Steve Magami On Raising $500 Million To Build A Superfruit Platform To Provide Customers With Healthier Snacking Options

Steve Magami was born in Tehran and raised in the sunny suburbs of Southern California. His journey is about determination, adaptability, and the spirit of innovation.

In this exclusive interview, Steve talks about raising more than $500M and scaling a company in an industry where he was an outsider. He also talks about culture, team building, and moving to the other side of the table as an investor.

Steve’s company, Agrovision, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Avenue Capital Group, Steve Kaplan, Aliment Capital, and KuE Capital.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Steve Magami’s competitive spirit, shaped by his experience in sports, drives his relentless pursuit of excellence in business.
• Growing up in a household with entrepreneurial parents, Steve was influenced early on by the challenges and excitement of entrepreneurship.
• Despite an initial path toward medicine, the allure of venture capital and private equity led Steve to pursue a career in business.
• The success of Agrovision hinged on attracting the right talent and blending industry insiders and innovative outsiders to build a globally scalable business.
• Agrovision’s transformative approach to the fruit industry centered on enhancing the consumer experience, making healthy snacking enjoyable and accessible.
• Overcoming the significant hurdles of raising capital and entering a traditionally insider-driven industry was key to Agrovision’s success.
  Steve’s belief in the limitless potential of healthy consumer products fuels his vision to revolutionize the produce aisle globally.

 

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About Steve Magami:

Steve Magami has led a career building companies and developing projects.

He has generational roots in agriculture and has been active in agri-business, land acquisition, water, and infrastructure in Peru since 2007 when he co-founded his first Peruvian company (sold to a $3 billion private equity firm and later to British Petroleum).

Steve Magami previously served as a Principal of Lovell Minnick Partners, the private equity arm of Putnam Lovell Jefferies, responsible for $1 billion in Private Equity partnerships focusing on executing buyouts of middle-market financial services companies.

Steve has served on the boards of numerous private equity, hedge fund, and venture capital-backed companies.

Connect with Steve Magami:

• LinkedIn
• RocketReach
• Crunchbase
• The Company Check

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: Alrighty. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Deal Maker Show. So today, we have a very exciting founder. you know where We’re going to be talking about all types of good stuff that we like to hear, but building, scaling, financing. you know We’re also going to be talking about how he went from one side of the table to the other. i mean What he’s doing right now, i mean he’s literally in a rocket ship. They have raised and invested over $500 million in what they’re doing in super exciting stuff around culture, ah team building,

Alejandro Cremades: ah how to really scale something in an industry where you have no idea and that you’re an outsider. I mean, everything that you can think of. So, brace yourself for a very inspiring conversation. And without further ado, let’s welcome our guest today, Steve Magami.

Alejandro Cremades: Welcome to the show.

Steve Magami: Thank you, Alejandro. Great to be with you.

Alejandro Cremades: So, originally born in Tehran, but you moved to the US, s to California, you know, quite early. So, give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up?

Steve Magami: Life was awesome. i moved I moved to California when I was about a year and a half old. My ah my father had had been completing his PhD in computer science at at USC, grew up in a humble area within Orange County, grew up with two brothers.

Steve Magami: um In a household that where you know, we were playing sports a lot of sports a lot of adrenaline um healthy healthy food a fruit culture which which is relevant to the conversation today and um Really kind of simple simple upbringing nothing fancy and and and and what was interesting I think and relevant is With a we know with with very entrepreneurial parents very open-minded parents my my father went from working at IBM to starting his own software company and grew up in a house with an entrepreneurial kind of a vibe in in the house and um pretty pretty normal otherwise.

Alejandro Cremades: now In your case, i mean you were into sports, and you ended up even playing competitive tennis. How do you think that competitive spirit has shaped you up, you know especially now being an entrepreneur?

Steve Magami: Well, I like to win. I’ve always liked to win. Um, it was, I had a blast playing competitive tennis growing up. Um, obviously growing, up growing up in California, Southern California is, uh, it’s quite, quite helpful in terms of weather and in terms of, uh, the competitive landscape out here. And so, um, had a blast. We, uh, I learned, learned kind of the value of the work you put in the reps, you, the reps you get and what you get out. Um, you know, and, and, uh, you know, I think took many lessons from that.

Alejandro Cremades: How does someone that they study and biology in the University there of Santa Barbara, you know, gets into business? That’s quite a, you know, interesting transition there.

Steve Magami: So graduating in the late 90s at a time when the you know the internet heyday was was upon us, was materializing as we approached the late 90s, certainly was an exciting and dynamic time. And I was fortunate to be surrounded by enough people to get drawn into um venture capital ah really while I was still in college as an intern. And dipping my toe in the water and getting you know getting my feet wet a little bit and seeing what was out there in in terms of tech and growth and startups um really drew me away from where I was heading, which was med school. And I um i ended up in ah in private equity out of out of college.

Steve Magami: and learned um learn business really kind of um on a fast track from some brilliant bosses and and colleagues and was blessed to work with a really strong team and a supportive environment that helped me ah yeah that helped me kind of come up the curve quickly.

Alejandro Cremades: Thank What about there? i mean During the um the years where you were doing the internships in VC, ah being involved in private equity too, i mean you were part of the of the spinoff there of Lobels, which was the investment bank that they you know you were you became a principal quite young there. I guess when it comes to private equity and to being on the other investor on the other side of the table, being an investor, I’m sure that you learned a thing or two when it comes to pattern recognition and to seeing you know the good from the bad from the ugly. So, what were some of those things that you learned during the days of being an investor?

Steve Magami: So talent the importance of talent was one. I would say due diligence was another. you know Identifying value and going very deep to understanding the risk-adjusted potential that that that would exist. um Going very deep on diligence and not only industries and markets, but market opportunities, products, services. um And ultimately, the difference between kind of from our experience, the difference between winners and losers, were really a combination of those things. um The right talent, the right diligence, the right risk management, um amongst amongst other things.

Alejandro Cremades: Now, in your case, you know after the Lobel’s chapter, you actually even did one deal of your own you know where you helped with structuring things up, and and that company ended up selling for a billion ah-plus valuation. So I guess when it came to um to the deal-making side and being more active and taking more of a lead role when it comes to that day ah deal side of things. um what What was that journey like? What was that experience for you in seeing something you know at the beginning and then seeing something you know more mature and and selling for such a hefty price?

Steve Magami: Well, we ah you definitely I definitely saw the the the you know dynamic moments in the market. um We definitely saw during the heyday of renewable energy you know where valuations went. And we definitely saw you know the rise, and we definitely saw the what happened after 2008 with that industry. um we We saw, though, that one of the things that I saw and I learned you know from from those experiences really was around the tangible value of building a business that has a real sustainable um you know value to to provide to the to the world. And so that was that was um that was a very interesting experience. And I think I took a lot of lessons from the dangers, though, of market cycles and the dangers of of ah of capital requirements.

Alejandro Cremades: Now, for you, I mean, you ended up being going at it with Aggravision, which is the um yourre your baby, right? you know And we’re going to be talking about that. But one thing that is really incredible that team but I like to touch on, you know because obviously, I’m an immigrant, and you know and I feel very compelled with with other stories of immigrants is the impact that your father had on you, right? Because you guys he came here to the US you know to build a better future, a better tomorrow you know that your parents wanted to have for you guys, for you and your brothers. And also your father was an entrepreneur himself. So I guess, did you know early on that you were going to go at it and and start your own company eventually? or Or what did you learn from that experience and and seeing your dad going through the cycles too?

Steve Magami: No, definitely didn’t didn’t didn’t know. I felt I had something, I felt the spirit within me, but definitely came came from a culture where you were guided to be a doctor, a lawyer, you know you were guided towards certainty and stability. um And certainly having certainly saw the challenges of of of entrepreneur you know entrepreneurship firsthand from my father.

Steve Magami: But I also saw the excitement, the exciting parts of that. And um so, you know, it was absolutely a ah one of those stories where we we lost everything. my My father lost lost, you know, all of his family’s kind of, um you know, wealth was lost in in the revolution. He came here with nothing had to rebuild. um We grew up with a mentality that you know the world is, um we have a new opportunity here. This is an incredible country. We this was we saw the American dream. We dreamed that a little bit. And I think I dreamed that a lot as a kid and saw the struggles of my parents having come here to an entirely new country, an entirely new place without family, without friends. And I saw their struggles and i you know that that certainly left left an impact on me.

Steve Magami: And I think that certainly i’m i’m ah um ah who I am today is is kind of the fabric was was woven from those early years to ah to a great extent.

Alejandro Cremades: So at what point then do you realize, hey, I think it’s is my time. My time has come to to go at it because obviously that ended up coming with aggravation. But how did the whole idea of aggravation come to you in that moment where you’re like, let’s go?

Steve Magami: Yeah, the life journey and the life graph is really interesting. So there’s a point where I put the MCAT books down as I’m graduating UC Santa Barbara with a major in biological sciences. And i I decide, you know what, I’m going to go for it and go into business. um and i And I was fortunate to to land in private equity um shortly after after graduating at a very good firm at Putnam level.

Steve Magami: um and working for an incredible boss and in Jeff Lowell. There was another moment where I saw the opportunity with AgriVision. There was an opportunity, a small window I saw you know in renewable energy, but the largest one I ever saw was with AgriVision, was the opportunity to truly transform the consumer experience with Superfruit in a way that would not require the consumer to want to buy fruit for health, but to actually want to buy super fruit and fruit for snacking, for enjoyment, pure enjoyment and pure snacking. And that was a real, that was by far my largest aha moment in my career.

Alejandro Cremades: So then talk to us about aggravation then. you know like How does aggravation come together and what ended up becoming the business model?

Steve Magami: Yeah. Well, we saw this. We saw that that this was a growth this was a growth opportunity. What I mean by that is we saw the the what we call the Barry Roulette.

Steve Magami: the the the purchase at the shelf of blueberries or berries was such a spotty experience. There was such a um frequent dissatisfaction with the product. You wouldn’t want to go back and buy more. And that is statistically what what what we found was happening. Consumers did not go back and buy more. And that was happening with other produce products as well. And so when we saw the opportunity to take really unique particular microclimates globally, ah play plant and produce very particular varietals and apply a lot of tech

Steve Magami: and a lot of operational excellence and and business systems um and integrate that into to to carrying a certain quality all the way to the controlling that quality, creating a quality and controlling it all the way to the consumer and putting that quality on the shelf. That was a different product. um If you’ve ever had, I mean, if you’ve ever had golden Kiwis,

Steve Magami: Alejandro, I don’t know if you’ve had them.

Alejandro Cremades: I have, I have.

Steve Magami: You probably don’t want to have green kiwis anymore if you could have a golden kiwi. That was exactly the experience we saw with berries, that if we could create a whole new level of eating experience using this entire chain that I just described and this entire stack of tech, we thought, wow, what could be what we what we could do in terms of health in the world and what we could do in terms of transforming that consumer experience year-round would be incredible, particularly if we could do it every week of the year and not on a seasonal basis. And that is really the definition of kind of the the platform we built in AgriVision.

Alejandro Cremades: What do you think were the, um I mean, obviously here you are you know executing you know at the beginning on an industry that you were an outsider. What do you think were the biggest day hurdles that you had to overcome and what kind of difficulty are are we talking about?

Steve Magami: um enormous hurdles so well first of all to get to where we are we have we’ve raised and invested over a half a billion dollars um but I would say just as difficult as that coming as an outsider into an industry where no one believed we were going to be disrupting this industry right this is an industry where it’s an an insider’s industry right um produce I’m talking about in and agriculture um but it had to be a business that was built globally with operations around the world. So startups are hard enough as they are. Raising huge amounts of capital, that’s hard enough as it is. But to then have to do that on the basis and only on the basis of having to have a

Steve Magami: by design a particular geographic footprint globally that was required to be successful and to attract the talent and to to develop the you know the centers of excellence and to transmit and transfer those centers of excellence at a speed to allow us to pull this all together with was difficult.

Alejandro Cremades: So what what was the most difficult part of, let’s say, you know something like this, as you were saying, very capital intensive, but let’s say on the teams, on having teams you know in many locations.

Steve Magami: Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: you know How do you go about that? Because obviously the the culture piece there is a big one, you know because every location has its own culture, so to speak. so So tell us about that too.

Steve Magami: So attracting the talent for building this business in this industry, in the geographies we built it incredibly difficult. We had to, it took us years to build up the talent to where we were really ready to scale. And so if you look at the last, you know, we’re we’re a little more than 10 years old, but if you look at the last 10 years, our growth has been just exponential in the last four of the 10 years.

Steve Magami: And the reason for that is because those first six years were extremely difficult. And getting the the building the platform, building the flywheel, building the talent, and creating that DNA throughout the whole organization that was required to truly scale at this pace, very difficult. um And bringing a combination, the perfect complementary combination of talent from inside and from outside. um Not only executives and leaders, but talent on the front lines, in some cases, were as important as as the leadership talent. And pulling that all together in a way ah in a way that was needed with as diverse a footprint geographically, globally, as was needed was, I think, compounded the the challenge.

Alejandro Cremades: What about the raising itself? Because, I mean, raising half a billion is say quite a lot of money so and not easy. So how has it been to going through the different motions and the financing cycles in order to raise all that the allla capital?

Steve Magami: difficult um investors were, you know, i have I have friends who were, you know, running funds at large in investment firms, one of the most prominent investment firms in the world that we’ve been friends now for five or six years. And we laugh because they, they passed up an opportunity to invest six years ago, they pass up another opportunity to invest three years ago, they pass up another opportunity to invest a year ago, and they have just you know, seeing the rocket ship that we’ve been building and the truly kind of impactful and disruptive, positively and disruptive business. So it has been a, it has been a an absolutely a kind of a, you know, a challenge to

Steve Magami: build the the the faith in in investors who, again, we’re only used to seeing insiders build companies that’s successful within this industry. um And there’s ah you know there’s a couple great examples of really old world industries where outsiders came in with that outsider’s mindset and really built something with a lot of capital. um But we had I was fortunate to start with some visionary investors, partners, co-founders that you know as we as we built this, we were able to bring in other visionary investors and other visionary investors at each point in the chain.

Steve Magami: And fortunately, now it’s with where we are now, I think we um were in a totally different world where we have um um reached a place where we’re finally um we’re we’re finally, even though the markets are very difficult, we’re finally in a completely different world of access to capital.

Alejandro Cremades: So what was that moment for you guys where you realized that you were into something where you were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel here?

Steve Magami: the The light at the end of the tunnel for us really, really was clear when we saw the consumer reaction to our product, the consumer’s reaction globally to our product. And when we saw that, when we saw the the the youth, the youth preferring our snacking on our product and our super fruit over you know unhealthy snacking or over other snacks for You know, again, for that, that youth, those youth ages, I could tell you from, from, from the standpoint of, of, um, whether it’s my children or other, other consumers, children who’ve sent us to their, their kind of experiences. We’re talking about one year olds, five year olds, 10 year olds, 15 year olds, the spectrum of youth that have, um, that have all kind of found this product to be incredible.

Steve Magami: I’m talking now about our our our real proof of concept, our real first product that that where we proved the concept, which was blueberries and our premium blueberries and are our um premium jumbo blueberries and and Alejandro, I hope you’ve you’ve been able to enjoy those. But we have seen, when we saw that reaction, when we saw, when we put our product on on the table next to a traditional snack and we saw them have one and then two and then they took the clamshell and walked away and left the bag of chips or the chocolate or the other snack on the table, the light went on. This is a $100 billion dollar industry, the snacking industry. And the amount of um the amount of health impact we could make in the world to transition consumers to healthier snacking, that was truly ah you know a light bulb moment.

Alejandro Cremades: I think that timing is everything. you know When you’re building a company and and being at the right time in history is really what makes a difference too. know When you’re a founder, I guess, how do you think has impacted you, the um the whole consciousness you know around the eating healthy? and i mean it’s quite It’s quite different you know from maybe like years ago that it was all about fast food and people didn’t care. i mean Now people are really conscious about what they put into their body.

Steve Magami: Absolutely. We have greater health awareness today and it’s um it’s certainly leading to increased you know penetration of our our products and and growth and consumption of our products. ah we have the We have consumer tailwinds in terms of consumption potential, rising middle classes. It’s not just you know the traditional history of population growth.

Steve Magami: and and health. um But it’s there’s a whole different wave taking taking hold today. you see um you know You see now some of the hottest beverages, some of the hottest sodas are probiotic sodas now. um We see the non-alcoholic, alcohol industry you know has taken off. And so today we’re we’re seeing consumers um playing a whole different kind of ah you know, playing in a whole different way with their wallet and and and the wallet share we see going towards these healthy products that are truly enjoyable is, um it feels limitless.

Alejandro Cremades: So as we’re thinking about the feeling limitless, let me ask you something. Let’s say you were to go to sleep tonight and you wake up in a limitless world where the vision of aggravation is fully realized. What does that world look like?

Steve Magami: Yeah. I love to, I love to dream around this. i mean We have just not even scratch the surface of where we think we can take the the population of the world thats say you know that is transitioning to healthier consumption, healthier eating, um and transitioning those consumers to ah to to enjoyable, better tasting, truly enjoyable eating experience super fruit. And that means transforming the consumer experience, Alejandro, across the produce aisle. Imagine if a consumer could walk into a store.

Steve Magami: and be excited to go more excited to go into the produce section than any other section by far. I think that’s our that’s our that’s the potential. and I think the the limitless scenario for us is for us to play you know one of the one of the leading roles in that transformation.

Alejandro Cremades: So as we’re thinking about the past, I want to do it too with a lens of reflection because i mean now you guys have had the chance to push this for 12 years.

Steve Magami: equipment

Steve Magami: news

Alejandro Cremades: 12 years in the corporate world is like 100 years, right? I mean, 12 years is ah it a long time, right? They’re pushing a startup. So I guess as you are looking back now and and let’s say I was able to bring you back in time to that moment, maybe to 2012, that day year where you were thinking about a world where you could build something of your own. And let’s say you were able to show up right there with your younger self and being 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?

Steve Magami: Yeah, I would, I would tell my my younger self, you have an incredible co-founder. Um, you have an incredible group of co-founders in, you know, Tom Snyder and your, your co-founder and in, in Mark Aaron and Caria Seal, your two, your two investment co-founders. You guys have incredible potential given your backgrounds, how complimentary you are and how committed you are to this vision.

Steve Magami: no pun intended with the name, but truly, with your commitment, as long as you stay the course of what is grounded in the, in that market opportunity, um and the value you’re bringing in the world, you will be successful. And, you know, continue to expand with like minded, like minded, you know, partners, investors, talent, I would say that be, be comfortable being bold, because we were bold,

Steve Magami: But it was it was it was not always comfortable. It was nerve wracking. It took a lot of courage. I would tell my younger self, when you see talent, don’t hesitate for two seconds. Talent is what it’s all about. And talent is not easy to attract. But do what it takes to attract the talent, and don’t let it go. And you know I think that my younger self would have been, um you know as a startup,

Steve Magami: foundry, you’re stretching every dollar. I would have said to my younger self, you know what, make exceptions sooner and faster when the right talent comes. Because waiting an extra year for that right talent, it’s going to cost you a lot more and the returns are going to be exponential.

Steve Magami: if you get that that talent earlier on. So those are, I think, some of the top of mind points I would make to my younger self. And then lastly, I would say enjoy the journey more. it’s you know Because you I was working 90 hours a week, Alejandro. And you know I would say that you you know try to bring more bring more balance to you know when I had time with my family.

Steve Magami: try to be present more because, you know what, there’s it’s hard. It’s really hard as a startup founder, but it can be done and it it will make you more disciplined. um I learned that later on, and and but but but I would have loved to have learned that sooner.

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

Steve Magami: reach out to me on, send me a message on LinkedIn and um happy to, you know, happy to share more.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. Well, hey, Steve, thank you so much for being on The Dealmaker Show today. It has been an honor to have you with us.

Steve Magami: My pleasure, Alejandro. Thanks so much.

*****

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