About this episode

Jaap Zijlstra discusses the advantages of family offices over VCs in the hard-tech sector, particularly in AgriFood innovation.

Episode 105: Navus: Jaap Zijlstra on Why "Process Tech" is the Missing Link in Scaling AgriFood and Why Family Offices Beat VCs in the Hard-Tech Winter In this episode, I sit down with Jaap Zijlstra , representing Navus , a Dutch family office-backed venture firm. Unlike traditional VCs, Navus leverages the technical heritage of a world-leading dairy robotics family to build clusters of sustainable food and energy companies. Jaap explains why the "AgriFood winter" is not a death knell for innovation, but a necessary maturation phase that favors patient capital over hyper-speed software models. We deep-dive into why Navus doubles down on process technology and hardware-enabled IP (like their investment in Cosaic ), and why agriculture will always follow the laws of physics, not the speed of software deployment. 🎧 Listen to the full episode to hear Jaap’s candid take on why family offices are the natural home for hardware-heavy biotech, how they leverage in-house patent offices to vet deep-tech, and why they prioritize "real-world" adoption cycles over "get-rich-quick" exit timelines. Key Facts: Navus Jaap Zijlstra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaap-zijlstra-48b69319/ Website…

People in this episode

Host: Alex Shandrovsky

Guest: Jaap Zijlstra

Topics covered

• family offices
• venture capital
• hard-tech
• AgriFood
• sustainable technology
• process technology

Keywords

• family offices
• venture capital
• AgriFood winter
• process technology
• sustainable food
• hardware-enabled IP

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Navus, Cosaic

Places: Netherlands

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