Gradient was founded by Jim Yegerlehner and Denny Bell who have extensive GPS, farming, and tiling backgrounds.

Jim and Denny collaborated at Agri-Logic to create Ag Leader and Case’s first yield mapping software (Instant Yield Map). They also were responsible for developing the first GPS software (Pocket Survey) to run on a Windows CE device.

Jim received his graduate engineering degree at Purdue. Since then he has gained a diverse technical background. Jim has been employed by General Motors, Case Corp, and GE Aviation and consulted for the US Navy and Air Force. Now he brings his expertise in control theory, systems engineering and software development to Gradient.

Denny has farmed nearly all his life. In 1987 he founded Agri-Logic. Agri-Logic wrote yield mapping software, and the overwhelming evidence from this software pointed to drainage as the key factor influencing yields. With this in mind, Denny started Soil-Max in 1997 and brought the Gold Digger tile plow to market. The Gold Diggers have been very popular and helped many farmers improve their yields with a tremendous return on investment. Gold Digger owners have won many NCGA corn growers state yield contests, including second in the nation in 2007! Denny has installed close to a million feet of tile in the land he farms and has witnessed and tech supported the pitfalls in laser control systems.