#64 – Juan Whiting (US Army Reserves) – Stray Acres

I started looking into grant writing, and realized that this is kind of like being the garbage man of the industry. There's just not a lot of people that want to do it.

This quote from our guest this week, Juan Whiting, may be true in that there are not many professionals who want to take on this task, but it can be a necessary and prudent decision for an early-stage company or growers/ranchers to access capital without giving away equity.

Juan Whiting is the owner of a consultancy called Stray Acres - a grant writing consulting company that develops tailored funding strategies and grant proposals for high-impact agricultural projects around the world. Juan also serves as an agricultural specialist with the US Army Civil Affairs department as a subject matter expert. He recently authored a book titled The Holistic Funding Approach: Powerful Techniques and Strategies to Put Millions of Agricultural Grant Funding in the Right hands”.

Right after high school, Juan’s path led him into missionary work with the LDS church in Kenya. He was immediately exposed to a civil war and food insecurity. This began to cement in his mind the importance of agriculture. Following some training with the US Marine Corps and graduate schooling, Juan found his way back into Africa, this time into Rwanda, for the next 6 years working on ag impact investment projects for a foundation before returning to the states to start Stray Acres.

This episode is all about Juan’s fascinating journey into agricultural farm management in a developing country, the US Army’s modern day Monument’s Man program, the nuances of grant writing, and much more.

Enjoy!