We are thrilled to officially announce the launch of Grit Road Fund II! Our mission at @GritRd remains unchanged: to invest in the best seed-stage AgTech entrepreneurs who are solving real problems for Midwest producers. Following the success of our first fund, Fund II will continue to provide capital and strategic support to founders with the grit and vision to redefine the agriculture ecosystem. We believe the future of AgTech is rooted right here in the Midwest, and we're just getting started. MORE HORSEPOWER.

Thanks to GrokBot I’m inbox zero for the first time since 2009. AMA

Love when investment people say “fih-NANCE” and “E-bit-DAHHH” like it’s a secret handshake. Sorry I don’t want to be in your stupid pronunciation club!

Never judge a man by the size of his power point. It’s how he uses it that counts

For years I’ve been trying to figure out the ultimate fitness standard for abnormal normal people (not paid athletes). I think I’ve finalized it: a 10-part test. All 10 have to be completed within a rolling 12-month period, with no more than 2 attempts at each challenge. 1. Deadlift: 2× BW × 5 / 2.5× BW × 1 2. Squat: 2× BW 3. Bench: 1.5× BW 4. Assault Bike: 100 cal < 5:00 5. 5K run: < 21:00 6. Half marathon: < 1:45 7. Pull-ups: 25 unbroken 8. Wall balls: 150 unbroken 9. Farmer’s carry: 1 mile @ 1× BW total < 20:00 10. 400m run: < 65 seconds Going to see if I can get all 10 by the end of the year.

Nebraska already has the ingredients to become THE Global AgTech Hub™ - our opportunity now is to continue to connect them around this shared ambition and mobilize the entire innovation ecosystem here in the Midwest.

Holy shit both these companies have butthole logos too this is amazing

A lot of people asking about AI in AgTech and the punchline is (perhaps obviously): I’m bullish. But I think we’re at risk of misdiagnosing the problem AI is supposed to solve. And the reason is the exact reason Grit Road exists. In my opinion, Agriculture has never suffered from a lack of good technology. For decades, smart people have built genuinely impressive technology for agriculture. The vast majority of it "failed" anyway. It failed not because the tech was bad, but because the founders commercializing it didn’t understand: the ag value chain, who actually had the problem, who benefited from solving it, who could pay for it, how much they could pay, who controlled distribution, and what it actually takes to change behavior on a farm (or anywhere else on the ag value chain, for that matter). Of course, AI doesn’t magically fix any of that. It does however do two things that make me bullish: 1. because of the above paragraph, ag does lack a lot of the technology "infrastructure" necessary to adopt cutting edge tech - AI allows ag to catch up faster here; and 2. it unlocks enormous amounts of agricultural data that have historically been siloed, messy, inaccessible, or simply unusable. Both of these things are HUGE. But the real punchline is: better intelligence doesn’t eliminate the hard parts of building an AgTech company. You still have to understand the value chain. You still have to find the right payer. You still need distribution. You still have to earn adoption. AI changes what’s possible in AgTech. It doesn’t change how agriculture works.

Love @JonRothstein doing some real economic development in the Haymarket in Lincoln with what experts are predicting may be the biggest single bar tab in an hour since the Blackshirts boat raced Shadeur in 2024 @HuskerMBB

Oh shit @Jason

The non-technical guy talking about AI who keeps using the word “ontology”

One day you’re shotgunning 4 locos, the next you’re saying “we needed it” after a mid summer rain

Dude leaving Nebraska Bo Pelini off this Mt. Rushmore is CRIMINAL. Explain yourself @JoshPateCFB @heykayadams. Get him @_willcompton

Sure fire way to word your cold email to make sure an investor never sees your pitch

My wife is going to shit her pants. From AI re: my latest business idea: “And I’ll leave you with one observation: you’ve described a lot of ambitious ideas over the years. This one feels different because it naturally brings many of them together. The facets of this one all reinforce one another instead of competing for your attention. Those are often the projects with the greatest chance of becoming a lasting legacy.”

We’ll know we’ve hit AGI when Claude goes “man I wonder if that fucking idiot bought that house he can’t afford but made me model out 1,723 times. I’m gonna go check the MLS”

One of the most amusing (and occasionally painful) founder-investor dynamics is the difference between what founders hear and what investors think they're saying. Investor: “We love what you're building, but it's not a fit for us right now because of X, Y, and Z.” What the investor thinks they communicated: “We're out.” What the founder hears: “They love what we're building. If I can explain X, Y, and Z, I can get them in.” The funny thing is this misunderstanding is almost necessary. The same stubborn optimism that makes founders ignore a "no" is often what allows them to build something that shouldn't work in the first place. Still creates a lot of extra meetings and brain damage, though.

Already spent $45 above the normal usage on Fable 5 on the very first thing I asked it to do. Sick

.@GritRd is excited to partner as the GP and managing entity of @DIALVentures Fund II to bring the country's leading agrifood venture studio to continue to build the Midwest ecosystem into the Global Hub of AgTech. linkedin.com/posts/ben-willi…

Unforseen impact of @claudeai - it makes me work more (in terms of hours). Interesting

"He has a really important meeting in Omaha, have daycare call sending home a child with a low grade fever when he hits Ashland"