AgroNet ZERO was selected as one of 12 startups in the 2026 U.S. Core Cohort of the Sage Impact Entrepreneurship Program — a group of impact-driven founders working on scalable environmental and social solutions.
For a company building decision infrastructure for regenerative agriculture, that kind of community matters. Impact only becomes real when it can be measured, financed, and scaled — and this cohort was built around exactly those questions.
A Program Built for Impact-Driven Founders
The program is organized by Sage, powered by Sage Foundation, in partnership with Village Capital. It brings founders together around structured peer learning rather than one-directional instruction.
The final gathering took place in Atlanta and centered on mentorship, investor readiness, impact models, financial narratives, and fundraising strategy — with founders reviewing and challenging each other's work throughout.
What ANZ Strengthened
The work was practical. Over the course of the program we sharpened how we explain the economics and the impact of what we are building:
- Impact measurement — defining what we track, and why it holds up to scrutiny
- Financial narrative and investment readiness
- Investor materials and fundraising strategy
- Peer feedback and collaboration across very different business models
Learning Alongside the Cohort
The most valuable part was honest feedback from other founders. Sitting with people solving different problems — but facing the same questions about proof, capital, and scale — exposes assumptions quickly.
Thank you to my ANZ partners Harris Turner and Tetiana McLemore, PhD, and to the wider founder community and program teams who made the sessions genuinely useful.
What Comes Next
We are applying that clarity directly to SoilSync — our intelligent decision engine for regenerative agriculture — as we continue developing it into a system that connects field-level data with the soil inputs most likely to perform.
Practical, scalable impact is the goal. Programs like this one make the path to it sharper.
Written by
Oleg Ryzhkov
