Why the Next Big Tech Company Will Be Built in a Tractor

Walk me through your childhood. What played a role in shaping the founder you are today?

“I’m a farm and ranch kid,” Bryan states. He grew up in southeastern Montana. Big sky country, but not the postcard version. This was tough terrain, vast stretches of land where neighbors leaned on each other and everyone had to pull their weight.

“I worked alongside my father, both my grandfathers. They had big ranches. I learned pride in workmanship, what it means to truly work hard—and that when you’re doing it, you’re doing it for more than yourself. You’re doing it for your family, your community, your neighbors.”

Bryan absorbed entrepreneurship at the dinner table, in the dirt, and during those long hours fixing equipment that never quite ran perfectly. “It was about building a legacy, ye. But it was also about dropping everything to help your neighbor when they needed you. That part stuck.”

What inspired you to start FarmPro?

Working for John Deere was the dream. For Bryan, it was “like going pro for a farm kid.” He became an ag engineer, driven by the frustration of always fixing old equipment growing up. “I thought, I can make this better.” That mindset carried him into a role where he wasn’t just tinkering with machines—he was helping design tech 10 to 20 years into the future.

But something gnawed at him. “The mid and small-size farmers…they were getting left behind,” Bryan says. Deere had to prioritize mega-farms—the ones with cash to burn. Meanwhile, the people he grew up with were slipping through the cracks.

So he took the leap, moved back to Montana with his family, and started FarmPro: a platform that gives smaller farmers access to equipment, logistics, and services they’d never afford on their own. Think “Uber for agriculture”—but grounded in community, not hype.

Farming is generational. Software is exponential. How do you bridge those two worlds?

“Adoption is slow.” Farmers trust handshakes over five-star reviews. They’d rather hear from their neighbor than download another app. And yet, they’re no strangers to tech.

“My dad’s been using auto-steer for 20 years. He reads novels and scrolls Facebook while the tractor drives itself,” Bryan jokes. “So it’s not the tech, it’s the trust and the use case.”He found his wedge in trucking. “Truckers didn’t want to go out to the middle of nowhere, and farmers couldn’t find them. It was a complete disconnect. I saw that pain and thought—we can fix this.” That insight turned into a logistics marketplace with serious upside, and serious traction.

Was there a moment you stopped seeing yourself as just a founder and started seeing yourself as a CEO?

“Yeah,” Bryan says. “It hit when I started bringing on co-founders.”

He had the original vision. He’d built the early product. But the moment he brought in others with startup and technical experience, something shifted. “I realized someone has to steer the ship. That’s me. Even with smarter people around me, it’s on me to synthesize the vision and drive forward.”

He also emphasizes the weight of leadership. “I had to go from engineering silos to thinking about finance, sales, accounting… all the spokes in the wheel. Now I’m the hub.”

What would someone who knew you before FarmPro say has changed in you?

“I see the whole board now.” Bryan used to live deep in the engineering weeds—systems, specs, data. But leading a startup forced him to think more broadly and make tradeoffs. “I used to influence maybe three or four areas at John Deere. Now I’m responsible for all of them.”

The transformation wasn’t optional—it was survival.

What’s the most misunderstood part of your industry or customer?

“People think ag isn’t high tech. But that couldn’t be more wrong.” Bryan is clear: “A John Deere tractor has 11 computers on it. These are small business owners running multimillion-dollar operations. They’re cautious, not outdated.”

The challenge isn’t ignorance—it’s risk tolerance. “They’re not playing with a corporate R&D budget. It’s their livelihood. Their family’s future. So they move slower. That’s just smart.”

Was your mission clear from day one?

“Yes. Help small and mid-size farmers. Period.” But the execution? That took time.

“We started with big customers—Cargill, ADM—because they paid fast and adopted faster. But the mission never wavered. Now, two years in, we’re finally serving farmers directly.”

He gets emotional thinking about it. “My dad’s 72. He works hard, sometimes forgets he isn’t 30 anymore.  If he pushes too hard, maybe breaks his arm again as he did on a recent incident—and he will—I want him to be able to call our app instead of just calling me. That’s the dream, not just for my family, but for many of the aging farmers out there.”

Have you ever been the bottleneck in your company? How’d you get out of your own way?

“Sales. I’ve never done full-time sales. Neither have my co-founders. We were engineers, product guys. But when you’re in a small team, you do everything.”

Bryan tackled it the ‘Highland way’ —by asking for help. “I leaned on the community, leaned on my team. The key was admitting it and sharing the load.”

If you could start over, what would you do differently?

“I might have moved faster,” Bryan says thoughtfully. “We took a slower path—bootstrapped, self-funded, built our own brokerage to test our software.” It worked. They’re profitable. They’re scaling. But it took longer. “If I had a crystal ball and knew what I know now, I might have jumped to productization sooner.”

Still, no regrets. “We own the company. We’re in control. That was the point.”

What’s one source of inspiration you always return to?

And then there’s a quote that’s lived with him for years: “It’s not the years in the life, it’s the life in the years.”

“That kind of mantra helped push me to take the leap,” Bryan reflects. “It’s easy to stay safe. John Deere was safe. But I knew I’d regret not trying to live fully—taking risks that mattered. Even if we’re not rich yet in the startup world, it’s been the right life decision. No question.”

Thanks for reading! If you’d like to learn more about Bryan’s company, visit: www.farmpro.ag

To learn more about Bryan, you can find his LinkedIn here: www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-buerkle