Teen Farmer Builds Foundation for Tech Success

At 16, I made what everyone thought was a terrible decision - launching Milan Farms while my peers were focused on college prep. The agricultural venture seemed completely disconnected from my Silicon Valley tech environment, but I saw an opportunity to blend sustainability with community-driven business.

The real risk came when I decided to use Milan Farms as a testing ground for brand storytelling principles I'd later apply to tech startups. Instead of treating it like a typical farm business, I built it around authentic narrative and community connection - concepts that seemed foreign to agriculture at the time.

That early experiment became the foundation for everything I do at Ankord Media today. When we help startups compress their full launch timeline from typical industry standards to 6 months through strategic phase overlapping, it's because I learned how to build authentic brands in unexpected spaces. The farm taught me that authentic storytelling works across any industry.

The agricultural background also gives me unique credibility when working with purpose-driven startups. Clients see that I've actually built something from the ground up in a completely different sector, which makes them trust our strategic advice when we're repositioning their tech companies or designing their user experiences.

Milan Kordestani, CEO, Ankord Media