Conversation
Highlights

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries, the show that explores the future of tech with innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Gabe Sibley, CEO and Founder of Verdant Robotics, an autonomous agriculture company that has raised $48 million in funding.

• Gabe’s two-and-a-half-decade journey in mobile autonomous robotics, from studying at Emory and USC to co-founding companies like Zoox and Zippy.ai and eventually starting Verdant Robotics with co-founder Curtis Garner.
• The challenges of building physically instantiated robotics technologies compared to purely digital AI solutions, and the importance of understanding and accepting the risks associated with deploying new technologies.
• The need for agriculture to do more with less in the face of increasing global food demand and declining labor availability, and the potential for robotics to deliver 100x improvements in cost-effectiveness.
• Verdant Robotics’ smart sprayer with “Bullseye” technology, which uses computer vision and machine learning to precisely deliver inputs like fertilizer and herbicide where they’re needed most.
• The potential for systematic digitization and proactive search for better growing policies enabled by high-resolution sensor data and actuator control, transforming agriculture in the same way that other industries have been transformed by computation.
• The importance of deeply understanding customer needs and involving a co-founder with domain expertise and respect within the target market.
• The shift from a service-based model to a product sales model based on customer demand, and the need to adapt messaging and positioning accordingly.
• The alignment of interests between founders, investors, and board members in building an impactful and successful company, and the value of working with people you genuinely like.
• Gabe’s vision for Verdant Robotics to become an iconic robotics technology company that enables sustainable farming for as much of humanity as possible.