Sky Kurtz On Building A Company Acquired By Merck For $150 Million And Raising $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 latest venture, Pure Harvest Smart Farms, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like IMM Investment, Samarthya Investment Advisors, StartX (US), and Metric Capital Partners.

In this episode, you will learn:

• 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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About Sky Kurtz:

Sky Kurtz is the Co-founder and CEO of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, a pioneer in the global Agritech sector. Pure Harvest develops world-leading controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) solutions to deliver the best quality fresh produce all year round.

The Company’s hybrid growing solutions provide precise climate and environmental controls, enabling increased productivity and reduced waste (including water, energy, time, & transport) in the harshest climates on earth, with projects spanning the MEASA region.

Prior to founding Pure Harvest, Sky cofounded Vence – a wearable technology solution for animal protein farming that semi-automates rotational grazing, reinventing livestock management.

He also served as a Senior Executive with Francisco Partners, a $24 billion tech investment firm based in California and an affiliate of Sequoia Capital, a world-leading venture investment firm.

Sky invested in and served on the boards of numerous companies across many sectors, with annual turnover ranging from $25 million to 2 billion dollars.

Sky was awarded an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and holds a B.S. in Finance from the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and was named the Turken Family Outstanding Graduating Senior (valedictory honor).

Connect with Sky Kurtz:

• LinkedIn
• TheOrg
• Crunchbase
• RocketReach

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: All right. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Deal Maker Show. So today we have ah an amazing founder joining us, a founder that has done it before. ah Now he’s on a rocket ship. We’re going to be talking about it too. He had a really nice exit on the last one. um But again, you know fantastic opportunity here to learn about capital raising, ah building scaling, exiting. So all of the good stuff that we like to hear. So without further ado, let’s welcome our guest today, Sky Kurtz. Welcome to the show.

Sky Kurtz: Hey, thank you Alejandro. Pleased to be here.

Alejandro Cremades: So originally born in Florida, but you moved to quite a bit. You know, your dad was in the military. So give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up for you?

Sky Kurtz: ah Interesting. So I have a big family. I grew up, started in ah Florida, then to Jerome, Arizona. So a tiny town in the mountains, 440 people, famous for kind of hippies and music and bikers. And my family, they’re owned a restaurant. So I grew up working in a restaurant with my family. And then eventually we had some financial hardship and had to move to Phoenix, Arizona, pursuing work.

Sky Kurtz: And there my, I finished high school there, ultimately was a scholarship student and got a scholarship to Arizona State University, um where I studied business there. I studied finance and economics.

Sky Kurtz: And of course, um it was a wonderful place to go to school, ah famous for its weather and and, you know, fun travel. Four hours from Vegas, six hours from Los Angeles, never hurt. um I ended up after that, I left Arizona State and went to Lehman Brothers in New York.

Sky Kurtz: And that’s sort of when my ah world started.

Alejandro Cremades: But even even before that, i mean i think that there is saying I think that the way that you grew up and what you saw too, know i mean obviously being able to see your parents working super hard, working at the restaurant, also for you to be able to see the hardships, I’m sure that that really shaped who you are today, like being able to see your parents going through uncertainty, through the tough moments like that.

Sky Kurtz: Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: How was that for you and and how do you think that made who you are today?

Sky Kurtz: I would say um it’s had it’s been a huge contributor. I think um we’ve all read the stories about grit and about and also about you know how hardship shapes people and kind of forges a lot about their character. I think that’s I’m somebody where that’s very true.

Sky Kurtz: My father pretty much raised me. My mom had some difficulties and ultimately had a ah period of her life where she served in prison. And so my father was the caretaker for for the family. So very much his his values and his work ethic and his selflessness, you know, was shaped a lot about me. And when the kids we took care of each other, we we were like a little tribe.

Sky Kurtz: and And I would say that ah it was it was it shaped me heavily. I’d also say, though, it gave me a bit of a chip on my shoulder. You know, and I always had this undying desire to kind of get out of hardship. And, you know, I would say even early on, and, you know, a singular pursuit of of economic freedom, you know, just thought poverty was difficult and shameful and hard and And I didn’t want to be in that world anymore. So I’d say that that period of life shaped me, you know, hugely. i would I would say it also gave me a bit of humility. You know, ah I had, ah especially early on, I

Sky Kurtz: you know, working in restaurants. I worked at the International House of Pancakes for seven years, all the way through high school, and then all the way into college. it And in in fact, the IHOP scholarship helped fund my so my university education. So I was serving my classmates and colleagues, you know, all the way through in high school, from the lunchroom, and then in college from yeah um IHOP. And so that was always challenging, but also on the other hand,

Sky Kurtz: led to its own set of experiences and a lot of, hell, when I went to investment banking my first year, a lot of people thought, God, these hours are horrible. And admittedly, I was like, well, college was worse because I was studying and working and trying to have a social life and burning the candle on every end. So, yeah, I think Alejandro, it’s been um it’s been an interesting go. i um I think I mentioned this to when we were speaking but I was the first to graduate high school or college in my family so I was somebody who put a huge premium on education. I thought it was kind of the way to to get out and you know if you just worked hard enough and had good academic credentials you could open up any door and and had a lot of people that supported me to do that you know a lot of um ah have teachers that sort of were surrogate parents when things were difficult at home

Sky Kurtz: you know, had, a you know, and and were mentors, right, and kind of guiding and coaching me forward. So yeah, it definitely shaped me right. I think it’s something I’ll never escape fully. But on the other hand, it’s also um made me a lot of who I am.

Alejandro Cremades: Yeah, no no kidding. No kidding. Now, in your case, you know basically, as you were alluding to it, you went into the investment banking. Not a lot of people admitted to Lehman you know from a state and university, so that’s saying really spectacular.

Sky Kurtz: Thank you.

Alejandro Cremades: ah But after Lehman, you went to now you know a private equity firm that spun out of a JP Morgan, but it was basically JP Morgan, which was the um segue to a pivotal moment for you, which was a really going to Stanford. I guess, at what point do you realize there in JP Morgan, hey, you know maybe I need to you know do my master’s and perhaps you know get my feet wet more on the business and you know ah that kind of that kind of stuff?

Sky Kurtz: Actually, I’d say it was much earlier. um When I was ah young, I always had this sort of life vision that eventually I would get to either a law degree, and which I know you did, a law degree, or to a a master’s program. But I wanted to go to an elite university. I didn’t know which one. Admittedly, back then, I didn’t even know who Stanford was. I was at the time thinking it’d be Harvard or Yale or Princeton or somewhere. I just knew I wanted to go somewhere that was sort of the best, whatever that was. And and ironically, um when i i can’t I can’t pretend I had some noble cause or belief in why I went to banking um or in the first place, it was that I just but was, at that time, singularly focused on, on um you know, earning money and getting out of poverty. And so I thought, you know, hey, I hear in Wall Street, there’s a lot of money, I want to do that, whatever that is.

Sky Kurtz: And so when I got there, once I realized I was like, maybe this career in banking isn’t for me forever. That’s when I started to really think about what are the right programs. and And when I found out what the most competitive programs were and started to learn of the character of the different MBA programs, that’s when I applied to Stanford. And getting in, it was a, it’s obviously a very competitive program. It was a huge honor, you know, extremely humbling and, and, and what what an awesome place. I mean, I,

Sky Kurtz: It’s never, never land. It’s a gorgeous campus, deer running around, surrounded by brilliant people and in ah in a lovely place to live. But also, I would say that prior to joining Stanford, though my career now has been in technology and afterward I left to tech investing, but I was sort of a technophobe. I actually thought I was a bit out of place and in Stanford, ah even in private equity.

Sky Kurtz: I was the guy working in industries like, you know, chemicals and consumer goods and and industrials. And I had done one semiconductors investment, but pretty much had never really touched tech. And so I was a, ah I was sort of a ah dinosaur there. But I would say that um it was an awesome experience, right? I, I knew that I wanted and I had this this focus of getting ah an elite degree and getting into a, I call it the club.

Sky Kurtz: but this powerful network that comes with these universities and the and the kind of culture and heritage around them. but i But the truth is, what was challenging, Alejandro, is that I never really planned my life after that. Like I found once I graduated school, I sort of lost what true north was anymore. Like I had this from like eight years old, this vision of what I’d be by 30. And then when I hit that, I was kind of standing there like, what’s next?

Sky Kurtz: You know, so I ultimately graduated Stanford and and went back to private equity investing, but at a tech investment firm, Francisco Partners, which, by the way, is a ah very special firm, remarkable performance, a really unique model about private equity. I learned a ton there. But I would say that I found I was burning out. I wasn’t, you know, certain about who I wanted to be or where I wanted to go. And that’s when I eventually left to become an entrepreneur.

Sky Kurtz: But I think, ah again, at the time, I was floundering a bit. I i hadn’t – I’m somebody who I think is quite mission-driven. I need a purpose. I need i need a i need a ah quest. And if I don’t have that, I’m lost, even self-destructive. And so I ultimately ah i ah ultimately found that once I had left that Part of what I think I’ve really enjoyed about becoming an entrepreneur is this this quest, right? Whatever your business is and its mission. And I tend to be focused on mission-driven businesses, but I think any business can be a mission. um But I would say that i um I find that that’s been giving me that that true north, right? it it It helps give me a focus which shapes everything about my life, my productivity, my character. So I think it’s been a really interesting journey.

Alejandro Cremades: Now, in that in that sense, you know, for you, I mean, you were at Francisco Partners, you started to realize, I mean, you see some of your classmates, you know, you had like six unicorns now in in your year, which is incredible. I mean, some of the ones that I actually have the the the lack of of of of knowing personally, remarkable people. But I guess what was that triggering moment where you’re like, I’m giving my notice and I’m going to travel around, you know, and obviously that ended up taking you to New Zealand. We changed it everything for you.

Sky Kurtz: I would say that I think the pivotal, but I was thinking about it a lot even in grad school. I actually remember feeling this sense of like shame and envy when I was sitting in a class called, um it’s called ah The Formation of New Ventures and it was taught by Andy Ratcliffe, who’s a ah legendary investor and entrepreneur.

Sky Kurtz: And I remember sitting in that class and at one point Andy once asked everybody, how many of you you are gonna be entrepreneurs and start companies? And literally like everyone but four people in the class raised their hand. And I was one of the four that didn’t. And I remember having this thought of like, how is it every one of these people has some disruptive big idea? And I don’t. And thinking I’m such a failure um because I truly thought, yeah, I would love to be an entrepreneur. But I think at the time I didn’t really understand, you know, that i The things I know now about how to identify a ah problem and build a company around it, et etc.

Sky Kurtz: I was sort of sitting there thinking I had to have some Facebook-level inspiration, and if I didn’t, there was no business to build. So I would say that Alejandro, the that was when I started to think, that that feeling of, you know when you have a coin toss in whichever side it lands on, you know what you really wanted to decide? I had a moment in that room, ah a break, where I was like, God, you know, I really want to raise my hand. And I didn’t i just didn’t have an idea, so I didn’t.

Sky Kurtz: Well, then when I went into investing, I kind of continued to feel like I was hearing hearing about classmates. yeah My classmates also built Relate IQ, if you remember, and I was close to some of the guys.

Alejandro Cremades: Oh yeah.

Sky Kurtz: And I watched them build that company and in a relatively short timeframe have a fantastic outcome, building a cool product too. And I was just like, once again, I’ve missed out. What am I doing? So that moment, I think, when I eventually said it’s it’s time, was really driven by a bit of, um when I was saying I was self-destructive, I was just not happy. I was working like 80, 100 hours a week doing a lot of ah investments and then sitting there thinking, how am I in such a bad place? Like, how am I how am i so miserable? How am I drinking too much? You know, I was just not proud of my behavior and who I was becoming.

Sky Kurtz: And I think that’s when when I thought, you can’t possibly be working this hard, sacrificing this much, earning this well, and be miserable, and and then believe you’re in a good place. So that’s when it was it that was the moment when I said, you’ve got something’s got to change. You’ve got to you’ve got to take this into control and find a new mission.

Alejandro Cremades: How do you find yourself all of a sudden in New Zealand?

Sky Kurtz: Well, actually actually, I had a few places on a bucket list that if I ever had free time and a bit of money, where would I be?

Alejandro Cremades: Oh my god.

Sky Kurtz: And it wasn’t just New Zealand. I went to Alaska. I went silver salmon fishing in Alaska. So, I’m not kidding. I was, so you know, when people say and they they go on that pursuit of like, you know, finding themselves and finding the world.

Sky Kurtz: I was very much doing that. I went to Alaska, went to New Zealand, went to Istanbul. So I traveled a bit and just sort of on adventures, seeing some friends, going to see some natural, beautiful things, skiing in Queenstown, et cetera. And then what happened is one of my classmates from grad school, actually um he’s a a serial founder himself and he’s a dear friend, Zach Holsworth. He founded Hint Health, which had a ah reasonable ah outcome as well.

Sky Kurtz: Zach’s family ah yeah had ah had a business in north ah North Island of New Zealand, and I met them. And that’s what actually got me involved in this composite materials business. that was um It was this really innovative technology that was developed by a gentleman, this Peter Holsworth, and it was it just this kind of mad scientist, brilliant chemist.

Sky Kurtz: who developed this novel ah composite material that could replace steel and infrastructure. So think of a a resin and glass product that when put together was stronger than steel, lighter than aluminium, and it never rusts. And I thought, if that product really has those properties, it has a ah pretty significant global potential market.

Sky Kurtz: began to engage with the company and then eventually joined it and helped to lead and build that company. And that was what I – so in a weird way, the opportunity found me as part of my travels and being open to the world. The universe sent me opportunities. And i I think in some ways, that’s one of the best ways to find really authentic ideas, is like get out there, spend time. I think I told you this too, Alejandro, my second business, Vence.

Sky Kurtz: on events was ah because I was in New Zealand living on a sheep farm and and going out and about and seeing how they have farmed in these very traditional methods, even in the most sophisticated industrial farms available. But, you know, dogs chasing sheep and ATVs and shock products. And I thought there must be a better way. And in the day of ah a smartwatch, there must be a technology that could ah digitize this. And that sent me on my second journey. Right. So really that trip that sort of go find myself trip led to a lot of foundational things.

Sky Kurtz: um And even on on Pure Harvest, the company I run today, my

Alejandro Cremades: That’s amazing.

Alejandro Cremades: and we’ll we’ll we’ll talk We’ll talk about that one real quick, but I want to ask you ah the first one you know that you did you know on that one. you know Basically, you ended up getting that acquisition. You i mean you guys sold it to Saudi Aramco, and then the next one, um you know again, sold it to Merck. It’s like a really nice a batting average here, you know and the one to Merck, that was a ah transaction for $125 million, so not bad.

Alejandro Cremades: so I’m wondering what kind of visibility did you have from the first transaction that helped you during the process of selling to Merck? And how was that process of of selling to such a large company like Merck and getting you know a nice outcome like that?

Sky Kurtz: Well, Merck had been courting the company for some time. Merck has an animal health division that is, ah ah you know, essentially leverages their global brand, their their R and&D capabilities, their global distribution and their capital base. And then the idea that a solution like Vence could be essentially another tool in the tool chest to sell made a lot of sense, right? We thought they could be a natural acquirer. But I think that want to maybe reflecting on for for viewers of the podcast um advice,

Sky Kurtz: is that I think I’m kind of against it. Maybe it’s because my DNA and my heritage as a prior, you know, growth and private equity investor, people always say don’t think about the exit, you know, just build your business. And I i find that advice to be a bit colloquial.

Sky Kurtz: I find I actually disagree. I think you need to be cognizant of if you’re going to take private capital to scale a business that the the business model of that capital is that you ultimately need to return it, right? You need to sell the business or go public or find some way to bring new shareholders in to acquire the old shareholders. So so I think it’s actually quite fundamental to be thinking about What are the potential paths to exit for this business? And is what I’m building attractive to some new investor base, whether that’s a strategic, ah another financial investor at what stage? Because if you’re not thinking about that as an element of what you’re building, then you may not be building the right thing. something that’s You could build even a ah really interesting business that isn’t marketable to anybody. There’s no investor universe that can absorb it.

Sky Kurtz: And I think in the market that I’m in now in the Middle East, that’s a common thing. People but grow interesting and profitable businesses that have no market. and um And I think they’re not thinking enough about it. So I guess they the lesson from that, Alejandro, is I think we were cognizant that they could be a potential acquirer and also mindful of of remaining close and in touch with them. And I think that It would be my advice to many founders is that you you think about that and you start those relationships. You know, I always say that um businesses are bought, not sold. And so you ultimately need to be engaging with those. um ah You need to be engaging with those parties long before you’re thinking of exiting. If you’re ultimately saying, OK, we built enough profit, we’ve or enough scale and our investors want to see an exit. And now you’re beginning to think about that and starting to court buyers.

Sky Kurtz: you’re probably quite late and you’re probably going going to achieve a suboptimal outcome.

Alejandro Cremades: So then, in this case for you, once the yeah transaction was done, you started you know what is arguably your biggest success today, now which is with pure harvest. And with this company, also you’re you’re tackling something that you know is allowing you to kind of like ride that wave you know of the um consciousness around climate and you know things like that. So how did the idea of ah the company come to mind? And obviously, now this is the third go at it. So you’re very clear as to when to really validate something, how to think about the market and potential execution. So what was that journey like where you were like, this is a no-brainer. I got to take action here.

Sky Kurtz: Well, actually, um interestingly, the problem for pure harvest, I so i had had witnessed when I was still with the first business, Pultron Composites in the Middle East, but literally had gone to the grocery stores and experienced being a consumer there, where there were really two alternatives when you went to buy produce. And I had come from California, which is like the produce basket of America, right? I was accustomed to readily available, good quality, reasonably priced produce.

Sky Kurtz: and and i I’m someone who really enjoys that for health reasons, but also just love the flavor of fruits and vegetables. And when we’re there, the moment you put some things in your basket, you really have two choices. Either there’s expensive air freighted imports that are of good quality, usually from Europe or Tunisia, Morocco.

Sky Kurtz: or there’s regional or local low quality seasonal production, sometimes of very questionable quality and safety. And really, there was nothing in between. And so I thought there has to be a better way. Like if you could use technology to leverage all that free sunlight and the other factors of production there that are really attractive, you should be able to build ah ah you You should be able to be profitable. And my understanding from, i I think I mentioned this to you, my father, I grew up, he worked in in climate, right? He was essentially doing cooling systems for things like Intel Corporation or universities. So these these powerful refrigerant tools that would essentially manage climate in these unique manufacturing environments in r and R&D environments.

Sky Kurtz: And so I learned a lot about cooling from that. And I thought in my head, there’s absolutely a way to cool a food, you know, a greenhouse or a food food production system. It’s just going to come to capital and energy of whether this makes sense. And that’s what gave me the sort of the.

Sky Kurtz: I get this authenticity to understand there might be a solution to tackle this, and then that it would just be a work of understanding the technology and then developing the the the, you know, building up the bill of materials and what would be your production cost to say, is there a market for this, right? That’s what set me on that journey. But one other thing Alejandro, on events, I should clarify, I actually founded events and then pure harvest only or about 10 months apart. And for a period of time, I actually tried to lead both businesses. And um and I was trying to yeah I always joke that if someone like Elon Musk can do it, we we can all do it. I now realize that’s crazy. um I don’t know how he does so many businesses because I thought two was incorrigible.

Sky Kurtz: And I was struggling to perform on both and to manage the time zones and the challenges. So ultimately, actually, um we brought on board ah ah a co-founder who led led the business and as CEO at Duke, a guy named Frank Wooten. So I actually stepped back from Vince from leading it day to day.

Sky Kurtz: And move to um leading pure harvest because I couldn’t lead both. So I wanted to clarify when you’re asking about um it wasn’t in sequence. They were actually simultaneous. And then, of course, I think there was a powerful learning for me, though, and for my board. I i would I wouldn’t recommend somebody found multiple companies at once. I think it’s a huge challenge and it comes with great risk.

Alejandro Cremades: it is

Sky Kurtz: But on pure harvest though, that’s ah that’s actually how the the idea happened, right? And I ultimately, yeah I was quite living the problem of tasting you know the the quality of the produce and the cost challenges and thought, if we could build a tool to solve this, we could have a big company.

Alejandro Cremades: So for the people that are listening to get it, what ended up being the business model of pure harvest? How how do you guys make money?

Sky Kurtz: So we’re um we’re a technology-enabled agribusiness. So we are vertically integrated in that we design, procure, construct, and then we operate the farms. And so we farm, we’re farmers, but then we market, sell, and distribute the produce as well. So fully fully integrated into our supply chain.

Sky Kurtz: And we have a consumer brand, really a house of brands. So we actually brand the produce and engage you know with consumers and social media in traditional FMCG or or ah you know marketing a style, if you will. And we ultimately are now a a branded consumer product, right? We’ve also launched new product lines. we ah We trade some produce. So we do almost like certified free trade in coffee. We’ll leverage our powerful brand in the region and our agronomical prowess and and credentials, and we’ll go evaluate farmers and then ultimately certify them, you know, their global GAAP certification, their treatment and ethical treatment of of labor. And then we’ll ultimately, once we bless that product, we’ll sell it into the market in ah in a brand we call Pure Harvest Selections. So it’s our curated products into the market.

Sky Kurtz: And then also we’ve launched what we call value-added products, but we leverage our brand and our access into the retailers and we built a line of pasta sauces. So think Rayo’s, which we might be familiar with here, but we’re doing products like chili cherry and a cherry passata. We do a shakshuka. So really beautiful products that are made from our ugly tomatoes and and and products. So really unique products that are authentic to the the the palette of our regional consumers who like dates. And so we’ve launched new product lines that are really building upon the foundation of the company as a farmer. So how we make money is really building or farming products and of course then, ah you know, making them, you know, attractive, high value consumer products and then engaging with markets and selling them mainly to retail, and but also we sell online and through hotels, restaurants and catering.

Alejandro Cremades: And also, how much capital have you guys raised too late? And what has been the journey of going through raising the money?

Sky Kurtz: So we’ve raised $287 million dollars of capital to date in a combination of equity, debt and some grants. And um the journey has been interesting and that’s been one of the harder ah ah lessons I would say for me and my entrepreneurial journey. If I knew what I knew knew today, I would have started the company for just one day in Silicon Valley with my Stanford baseball cap on and then launched in the Middle East because it has been challenging to be a Middle East company that was first of its kind, you know, in a relatively, you know, young and emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem and capital ecosystem, but to be first of its kind, asset intensive agriculture technology onshore. And what I mean by that is in in in our region, there’s these free zones where you can own 100% of your business. But when you go into it, when you come out of the free zones into Sharia law and into the local lands, there’s a wholly different legal framework and complexity that comes with that.

Sky Kurtz: And so the the complexity of the business was like you know huge, highly capital intensive, highly complex, building a brand, and really that’s been, ah that made capital challenging. That first raise was quite difficult, right? We had to um we had to build a, ah I had to raise $5.8 million dollars to build not only a pilot, the MVP if you will, but then of course the the working capital needed to build the, you know,

Sky Kurtz: yeah essentially to farm, buy all the packaging materials, build the channels to market, and that was extremely, at the time, it was the largest ever seed financing in the Middle East, North Africa, right? So it was bloody brutal. I went, you know, kind of friends, family and fools, if you will.

Sky Kurtz: of classmates from business school, um people that yeah I used to work with in private equity who were saying, hey, I believe in you and I’ll back you. And that’s how we kind of cobbled together the money to get that first bill done. But once we had proved it, people saw the product quality, which is award winning. I mean, we literally won ah the equivalent of the Michelin star of tomatoes and in a Belgian international taste competition.

Sky Kurtz: And so once you saw the quality of the product branded on the shelf and that we had a large shelf space and some of the top retailers in the region, then people knew there was something there and they could see the unit economics. so And then we started to scale and raise, you know, greater and greater capital. But I think that.

Sky Kurtz: When you asked about lessons learned, you know, I think that one thing is being really mindful of yeah the sort of, I call it the plinko chip of who can invest in this. When you think about if you’re in a new region, especially in an emerging market, and they’re not powerful and sizable incumbent capital bases that can serve such a business model, it can be challenging, right?

Sky Kurtz: We even had to create securities. I mean, I never thought of me putting my Lehman structured finance hat back on, but I did so. We won an award for developing essentially a SACUC, which is a sharia compliant bond that was essentially venture debt. So I had to create a security that was a project financing structured as a bond in sharia compliance. And then we won awards for it and for financial market innovation. But I didn’t think I’d have to create securities to fund my own business with non-dilutive capital in the Middle East.

Sky Kurtz: But that was something we had to do. So I think that ah you know in a weird way, it’s almost like I was made for this because I had this background in being able to navigate complex financings to secure capital for a capital intensive business.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s from Mollio.

Sky Kurtz: On the other hand, though on the other hand it was bloody brutal and a massive distraction from building the core business.

Alejandro Cremades: So so in all in all, you know you guys have raised you know over i mean close to 300 million, right and you have like 550 employees. I mean, it’s incredible. you know Also, um whether it’s customers or investors, you know they’re always betting on a vision. right So if I was to ask you, you go to sleep tonight, and you wake up in a world where the vision of the company is fully realized, what does that world look like?

Sky Kurtz: we We are building a truly global controlled environment agriculture company. So we’re technology agnostic, meaning we don’t we’re not monolithic about the tool that will farm, but ultimately about the outcome. A world where high quality, you know safe,

Sky Kurtz: sustainably grown and affordable produce is available everywhere. And that’s where I’m a big believer that we people talk a lot about food security, but that’s food security is about survival. That’s carbohydrates, right? That’s a different piece of the calorie pyramid. What we’re after more is food system resilience and specifically after quality of life, right? yeah Ultimately, i I want people to do more than be secure and live. I want them to thrive. And I think that to do that, when you think about nutrition,

Sky Kurtz: Really, fruits and vegetables is a key portion of that equation, both for health and longevity. Right. It’s proven that a lot of the and the folks who live over 100 years um eat a lot of fruit and veg in a relatively lower calorie diet. Right. That’s done through high quality, you know, diverse, delicious, fresh produce available and stuff that doesn’t have a lot of chemicals, stuff that’s not killing our planet. And then ultimately um water. I think that the story of food and people talk a lot about carbon and food miles.

Sky Kurtz: But really, we’re going to we’re going to struggle with water long before carbon becomes the thing that’s driving our food outcome, because we’re already seeing the water wars beginning in America around the Colorado River. The Yangtze River and in in China is drying up, and these are places that that these water bases feed huge amounts of the fields that supply fruits and veg to America and to China, right?

Sky Kurtz: So I guess when you asked what the vision is, it would be that we’re the world is adopting technologies that enable us to produce with much greater resource efficiency, a lower environmental impact, lower resource utilization, but high quality, safe, it’s sustainable, and affordable produce available for everyone.

Alejandro Cremades: I love it. Now, we’re looking we’re looking into the horizon, no? But I want to put you now into a time machine and bring you back in time. you know I bring you back in time you know maybe to that moment where you were about to make your trip to, let’s say, New Zealand yeah back in 2014 or so, and getting to the venture world as an entrepreneur. um And let’s say you that moment where you’re giving your notice at Francisco Partners, and you’re just walking out of the office. And right there on the spot, you see that younger self coming out of the office. And you’re able to give that younger self one piece of advice before launching a business. What would that be and why, given what you know now?

Sky Kurtz: I call it the rule of 40. I’m thinking about this because I gave an answer to a different question, but it gave it comes to a similar answer, which is. Whatever you’re going to do is a plan and resource for the ability that it that it takes 40% longer than you think it will cost 40% more, right?

Sky Kurtz: and that you plan it could go 40% better than you think it will, or 40% worse. Because I think that interestingly, we all have, and I particularly have, I know optimism bias, but also this sort of the consequence of that optimism can be dire in terms of if you, for example, don’t resource appropriately And you ultimately end up in in some strife and situation. It can be quite brutal. It can have great personal sacrifice to solve the problems. And it’s not needed. So I think that what the advice I would give is whatever you’re going to go on um in in that journey, if you’re going to go be an entrepreneur,

Sky Kurtz: is that really think of that 40 rule. Whatever you’re doing, you’re you’re under planning, you’re being too optimistic. And I would say that had I had that advice, so many things would have been different. For example, the strife and challenges that were created by my overlap of founding two companies believing I could manage both, I would have planned that both of them required 40% more time and energy. I would have done the math and said that can never work.

Sky Kurtz: And because that had a huge consequences on me personally and on my wife, my family, when I was working like that and and and you know wasn’t able to be present. Another example. and pure harvest when we started the first build we we We had planned you know a certain level of yields ramping over the three years, but in the first months, we were hitting higher yields than we ever thought possible in the third year of the model. We had run the model if you went down 40% and what would you do and how would you manage cash, but we never ran it if you went up. If you outperformed your highest expectations possible, and interestingly, in a business in a things business,

Sky Kurtz: you need working capital, you need packaging, you need labor, you need people to harvest it. And I was literally, I had to exhaust all of my personal wealth and and every loan I could get my hands on to keep the lights on while we could raise a bridge amount of capital to fund the growth that we were experiencing. So we almost got killed by a high class problem, right? You can grow yourself into bankruptcy too. And that’s an example of where You know, just that that rule of 40 would have saved me a lot of trouble. That was an extremely stressful time. And again, great personal sacrifice for not only me, my team, right? The incredible effort that we all had to do to survive that. And ironically, it was a good problem to be having. But even if you want to raise capital, you can’t do it in a day, right? It takes time.

Sky Kurtz: So I would say that my advice would be that that that humility to stare at whatever plans you have and however you well you think you know your plan and test it with that rule of 40. And I think that if you create that space, you’ll you’ll be able to perform better. you’ll You’ll be able to kind of under promise and over deliver to commitments to investors and partners and others. And you’ll be able to kind of protect yourself, right? Your your health, your quality of life, your ability to deliver on your commitments. And I think that’s the advice I would have given myself.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. So Skye, for the people that are listening, I would love to reach out and say hi. What is the best way for them to do so?

Sky Kurtz: ah best would be LinkedIn. I i know it’s ah I’m a bit traditional. I’m i’m ah active on Instagram, but not so much so. I’m i’m i’m i a bit lazy on ah social media, but less than I’d admit. um I would also say um ah email these days I’m overwhelmed with, so probably not best. I think LinkedIn would be best, and I’ll try to get back to you. I would also say, though, um ah if If anyone comes through the Middle East, do reach out. We we certainly love welcoming people. as It’s an exciting time and an exciting place. There’s a massive economic boom, as you know, happening in the Middle East. I think you were just there for the FII. But I would say I would encourage people to make it a place that they spend a little time. It’s an exciting place to be building businesses and also to, of course, visit.

Alejandro Cremades: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, and Sky, for being on The Dealmaker Show today. It has been an absolute honor to have you with us.

Sky Kurtz: Well, thank you, Alejandro. ah Great to be here and and and love what you’re doing and so happy to support.

*****

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