S5E58: A One Size Fits All Solution for Growing Greens at Home with Agrilution’s Max Loessl

Episode Summary

Co-Founder & CEO of Agrilution, Max Loessl has a vision of bringing the revolutionary concept of vertical farming to every home to allow everyone to grow their own nutritious plants. Today, Harry and Max discuss the work Max and his co-founder have done to develop a viable Personal Vertical Farming System. Max shares what inspired his affinity for entrepreneurship and vertical farming, discusses the origins of Thought for Food, and expounds Agrilution’s offerings, including the Plantcube.

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Key Takeaways

04:27 – Harry welcomes Co-Founder & CEO of Agrilution, Max Loessl, to discuss his vertical farming origin story and the inspiration he got from the book, The Vertical Farm, and

13:14 – Lessons learned in the early years of vertical farming and how Max’s entrepreneurial spirit arose

17:56 – Failing Forward

20:44 – How Thought for Food came about

25:22 – Agrilution’s offerings and target market

27:55 – Challenges with hardware, software and controlling biology

31:37 – How Max has grown as a leader and why culture and communication are both critical

33:47 – Max speaks to the approach he takes in serving other markets and positive feedback on Agrilution appliances

42:35 – A tough question Max has asked himself recently and networking in the vertical farming industry

45:58 – What excites Max most about the future of Agrilution and vertical farming

47:00 – Harry thanks Max for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can learn more about Agrilution

Tweetable Quotes

“I was just so inspired, on the one side, drawing that grim reality that we’re living in and, on the other side, having that potential vision of the future of doing agriculture more in-line with our planetary boundaries.” (08:46) (Max)

“It [vertical farming] really is a multi-billion dollar industry, but it’s also nowhere close to the potential of where it could one day be, I think. We’re still in the very early days.” (14:58) (Max)

“We’ve basically invented this personal vertical farming category. It’s a home appliance in the size of a dishwasher with two layers. You can grow up to nine different plants per layers, so eighteen different plants in the entire product. And it takes care of the entire growing process, from seed to harvest.” (25:38) (Max)

“One thing to highlight is how critically important culture is and hiring the right people. The other thing is communication. Everything succeeds or fails with the right communication and setting up the right processes for communication.” (32:08) (Max)