An interview with entrepreneur and TaqTyle founder Mark Erjavec about his new book and thirty years in international business
Mark Erjavec has spent three decades building businesses across five continents. From the Iron Range in Minnesota to the Republic of Georgia, from distressed debt to precision agriculture, his career spans consumer lending, real estate finance, international agricultural development, and ag tech innovation.
In 2024, he founded the TaqTyle Podcast Network to document the transformation of modern farming through robotics and precision technology. In 2025, he launched the TaqTyle Institute for Precision Agriculture and Sustainability, a think tank focused on practical analysis of developments in ag tech.
His new book, Ground Work: Building Real Businesses Across Borders, chronicles the building, breaking, and rebuilding of businesses over thirty years. We sat down with Erjavec to discuss the book, his career, and what he’s learned along the way.
You bought your first company three days after graduating high school. What drives someone to make that kind of move at eighteen?
Erjavec had already been running a business since he was fourteen, so when the opportunity came to acquire a real company with infrastructure, licensing, and operating history, he moved fast. “I wasn’t buying potential,” he explains. “I was buying a system I could build on.” What followed was three decades of learning what actually works when you’re on the ground—not in theory, but in practice.
The book covers some major losses. Why be so transparent about failure?
“Success teaches you confidence,” Erjavec says. “Failure teaches you everything else.” He’s taken major losses—the kind that reshape how you think about risk, capital, and what really matters in business. “That’s where the real education happens. Not in the boardroom. Not in the spreadsheet. But in the moment when everything falls apart and you have to decide whether to walk away or stay at the table.” He stayed. And that decision changed everything.
What pulls you to international agriculture?
“Inefficiency,” he responds without hesitation. Erjavec sees gaps in systems—places where capital and operational knowledge can create something that wasn’t there before. “Agriculture is one of the last sectors where you can still build something tangible, watch it scale, and know you’re creating real value.”
He’s built operations in the Republic of Georgia, financed aerial application businesses in Brazil and the United States, and invested in the infrastructure that makes precision agriculture possible. “It’s not romantic. It’s mechanical,” he notes. “And the operators who succeed are the ones who understand both the soil and the systems.”
Why start the TaqTyle Podcast Network?
In 2024, Erjavec launched the TaqTyle Podcast Network to document what’s actually happening in precision farming and ag tech—the people building autonomous robots, the farmers scaling operations in impossible conditions, the innovators solving real problems. “Agriculture is changing faster than most people realize,” he observes. “Robotics. Automation. Precision technology. These aren’t experiments anymore—they’re operational tools reshaping how farming gets done.”
In 2025, he followed up with the TaqTyle Institute for Precision Agriculture and Sustainability, a think tank that issues field notes and practical analysis on developments in ag tech. The podcast became the input. The Institute became the analysis.
What’s the one lesson that’s carried you through thirty years?
“Show up,” Erjavec says simply. “Relationships outlast portfolios. When things fall apart—and they will—the people who remember you showed up are the ones who help you rebuild.”
He traces this philosophy back to his Slovenian ancestors who came through Ellis Island, where inspectors used buttonhooks to check for disease. They could have been sent back. Instead, they went to the Iron Range, worked the mines, and built a life from nothing. “That grit didn’t skip a generation,” he reflects.
Who is this book for?
Ground Work: Building Real Businesses Across Borders isn’t a success manual, according to Erjavec. It’s a field guide. “It’s for anyone building something real. Entrepreneurs who’ve taken hits and are figuring out what’s next. Operators who know success is boring and repetitive. People who understand the table is where it happens—not the press release.”
If you’ve ever rebuilt after a collapse. If you’ve ever shown up when no one else would. If you’ve ever chosen systems over speculation and presence over portfolio—this book is for you.
“At the end of the day, what matters isn’t the capital. It’s the character,” Erjavec concludes. “It’s the willingness to stay in motion, find the gaps, and build what’s next. That’s what I’ve been doing for thirty years. And I’m not done yet.”
Ground Work: Building Real Businesses Across Borders is available now on Amazon.
About Mark Erjavec:
Mark Erjavec is an entrepreneur with over thirty years of experience in finance, distressed assets, and international agriculture. He currently operates through TaqTyle, a holding company focused on tangible investments in agriculture, aviation, and finance. He is the founder of the TaqTyle Podcast Network and the TaqTyle Institute for Precision Agriculture and Sustainability.
