Meet The Founder – An Interview With Brianna Dickey
Listen to a very special episode of the Founders Live podcast where our founder and CEO, Brianna Dickey, details her journey to CropConex.
CropConex Founder and CEO, Brianna Dickey, had a dream of working with agricultural communities worldwide. Her primary objective was to support the economic development of smallholders by directly connecting them to international markets.
With her international ambitions, she became inspired by the possibility of using business as a force for sustainable development. She set off to consult with some of the biggest names in the international development sector, with her journey taking her across Colombia, Panama, Ethiopia, Honduras, and Tanzania.
While having the privilege of working alongside coffee farmers and foreign governments, she uncovered the inefficiencies embedded within existing agricultural systems. She came face to face with a lack of collaboration, antiquated trading methodologies, and logistical inefficiencies—ultimately concluding that the current system was broken. After spending three years living abroad, she learned that hidden logistics inefficiencies in the supply chain could absorb up to 40% of a product’s export value. She uncovered a slurry of intermediaries operating in informal and disorganized markets—and saw the massive opportunity to optimize these connections.
Finding herself frustrated with existing platforms, Brianna set out to find an efficacious remedy by creating software that would streamline workflows, increase communication, and simplify global trade processes. Equipped with tools and operational expertise from leading at a Silicon Valley tech startup, she was inspired to create a space where collaboration could lead to profitable agribusinesses—thus, CropConex was born.
In her efforts to make agricultural trade equitable, supply chains efficient, and food systems traceable, she is creating space for digital commerce to become the future of inclusive economies. Inspired by the realization that technology could unlock greater access and opportunity, this vision has become deeply embedded in CropConex’s mission and continues to drive the company forward.
