Bushel has named Jim Kaskade chief executive officer, while co-founder and current CEO Jake Joraanstad will move into the role of chief product officer, the company announced Nov. 11.
The company said the change reflects its board’s commitment to scaling the business and advancing product innovation “for an AI-driven future,” with the goal of bringing farmers and agribusinesses tools that make doing business “easier, faster, and more connected.” Bushel described the timing as “an unprecedented time in the software industry.”
Kaskade most recently served as CEO of Conversica, where, according to the announcement, he led the “native-AI” company through a business transformation into mid-market and enterprise revenue, with combined 30% year-over-year growth and a profitability profile. Over the past decade, the company said, he has transformed five businesses, with annual revenues ranging from $22 million (Janrain) to $1 billion (DXC).
At Bushel, he will lead business growth, while Joraanstad focuses on developing new products and capabilities built on Bushel’s network.
“Bushel has built a network that connects farmers with the businesses that keep agriculture moving,” Marty Leestma, chair of Bushel’s board of directors, said in the company’s announcement. “We have an opportunity to build on those relationships and extend the value of our network across agricultural commerce. We’re investing in the leadership to scale the business and the product innovation to help realize that opportunity.”
Bushel provides digital infrastructure for agricultural commerce, connecting farmers with the crop buyers, retailers, suppliers and lenders they work with. Its technology integrates with businesses that manage transactions, payments, invoices, checks and other workflows. The platform serves more than 3,500 grain and ag retail facilities, and the company said it aims to enable all farmers, globally, to transact digitally with ag retailers, lenders, processors and other businesses.
“Bushel is clearly in a ‘vertical of purpose’ where what we do for farmers and agribusinesses affects everyone sitting at the dinner table,” Kaskade said in the company’s announcement. “We believe farming is hard enough, and doing business in agriculture shouldn’t be. That’s why we’re focused on making the business of feeding the world simple.”
Joraanstad said in the company’s announcement: “We started Bushel in 2017 to make doing business easier for farmers and the agribusinesses they work with. We’ve built a network no single agribusiness could build on its own. Now I get to focus on making our solutions even easier and more impactful, including AI-powered capabilities.”
Joraanstad, a North Dakota State University computer engineering graduate from Rolla, N.D., co-founded Bushel’s predecessor, Myriad Mobile, in 2011 with Ryan Raguse. Raguse has since left the company but remains on Bushel’s board.
