Case study · CX-02 SIGNAL · CX-03 FORGE · CX-04 REACH · Agriculture · Mount Blanchard, Ohio
AG1 Growers: a marketplace, a data platform and the funding packages behind them.
AG1 Growers connects Ohio growers, vendors and research partners around biological and mineral crop inputs. Since October 2025 Crossover has been its engineering and technology arm — rebuilding the marketplace, moving it off agency hosting onto infrastructure the company owns, standing up its data and automation stack, presenting alongside the founder at the University of Findlay, and authoring grant packages from $800K to $10M.
$800K–$10M
Grant packages authored
2
University presentations delivered
~45
Vendor product lines onboarded
178
Contacts organized across 34 states
✓WooCommerce marketplace✓Request-a-quote ordering✓Vendor logins✓Hostinger VPS + CloudPanel✓Docker + NocoDB✓Progressive web app✓Grant packages✓Podcast & outreach
At a glance
ClientAG1 Growers — ag-intelligence platform and marketplace for biological and mineral crop inputs
LocationMount Blanchard, Ohio · partners in Findlay, Lima and across the Midwest
EngagementOct 2025 → ongoing — engineering, platform, data and marketing lead
ScopeMarketplace · hosting migration · data & automation stack · vendor onboarding · events · funding packages · outreach
StackWordPress · WooCommerce (Product Vendors, Stripe / WooPayments) · Elementor Pro · Hostinger VPS · CloudPanel (nginx, PHP 8.3, Percona) · Docker · NocoDB · PWA · Brevo SMTP · Cloudflare Turnstile
ResultPlatform owned outright by the client · request-a-quote commerce live · $800K–$10M grant packages authored · two university presentations
The challenge
A big idea running on someone else's servers
AG1 had a serious bench — growers, a blending partner, a diagnostics lab, university relationships — and a website built by an out-of-state agency on hosting the company did not control. Product pages were missing sizes, labels and data sheets; the pricing logic could not be found; and the checkout had been disabled in the theme code. Developer time ran at agency rates, and in March 2026 the agency announced it would stop hosting the site altogether.
On the funding side there was no federal registration workflow, no grant pipeline and no one to write the packages. The founder needed one person who could own the platform end to end and speak for it in the room.
- Agency-hosted site with custom plugins on the agency's licence
- Add-to-cart and checkout disabled in code
- Vendor product data scattered — missing sizes, labels, SDS, images
- No invite-only access model for growers vs. vendors
- No SAM.gov or grant workflow, no funding packages
- Hosting end-of-life notice with a 30-day window
The approach
Own the platform. Then make it do the work.
First get the site onto infrastructure AG1 controls, fix the commerce, then layer on the data, the automation and the funding — in that order, so every phase pays for the next.
OWN
Hostinger VPS + CloudPanel
nginx · PHP 8.3 · Percona — the client's server, the client's licences
→
SELL
WooCommerce + RFQ
Request-a-quote ordering, vendor logins, Stripe
→
ORGANIZE
Vendor system
Intake packets, product organizer, Drive structure per vendor
→
AUTOMATE
Docker + NocoDB
Data tables, pricing formulas, outreach lists
→
FUND
Grant packages
USDA AFRI · NRCS · SBIR/STTR · JobsOhio and more
→
TELL
Events + outreach
Summit, university meetings, podcast, email
Every piece runs on accounts and servers AG1 owns — nothing is tied to a vendor's licence again.
What was deployed
From the storefront to the grant office
Designed, built and presented by the same person — the founder of Crossover.
01
Marketplace rebuild
Legacy newsletter blocks removed; header, footer and navigation rebuilt (Education, Resource Center, Podcast, Sustainability); mobile and tablet QA; SEO on products and pages; a product-variation system that scales from jug to barrel to tote to semi-load.
02
Hosting migration
The agency's “full backup” was only wp-content and a database dump. Crossover provisioned a fresh WordPress on a Hostinger VPS under CloudPanel, reintroduced the content, imported the database, moved Elementor Pro to Crossover's licence, moved DNS and configured SSL — product structures and marketplace functionality preserved.
03
Request-a-quote commerce
The disabled checkout was replaced with a request-a-quote ordering model that fits bulk ag inputs and freight: the customer requests, the vendor prices, logistics hands off to a freight partner. First live RFQ order processed in July 2026.
04
Vendor onboarding system
Intake packet, product-submission organizer and Google Form; a Drive structure per vendor for SDS, labels, marketing and checklists; a cost-plus pricing formula and master price sheet; ~45 product lines and ~130 variations catalogued from ~15 vendors — with 200+ bad catalog items purged.
05
Data & automation stack
NocoDB deployed in Docker on the VPS for vendor and product data; Brevo transactional email with WP Mail SMTP; Cloudflare Turnstile and honeypot anti-spam on the invite-only sign-up; PWA conversion for mobile-first growers. n8n, Ollama and a FastAPI retrieval layer are designed into the roadmap.
06
Funding & partnerships
An $800,000 grant package (Nov 2025), a USDA AFRI concept with the University of Findlay scoped at $1M–$10M (Feb 2026), federal registration coordination, a grant-writer engagement and a soil-data integration with Solvix — plus a 178-contact outreach campaign and the AG1 podcast.
Timeline
From first email to a platform the company owns
OCT 2025Engagement beginsIntroduced to the AG1 team as engineering and technology lead; a multi-grant strategy memo and federal registration kick-off follow within weeks.
NOV – DEC 2025$800K grant package + site cleanupGrant package authored with a full budget; legacy site cleaned up; vendor onboarding packets, intake forms and the first AI / data blueprint.
JAN 9, 2026Power of Grower Agronomy Summit, University of FindlayRan IT and AV for the event and presented the AG1 platform — training, sampling, ordering, recommendations — to ~110 invited growers, vendors and researchers.
FEB 2026Invite-only access + USDA AFRI conceptGatekeeper registration and approval flow for growers and vendors; product variation system; $1M–$10M USDA AFRI concept package with the University of Findlay.
APR – MAY 2026Migration to AG1's own VPSSite rebuilt on Hostinger + CloudPanel, DNS and SSL moved, PWA added, NocoDB deployed in Docker.
JUN 30, 2026University of Findlay strategic action meetingPresented “AG1 — The Intelligence Engine Behind Regenerative Agriculture” to university, OSU, lab and industry partners; Code of Ethics and the 178-contact campaign shipped the same month.
JUL – SEP 2026RFQ commerce, ops hardening, grant writerFirst live request-a-quote order, custom-domain email, anti-spam, catalog imagery, Solvix data integration, grant-writer engagement and Farm Science Review prep.
From the field
The migration, as a log
Representative log from the April–May 2026 move off agency hosting onto AG1's own VPS.
[2026-04-13 09:12:04] backup=agency scope=wp-content+sql wp-core=missing → provisioning fresh
[2026-04-13 10:40:31] vps=hostinger panel=cloudpanel nginx=1.30 php=8.3 db=percona-8.0 status=READY
[2026-04-14 13:05:12] import wp-content=OK database=OK products=preserved vendors=preserved
[2026-04-14 13:31:55] elementor_pro licence=crossover dns=moved ssl=ISSUED
[2026-05-14 16:02:09] verify checkout=RFQ marketplace=OK pwa=enabled agency_dependency=0
[2026-05-25 11:47:20] docker nocodb=UP data_tables=vendors,products,pricing
[2026-07-28 15:21:44] order #6889 type=request-a-quote shipping=customer-brokers status=RECEIVED
Log is illustrative; dates and values reflect the 2026 migration and the first request-a-quote order.
Results
What AG1 got
100%
Platform owned by the client
$800K–$10M
Funding packages authored
2
University presentations
178
Contacts in the outreach engine
- Marketplace on servers and licences AG1 controls — no agency lock-in
- Request-a-quote ordering that fits bulk inputs and freight
- Invite-only membership with a Code of Ethics for growers and vendors
- Vendor catalog with sizes, labels, SDS and imagery
- Data stack (Docker + NocoDB) ready for pricing automation and AI
- Grant packages and federal registration in motion
- Summit and strategic meetings run and presented
- One accountable engineer across platform, data, events and funding
Why it works
Agency model vs. what was built
Same company, same products, two very different platforms.
| Crossover | The agency model | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Client-owned VPS (CloudPanel, Docker) — Crossover manages it | Agency-controlled hosting; end-of-life notice with 30 days' warning |
| Licences | Elementor Pro and plugins on accounts the client controls | Agency licences — features disappear when the agency does |
| Commerce | Request-a-quote flow built for bulk ag and freight | Checkout disabled in code |
| Scope | Platform + data + events + funding, one person | Web tickets at agency hourly rates |
| Who does the work | The engineer who presents alongside the founder | A rotating developer bench |
| After go-live | Roadmap: pricing automation, AI assistant, merch barcodes | Another block of creative hours |
In their words
“Gatekeeper, programmer and director”
That is how AG1's founder introduced Crossover to a data partner in May 2026 — one person accountable for the platform, the data and the room. It is also why the funding work, the events and the engineering live in the same case study: they are the same job.
“Alec is the Ag1 digital gatekeeper, programmer, and director.”
Founder, AG1 Growers · May 2026
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