David Friedberg
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

David Albert Friedberg (born 1 June 1980) is an American
entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
, businessman, and
angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...
. He founded and was chief executive of The Climate Corporation, whose $1.1 billion sale to Monsanto in 2013 made it the first
unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...
in the emerging
agricultural technology Agricultural technology or agrotechnology (abbreviated agtech, agritech, AgriTech, or agrotech) is the use of technology in agriculture, horticulture, and aquaculture with the aim of improving yield, efficiency, and profitability. Agricultural tec ...
space. He is currently founder and CEO of The Production Board (TPB). He is a co-host of the ''All-In'' podcast. Spanning his career, he has contributed to 32 patents.


Early life and education

Friedberg was born in 1980 in South Africa. At age six, Friedberg moved with his family to Los Angeles, California. In high school, Friedberg was president of the environmental club “Students H.O.P.E.” (Students Healing Our Planet Earth). At age 16, he entered
Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York, and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region and Beacon, New York. It was founded in 1896 and has an enr ...
, in
Potsdam, New York Potsdam ( moh, Tsi tewate’nehtararénies) is a town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The town population was 14,901 at the 2020 census. The ZIP Code is 13676. When SUNY Potsdam and Clarkson University are in session, the popul ...
, where he worked in a pool hall and learned to play poker. After one year in upstate New York, he transferred to
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, where he had a part-time job doing mathematical modeling at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States Department of Energy National Labs, United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, t ...
and received a
Bachelor's Degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in
Astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...
in 2001.


Career


Google

After several years in investment banking and private equity, Friedberg joined Google in March 2004 as one of the first 1,000 employees and a founding member of
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
’s Corporate Development group. As Corporate Development and Business Product Manager, Friedberg helped run Google's online advertising platform,
AdWords Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It can place ads both in the result ...
, and negotiated acquisitions and worked with Google co-founder
Larry Page Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. Page was the chief executive officer of Google from 1997 unt ...
.


The Climate Corporation

In 2006, he founded his first company, WeatherBill, to create and buy custom weather insurance online. Friedberg was still working at Google as a business product manager when the idea for the company came to him. He was driving past the Bike Hut in San Francisco and seeing sales slump on rainy days. The thought occurred to him that the impact of weather on a business must be a big problem. WeatherBill secured funding from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Google Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures and Atomico. In 2011, Friedberg changed WeatherBill's name to
The Climate Corporation The Climate Corporation is a digital agriculture company that examines weather, soil and field data to help farmers determine potential yield-limiting factors in their fields. History The company was founded as WeatherBill in 2006 by two former ...
. The Climate Corporation focused on offering farmers weather insurance and the climate.com service to help them track, analyze, and make field-specific decisions on their farms to improve farming outcomes. On 5 October 2011, Friedberg gave his Entrepreneurship Gives Life Meaning lecture at Stanford. In October 2013,
Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in th ...
announced that it was acquiring The Climate Corporation for about $1.1 billion. Friedberg joined Monsanto's Executive Team after the acquisition and in 2016 shifted to an advisory role.


The Production Board

In 2016, Friedberg began talking with
Larry Page Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. Page was the chief executive officer of Google from 1997 unt ...
about a way to build and finance more startups focused on food, agriculture, decarbonization and life sciences. Through parent company Alphabet, Page agreed to help finance a holding company that Friedberg would operate. Friedberg founded The Production Board (TPB) in 2016. TPB works with scientists, entrepreneurs, and business experts with the objective of solving the biggest problems facing humanity, including climate change. TPB portfolio businesses include Pattern Ag, Ohalo, Culture Biosciences, Triplebar Bio, Supergut and Cana. In July 2021, Friedberg announced that The Production Board raised $300 million from Alphabet, Baillie Gifford, Allen & Co., BlackRock, Koch Disruptive Technologies and Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global.


Boards of directors and other roles

Friedberg is the founder of Metromile and served as Chairman of Metromile's Board of Directors during its early years. He is also an angel investor in various technology, food, agriculture, and life sciences startups. In 2014, he purchased Canadian quinoa supplier NorQuin, North America's largest supplier of quinoa. In 2022, Above Food Corp. acquired Norquin and appointed Friedberg to Above Food's Innovation Advisory Council.


Personal life

Friedberg is one of the four co-hosts of ''All-In'', a business and investment podcast with
Chamath Palihapitiya Chamath Palihapitiya (born 3 September 1976) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian and American venture capitalist, engineer, SPAC sponsor, founder and CEO of Social Capital. Palihapitiya was an early senior executive at Facebook, working at the compan ...
,
David O. Sacks David Oliver Sacks (born 25 May 1972) is a South African American entrepreneur, author, and investor in internet technology firms. He is general partner of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund he co-founded in late 2017. Previously, Sacks wa ...
, and
Jason Calacanis Jason McCabe Calacanis (born November 28, 1970) is an American Internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and podcaster. His first company was part of the dot-com era in New York. His second venture, Weblogs, Inc., a publishing company tha ...
. Friedberg is a lifelong vegetarian.


References


External links

* *
David Friedberg's AngelList page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Friedberg, David 1980 births Living people Angel investors American technology chief executives