From Pitch to Purpose: What a VC’s Question Taught Me About My Startup

Super excited to share that I was a finalist representing Credible Hydroponics at the 2025 Startup Catalyst Pitch Competition, hosted by the Institute for Innovation and Economic Development at CSU Monterey Bay! The event brought together 40 startups from across the Central Coast and Bay Area, all pitching their ideas in a first-round judging session. Finalists—including us!—had the opportunity to pitch in front of a panel of business leaders and investors.

It was an exhilarating experience, and I was proud to represent the company—we received a lot of positive feedback.

After my pitch, I was grilled by the panelists in front of a crowd, and I held my ground with confidence. But one question caught me off guard. A venture capitalist asked, “What is your company’s inflection point in the market?”

Honestly, I didn’t know what that meant. Instead of trying to BS an answer, I said, “I don’t know how to answer that question, but I’ll come talk to you afterward.” Later, I followed up with him to get clarity—and he unpacked it for me. What he really meant was: Why you? Why Credible Hydroponics? Why Argonaut? Why now?

Damn. That’s a big question. And it deserves a real answer—not something rushed under pressure.

So here we go:

Why me?

I’ve known I wanted to do something like this for 20 years, and I’ve been developing this plan for the last three. Over my career, instead of becoming a hyper-specialist, I’ve picked up skills across both science and engineering. That’s helped me understand all the components of a functional system—and how to piece them together to create something meaningful, integrated, and new.

Why Credible Hydroponics?

Because I want Cred Hydro to be a company centered on social good—not one that causes environmental harm. That’s been my guiding principle for most of my career. To me, that means: creating a net positive impact on community well-being and sustainability—by building a fresh, local market for vegetables, herbs, and mushrooms—while minimizing environmental impact: no carbon emissions, no pesticides, no land conversion, and minimal inputs.

Why Argonaut?

Argonaut’s mission is to share horticultural knowledge. Imagine a grower in Kentucky who’s cracked the code on growing fava beans being able to pass that insight—through Argonaut—to a grower in Nigeria. Argonaut will be a centralized knowledge base for growing food. It’s our gift to the future.

Why now?

To grow the human population from 1 billion to 8 billion in just 200 years, our ancestors had to radically expand food production. Today, our food system is globally interconnected, and it was built around one climatological baseline. That baseline is shifting—and with it, the security of our raw food production.

If people in the future are going to sustain themselves, we must adopt new modes of food production now! Those who come after us—adults at the turn of the next century—will need resilient, technological alternatives to conventional farming.

Let’s try to make it easier for them.