Farmer Owned - An Interview with FarmFundr CEO, Brandon Silveira
March 15, 2021
As a fourth-generation farmer, real estate investor and expert in farm management, our CEO, Brandon Silveira, takes extreme pride and care when it comes to selecting farmland investment properties to offer to FarmFundr members. We put together some questions for Brandon so he could share his thoughts on the past, present, and future of FarmFundr, as well as his inspiration and goals for the company and it's investors.
Howdy, I’m Brandon Silveira. I’m the founder of FarmFundr.
I’ve been passionate about the agricultural industry all of my life, coming from three generations of farmers before me. After graduating with a degree in agriculture from California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo, I started my successful 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.
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 how to grow a farm but the actual 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.
In my early twenties, I had a lot of opportunities that I could have jumped on. At the time, I thought the projects were too large for what I was capable of. I lacked the confidence to push myself. I would have told myself to jump on good opportunities when they are presented to you. Now, I feel great opportunities don't come by too often. Anytime one comes my way, I figure out how to make it work. If only my 23 year old self had this level of confidence!
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.
My team and I carefully select high-profit potential deals that we feel are great. I don't put up anything I wouldn't invest in myself.
Investors can create a free account on our website and will then gain access to carefully selected farmland investment opportunities with high return possibilities.
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. In some cases, our farm management company may even manage the property so we can see it is cared for properly and keep a watchful eye on it's health and progress. This removes a lot of middle-men in the process.
Also, some 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 actual property, the crops (in cash flow projects), and the profits.
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. It's an asset that can deliver great returns, a hedge against inflation and a neat experience to watch the farm's progress.
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 and we have a great team. Moving farmland investments 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.
I see FarmFundr moving our platform to connect farmers to the capital. Our main goals have 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.
FarmFundr makes investing in farmland simple. Sign up for a complimentary FarmFundr account here. By doing so, you will gain immediate access to any available farmland investment opportunities and you will also be kept in the loop when new opportunities become available. For now, our deals are open to accredited investors, however, we will have opportunities for non-accredited investors in the near future. Sign up to be the first to know when this happens!
