Success leaves clues. Finance Strategists sat down with Brandon Silveira, founder of FarmFundr. He shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the company, as well as his inspiration and goals for the business. Q: Who are you and what’s your background? Howdy, I'm Brandon Silveira. I'm the founder of FarmFundr which is an equity crowdfunding platform focused on specialty crop operations in the United States. We offer fractional farmland ownership opportunities to our members. I've been passionate about the agricultural industry all of my life, coming from three generations of farmers. After graduating with a degree in agriculture from California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo, I started my career in farming. I have extensive experience managing and farming a large variety of crops including cotton, alfalfa, almonds, grapes among several others. I've bought and sold millions in real estate and currently manage over a hundred million dollars worth of assets. My farm management company was recognized in 2012 for achieving over 900% growth and was listed on Inc Magazine's list of fastest-growing companies at number 701. This is an accomplishment I'm proud of, especially because it was the only agricultural company on the list. Q: Who has been your biggest influence, and why did they have such a significant effect on you? My biggest influence has been my father. At a young age, he taught me responsibility and accountability. As I grew older and we eventually started working together, he taught me a great deal about the ins and outs of running a business, not just a farm but the business of farming. This influence taught me to grow and learn as I moved forward with my career. I didn't think much of it then, but now I realize how valuable he was as a mentor. Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you have told yourself when you were in your twenties? My biggest influence has been my father. Coming from a farming background, I was a typical farmer’s child that had to wake up early and help out on the farm as much as possible. At a young age, he taught me responsibility and accountability. As I grew older and we eventually started working together, he taught me a great deal about the ins and outs of running a business, not just a farm but the business of farming. This influence taught me to grow and learn as I moved forward with my career. I didn't think much of it then, but now I realize how valuable he was as a mentor. Q: What is FarmFundr? FarmFundr is an equity crowdfunding platform focused on specialty crop operations in the United States. We offer fractional farmland ownership opportunities to our members in addition to developing custom farmland investments for investors looking to invest larger amounts of capital. Investors can create a free account on our website and will then gain access to carefully selected farmland investment opportunities with high return possibilities. Q: What makes your company different from its competitors? We are the only farmland-focused crowdfunding platform owned by a farmer. This is definitely an advantage to our investors, since they can be confident the offerings are vetted and hand selected by an expert farmer. This removes a lot of middle-men in the process. Also, other platforms offer returns by leasing the land to a farmer. Our crowdfunding opportunities offer fractional ownership in the entire farm operation. That means the investors own the property, the crops, and the profits. Q: What led you to start FarmFundr? I started FarmFundr because I saw a need to offer people the opportunity to invest in farmland without putting up huge amounts of capital. There was just a huge gap between what so many investors crave as far as an alternative asset and what so many farmers need as far as the capital. The gap just wasn't being filled. There are many reasons that I believe US farmland is an attractive investment. This includes an increase of the demand for food, the decline of available farmland and the farming industry's proven stability and resilience. I also wanted to give investors the opportunity to learn about the many aspects that go into a real working farm and the hard work that goes into feeding the world. Q: What has the experience of building the business taught you? Even though FarmFundr is a farmland investment business, something I am very familiar with, we are an online portal operating under the jobs act. These are two things that I had to learn from scratch. Not to mention the world of internet marketing, SEO, blogs, social media. Going from a farming and real estate investor to this was quite a big leap but I love every minute of it. Moving farmland investment to the internet will certainly be the future. I believe it is the responsibility of younger generations of farmers to keep pushing innovation in the agricultural field, and I think we are doing a great job of it. Q: Where do you see things headed for you in the next 5 years? I see farmFundr moving our platform to connect farmers to the capital. Our main goal has always been to keep the family farm in business and offer great farmland opportunities to our investors. If we can raise $100,000,000 and place it into high quality farmland with a great return for our investors, all while helping the family farmer, I think we are doing a good thing for everyone, including planet earth. For more information, see farmfundr.com.Introduction
Who is Brandon Silveira?
Business
True Tamplin is a published author, public speaker, CEO of UpDigital, and founder of Finance Strategists.
True is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF®), author of The Handy Financial Ratios Guide, a member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, contributes to his financial education site, Finance Strategists, and has spoken to various financial communities such as the CFA Institute, as well as university students like his Alma mater, Biola University, where he received a bachelor of science in business and data analytics.
To learn more about True, visit his personal website or view his author profiles on Amazon, Nasdaq and Forbes.
