Humans of Agriculture: 2023 Future Young Leader Malkah Lara-Muckenschnabl
When Future Young Leader Malkah Lara-Muckenschnabl stepped off the stage at AgriFutures evokeAG. after presenting her vision to revolutionise recruitment in agriculture, her phone lit up with messages of congratulations and potential networks to bring that vision to life. In this Humans of Agriculture podcast with Oli Le Lievre, Malkah talks about her childhood on farms in South America, her innovative idea to break down the barriers between agricultural employers and employees, and how applying for the Future Young Leaders program was a risk worth taking.
As part of the evokeAG. Future Young Leaders program, Malkah was supported by industry experts and peers to present her idea to 1600 change-makers, innovators, and investors at the Asia-Pacific’s premier agrifood tech.
“I sat down, I looked at my phone and no joke, it was pink, like it was going off,” she told Oli in the podcast. “People congratulating me and people saying can we chat later? The moment actually almost made me cry because I just thought that is validation of all the hard work.”
Malkah is developing Lymbo, an app to break the barriers between agricultural employers and employees by connecting people in their voice, their language and their style of communication.
“I thought why can’t we just talk to that person? Or why can’t we just see a little clip of what they’re about, we just need a glimpse so that I know whether I’m interested (in the job) or not,” she said. “That led me to thinking it’s really not that different to dating, which is exactly what you’re saying, it’s about personality.”
She said the idea came to her when thinking about the generation gap and different ways of communicating.
“The world has moved but the recruitment process has stayed very traditional,” she said. “I just believe that we can just close that gap and make it so much easier for people to understand where they’re going.”
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She said the Future Young Leaders program has provided an opportunity to hone her idea.
“If you think that there’s potential, even a little glimpse of hope that you have an idea and you want to see if people are really keen on it- definitely do it,” she said.
Aside from the opportunity present on the international stage the Future Young Leaders program put Malkah in-touch with a network of people to progress her idea.
“I did a program through Silicon Valley, in terms of Lymbo and the startup world and I learned the difference between coding and non-coding apps and how I’m actually going to build this thing,” she said.
“I think now we’re at the point where we have a lot of established pieces of the puzzle, we have to put them together and execute them in the right way to sort of move forward. So, it’s been really exciting journey – it definitely hasn’t been easy but we just keep it going.”
Applications have now closed for the evokeAG. Future Young Leaders Program. We look forward to introducing you to the new crop of leaders at evokeAG. 2024 on 20-21 February 2024.
AgriFutures Australia is encouraging delegates to secure their tickets, flights and accommodation early to avoid disappointment.
Make sure you book your spot with tickets on sale here.