While college athletes sign NIL deals for sneakers and energy drinks, agriculture just landed its first legitimate Name, Image, and Likeness partnership – and it might be the only one in America where the endorser is actually using and pushing the performance of the product every day on his own operation.
Mark Ripato, former President of Wilbur-Ellis Agribusiness and a respected name in American agriculture, has invested in Emergent and agreed to publicly champion the company’s Rip Platform™ – farm automation infrastructure he believes is critical for agriculture’s future and that he is deploying on his own Kentucky cow-calf operation.
“When Emergent first asked me to put my name on this, I honestly thought, ‘Really? Why?'” Ripato said. “Then I realized: in agriculture, producers trust other producers. Always have. Emergent’s success won’t come from marketing – it’ll come from farmers telling farmers what actually works. I believe in this platform. It’s running on my farm every day. But trust doesn’t scale one conversation at a time. Somebody has to stand up publicly and say, ‘This matters.’ So if this is agriculture’s NIL era, I’m in.”
Why This Matters
The NIL framing may be tongue-in-cheek, but the underlying story is dead serious: agriculture is facing a trust crisis with technology.
Farmers have been promised transformational automation for years. What they’ve gotten instead is fragmented systems, abandoned platforms, and technology that makes operations more complicated, not simpler.
“I’ve watched technology promise farmers everything and under-deliver for years,” Ripato said. “Emergent understands you can’t automate a farm unless everything works together. They’ve proved it in irrigation, and on my farm, I’m seeing how it helps with my barn operations and tank monitoring. This isn’t theory – it’s working.
The Rip Platform™: Three Pillars Working Together
The Rip Platform is being built around three elements designed to work together:
- RipLINK™ – Farm-wide connectivity infrastructure designed to keep devices connected across every acre, animal, and asset, even in rural areas where traditional networks fail. It’s the foundation that makes everything else possible.
- Rip’s Warehouse™ – A curated marketplace of practical automation tools being assembled for real-world agriculture. The goal is to eliminate the hunting through incompatible systems – every tool vetted, affordable, reliable, and ready to deploy on RipLINK infrastructure.
- Ask Rip™ – An AI-powered farm automation assistant that helps producers choose the right tools, use them effectively, and turn real-time data into confident decisions. It’s like having an automation expert available 24/7 who actually understands your operation.
On his Kentucky operation, Ripato is using the platform for livestock monitoring, infrastructure management, and real-time operational decision support.
Scaling Trust Through Trusted Names
Ripato will serve as Senior Strategic Advisor to Emergent, helping guide platform development, channel strategy, retailer integration, and national expansion. But his real role may be more fundamental: proving that agriculture’s path to automation runs through trust, not hype.
“Producers have tried automation in pieces for years,” said Mike Roudi, CEO of Emergent. “The problem isn’t capability – it’s fragmentation and trust. Farmers don’t need more gadgets. They need automation that works together across the whole operation, backed by people they trust. That’s what Mark represents. That’s what the Rip Platform delivers.”
“Trusted advisors have always been at the center of American agriculture,” added David Alpert, Co-Founder of Emergent. “The Rip Platform gives them the tools to lead producers into the future – with automation that’s simpler to implement, easier to support, and financially meaningful. Mark understands that. He’s lived it.”
Built With Respect for the Channel
The Rip Platform is designed to strengthen agriculture’s most trusted relationships, not replace them. Emergent partners with ag retailers, independent dealers, and progressive farms to help them deploy automation simply and successfully.
“We’re trying to empower, not replace the channel,” Alpert said. “We’re improving the channel with the infrastructure to win in the next era of agriculture.”
About Emergent
Emergent is building the rural automation infrastructure that powers the future of American agriculture. Through the Rip Platform™, Emergent delivers trusted connectivity, practical automation tools, and real-time intelligence so producers can run stronger, smarter operations.
For more information, visit EmergentConnext.com
