If I’ve learned anything about how to succeed as an entrepreneur since receiving an ROI Seed Fund grant, it’s the importance of knowing the audience for your product. You want to have researched the audience so well, you can nearly visualize all the individual characters who will one day become your clients. As such, though I didn’t hit all the targets I’d originally laid out for myself and AgriGateAsia (AGA), I have certainly come to understand my role in the market. I’ve also laid the foundations for my online business intelligence site and newsletter so that when it fully launches publically it will hopefully succeed.

I’ve accomplished a few major goals for AgriGateAsia (AGA) that I’ve come to realize are critical for the success of this initiative. For one, I’ve nearly completed the trademark process, to ensure no one else can use “AgriGateAsia” or “AGA” on their materials and thereby protect my brand and IPR. While further working with my team of pro bono lawyers at Brooklyn Law’s Intellectual Property team (BLIP), I’ve nearly finalized work-for-hire contracts, which are necessary to coordinate with content contributors as a way to codify our relationship and ensure that their contributions are owned by AGA.

Additionally, I’m excited to say I’ve identified an organizational “home” for AGA and am now in the final steps of formalizing this relationship. The Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE, pronounced “juice”) facilitates collaboration between countries with green know-how and China, in mutually beneficial partnerships that also benefit the environment. This NGO has hired me to oversee their flagship program, “China Dream”: re-imagining prosperity to decouple a rise in living standards with a rise in energy use. For an interactive presentation, see http://tinyurl.com/JUCCCEChinaDream.

As part of this position, I will be responsible for organizing and hosting CECEP, a high-level cleantech conference that engages and encourages select foreign companies to conduct business and exchange ideas with Chinese government ministries and businesses. I’ve been able to build upon my AGA relationships and grow these further, now within an existing and well-regarded organization that has an existing organizational infrastructure and reputation that AGA was lacking. My aim now is to transition AGA’s online presence and newsletter initiatives to JUCCCE to address cleantech more broadly, meaning AGA can accelerate its impact, reach and success that much more quickly. I am committed to continually addressing Israeli company interests and needs (in part as columnist for IsraelStrategist.com), in which I’ve started showing success as a new member of the JUCCCE team.

As such, I have focused less on developing the actual AGA website and content, and instead explored collaborations, partnerships, conference/speaking opportunities, meetings, networking events, educational opportunities and research or outreach initiatives to build my brand, educate myself, associate with the right people and ensure I am producing a product that fits its appropriate niche and addresses its unique audience. When I first received the ROI Fund, I felt I did not yet know enough about the subject, nor enough experts and leaders in the field, to truly make an impact. That has quickly evolved and I am now more confident of contributing as an active participant and thinker.

This should not be seen as a loss: my Master of Science, which I recently completed, was in Modern Chinese Studies, with a research focus on Chinese environmental policy (especially agricultural), and a dissertation exploring sustainable agricultural technology use amongst farmers in southern Yunnan Province. As a result, I have deepened my knowledge of the very subject that is critical to AgriGate Asia content and success; moreover it provides me with legitimacy professionally and academically as I go forward with building the site. Additionally, a good proportion of my freelance articles are related to China, Israel, clean technology, agricultural technology and the environment, all of which helps build my brand and legitimacy.
 

This entire period has been very intellectually rich and prolific. For one, I have met incredible people who have pushed my thinking related to agriculture, technology and publishing on the subject, which has helped me to refine what AgriGate should be and do. I have helped establish the Oxford Food Forum, through which I regularly engage on the subject to develop a network of contributors. We are hosting Oxford’s first Food Security Conference, at which I hope to present my dissertation.

Additionally I have met more China-based food and agriculture experts who can act as reporters and contributors. I attended several high level conferences as AgriGate’s founder, including the Oxford World Forum and the Carbon War Room in Washington, DC, further cementing my participation in a niche group of thinkers in this field. I’ve been invited to speak and write opinion and reporting pieces for some leading publications – including ClimateWire/New York Times, The Economist, New Scientist, COEJL’s publication for its Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign, and now as monthly columnist for Israel Strategist.

Of note, I have managed to develop strong relationships with collaborative and complementary companies, namely Israel Strategist, the Asia Society, the Cleantech Group and Agcelerator, an agtech innovation hub startup – all of which have agreed to cross-post to AgriGate Asia and share content so as to build up a readership.

Though not central aspects of my original goals, these are critical to my achieving long-term success for AgriGate Asia. All this has helped reinforce my role as an expert and thought leader, which can only help me at the head of AgriGate. I now feel educated and confident enough to turn my energies to business entrepreneurship and environmental activism once again, and get my publication up and running to hit targets laid out last year.