It’s been a fascinating 48 hours in San Francisco!
The focus of our 10-day visit to the Bay area had been to exclusively prep the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit. Silicon Valley Bank had other ideas.
Having worked and lived in Silicon Valley several years ago, I know just how important SVB was in terms of the broader startup / innovation ecosystem. Whilst the intervention of government regulators will ensure that depositors are repaid their funds (that’s good), the long-term consequences of SVB’s demise are not. It was the one bank that understood risk and was prepared to support startup companies with some novel products. It’s highly unlikely that early-stage companies will see that level of support coming from the more risk-averse banking entities that will now enter this market. The impact for a number of Silicon Valley-based companies sadly is not looking that flash in the short-to-medium term.
Last night, Jacqui and I had the opportunity to re-focus on the main purpose for being here. We caught up with the SVG/Thrive APAC cohort of companies (pictured above), led by Managing Director, Michael Macolino. The cohort are visiting the Bay area for a week’s programme of in-market immersion. They were joined by our good friends from AgriFutures Australia, Ang and Michael. Whilst SVG Venture’s intent is to bring New Zealand agritech startups into the Thrive APAC mix, this first cohort of companies is 100% Australian. The hope is to change this for Cohort #2. I’m looking forward to seeing how the conversation with NZ Inc. progresses on this. Building that trans-Tasman collaborative framework is key to raising our regional profile in the global market.
I learnt last night that we’ll all be meeting again later this week in Salinas. The group are visiting the Western Growers Innovation & Technology Center and other key players in the Salinas Valley region as part of their in-market immersion programme. The only potential obstacle facing their (and our) planned itineraries is an incoming atmospheric river that is threatening to blanket the Monterey / Salinas region with heavy rain. Following last week’s intensive flooding in the region, this was definitely not something we had put into our meeting agendas. The deluge hits tonight and tomorrow morning.
So it’s been an interesting start to our time in California. Later today, we will be catching up with Dennis Donohue from Western Growers and tomorrow with Undersecretary of the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA), Christine Birdsong. That’s when the prepping for the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit will seriously begin.