S4E48: Eric Levesque - Overcoming Obstacles When Starting an Indoor Farm, Finding the Right Partner & Raising Funds

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes back to the show Eric Levesque, co-founder and Managing Partner at Cultivatd, an organization that works with some of the indoor farming industry's best product developers and technologies to help people discover which vertical farm tech is best for their projects. Since he was last on the show, Cultivatd has made some incredible strides, including raising $3.5 million in funds during the past year. Today, Harry and Eric discuss the increasingly evolving vertical farming industry, what makes a great team and the process of educating larger, more entrenched corporations in the field of vertical farming. Eric expounds on how Cultivatd’s business model has changed in the past year and a half and their expansion efforts into the United States (USA), United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Australia. Finally, Eric speaks to what continues to drive and motivate him and speculates on new technologies that excite him about the future of vertical farming. Episodes SponsorCultivatd – https://cultivatd.com/What We Covered:03:41 – Harry welcomes back to the show Eric Levesque who provides an update on the insightful work he and his team are doing at Cultivatd and how they identify companies to partner with 12:13 – How Cultivatd’s business model has changed over the past year and how it has changed the trajectory of Cultivatd17:38 – Massive Fundraising25:12 – Eric shares what he’s seeing in the vertical farming environment in places like Dubai 32:09 – How Eric approaches building an effective team  33:48 – More and more vertical farming companies entering the industry 35:47 – New tech that has Eric excited about the future of AgTech 37:19 – Educating larger corporations on vertical farming 41:24 – Eric speculates on the evolution of the industry and how it impacts Cultivatd’s role 45:14 – The importance of continual education in the vertical farming space 46:33 – What keeps Eric driven and motivated 50:15 – Harry thanks Eric for joining the show and reiterates where listeners can go to learn more about Cultivatd and connect with Eric Tweetable Quotes:“The majority of our clients, on the small side at least, are telling us, ‘I want to grow something but I’m not sure how to get there.’ And so what we do is we will tailor a solution that we feel adequately resembles what they are trying to accomplish. And then we can tailor it from there depending on what they actually want to do. Do you have a building? Do you have funding? What scale do you want to start at? What market are you trying to serve? What crops in your area are commanding a price and then we can just give them some tips.” (09:22) (Eric) “Any entrepreneur knows that, at least in the beginning, you have to be a little bit agile with your business. Sometimes the model seems to pivot quite a bit and that’s definitely what we’re seeing here.” (14:33) (Eric) “One of the biggest issues for funds is that usually there’s not enough projects for it and you’re always searching for something. In this industry it seems to be the complete opposite where we have too many projects that need funding and too many great businessmen with good ideas who are in great locations.” (21:02) (Eric) “There’s definitely never a lack of companies coming into this space, but that makes it super exciting. We’re bumping into new partners, new innovations.” (34:13) (Eric) “We’re actually looking to potentially open up a hybrid farm that we’re gonna turn into a vertical farming university, hopefully this year. That’s kind of an ambitious plan that we have.” (45:40) (Eric) Links Mentioned:Eric’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-levesque-a03a33163/?originalSubdomain=ca Cultivatd Website – https://cultivatd.com/ Link to Upstart University – https://university.upstartfarmers.com/ Link to Agritecture – https://www.agritecture.com/ Sponsor Info:Cultivatd Website – https://www.cultivatd.com/Cultivatd Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️Podcast Production & Marketing by FullCast: https://fullcast.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.Mentioned in this episode:2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews2025 Precision Ag Report2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews2025 Precision Ag Report