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Food & Agriculture Innovators

Mike Betts from the Food & Agriculture Innovators Podcast and formerly Director of Investments at AgFunder sits down to interview entrepreneurs and investors from around the world building technology innovation to sustainably and profitably improve the global food system. Discover untold stories about how companies have been built, technologies on the horizon, where investors are seeing opportunities, and the challenges and opportunities abundant today as we work to feed the growing population.

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  2. 3: Predicting Crop Yields, Satellite Imagery and Machine Learning with David Potere of TellusLabs

3: Predicting Crop Yields, Satellite Imagery and Machine Learning with David Potere of TellusLabs

Aug 28, 2017

David Potere is Co-founder and CEO of TellusLabs, a company that combines decades of satellite imagery with machine learning to predict crop yields and help its customers, which range from farmer to hedge fund manager.

Get the full show notes at here.

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We cover:

  • [02:55] Humble beginnings in satellite imagery from the Navy to Boston Consulting Group.
  • [09:34] The range of problems TellusLabs is solving for its customers.
  • [17:01] TellusLabs products Kernel vs Argus
  • [19:01] Why satellite imagery now.
  • [22:43] Training models with decades of satellite imagery data, discussion of imagery quality.
  • [29:49] USDA approach to forecasting and how TellusLabs differs.
  • [33:40] How approach to yield forecasting in U.S. differs from other countries.
  • [35:11] Yield forecasting in Brazil and LatAm.
  • [40:36] More on how customers are using these solutions, from hedge funds to farmers.
  • [51:52] Market size vs market potential for satellite imagery solutions.
  • [55:36] Lessons learned building TellusLabs.
  • [58:13] Boston startup ecosystem, distributed teams, startup accelerators.