99 Counties: Chapter 1 - Why I moved to Chicago and started a frozen meat company to combat climate change

And how you can support what we are building at 99 Counties

Mike, Nick and I with Nick’s grass-fed beef herd in Keystone, Iowa last week

A year ago I quit my job to pursue my dream to build a company that would make a positive impact on climate change. It was a whirlwind of a year. One that challenged me in ways I never imagined possible. I parted ways with a company I spent over three years growing from 50 to 300 employees, I bade a tearful goodbye to a city I’ve loved for 8 years, and visited farms in 14 states all in search of a deeper meaning and connection to my work. I turned myself inside out to find a cause that resonated with me deeply and that I know I will wake up every day fired up to work on. And that cause is what inspired us to build 99 Counties. We are building a platform connecting regenerative farmers to consumers and we are starting in the heart of the commodity agriculture system: Iowa. As my Co-founder Nick Wallace likes to say “if we can change Iowa, we can change the weather.”

Why are we focused on real animal meat and not cell-based, plant-based or cultured meat? 

Because meat alternatives like “cell-based”, “plant-based” and “cultured meat” are all just the latest iteration of our broken industrial food system. The same way the feedlots of the current meat industry are supplied by millions of acres of monocropped corn and soybeans requiring massive amounts of chemical fertilizer and sprayed with chemicals that kill all forms of life other than the GMO resistant crops, meat alternatives ask you the consumer to turn a blind eye to the supply chain and the embodied carbon that their products rely upon. As I covered at greater length in a recent post, these meat alternatives have yet to prove that they can regenerate the environments that they rely upon. At 99 Counties, we are focused on solving climate change with animal based meat because that is how our planet evolved. The breathtaking natural beauty of our planet is the result of the complex interplay between flora (plants) and fauna (animals). Look deep within your soul and ask yourself if you really believe that we as humans have evolved to a point where we are so much better than nature. I think you know we are not - rather we are a part of nature and if we are to reverse climate change we need to start by accepting the ancient wisdom of biological systems. And that is what regenerative agriculture is all about - farming with as much plant and animal diversity as possible. And it’s even been shown on farms already to have a negative carbon footprint.

Where did the idea for 99 Counties come from?

99 Counties is the fulfillment of a dream that our visionary Founder, Nick Wallace has had for several years now. I spend a lot of time talking with prospective investors, customers, partners, and employees and I am always refining the way I articulate our mission and our passion. Last month, alongside the banks of the Iowa River in Iowa City, as Nick and I shivered in subzero temperatures in the back of the refrigerated Ryder delivery truck that he uses for his Wallace Farms deliveries, a customer of his came by with a gift.

Nick and I in Iowa City in January

Eve Minkler is a longtime customer of Nick’s who ghost wrote the recent Paleo f(x) book Primal Uprising.  She handed Nick a signed copy and there on page 263 I came across something that Nick wrote 2 years ago and it gave me the chills:

“I often daydream while I drive the back roads of Iowa.  There isn’t much to look at these days.  Rows and rows of corn and soybeans, the occasional hog-confinement and abandoned farm houses with crumbling barns…Back to my daydreams.  Instead of corn and soybean fields, I see emerald green pastures dotted with cows, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys and ducks.  A micro-dairy for each county… maybe 2 dairies.  One does fresh raw milk, the other artisan cheese, cottage cheese, butter and ice cream.  The whey, a by-product, feeds the chickens for eggs.  The eggs go to town with the neighbor’s organic red winter wheat for the corner bakery.  That bakery sells buns to the local burger joint.  The burger joint is using the grass-fed local beef and the cheese from the dairy.  Score 2 points for the dairy - wait, make that 3 points because the burger joint sells milkshakes, too! The burger joint buys lard from the acorn and apple-finished pork producer down the road.  You haven’t had french fries until you’ve had them fried in lard.  Oh yeah, the neighbor’s hogs make hot dogs in case you’re not in the mood for a burger.  Those bruised apples the pork producer used to finish his pork came from his neighbor’s orchard.  The orchard’s best apples, peaches, blueberries and strawberries went to the baker who made pies.  Pies with the organic red winter wheat and a lard crust.  Are you starting to get the picture?  This makes so much sense on so many levels but remember it’s just a dream.  Maybe we can start to make it a reality!”

Making the dream a reality

When I first met Nick in June of this past year and heard his vision for a better future I thought “damn, I wish that was my idea.” Little did I know that it could become my idea as well. In the days and weeks since our first meeting in June, across countless Zoom meetings and phone calls, we realized that in order to succeed we would need a variety of skill sets to accelerate the adoption of regenerative agriculture. In short we needed to blend farming, marketing, finance and technology. The decade I spent in venture capital and startups taught me how to fundraise, lead teams, launch products and have the confidence to tackle any business problem. However as I developed this passion to change agriculture I knew that in order to authentically work with farmers and present myself to customers I had to partner with a farmer from the heartland. And who better than a 6th generation Iowan who spent the last two decades transforming his farm to regenerative, had already built a loyal customer base and had a network of farmers ready to join him. 

The Team

Between Nick and I we had the first three boxes checked but we were woefully short on technology.  And then in July, during the OnDeck Climate Tech program we connected with Mike Adkins. Mike is a technologist and a builder who spent the last decade developing APIs and data platforms for large financial firms in New York and had the same calling to put his efforts toward fighting climate change. I knew I’d found the right kind of tinkerer and lover of technological efficiency when our 2nd zoom call was interrupted by his 3D printer generating cabinets and other household items for his house - seriously who does that!  Many of us in the regenerative movement often feel that it is the hubris of technology that has made farming so toxic and bad for the environment, however technology also provides us with the tools to connect consumers more directly to farmers and to disrupt the large incumbents. We realized that between the three of us we could build the platform to empower more farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture.   

So what are we building:

1. For consumers: a subscription delivery service offering the most regenerative meat from farms all within a day's drive. Each piece of meat will come with a barcode providing complete traceability back to the farm of origin, along with photography and videography chronicling the stories of the farmers who raised the livestock with regenerative practices. As a consumer you can feel proud knowing that your purchases supported a small, nearby farm with a positive impact on the environment. 

2. For farmers: a platform that rewards farmers for their regenerative practices and allows them to focus on just farming. Our team of Farm Ambassadors led by our co-founder Nick Wallace, finds regenerative farmers in Iowa, certifies their practices, and provides them with the support and coaching they need to regenerate more land. Our content team then records photos, videos and interviews with the farmers. When the livestock on that farm is ready to be harvested, 99 Counties buy the whole animal from the farmer at a premium price point. In beef, pork, and poultry 99 Counties pays on average a 15% premium to the farmer versus what they could receive elsewhere. 99 Counties is responsible for the transportation, processing, packaging, sales and marketing of the product to consumers. 

A big thank you to our investors

Lastly, I have to add that every cliche I’ve ever heard about starting a company is true. It really is the hardest thing I’ve ever done and at times downright terrifying. The highs are so so sweet, but the lows will rock you to your core. We are so incredibly grateful to have the support of several incredible investors. Michael Yang of OMERS Ventures who was willing to bet on me as an EIR before there was an idea, Nate Williams of Union Labs, Shayna Harris of Supply Change Capital and Andy Wheeler of GV have all put their faith in us to do something big and world-changing. We know this is just the first chapter - and we know there will be speed bumps along the way - but with this team behind us, we are confident we have all the elements in place to succeed. A special thank you to each of these individuals for believing in us. 

How can you help:

1. Share this post with your friends in Chicago and Iowa. 99 Counties will be launching our product offering this September exclusively in Chicago and Iowa - in sticking with our focus on rebuilding that local connection to your farmer. And we are looking for passionate customers to add to our community. 

2. Help us fill our open positions: we have a number of important roles we are looking to fill in engineering, marketing and operations. If you know someone in the Chicago / Iowa area who you think would be interested please share our job board with them.

3. Provide product feedback: We are in the process of onboarding new farmers and building a new 99 Counties website over the next few months - however in the meantime Nick is continuing to offer regenerative meat to consumers through Wallace Farms. In September we will be migrating all Wallace Farms customers to 99 Counties and we will be ceasing to ship nationally because it does not fit our focus on rebuilding regional food systems. In the meantime we are continuing to fulfill orders via Wallace Farms as a way to receive customer feedback. We’d love for you to order a box, provide us with your feedback and perhaps offer suggestions on how we could continue to service customers outside of Chicago and Iowa in a sustainable way this fall. 

This is just the first Chapter of 99 Counties. I’ll be back soon with Chapter 2...