What I'm Building at Recode Ventures

I've always admired practitioners like architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Sequoia Capital founder Don Valentine, and my father Alfio Macolino. People who dedicated their life's work to the pursuit of their craft.

My craft is building companies. Recode Ventures is my platform for practicing that craft with founders and teams at the frontier of agricultural innovation.

I've built Recode Ventures as the infrastructure that enables me, as a solo operator, to work directly with AgriTech companies around the world, partnering with them to deliver commercial capability, customers, and capital.

I've taken inspiration from early venture practitioners like Don Valentine and Arthur Rock, who built companies before the era of structured funds and accelerators. They identified exceptional entrepreneurs and wrapped their networks and resources around them to build iconic companies like Intel, Atari, and Apple.

The Recode Ventures Approach.

Recode Ventures returns to the fundamentals of company building.

Technology is rapidly changing the economics of scaling operations, product development, and distribution. This now enables dedicated AgriTech founders to build commercially disciplined companies, with sustainable unit economics, validated market traction, and capital structures that match their actual growth path, not someone else's mandate.

Recode Ventures is structured to be lean, with an AI-first operating system integrated at its core. This enables me to focus on bringing my commercial capability, market network, and investor relationships directly to my clients.

When people ask what I do, the answer is simple: "Get shit done as a service."

• Commercial capability — strategy that creates value through executable systems.

• Customers — channels, partnerships, and networks that accelerate pilots and revenue.

• Capital — investor relationships and a fundraising framework to access the right capital at the right stage.

A Network Approach to Investment in Agricultural Innovation.

Before AgriTech, I spent four years in property development.... during the GFC.

That experience taught me something I couldn't unlearn: great projects are funded transaction by transaction, on fundamentals and trust, not hope.

You evaluate each deal on its merit. You structure the capital stack to match the risk and return profile. You don't force a good project into a bad commercial structure to chase speculative returns.

Venture capital often forgot this in AgriTech, the obsession with unicorns and power law dynamics bent business models, broke farmer trust, and chased scale that rarely reflected market reality.

I've chosen a different path: a network approach to capital and investment.

I focus on a few investment partnerships per year, bringing together the right capital partners and commercial stakeholders to build long-term collaborative relationships that extend beyond a single investment transaction.

I curate validated opportunities for my investor network, companies with real validation and traction, where I work alongside founders operationally. My goal is to create mutually beneficial partnerships that align investors, strategic partners, and founders around a shared vision to make agriculture more sustainable, resilient, and profitable.

A commitment to ecosystem building.

Innovation ecosystems grow when you "give first"—a philosophy from Brad Feld and Techstars that has guided how I've built my network in AgriTech.

Inside institutional roles at BDO and SVG Thrive, I felt the tension between what the AgriTech ecosystem needed and what the business model demanded of me.

Independence was the only way to fully align work, vision, and values.

My roles on the Committee of AusAgriTech and as Co-Organiser of the SA AgriTech Meetup Group are core to how Recode Ventures makes a difference in Australia.

Projects like the Team Australia AgriTechnica mission are only possible when you choose to personally invest the time to make ideas reality.

This philosophy of collaboration extends globally through my involvement with the AgTech Advisory Collective, a network of independent experts who share knowledge, connections, and capabilities to help AgriTech companies scale internationally. The Collective embodies the "give first" approach at a global level, proving that independent practitioners can create more value together than apart.

I'm proud to invest in ecosystem building. It's through these commitments, sharing knowledge, creating connections, and supporting others, that sustainable innovation takes root and the entire sector grows stronger.

Growing together.

My mentor at BDO, Kishen Vijayadass, once told me: "Find good people, building great companies and grow with them." That advice stuck and is foundational to the approach I am taking to building Recode Ventures.

If you're a good person building a great company, reach out so we can grow together.