Written by Amber DeWitt

Mar 12, 2026

At Fulcrum Global Capital, about 75% of our Limited Partners (LPs) are farmers, ranchers, and agricultural operators across the U.S. Midwest. Collectively, these producers manage more than 30 million acres of row crops, 7 million acres of grazing land, 5 million head of beef cattle, 250,000 head of dairy cattle, 2 million head of swine, and 80 million head of poultry. Many also operate diversified agricultural businesses, including ag banking, risk management, chemical manufacturing and distribution, equipment dealerships, and other agribusiness platforms.  Our direct relationship with the U.S. farming community gives us a practical understanding of how agriculture actually works day to day, and where technology has real opportunities to make an impact.  Our connection with U.S. agricultural production isn’t theoretical, it’s real and deep. It carries a responsibility we don’t take lightly.  

Like any venture capital firm, Fulcrum’s primary responsibility is to deliver strong returns for our investors. But given who our investors are, we also believe we’re uniquely positioned to do something more by giving producers early exposure to relevant new technologies, often well before they reach commercial scale. Direct exposure to large-scale farmers gives founders a reality check, helping them build technologies and companies that solve real problems in agriculture and food production. Ultimately, we believe leveraging our position within the agriculture ecosystem to bring farmers and founders together has the potential to create additional value by strengthening the broader agricultural innovation ecosystem. 

One of the most tangible ways we bring the farmer perspective into our investment process, and into the ecosystem more broadly, is through Fulcrum’s quarterly Producer Panels. Fulcrum’s Producer Panels are focused sessions hosted virtually by the Fulcrum team that bring together a subset of our producer-LPs and a curated group of early-stage agtech companies. In each panel, three to four startups present their technology or service to producers who operate squarely in their target market. These aren’t pitch competitions. Instead, they’re working conversations with operators who understand what it takes to implement something at scale. Stepping back, our broader goal is to create a space where startups can vet their value propositions with large, sophisticated row crop and livestock operators, and learn what it actually takes to deploy a solution at scale. 

We often tell founders to think about Fulcrum in two distinct but complementary ways. On one hand, we are a prospective financial VC investor. On the other, we are a bridge between early stage agtech companies and the farmers who ultimately decide whether a technology works in the real world. Sometimes a company fits squarely in both buckets. Other times, the connection alone is the value.  

Many say venture capital is a numbers game, and in some ways, it is. At Fulcrum, we review hundreds of deals each year and make just two to four investments. A startup pitching Fulcrum is much more likely to get a “no” or “not right now” than “yes.” 

The same is true for our Producer Panels. Most of the companies that present to our LPs will never become Fulcrum investments, and that’s by design. We don’t invest in all, or even many, of the companies we showcase, but we believe the panels create meaningful value for all three parties involved, the startups, our LPs, and Fulcrum, while also contributing to a healthier, more informed agtech ecosystem overall. 

For founders, Producer Panels offer something that’s often hard to find in agtech: direct, unfiltered voice of customer feedback. Farmers are quick to ask hard questions, poke holes, and challenge assumptions, but that honesty is exactly what helps startups refine their products, pricing, and go-to-market strategies. Even when the feedback is skeptical, it can save founders time, capital, and misdirected effort. For our LPs, the panels provide a window into what’s coming next. They get to see “around the corner” at technologies that could impact their operations in the future, or, in some cases, identify tools they may want to trial or adopt today. And for Fulcrum, we listen. We absorb the curiosity, skepticism, enthusiasm, and concern from the room. Those insights sharpen how we assess technologies across our investment thesis and ultimately shape our investment decisions. After each panel, we share candid producer feedback with the presenting startups in the hope that it informs their R&D efforts and commercial plans. In this way, the panels help align capital, customers, and founders around what truly works in agriculture. 

A recent conversation with a founder perfectly captured why we believe so strongly in this model. More than two years after presenting at a Producer Panel, they reached out to share an update. After the panel, one of our LPs connected with them directly. While the LP wasn’t ready to adopt the technology at the time, they introduced the startup to an input supplier. Together, they ran a trial and collected exactly the type of data that our panel, and Fulcrum, had encouraged them to pursue. That feedback loop closed a gap we identified early on. The startup gained a partner as well as credible trial results. The founder now has tangible proof points to share with future customers, partners, and investors, including the Fulcrum investor who showed interest from the very beginning. More broadly, this feedback process helped move a promising technology closer to real world adoption, which is where we believe ecosystem-level value is ultimately created.  

When we say we aim to be the VC arm of the U.S. agricultural producer, this is what we mean. We are funded by farmers, guided by their experience, and committed to investing in and supporting the agriculture and food technologies that work in the real world, while using the voice of the farmer to help shape innovation across the global food supply chain. 

* If you know of an early stage agtech company that would benefit from direct producer feedback, we welcome introductions. Startups interested in being considered for future Producer Panels can reach out to Fulcrum through our website.