Q&A with Grow-NY Mentor Barak Cohen

Grow-NY’s annual Food & Agriculture Summit provides 20 startups the opportunity to pitch their business to a panel of judges for the chance to win up to $1 million.  

In preparation for the pitch competition, finalists receive one-on-one mentoring through the Grow-NY accelerator’s business development phase. With the Summit coming up in November, we took the chance to sit down with a new Grow-NY mentor, Barak Cohen, to get his perspective and advice for ag-tech innovators. 

Cohen holds an MBA from Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business, specializing in sustainability, technology, and entrepreneurship. He is passionate about AI technology and coaching and mentorship to foster a successful startup ecosystem. 

As the current VP of Product Management at Nemodata, Cohen has established roots in tech and entrepreneurship, and he is an Entrepreneur in Residence at several incubators, including Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement (CREA). He is mission-driven and works with early-stage startups to lead them through ideation, customer discovery, and prototyping.  

 

Question: What is your experience in the food and ag space?  

I have been working for several years as a product leader in a cutting-edge AgTech startup that was centralizing all global data around agriculture from private and public sources, and then transformed this data into actionable insights to the different stakeholders in the ag ecosystem, from farmers, growers, and producers to food processing, input companies, and food & beverage companies.   

Question: How do you think food and ag startups benefit from launching within the Grow-NY region?  

I think that New York has a unique set of promising factors that can help ag startups thrive; from large agricultural land with various crops, to distinct growing seasons and significant precipitation ratios, to access to advanced research and technology through institutions such as Cornell University, to name a few. These assets position the NY region in a promising way to allow ag startups to learn, grow, and scale, helping local farmers along the way.   

Question: What should food and ag startups keep in mind as they begin to grow?  

Above anything else, who is your customer? What is the value you are generating, what problem are you solving, or what needs are you fulfilling? This should be the first thing you think of when you start your morning, and the last thing you think of at the end of your day. With that in mind, how can you, with your technology and team, address those pains and/or needs, in a unique, better way, than current methods and/or competition? 

Question: What are you most excited about mentoring a Grow-NY finalist this year?  

I was fortunate to be assigned with a super interesting, promising team, Grape.ag. I’m excited to join them in the NY visit, as they install their hardware in new vineyards, and see their interaction with new and existing customers. Truly hoping we could generate some meaningful discoveries which will assist the team as they keep carving their journey toward product-market fit.  

 

This year’s Grow-NY Summit will be held November 6 and 7 at the Ithaca Downtown Conference Center in Ithaca, NY. Register now at https://cvent.me/MwgDZb.