Director, Digital Product & Platform Strategy

Born from a shared ambition to revolutionize agriculture, the journey of Pivot Bio began in 2011 with co-founders Karsten Temme and Alvin Tamsir. While in graduate school, they envisioned a safer, more sustainable alternative to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, a cornerstone of modern farming for over a century but one with significant environmental drawbacks. For decades, scientists had chased the elusive goal of enabling crops to source their own nitrogen from the air. Temme and Tamsir, fueled by an innovative drive and a deep understanding of the soil microbiome, genomics, and crop nutrition, decided to tackle this grand challenge head-on. They believed that by harnessing the power of naturally occurring microbes, they could develop a breakthrough technology that would not only improve farm productivity but also heal the planet.

Their persistence paid off. Through a proprietary platform involving advanced computational and microbiome technologies, they successfully reprogrammed soil microbes to produce and deliver nitrogen directly to the roots of crops like corn, wheat, and sorghum. This marked a pivotal moment in agricultural history. In 2019, Pivot Bio launched its first commercial product, Pivot Bio PROVEN®, which sold out in less than six weeks, a testament to the farming community's readiness for a new, more efficient way to manage nitrogen. This initial success was just the beginning. The company has since expanded its product portfolio, introducing solutions for other cereal crops and continuously improving its technology. Today, Pivot Bio stands as a leader in sustainable agriculture, having prevented hundreds of thousands of metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions and returned millions of dollars to farmers through its sustainability programs. Their story is one of scientific ingenuity and a steadfast commitment to creating a future where agriculture is more profitable, predictable, and in harmony with the environment.