MicroMGx’s Elevator Pitch
We deliver Nature’s solutions to the world’s farmers. Our lead product is a naturally produced herbicide with the first new mechanism in 30 years.
How did you get the idea to start your company?
Our founders realized two things: Microbes are the world’s best chemists, and there had to be a better way to find the 97% of nature’s solutions that are still undiscovered. The dramatic gains in genomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics were the keys.
What does it mean to be a part of Plug and Play’s North Dakota Agtech Program?
Being part of this cohort has given us a place to ask the tough questions about the business of startups, find resources to help us, and contact many potential corporate partners. All of this is with people who understand AgTech and have the experience to guide us.
If your product/service was already being used by everyone globally, what impact would that have?
Our herbicide is more effective against herbicideresistant weeds. Over 30% of crop losses around the world are due to weeds, and the yield lost due to weeds could feed one billion people. Significantly reducing farmers’ crop losses with a natural—instead of synthetic—herbicide is our goal. The economics, the environment (fewer synthetic herbicides being used), and soil health are all potentially huge impacts.
How are you incorporating growers into your business plan?
We have just applied for a grant through the University of Nebraska Lincoln’s School of Agronomy to test our herbicide in their greenhouses and microfields. We are hiring an Agribusiness graduate, whose father has a family farm, to help us run this project. We will be getting not only data from the experiment, but input from his father and fellow farmers about the needs, concerns, and opinions regarding herbicides for the future.
Where do you see your company in 10 years?
In 10 years, we will have developed and launched our first natural herbicide and ideally will have discovered 3-5 more natural herbicides/pesticides/fungicides that will be in different stages of development. We will hopefully be partnering with most of the top 10 agriculture companies [in the world], and farmers will be asking for one or more of our natural solutions in 35 [or more] countries around the world.
By participating in Plug and Play’s North Dakota Agtech Program, what do you hope to accomplish? Have you considered expanding your operations to the Upper Midwest?
We hope to find an additional corporate partner or two between now and the Plug and Play Expo in Topeka, Kansas in June. Since we are at the start of raising seed funds, we also hope to identify promising venture capitalists and angel investors.
This magazine reaches 16,000+ farmers. In one or two sentences, what would you like to tell them?
We know you are hungry for more options to defeat weeds; we have one and will develop it as quickly as possible. With our technology platform, we will continue to attack the pests that attack your crops—in a safe, natural way.
