From the Beginning

Good morning, afternoon, or evening,

Thanks for coming here— I can get really philosophical about all of this. If you’ve ever spent time talking to me, our calls generally run over and we discuss more than the project. What starts as a pitch—on both sides—quickly becomes something more. We are exchanging stories about gardening, favorite things to cook on the weekend, misadventures with our families, or our latest travels. At my core, I love people and I love big dreams. I can talk about big dreams all day. I’ve probably shared some of mine with you.

When I started Skout, I wanted to figure out a way to leverage my experience and my team’s experience to impact and affect food systems in a long-term and meaningful way. This has always been bigger than the technology and the equipment. This work is causing my team and every single person in this space to identify the pain points and hurdles we are all experiencing. Much of this my team and I started discussing long before Skout was dreamt up. We knew the industry was fragmented— you probably feel this way as well. As Skout began to take shape, I wanted to figure out a way to create cohesion for clients, to standardize processes and how their projects come together.

As I started identifying the micro pressures and issues, I was forced to also acknowledge the macro pressures straining the industry, founders, and farms: construction, land use/land availability, energy and water usage, logistics, and funding. I quickly fell in love with systems and the process of how these farms are built, and wanted to find a better way to solve these problems.

It’s a collective effort to change this industry. Every single day I get the opportunity to talk to founders. To hear their big ideas, their fears and concerns. And then we hang up and my team and I get to work to solve your unique challenges, find ways to meet your needs, and help answer big questions. For most of us, it’s about feeding our communities, bringing food back to communities who’ve long suffered from food insecurity or have been forced to do their best in food deserts. For most of us, this is about building and supporting a food infrastructure that is resilient and equitable. In the simplest of terms, food connects humanity, and at our core we (Skout) are builders and connectors.

We have spent years cultivating relationships with the most innovative ag-technology (Ag-tech) companies in the world, developing a rich and robust Ag-tech product eco-system. We leverage our years of relationship building with our global eco-system of Ag-tech partners to build and bring to market the most innovative, efficient, and sustainable controlled environment farms to the market. We CONNECT these companies with the entrepreneurs, organizations, and visionaries who are building the farms and food systems of the future. The Skout Strategy team works along side our technology partners to understand their product offering and more importantly, the value they bring to this emerging industry. In turn, we immerse ourselves within the visions our customers who are looking to bring to the food system of the future to life. In conjunction with our ag-tech and strategic investment partners, the Skout Strategy eco-system is working to build the most efficient, value added, and sustainable CEA projects in the world.

If being CONNECTORS is the plainest form of Skout Strategy, being BUILDERS is at our core. By building upon the farms of the future, Skout Strategy is focused on building the foundation and infrastructure for the food system of the future. We are pioneers building a more equitable, regenerative, closed loop food system that will be more decentralized, localized, agile, resilient, and efficient. This vision aims to create access to food, jobs, and opportunities in the communities that have long been left behind and forgotten by those who control our current food supply. Enter the concept of the Food Innovation Hubs/Precincts. Food innovation hubs/precincts are centralized yet distributed production facilities, where food is grown, aggregated (from other local farms in the area), processed (either as a raw or value-added product), and distributed. Instead of building one large facility for each of these activities at different locations, you would instead build one large facility that would house all of these interconnected operations.

To bring this vision to life, Skout Strategy is working to leverage its Ag-Tech eco-system while building a team of strategic partners from key industry segments including: construction, renewable energy/battery storage, water technology, logistics, and agriculture. With this team, Skout Strategy will work to develop, design, build, and operate the most efficient CEA farms in the world. These farms will be a blueprint to delivering the most impact to the new and emerging food system. Building upon this foundation, this team will then be responsible for building the food system of the future, with the Food Innovation Hubs/Precincts at the core. With an unrelenting focus on building the future of the food system, this team is positioning itself strategically and uniquely to be the leader in building a new food system that will be able to adapt for generations to come.

As Skout grows, our team will grow, our ecosystem will grow, and we will continue to better technology to meet your evolving needs. Thanks for following along. We are happy you landed here.

-George