Image of Helping Heal Earth Through Regenerative Agriculture with 99 Counties Founder Christian Ebersol

Helping Heal Earth Through Regenerative Agriculture with 99 Counties Founder Christian Ebersol

  • December 11, 2024
  • |
  • Web Media Infotech Pvt.Ltd

Christian Ebersol is the CEO of 99 Counties. 99 Counties is a regenerative meat company proudly delivering locally-sourced, nutrient-dense regenerative meat to Chicagoans and Iowans. 

Previously, Christian led sales and new product teams at Health IQ and worked as a venture investor at Comcast Ventures. He grew up in Cornwall Connecticut and received his graduate degree from Bowdoin College.
 
 
In this episode you’ll learn about: 
  • A Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) approach – why Christian and Nick chose to start with the 99 counties in Iowa and focus on customer satisfaction and sustainability over business expansion.
  • Regenerative food  – the importance of buying locally grown and sourced food for the health benefits for consumers and for the health of the planet.
  • Making an impact – how 99 Counties is setting the example for a green, eco-friendly business and their mission is to inspire others to do the same.
  • Multi-layer marketing – why 99 Counties is spreading its marketing through digital ads, social media content, email marketing, direct mail, and live events, and what they are seeing from each.
  • Controlling the customer experience  – why 99 Counties uses their own drivers instead of relying on a shipping or delivery service, and how they are creating customer loyalty with their top-notch customer service.
  • Building capital – the power of maintaining strong relationships when raising money and starting something new.
  • Creating a multi-layer company – how 99 Counties is not only providing a healthier solution to their customers, but is also helping the environment, the farm animals, and is making an impact on jobs and rural development in America.
  • Bridging the gap – how 99 Counties is helping farmers get their products to market in an easier way.
  • Brand transitioning – How Christian’s partner Nick was able to keep many of his old customers  and the soul of the company when they re-branded to 99 Counties becasue of the relationships Nick cultivated with their customers. 


Resources:


Connecting with Guest:
 
Connecting with the host:
 
Quotables
  • 5:07 “So much of the way we farm in America, and the world, starts in the heartland, where a lot of these big industrial farming practices have their roots and continue to evolve.”
  • 10:22 “In the end, a lot of the places that we fundraised from successfully were people that I had built relationships with over a long period of time.”
  • 11:52 “I think this is like a quintuple bottom-line business, and that means it’s better for consumer’s health, it’s better for the planet, it’s better for the animals, it’s better for small-town America in jobs and rural development.”
  • 13:04 “You can’t undersell email as an important channel for us.”
  • 18:47 “It just creates more customer affinity and then again at a certain scale it actually is more advantages for us operationally  to be doing [deliveries] ourselves.”
  • 31:30  “We bridge the gap by working with a farmer and providing them a path to market that would otherwise be very hard for them to have.”
  • 32:52 “We’re really trying to solve that with 99 Counties, on a regional scale, creating a connection between customers who really care about buying great, local food, with farmers who want to serve that market.”
  • 34:58 “What we’ve found is you have to pair those digital efforts with more real-world efforts. So that’s why we’re doing some of the event marketing, and some of the direct mail.
  • 41:44 “If we’re going to heal the planet we can’t just have the plants, we also have to have the animals.”