Kellogg Food & Agribusiness Club (kFAB) | Indigo Ag - Chris Brown

Can you describe your internship briefly?

I was an MBA Intern on the Systems Innovation team at Indigo Ag during the summer of 2019. Indigo's mission statement is "harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet." The company has its roots in biotech -- its original product was a biological seed coating -- and has expanded to major businesses like Indigo Marketplace and Indigo Carbon. My internship was 10-weeks long and was based out of Indigo's Boston office. I was 1 of about 15 MBA interns at Indigo last summer, 3 of which were on the Systems Innovation team with me. I came to Kellogg with the hypothesis that I wanted to transition into a growth-stage company in agriculture. This was really the perfect way to test that hypothesis.

Was there room to go beyond the initial setup of the internship?

Yes, there was room to grow beyond the initial scope of the internship. Indigo is a place that sets ambitious goals and timelines. Correspondingly, we need to allocate any and all human capital to meet those targets. My scope started with a business plan and evolved into a full-fledged rollout of a soil sampling strategy for Indigo Carbon. In the process, I had the opportunity to share work with several Indigo VPs and members of the C-suite. Looking back it's hard to believe how quickly things moved and how much we got done in such a short time.

How was the interaction with your colleagues?

I loved working on the Systems Innovation team!! We worked hard, valued learning from each other, and enjoyed one another's company both in and out of the office. On a regular basis, I was working with data scientists, chemists, soil scientists, design-thinkers, and agronomists to name a few -- it was truly a cross-functional team. I believe that solving problems in agriculture requires an interdisciplinary approach and that this team is well equipped to do it.

To what degree did the internship provide you with a good understanding of the industry and function? And to what degree did it provide you the opportunity to develop new skills, knowledge (e.g., via coaching or training) or a relevant network inside and outside the company (conferences, touchpoint with relevant people in other departments…)?

The immersion in agriculture was fantastic. Every day I woke up thinking about how to make sustainable farming easier and more attractive for growers. It's a complicated challenge but that gives me a lot of energy. I also loved working alongside data scientists in solving these problems. I genuinely feel that I would not have been as effective this past summer without having taken Retail Analytics and Customer Analytics. Although I never wrote the code myself, I used the frameworks from class about how to overcome challenges in data science almost daily.

Would you see yourself working there in the long term? Why/why not?

Absolutely. I plan to join Indigo Ag after graduation. I really enjoyed the mission-driven aspect of our work and the people with whom I worked alongside. I think Indigo has real potential to change our agricultural system for the better. Correspondingly, I think there are ample opportunities for growth and leadership within the organization.

Based on your experience, what advice would you give current students seeking positions at Indigo Ag?

I think there are two big things to consider: first, study up on the industry and Indigo's role within it -- you'll want to have an understanding of what Indigo's disrupting and why before your formal interviews. Second, you'll want to have a solid answer to the inevitable start-up interview question of "what value can you bring to our team in 10 weeks?" Indigo may be a later stage start-up, but they are still looking to find team members who can hit the ground running.