David Friedberg

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David Friedberg
Friedberg in 2020
Born1979 or 1980 (age 43–44)
South Africa
CitizenshipSouth African, American
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, businessman, angel investor

David Albert Friedberg (born 1979 or 1980[1]) is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and angel investor.[2] He founded and was chief executive of The Climate Corporation, whose $1.1 billion sale to Monsanto in 2013 made it the first unicorn in the emerging agricultural technology space.[3][4] He is currently founder and CEO of The Production Board (TPB). He is a co-host of the All-In podcast, alongside David Sacks, Jason Calacanis & Chamath Palihapitiya. Spanning his career, he has contributed to 32 patents.[5]

Early life and education[edit]

Friedberg was born c. 1980 in South Africa.[1] At age six, Friedberg moved with his family to Los Angeles, California.[6] In high school, Friedberg was president of the environmental club "Students H.O.P.E." (Students Healing Our Planet Earth).[7] At age 16, he entered Clarkson University, in Potsdam, New York, where he worked in a pool hall and learned to play poker.[1] After one year in upstate New York, he transferred to University of California, Berkeley, where he had a part-time job doing mathematical modeling at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and received a Bachelor's Degree in Astrophysics in 2001.[8]

Career[edit]

Google[edit]

After several years in investment banking and private equity, Friedberg joined Google in March 2004 as one of the first 1,000 employees and a founding member of Google's Corporate Development group.[9] As Corporate Development and Business Product Manager, Friedberg helped run Google's online advertising platform, AdWords, and negotiated acquisitions and worked with Google co-founder Larry Page.[10]

The Climate Corporation[edit]

In 2006, he founded his first company, WeatherBill, to create and buy custom weather insurance online. Friedberg was still working at Google as a business product manager when the idea for the company came to him.[11] He was driving past the Bike Hut in San Francisco and seeing sales slump on rainy days[12] as the thought occurred to him that the impact of weather on a business must be a big problem.

WeatherBill secured funding from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Google Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Index Ventures and Atomico.[13] In 2011, Friedberg changed WeatherBill's name to The Climate Corporation.[14] The Climate Corporation focused on offering farmers weather insurance and the climate.com service to help them track, analyze, and make field-specific decisions on their farms to improve farming outcomes. On 5 October 2011, Friedberg gave his Entrepreneurship Gives Life Meaning lecture[15] at Stanford.

In October 2013, Monsanto announced that it was acquiring The Climate Corporation for about $1.1 billion.[16] Friedberg joined Monsanto's Executive Team after the acquisition and in 2016 shifted to an advisory role.[17]

The Production Board[edit]

In 2016, Friedberg began talking with Larry Page about a way to build and finance more startups focused on food, agriculture, decarbonization and life sciences.[18] Through parent company Alphabet, Page agreed to help finance a holding company that Friedberg would operate.[19] Friedberg founded The Production Board (TPB) in 2016.[20]

TPB partners with scientists, businesspeople, and entrepreneurs to solve the world's challenges, such as climate change.[21] TPB portfolio businesses include Pattern Ag, Ohalo, Culture Biosciences, Triplebar Bio, Supergut and Cana.[18] In July 2021, Friedberg announced that The Production Board raised $300 million from Alphabet, Baillie Gifford, Allen & Co., BlackRock, Koch Disruptive Technologies and Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global.[18]

Boards of directors and other roles[edit]

Friedberg founded car insurance firm Metromile in 2011 and served as its chairman during its early years.[22][23] He is also an angel investor in various technology, food, agriculture, and life sciences startups. In 2014, he purchased Canadian quinoa supplier NorQuin, North America's largest supplier of quinoa.[24] In 2022, Above Food Corp. acquired Norquin[25] and appointed Friedberg to its Innovation Advisory Council.[26]

Personal life[edit]

Friedberg is one of the four co-hosts of All-In, a business and investment podcast with Chamath Palihapitiya, David O. Sacks, and Jason Calacanis.[27]

Friedberg is a lifelong vegetarian.[7]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Specter, Michael (3 November 2013). "Climate by Numbers". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  2. ^ "David Friedberg | AgileList". Angel.co. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
  3. ^ Burwood-Taylor, Louisa (21 February 2019). "Founder of Agtech's First Unicorn David Friedberg Reveals Investment Portfolio of The Production Board | Ag Funder News". AgFunder News. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  4. ^ Wolf, Michael (24 June 2020). "Talking 23andMe For Farms, Bioreactors-as-a-Service & Other Crazy FoodTech Ideas With Dave Friedberg". The Spoon. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  5. ^ "Google Patents". patents.google.com. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  6. ^ "Anything Is Possible with Dave Friedberg | Where It Happens". YouTube. 3 March 2022. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
  7. ^ a b Specter, Michael (3 November 2013). "Why The Climate Corporation Sold Itself to Monsanto". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  8. ^ Vahradyan, Ani (22 February 2017). "David Friedberg: Astrophysics, Eatsa, and Everything In Between". Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
  9. ^ Woody, Todd (28 February 2011). "WeatherBill raises $42 million". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  10. ^ Bunge, Jacob (4 September 2014). "Monsanto, Under Attack for GMOs, Has a New Defender | Wall Street Journal". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  11. ^ Martin, Bobby (24 May 2016). The Hockey Stick Principles: The 4 Key Stages to Entrepreneurial Success. Flatiron Books. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-250-06638-1.
  12. ^ Gullickson, Gil (18 November 2013). "How Climate Corporation Built Big Weather Data". Successful Farming. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  13. ^ Arrington, Michael (15 January 2007). "WeatherBill Launches, Announces All Star Investors". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  14. ^ "Weatherbill changes company name to The Climate Corporation". Artemis. 11 October 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  15. ^ Tucker, Patrick (24 February 2015). The Naked Future: What Happens in a World That Anticipates Your Every Move?. Penguin. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-59184-770-0.
  16. ^ Tsotsis, Alexia (2 October 2013). "Monsanto Buys Weather Big Data Company Climate Corporation For Around $1.1B". TechCrunch. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
  17. ^ Bunge, Jacob (23 March 2016). "Monsanto Executive David Friedberg Shifting to Advisory Role | Wall Street Journal". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  18. ^ a b c Levy, Ari (20 July 2021). "Early Google exec got Larry Page's backing to build a start-up factory focused on saving the planet | CNBC". CNBC. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  19. ^ "David Friedberg's Alphabet-backed Production Board raised $300 million | Planet Concerns". Planet Concerns. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  20. ^ "Crazy FoodTech Ideas With Dave Friedberg | The Spoon". The Spoon. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  21. ^ "The Production Board's Dave Friedberg: "Technology will save the day - hopefully"". Danny in the Valley. 19 August 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  22. ^ Sawers, Paul (21 September 2016). "Per-mile car insurance firm Metromile has raised $191.5 million since 2014, now underwrites its own policies". VentureBeat.
  23. ^ "SEC Form S-1 | SEC". SEC. 30 July 2021. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  24. ^ Little, Amanda (17 December 2016). "Quinoa is the new Big Mac". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  25. ^ Danley, Sam (19 May 2022). "Above Food acquires quinoa supplier| Food Business News". Food Business News. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  26. ^ "Above Food Appoints David Friedberg to Innovation Advisory Council| Yahoo.com". Yahoo.com. 2 June 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  27. ^ "All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg". The All In Podcast. Retrieved 4 February 2023.


External links[edit]

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