84. Paul Mikesell: Carbon Robotics and the $1million laser weeder

Can farmers really justify investing $1million in a new machine? How can AI be leveraged to solve physical problems in ag? Why did Nvidia, one of the world's most valuable companies, invest in laser weeding agtech? This week Kit and Ray are joined by a pioneer, innovator and entrepreneur Paul Mikesell CEO of Carbon Robotics (arguably the brightest agtech company right now!). Paul has a long career in Deeptech development, working for companies including Oculus (Meta) , Uber, Clutrix (Maria DB Corporation). Paul has been spearheading chemical free laser weeding for farmers and growers around the world. He explains how the laser weeder tech works, how to keep it safe, how the carbon robotics product has evolved and why protecting IP is so important. Paul shares some refreshingly brash thoughts about some of the recent big failures in the agtech start-up ecosystem and why they should have failed. More than anything Paul shares his relentless optimism for agtech, agricultural engineering and the future of farming. #AgTech #AgriTech #AgriculturalEngineering #CarbonRobotics #LaserWeeding #AIinAgriculture #FarmTech #Robotics #PrecisionAgriculture #WeedControl #BrashAg