section_path: Early career/AppHarvest
section_name: AppHarvest
paragraph_text: AppHarvest
  
  From March 2017 to April 2021, Vance served on the board of directors of the startup AppHarvest, which carried out indoor vertical farming in Kentucky. AppHarvest was also one of Narya Capital's first publicly announced investments; Vance publicly advocated for AppHarvest, touting the company's commitment to bring good jobs with health care benefits to an economically depressed area of Appalachia. AppHarvest went bankrupt in 2023 while owing over $340 million. Company founder Jonathan Webb and top executives collectively had little experience with horticulture and indoor agriculture, and the company struggled to meet its produce buyers' standards. Workers complained to authorities about "brutal" working conditions in company greenhouses; after many local workers quit, they were replaced by migrant contract workers, who eventually constituted over half the company's labor force. Vance never held an operational role at the company, and his vice-presidential campaign said he had been unaware of the complaints about working conditions and that the decision to hire migrants was made after he resigned from the board.