

This innovative financial instrument earned accolades and enabled the company to secure non-dilutive capital. Sky’s background in private equity and structured finance proved invaluable in navigating the intricacies of capital raising.

However, Sky candidly acknowledges the toll it took, calling it “bloody brutal” and a significant distraction from focusing on the core business. Even so, Pure Health has raised $300M to date and has 550 employees on board.

A Vision for Global Food System Resilience

Sky’s mission transcends farming—it’s about transforming global food systems to deliver high-quality, sustainably grown, and affordable produce to manage food security. His company adopts a technology-agnostic approach, prioritizing outcomes over tools.

By focusing on resource efficiency and reducing environmental impact, the company envisions a future where diverse, nutritious fruits and vegetables are accessible to everyone. For Sky, the conversation around food security must evolve into one about food system resilience.

With water scarcity emerging as a more immediate challenge than carbon emissions, the emphasis on sustainable agricultural practices becomes critical. Sky’s vision is clear: to ensure that the world survives and thrives through better nutrition and sustainable resource management.

Sky sees a world adopting technologies to enable us to produce with much greater resource efficiency, a lower environmental impact, and lower resource utilization, but high quality and safety.

Lessons from the Entrepreneurial Trenches: The Rule of 40

Sky’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is rooted in a hard-earned principle he calls the “Rule of 40.” This framework urges founders to plan for everything taking 40% longer, costing 40% more, and having the potential to go 40% better—or worse—than anticipated.

Sky recounts personal challenges where underestimating resources and timelines led to significant sacrifices. For example, his ambitious plan to manage two companies simultaneously faltered, impacting his health and family life.

Similarly, unanticipated growth in the early days of Pure Harvest strained resources, forcing him to deplete personal wealth and seek bridge capital to sustain operations. The Rule of 40, he believes, offers a safeguard against over-optimism and ensures better outcomes for founders, investors, and stakeholders alike.

In Conclusion

For Sky, entrepreneurship isn’t just about profits—it’s about purpose. Becoming an entrepreneur provided him with a sense of direction and shaped everything about his life, productivity, and character.

His ventures, rooted in mission-driven goals, not only solved real-world problems but also served as a personal quest for fulfillment and impact. Sky’s entrepreneurial journey is deeply tied to the Middle East, a region experiencing an economic boom and offering fertile ground for innovation.

Sky encourages others to explore the region, both as a business hub and as a cultural destination. With its vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem and transformative opportunities, the Middle East is where bold ideas can thrive.

Listen to the full podcast episode to know more, including:

• Sky Kurtz’s humble beginnings and early financial hardships fueled his relentless drive for economic freedom and entrepreneurial success.
• Sky emphasizes the importance of aligning business models with potential acquirers early, as demonstrated by Vence’s $125M acquisition by Merck.
• A mission-oriented approach inspired Sky to build transformative ventures like Pure Harvest Smart Farms, focusing on sustainable agriculture and food security.
• Sky pioneered a Sharia-compliant sukuk bond, enabling Pure Harvest to secure non-dilutive capital in an emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• Sky advises entrepreneurs to plan for everything taking 40% longer, costing 40% more, and having outcomes 40% better—or worse—than expected.
• Sky envisions a resilient future addressing food security and water scarcity challenges through resource-efficient and sustainable agricultural practices.
• Sky highlights the region’s economic boom and entrepreneurial ecosystem as a fertile ground for bold, transformative ideas.

 

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