Q&A with Grow-NY Mentor Alex Hagen

In preparation for their pitches at the annual Grow-NY Food & Agriculture Summit, each of the 20 finalists works with a dedicated mentor. During the Grow-NY accelerator’s business development phase, mentors meet one-on-one with startups to coordinate visits to the Grow-NY region, facilitate valuable connections, and prepare their pitches. Mentors are an invaluable resource for finalists as they get ready to pitch their businesses for the chance to win up to $1 million. 

We recently sat down with new mentor Alex Hagen to discuss his perspective on food and ag innovation and his insight for startups looking to grow in this rapidly expanding sector. While Hagen is new to mentoring Grow-NY finalists, he is no stranger to supporting budding entrepreneurs.  

With decades of entrepreneurship experience under his belt, Hagen currently serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Cornell University. He also leads the university’s Jiang Fellows program, which funds undergraduates to intern with startups over the summer. Previously, he was the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator’s Clean Energy Program Director and held leadership roles in several startups. 

Question: What is your experience in the food and ag space? 

I support founders across Upstate New York through Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement, where I’ve spent the last five years mentoring startups and connecting teams to partners. I also served as CEO for Cornell’s NSF Engines Upstate 2.0 development effort, helping organize a cross-sector coalition around Net-Zero Dairy and the broader bioeconomy — working with farmers, processors, researchers, and investors to translate promising ideas into field trials and commercial pathways. Before Cornell, I led and scaled multiple startups, so I bring both operator and ecosystem perspectives to this role. 

Question: How do you think food and ag startups benefit from launching within the Grow-NY region? 

This region is incredible for ag innovation: You can access research expertise, on-farm collaborators, processors, and manufacturing partners in one place. That makes it faster to iterate — run a pilot, gather operational and regulatory feedback, refine the product — and it means you’re surrounded by a community that values long-term partnerships between entrepreneurs, industry, and public agencies. 

Question: What should food and ag startups keep in mind as they begin to grow? 

Start with understanding the customer’s problem, then earn trust through feedback and iteration. Build early partnerships across the value chain so integration, compliance, and scale-up aren’t afterthoughts. Keep unit economics and reliability front and center and invest in a team that can navigate between customers, products, operations, and partnerships. 

Question: What are you most excited about mentoring a Grow-NY finalist this year? 

Every year, these cohorts get stronger. I’m excited to help where I can by testing the value proposition, lining up the right partners, and turning customer conversations into concrete expansion plans. Joining them onsite in Upstate New York to meet users, refine the pitch, and map milestones toward product-market fit is exactly the kind of hands-on work I love. 

The 2025 Grow-NY Summit will take place November 12-13 at the Hotel Canandaigua in. Canandaigua, NY and virtually. Register today at cvent.me/E10znv.