Shownotes
Episode Summary
Allison Kopf is the Chief Growth Officer at iUNU, a software development company that’s building the future of the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industry through their AI-driven LUNA platform that enables growers to develop a feedback loop between capturing data and managing processes to create precise, predictable production. Today, Harry welcomes Allison back to the show for Round 2 where they discuss the merging of Artemis and iUNU, her new role as Chief Growth Officer, and the many ways she’s helping to promote and empower female founders and entrepreneurs.
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Key Takeaways
07:13 – Harry welcomes Allison Kopf back to the show to talk about her experience at Indoor AgTech and her new position as Chief Growth Officer at iUNU
10:54 – The origin story of iUNU and feedback from growers on implementing this new system
20:13 – Where Allison is identifying new opportunities for growth
26:58 – The learning curve going from Artemis to iUNU and the amazing potential of AI and augmented reality
31:47 – Nokia’s Influencer Series on Food Waste
34:46 – Allison reflects on her time as Entrepreneur in Residence at NDRC
39:58 – How XFactor Ventures is helping female founders
41:58 – A tough question Allison has had to ask herself recently and best practices that have become critical to her success
46:41 – A specific ask Allison has for the audience
48:04 – Harry thanks Allison for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with her and learn more about iUNU
Tweetable Quotes
“Honestly, it’s so hugely valuable with a system like this. Yes, it’s sometimes difficult to start up with a new system like this. Old technology has a learning curve to it, so you have to kind of get used to this, or maybe change your processes slightly to fit into the new system. But at the end of the day, what we’re focused on is driving real, tangible, calculable value for these growers. Our growers on average are seeing 3x returns on investment every year that they implement this system. And it’s continuous throughout the system because of how much value we can drive.” (14:29) (Allison)
“One of the really neat things about this system is it really helps drive that comprehensive coverage component that is really tough to do.” (16:39) (Allison)
“There’s a huge understanding process that has to happen because, especially for growers, they’re very very talented at doing these things. And so they’re used to seeing things that they’ve created. So, you take a tomato grower who’s used to doing crop registration and they’re great at it. The problem isn’t that they’re not good at it. The problem is that they can’t do it comprehensively for each plant.” (24:56) (Allison)
“I think that the augmenting of what we’re doing in reality is amazing. We have a grower shortage. We all know this. We have to acknowledge this. But, if we can augment our growers and turn one grower into ten growers and think about it that way, that to me is almost magical. Except that it’s not magic, it’s science.” (28:17) (Allison)
“The more I get into something, the more questions I end up having. It’s not the more answers you have, it’s the more questions. And that’s a good scenario because it prompts you to think about things in different ways.” (33:23) (Allison)
“I’ve always been deeply curious. I just want to dig into things more, and more, and more, and learn because there’s so much to learn. If we ever want to have the belief that we can build something bigger and make a lasting impact on an industry or on the world, to me, part of that has to be this open mindset of learning.” (37:29) (Allison)
Resources Mentioned
Allison’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonkopf/
iUNU – https://iunu.com/
iUNU Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lunapowered/
iUNU Twitter – https://twitter.com/LUNA_Powered
XFactor Ventures – https://www.xfactor.ventures/
Asana – https://asana.com/
Eisenhower Matrix – https://asana.com/templates/eisenhower-matrix
Sponsor Info
Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/
Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/
Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatd
Cultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/
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Mentioned in this episode:
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
Transcripts
$680 million poured into precision ag last year.
Speaker:Autonomous weeding robots dominated, and John Deere made 2 acquisitions in 3
Speaker:months. A food company, not an equipment maker, bought a
Speaker:robotics startup to protect its own supply chain. The deals are
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Speaker:Precision Agriculture Intelligence Report From iGrow News is now
Speaker:available. Get your copy today at
Speaker:igrownews.com/precision. If you are starting a vertical
Speaker:farm and don't know where to begin or which technology would suit your needs,
Speaker:then reach out to the experts at Cultivated. As indoor farm brokers, they
Speaker:help connect you to the right technology and ensure your project is successful.
Speaker:Best of all, their service is free because they work on behalf of their partners.
Speaker:Visit cultivated.com to learn more. And that's spelled
Speaker:C-U-L-T-I-V-A-T-D.com,
Speaker:or click the link in the show notes. But at the end of the day,
Speaker:what we're focused on is driving real, tangible,
Speaker:calculable value for these growers, right? And so our
Speaker:growers on average are seeing 3x returns on investment every year
Speaker:that they implement the system, and it's continuous throughout the system because of how much
Speaker:value we can drive. That's a combination of things like hard costs. It's
Speaker:Easy for growers to say, you know what, you're right, I can reduce some of
Speaker:the labor.
Speaker:Welcome to the Vertical Farming Podcast, weekly conversations with
Speaker:fascinating CEOs, founders, and agtech visionaries.
Speaker:Join us every week as we dive deep into the world of vertical farming
Speaker:with your host, Harry Duran. Vertical Farming
Speaker:Podcast, Season 6. Welcome back. If this is your first time
Speaker:listening, I always like to roll out what I like to call the green carpet.
Speaker:Welcome, I'm glad you found the show. I'd love to find out how you found
Speaker:the show. As a podcaster, it's always helpful for me to
Speaker:understand and know where the listeners are coming from, where the new
Speaker:audience is coming from, how you found it. It might be some of the folks
Speaker:I met at AgraMe conference in Dubai. I'll talk a little bit about that
Speaker:exciting experience as well. I've touched on it last week. But yes, if
Speaker:you would be so kind as to let me know, [email protected],
Speaker:or even better yet, you can leave a rating and a review, and I'll let
Speaker:you know how to do that in just one second. This is the show where
Speaker:we interview fascinating CEOs and founders of the leading vertical farming companies from around
Speaker:the world, and I'm your host, Harry Duran. Last week,
Speaker:Henry Gordon-Smith was gracious enough to join us again for round 2. He is the
Speaker:founder of Agritecture, a leader in agtech consulting,
Speaker:and he joined us to talk about his recent travel and nomadic
Speaker:lifestyle, importance of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and
Speaker:how the overall agtech industry is expanding
Speaker:and evolving. And Henry definitely has some opinions about that.
Speaker:We talk about consolidation, hybridization, and
Speaker:Agriculture's growth strategy and why he's so passionate and outspoken
Speaker:and steadfast about his belief in CEA. So please check
Speaker:that out if you haven't done so already. I had the great pleasure of
Speaker:spending time with Henri in Dubai at AgraMe.
Speaker:This week, another round 2 guest. It is Allison Coff in a
Speaker:different role. She's now the Chief Growth Officer at IUNO, a company that's
Speaker:building the future of CEA through their AI-driven Luna
Speaker:platform, which enables growers to develop a feedback loop between capturing
Speaker:data and managing processes to create precise, predictable
Speaker:production. In this conversation, we talk about the merging of Artemis
Speaker:and IUNO, her new role as Chief Growth Officer, and the many ways she's
Speaker:helping to promote and empower female founders Always high
Speaker:energy when Allison is on the show. I was grateful to meet her in person
Speaker:at AgTech NYC earlier this year and invite
Speaker:her back on. So I'm really happy we were able to make the time
Speaker:work and grateful that she's back on the show. I know you'll enjoy this.
Speaker:As I mentioned, if you're enjoying this episode or past episodes, there's a couple of
Speaker:folks I spoke to at Agrome in person who said they'd be leaving a review.
Speaker:So I think you're listening. And I think you should probably do that. The
Speaker:way to do that, ratethispodcast.com/vfp. I'd love to read
Speaker:yours out on a future episode. Okay, before we jump into this uninterrupted
Speaker:conversation with Allison, here are a few words from the folks that
Speaker:support this show in addition to our title sponsor, Cultivated.
Speaker:This episode is brought to you by NetLed. From consultation and technology to
Speaker:services and maintenance, NetLed has the complete package. Whether it's your first
Speaker:vertical farm or you need help scaling an existing operation, NetLed
Speaker:can help. They offer both service and technology business solutions for vegetable and
Speaker:herb producers from pilot phase projects to industrial-scale mass production.
Speaker:And with Vera, you have the only true end-to-end turnkey vertical farming solution
Speaker:on the market. Learn more at netled.fi,
Speaker:or you can visit their North American showcase facility in Calgary, Canada.
Speaker:Allison Coff, back for round 2 on Vertical Farming Podcast, now
Speaker:Chief Growth Officer at Younoo. Thank you once again for joining
Speaker:this conversation. Yeah, it's always fun. We're, uh, I'm excited to be here.
Speaker:So we got to connect. It's fun to be in person at conferences, at
Speaker:INDOR, ICON in New York City, in Brooklyn actually.
Speaker:I came back with 20+ names.
Speaker:That's amazing. You know, round 2s, new folks I met
Speaker:there. I think, I don't know if you have a preference for format, but I
Speaker:just love the single track because everyone's— I got to see probably 80-90%
Speaker:of their talks and then they give you enough time to network. So
Speaker:I'm wondering what the experience was like for you. Yeah, it's funny because I think
Speaker:one, I felt very rusty because it's been so long since we've
Speaker:been at in-person conferences. And so we had a
Speaker:whole lot of conferences all in a row. We had GreenTech, we had Indoor
Speaker:AgTech Summit, and then we had Cultivate all within
Speaker:about a month and a half span. And so you just kind of get your
Speaker:shoes back on and get to it. But I liked the— I also agree, I
Speaker:liked the format of Indoor AgTech because it was so much content. It
Speaker:was really like, what was it? It was only 24 hours really,
Speaker:or was it 2 days? It was a day and a half. 2 days. Yeah.
Speaker:It was like a day and a half of just content, content, right? And so,
Speaker:whereas shows like GreenTech and Cultivate are floor
Speaker:shows, which I tend to like a lot better personally,
Speaker:but I loved, I loved the format actually of Interact Tech Summit. I felt like
Speaker:it warmed you up to, oh yeah, what is going on in the industry? Who
Speaker:is like, what are we all up to? What has everyone been doing for the
Speaker:last year or 2 years? And it was just good to see everybody. Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm sure for you, having gone to several of these, it almost
Speaker:becomes like a little bit of a class reunion. Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Just old friends seeing each other for the first time in a
Speaker:while. Yeah, exactly. But it's good because I think one of the fun things about
Speaker:conferences is everybody always tees up news right before. And so
Speaker:InterAgTech Summit, Littleleaf had just announced, and of
Speaker:course Gotham just announced they're around, and there's a small show going on
Speaker:that the USDA is hosting right now. And so, one
Speaker:of the fun things for me is, yes, it's time to catch up, but it's
Speaker:also a jam-packed day filled with everybody's news that they've
Speaker:been holding onto for the last few weeks. So it's kind of fun to celebrate
Speaker:everybody as well. Yeah. And everyone's processing it
Speaker:at the same time in that space. And then you start to
Speaker:see people who have been keeping the news guarded or couldn't
Speaker:talk about it, able to talk about it there. So
Speaker:everyone's— so last time you were on
Speaker:the show, you had a different position with Artemis. And so I'm
Speaker:wondering if you could talk a little bit about how the new position came
Speaker:about and what those conversations were like and what was your thought process for making
Speaker:that move. Yeah, absolutely. So some of the listeners may know me as the
Speaker:founder of Artemis and started that company in
Speaker:2015. We built software for the greenhouse and vertical farming
Speaker:industries and specifically focused around production
Speaker:optimization, people management, labor planning, food safety
Speaker:compliance. And about a year ago, actually, it's good timing because I
Speaker:think your anniversary was yesterday. We merged in with
Speaker:Yoonoo, a company that's really at the forefront of AI using
Speaker:computer vision to optimize everything in the growing environment. And so we
Speaker:merged businesses about a year ago and created a combined
Speaker:entity as Yoonoo now. So Artemis lives on as a product
Speaker:through now called Luna CMP. and complements the
Speaker:AI product really, really nicely. And I get to be the Chief Growth Officer
Speaker:and focus on all things commercial, which is a ton of fun. Yeah.
Speaker:And so for folks that are new to Yoonoo, can you talk a
Speaker:little bit about their— how they got started? And at some point it'd be probably
Speaker:great to have Adam on, on the show as well. Yeah, absolutely. So we've been
Speaker:around since 2013, so we've been around for a while in the industry, and,
Speaker:and our product really is using cameras to
Speaker:feed data into a system and look at plants in a different way than we're
Speaker:actually able to look at those in real life. And so, we often are
Speaker:hearing the challenges that come with data collection in this industry because it's
Speaker:incredibly labor-intensive, it's very inaccurate. People are good at a lot
Speaker:of things. There are also things we're not very good at— counting plants, for example.
Speaker:We're not very good at it, we're not very accurate. Every time you do an
Speaker:inventory count, it's a different number, right? And we all know these challenges.
Speaker:And technology is actually very good at a lot of those things. That we
Speaker:are not very good at. And so you get this nice complementary nature where you
Speaker:can bring technology and humans together to create really
Speaker:powerful products. That's what we do at Yoonoo. And so we
Speaker:have a computer vision system where we use cameras to pick up
Speaker:information, to comprehensively look at every plant in the
Speaker:greenhouse or in the vertical farming environment, to feed that
Speaker:information into our system. And then we couple that with
Speaker:best-in-class horticultural knowledge to really help drive
Speaker:value for growers. So we're looking at things like inventory counts, of
Speaker:course, but also things like automated issue detection, where we can
Speaker:autonomously scout the greenhouse for pest or disease
Speaker:or issues like that, that normally you either might catch, but
Speaker:it's labor-intensive and expensive to do, or you're probably going to miss
Speaker:because it's just, you're not able to cover 10, 50,
Speaker:100 acres of production area all of the time, but
Speaker:technology can. And so, that's what we're looking at. So
Speaker:how does that logistically happen in terms of the types of
Speaker:cameras? Is it with drones or is it just with like
Speaker:the placement of the cameras or how does this happen in a typical farm?
Speaker:Yeah, we have a variety of different solutions depending on the type of environment. So
Speaker:I'll say first and foremost, like we are a software company and
Speaker:so the hardware is a mechanism for data collection, which
Speaker:gives us this luxury where we get to choose whatever the best system is for
Speaker:the right application. So I'll give you an example. For leafy greens growers
Speaker:in greenhouses, we have a rail system. And so that rail system
Speaker:sits above the crop because you want to be taking photos down on top of
Speaker:the crop. And so the rail sits at the sort of truss level of the
Speaker:greenhouse, and the cameras go back and forth, and they're covering the crops
Speaker:24/7. They're looking at every plant in the greenhouse all the time.
Speaker:Wow. For tomatoes, it's a slightly different system. So we just rolled out a tomato
Speaker:system a few months ago, I guess now, at Green Tech, that's brand new for
Speaker:us, where you actually take that system and you turn it on its side. And
Speaker:so now you have a camera system that goes through the aisles of the tomato,
Speaker:because unlike lettuce, where you want to look at the top, in tomatoes,
Speaker:you want to look at the vines, right? You want to look at the actual
Speaker:tomatoes and they grow on the other way. So that's a different system for
Speaker:us. It's not on that rail system. In vertical farming applications,
Speaker:it's even different from that, right? Because then you're looking at
Speaker:throughput through a facility. And so it's not as important that
Speaker:the camera moves. It's actually more important that you're getting the high granularity and
Speaker:high visibility. And so lots of different types of setups here
Speaker:that work really across any type of crop.
Speaker:And so what's been the feedback from folks that have been
Speaker:implementing the system? Is it a big change from anything that they had in
Speaker:place now, where it was probably, like, as you alluded to earlier, more manual
Speaker:efforts required? It is, honestly,
Speaker:it's so hugely valuable that we talked earlier about that, like, sigh of relief.
Speaker:It almost feels that way sometimes with a system like this. Yes, it's
Speaker:sometimes difficult to kind of start up with a new system like this. All
Speaker:technology requires— it has a learning curve to it. So, you have to kind of
Speaker:get used to this or maybe change your processes slightly to kind of fit into
Speaker:the new system. But, at the end of the day, what we're focused on is
Speaker:driving real, tangible, calculable value for these
Speaker:growers, right? And so, our growers, on average, are seeing 3x
Speaker:returns on investment every year that they implement the system, and it's
Speaker:continuous throughout the system because of how much value we can drive.
Speaker:That's a combination of things like hard costs. It's easy for growers to
Speaker:say, you know what, you're right, I can reduce some of the labor that's
Speaker:scouting my facility because I don't need that anymore. And I can move that into
Speaker:a different type of a focus, or I can just reduce the cost that's associated
Speaker:with that, or I can shift the cost that's associated with that. There's other
Speaker:things like driving higher revenue, right? We're looking at reducing loss
Speaker:continuously because every grower experiences loss from pest and
Speaker:disease, or inventory counting incorrectness, or sales
Speaker:missed opportunities, right? There's just reasons for loss. We reduce that directly.
Speaker:We can help them optimize, right? Grow against your benchmark, grow faster than
Speaker:you're growing before. Just a day or 2 makes a huge difference in our industry,
Speaker:or just a little bit more, right? Eking out just a little bit more. If
Speaker:you can get one more turn a year, that's direct revenue. So
Speaker:there's a ton of value from the system. And once people are in it and
Speaker:on it and using it, they see that pretty immediately. And so there's
Speaker:that again, it's like, yeah, sure. There's a learning curve, of course. But we work
Speaker:with you on that. Like, we're not going anywhere. We're your training partner. We're there.
Speaker:We're an extension of your team. And once you start seeing that value, there's
Speaker:almost that sigh of relief because it's just that, it's that valuable to you.
Speaker:It's that huge. Do you find that some farmers may get
Speaker:benefits in terms of diagnosing things that they didn't even realize they should have been
Speaker:keeping an eye out for? Yes. Or just discovering things that they may not have
Speaker:known about? Absolutely. We on occasion will have folks say
Speaker:like, I've never experienced X issue, right? And you're like, But I can see it,
Speaker:it's there right now. And so one of the really neat things about
Speaker:the system is it really helps drive that comprehensive coverage
Speaker:component that is really tough to do as, again,
Speaker:people, because unless you're covering your plants 24/7, it's tough
Speaker:to keep an eye on them all the time, right? And so there are a
Speaker:ton of things, both on the positive and negative side, by the way, where you
Speaker:like, the negative side is issue detection, right? Where, oh, we don't have that issue,
Speaker:but actually maybe we do and I need to understand a little bit differently. And
Speaker:then on the positive side too, it's like, actually, did you know that your canopy
Speaker:growth is 10% higher than the average, right? And actually, you're
Speaker:spotting something here, you've got something here. So whatever you're
Speaker:doing on a recipe basis, let's clone that, right? Because you're doing, you need to
Speaker:do that everywhere. So whatever's happening right here in this area
Speaker:is what we wanna be doing in every section of the greenhouse or the farm
Speaker:because it's working really, really well. And so
Speaker:people often, When you start seeing everything comprehensively,
Speaker:and you get that information real time, can start making decisions in
Speaker:different ways, because they have that complete picture.
Speaker:And I noticed that you mentioned the— on the site, there's the Luna app.
Speaker:So for a farmer, is that their point of
Speaker:analytics to just analyze either real time or just get the reporting on a continuous
Speaker:basis to what's happening? Yeah, we have— so the Luna AI application
Speaker:itself is a great place to go in to do that. So that's where you
Speaker:can do virtual crop blocks, you can go get all the data and analytics, you
Speaker:can go get reports. And any information that you need.
Speaker:We also have other mechanisms too, right? We have reporting via email. A lot of
Speaker:folks want to send reports out to different team members, but maybe not everybody needs
Speaker:to be in the platform. So there's lots of ways that you can interact with
Speaker:the data. Do you think as you start, because you're collecting data from
Speaker:so many different farms and you see so many different scenarios of what's working, what's
Speaker:not, is there thoughts, or maybe this is already in place, just maybe
Speaker:anonymizing the data and just providing industry reports about like
Speaker:best practices or what's working, what's not, or things that farmers
Speaker:can be looking out for that they may not have been even thinking about because
Speaker:you have so much data that you're collecting? So something that is really,
Speaker:really important to us is that the data
Speaker:belongs to the grower. It does not belong to us. And so something that's
Speaker:really, really important to us is that all of those best practices that
Speaker:you're experiencing, that's your IP, that's your recipe, that's you, that's what
Speaker:you've done. It's your secret sauce, right? Yeah. And so And
Speaker:frankly, what's unique to you might not actually work over
Speaker:here on this other farm, right? Because of where you're located or your climate
Speaker:or the systems that you have in place, right? And everything is pretty
Speaker:special to these growers. And as the industry grows really, really quickly,
Speaker:I think it's really, really important to acknowledge that the growers who are
Speaker:using the system, they're using it to develop their own IP and their own secret
Speaker:sauce and the way that they grow. And so it's a little bit
Speaker:tricky because There is a benefit to seeing
Speaker:maybe a guidebook on best ways to get the best out of things.
Speaker:But I don't know that that one would actually work because of everybody having
Speaker:unique systems in unique places. And so truly anonymizing in a way that's
Speaker:valuable to people probably isn't actually all that easy. And
Speaker:2, while protecting everybody's sort of right to their own IP
Speaker:is something that we feel really strongly. So we've kind of taken a different approach,
Speaker:I think, than most SaaS companies and most data companies out there. who really
Speaker:do want to own the data. We've actually flipped it back the other way and
Speaker:said, look, we're not going to do that. We're actually going to focus very, very
Speaker:strongly on enabling you as a grower to grow the
Speaker:best you can. Yeah. So given
Speaker:your new position, you're probably the best poised to answer this question, but
Speaker:what are you looking for in terms of opportunities for growth with, uh,
Speaker:Youniv? And I don't know if that's different than what the plan was before you
Speaker:were on board, and now that you're in the role, Where are you seeing the
Speaker:opportunities for expansion and growth within the company?
Speaker:Yeah, we're really excited about a few things. So, from a crop selection
Speaker:standpoint, across a number of different categories. So, we work with about 80%
Speaker:of the large leafy green growers. So, that market is something that we continue to
Speaker:expand in, we want to continue growing into, of course. We're
Speaker:also in the ornamental industry. So, we work a lot with flower, large
Speaker:commercial flower growers. And so, we work with a number of the top 100 growers
Speaker:there, and we're going to continue to expand into that market as well.
Speaker:The newest market for us is tomatoes and vine crops. And so
Speaker:we're just launching that product now. We announced it, like I said,
Speaker:in June, and we'll be rolling that out commercially in Q1 of next year.
Speaker:So that's a really exciting new product for us. We're going to keep expanding into
Speaker:tomato crops and then expand from there into other vine crops,
Speaker:whether it's berries, potentially cucumbers, potentially peppers, all of the
Speaker:different full selection there. So then we're excited, a few things from a crop selection
Speaker:standpoint, definitely continuing to expand in the markets that we're in, but adding also
Speaker:new markets on top of that. And is that— are you seeing that
Speaker:growth both domestically and internationally as well?
Speaker:We are, yes. So, we have to date been very, very focused on
Speaker:North America. So, we're based in Seattle, Washington, but we've got offices
Speaker:across both Canada and the United States. And we've been very, very
Speaker:focused on North America. That is starting to evolve. So, we are
Speaker:deploying in the Netherlands right now, and we're starting to expand
Speaker:internationally as well. And are you growing
Speaker:your team as well? Yes, growth itself. Come work with us. Yeah,
Speaker:we are, we are absolutely hiring across the organization
Speaker:right now. We're building out some of the growth functions. We're always
Speaker:hiring on engineering. If you've got a background in computer vision or
Speaker:robotics, we'd love to talk to you. But we're definitely hiring across
Speaker:the organization. It seems, you know, as you start to talk about the
Speaker:movement into the different— from leafy greens into
Speaker:vines, crops, the analysis that has to happen
Speaker:at each of those different levels probably, I imagine, requires a whole
Speaker:different set of— to your point, even just the placement of the cameras, you're
Speaker:looking at different things, you're understanding what it is you need to be looking for
Speaker:with these different crops. And I'm wondering how much lead time it takes before you
Speaker:can decide to move into like another crop, how much
Speaker:work on the science level it takes to just do it enough times
Speaker:to feel like you have enough information to provide actionable
Speaker:data back to the farmers. Yeah, it's funny because it's— that is true.
Speaker:It's also somewhat not true, right? So there's a— it sits in the
Speaker:middle. It's actually the same software system. So the way the
Speaker:data pipeline works and the way that we collect information is
Speaker:almost agnostic to the type of hardware, right? So the way that the rails work
Speaker:is the same way. It's a different system. Like, it feels like
Speaker:a different system. It looks like a different system, but it functions as the same
Speaker:system. So the way that we collect imagery, We've built our IP
Speaker:around the way that we capture this imagery, the way that we process this imagery,
Speaker:and the way that we turn it into actionable data. That is what we are
Speaker:very, very good at. And so whether it's on rails, whether it's a stationary
Speaker:camera, whether it's a bar of cameras, whether it's a vine
Speaker:crops camera, all of those systems collect information in the same
Speaker:way, pump it into the data platform, and become information to the grower
Speaker:in the same type of way. Now, where you are right is that the things
Speaker:different growers care about might be slightly different, right? And so,
Speaker:while everybody might care about chlorosis, necrosis, tip burn,
Speaker:we've got certain things on the issue side that tomato growers
Speaker:care about that lettuce growers don't care about, and vice versa,
Speaker:right? And so, there are those unique things by crop that people do care
Speaker:about. Everybody cares about counting inventory, everybody cares about yield
Speaker:forecasting, everybody cares about certain pieces of the system.
Speaker:But there are nuances within those packages that definitely
Speaker:somebody might care about and the others won't. And so what we do is we
Speaker:train the program. And so we have a provisioning period that every grower
Speaker:will go through that involves the setup of the system. You start getting value day
Speaker:1, because as soon as the cameras are up, you're going to start getting analysis
Speaker:and you're going to start getting imagery. But then you kind of go through a
Speaker:period where we roll out new value offerings
Speaker:based on the need to annotate or the need to train something
Speaker:to look for something that you care about that maybe is unique. And so that
Speaker:period It's short for most people. It can be longer just depending on
Speaker:what it is that you care about and if it's really new to the system.
Speaker:And I imagine there's part of a training process for the farmers themselves so that
Speaker:they get comfortable with the data. They know what they're looking at, they know what
Speaker:to expect and what to be on the lookout for. Yeah, there's a huge
Speaker:understanding process that has to happen because, especially for growers,
Speaker:like, they're very, very talented at doing these things, right? And so they're used to
Speaker:seeing things that they've created. So you take a tomato grower who's used to doing
Speaker:crop registration and they're great at it, The problem isn't that they're not
Speaker:good at it. The problem is that they can't do it comprehensively for every plant,
Speaker:right? And so it's a little bit of level setting on both sides where we
Speaker:say, actually, you are great at this. This is why this tool is going to
Speaker:become your best friend. Check it, right? Like, let's work together, make sure that it's
Speaker:giving you the results that you would do yourself, right? And if it's there and
Speaker:it's a little bit more accurate, great. But like, let's just level set, let's match,
Speaker:and then we can roll it out and then we can kind of see everything.
Speaker:And then all of a sudden it goes from but I used to do this
Speaker:thing, or I can do it better, or whatever it is, to actually, I trust
Speaker:this system inherently, and it does it for everything, which I couldn't do before.
Speaker:And now I have all of this extra value because of that.
Speaker:Are you getting questions from farmers for, or requests
Speaker:for crops that you haven't yet worked on, or just because there's
Speaker:an interest for that? Yeah, all the time. I mean, one of the
Speaker:luxuries of this industry, right, is that it's growing so fast. By nature, that
Speaker:means people are trialing new things, right? We talk to,
Speaker:eggplant growers, strawberry growers, blackberry growers,
Speaker:all kinds of things, right? There's just so much work going into this industry right
Speaker:now to expand the crop selection, and by nature,
Speaker:that means that we're going to get requests for new things. And sometimes that comes
Speaker:from existing customers, frankly, who are trialing new things, which is fun. And
Speaker:sometimes it comes from folks who we just haven't been in that crop segment yet,
Speaker:but we're constantly adding to the crop selection as we keep going.
Speaker:Yeah, and each one of those crops are going to have their own set of
Speaker:challenges in terms of the data that you're going to be analyzing and what you
Speaker:can specifically— what you're going to be looking for with software. Yeah,
Speaker:yeah. And so it just needs to see— it needs to see a lot of
Speaker:crops to learn, right? And so, but that is— that's
Speaker:why we've built the system to be what it is, which is that it's using
Speaker:the same infrastructure, right? It just requires now
Speaker:seeing the different crops. How much of this
Speaker:is new to you and has been a bit of a learning curve in terms
Speaker:of different than what you were doing at Oh, it's a ton of new stuff,
Speaker:right? So, it's been so much fun. So, I'm a physicist by education
Speaker:and came into the ag industry through operations, actually. So, I used
Speaker:to work for one of the large leafy greens facilities as one of their first
Speaker:employees and helped build out the first few facilities
Speaker:and got my kind of feet wet in the operations side, which I
Speaker:loved. I loved growing plants. I loved figuring this stuff out. I loved thinking about
Speaker:what happens when you want to open a new facility in a new city, right?
Speaker:Like, that was all kind of new to me. And then, I started Artemis in
Speaker:2015 as a way to kind of digitize all of that stuff that happens,
Speaker:right? And that was fun and new and exciting. And then this is
Speaker:now the really technically complex
Speaker:industry, right? AI and true AI really, and computer vision and
Speaker:how we utilize this data in different ways is relatively new
Speaker:to me from an application standpoint. But it
Speaker:gets me putting my data science hat back on, which I truly appreciate
Speaker:and enjoy because it's fun to dig into this stuff. It's fun to think about
Speaker:how technology can be used to augment what we're doing in
Speaker:reality, right? And I think we oftentimes try to get
Speaker:sucked into the, well, AI should just replace all this and it should just
Speaker:replace. And like, I just don't think that way. I think that the
Speaker:augmenting of what we're doing in reality and to create, like, we
Speaker:have a grower shortage. We all know this. We have to acknowledge it, right? But
Speaker:if we can— Yeah. augment our growers and turn 1 grower into
Speaker:10 growers and think about it kind of that way. That to me
Speaker:is really truly almost magical, except for that it's not, it's
Speaker:science. And so that's a lot of fun to learn and to kind of dig
Speaker:into on a daily basis. It's just been fascinating to see
Speaker:the pace at which AI is prevalent in almost
Speaker:everything. I mean, from just like the GPT-3 stuff to the
Speaker:the image creation stuff that we're seeing. And it's almost dizzying in terms
Speaker:of how good it is with what it can do. And
Speaker:probably anyone who's in AI thinks that we're still just at the tip of the
Speaker:iceberg in terms of what's possible. Yeah, we're absolutely at the early stages
Speaker:still. But it is a lot of fun. And that
Speaker:impressive nature of the technology is because it's things
Speaker:that are so hard to do as humans, right? And so it was
Speaker:funny. I was at a show a few weeks ago. And we were talking to
Speaker:an ornamental grower who was like, there's no way you
Speaker:could spot a single bug. Like, there's just no way. I can't even
Speaker:really do it. Like, if I can't do it, you can't do it, right? And
Speaker:we said, we can though. Like, we can.
Speaker:Let me show you it. And so we were able to show them, and we
Speaker:bet dinner over it too, because I was like, look. Oh, wow. If I can
Speaker:do it, you gotta use our system. You know, like, what will it take
Speaker:to kind of get you on? And it was this fascinating moment of,
Speaker:These are really complex things that are hard to do, but
Speaker:technology is just better sometimes at those things. And this is a
Speaker:case where it is better. And so yeah, it's
Speaker:very, very good technology right now. And we're still only in the early horizons. I
Speaker:mean, we talk about this all the time in like the world of digital twinning
Speaker:for AI, right? I wrote an article about this for Greenhouse Grower just recently.
Speaker:We sometimes as an industry default to throwing these words out. willy-nilly
Speaker:when it's not necessarily what we mean. And we have to be more careful about
Speaker:that, right? Because digital twins are a really good example where
Speaker:commercializing a digital twin in agriculture right now, especially in CEA, is
Speaker:very, very, very difficult. And we're not there yet.
Speaker:And this idea that you can replicate— I mean, take autonomous vehicles.
Speaker:You have to create a proper digital twin. So, the idea of, like, scenario planning
Speaker:in a digital environment, you have to replicate every single
Speaker:possible instance of something happening in real life. So, as we're driving a
Speaker:car, we know that there are complexities. What happens if it
Speaker:rains the night before and the roads are slick? What happens if a person walks
Speaker:in front of you? What happens if a dog runs off its leash? What happens
Speaker:if a light's out and it goes off at the wrong time? Like, there's
Speaker:almost unlimited possibilities of things happening
Speaker:in a system. And to replicate that digitally is really, really difficult to do.
Speaker:In a CEA environment, you're in a similar situation. It may not seem as
Speaker:complex, but it is because you've now got multiple biological systems at
Speaker:play as well. How a plant reacts to its environment. Yeah.
Speaker:Like that's a challenging thing to think about. You're dealing with a living
Speaker:organism. You're dealing with a living organism and multiple, right? You have irrigation systems, you
Speaker:have all these types of things, you have nutrient like environments, you have a lot
Speaker:of different things going on at once. And so I think it's important for us
Speaker:to also acknowledge that like, that's a difficult problem to solve. Now we're all working
Speaker:on it. Everybody's kind of working towards these types of things, but we're also not
Speaker:there yet. And so, yeah, in that curve, we're really early on in the world
Speaker:of AI. But also that doesn't mean that we're not driving huge value. Yeah,
Speaker:definitely. Something else you posted, it was about the contribution you
Speaker:had or the work you did with Nokia for the, the Real Action
Speaker:Influencer series. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about that? Absolutely. That was a
Speaker:ton of fun. So Nokia, great organization doing a
Speaker:ton of things that you'd probably never even know. Like, this is one of the
Speaker:things I love about some of these big companies is that you have this perception
Speaker:in your head of what a company does. Like Nokia to me, Yeah. And they
Speaker:approached me, I was like, the phones? And they're like, nope. Yeah.
Speaker:So that was my first thought when I saw it. I was like, okay, this
Speaker:is it. What? And it turns out like connectedness in general, like they
Speaker:just do a ton and they do a lot, a lot of work. And so
Speaker:agriculture was one of the things that the company is really excited about and
Speaker:excited about sort of thinking about innovation in the space and how they can
Speaker:kind of play in. And so they created this influencer series that followed
Speaker:4 folks, 3 entrepreneurs and an internal stakeholder at
Speaker:Nokia to actually try to ideate
Speaker:a business model and a company idea within just a few
Speaker:weeks. And so we really only had 4 or 5 weeks to kind of come
Speaker:up with an idea to tackle something so
Speaker:massive, which is food waste, right? Broadly. And food
Speaker:waste is such a huge challenge that impacts— is impacted by
Speaker:the beginningmost stages of the agricultural supply chain all the way through
Speaker:to the consumer. And so where you start on that chain is a really
Speaker:fascinating question in and of itself. And so we had to kind of think
Speaker:about this. And so it was, it was a ton of fun to do. I
Speaker:think it points out, as any entrepreneur kind of digs through these challenges,
Speaker:one of the things that I've noticed myself doing time and time again is the
Speaker:more I get into something, the more questions you end up having. It's not the
Speaker:more answers you have, it's the more questions. And that's a good scenario because
Speaker:it it prompts you to think about things in different ways. And so you, you
Speaker:keep going down these wormholes of, well, what if we actually did this? Well, what
Speaker:if— no, that wouldn't work. What if we did this? How does that work? How
Speaker:does somebody think about it that way? How would somebody use something like that? And
Speaker:you start kind of going down this rabbit hole and the whole thing is on
Speaker:video. So you can kind of see our thinking process through this whole time. And
Speaker:ultimately we ended up coming up with some ideas around what
Speaker:a product could actually look like to track inventory
Speaker:through the supply chain as it flows. And then we even started
Speaker:brainstorming about incentivizing kind of the waste reduction side,
Speaker:whether through potentially carbon credits or thinking about
Speaker:financial incentives to help cut down on waste, which was fascinating. And
Speaker:it ended up kind of looking a little bit like almost a marketplace approach, but
Speaker:really an inventory tracking plus secondary market type of
Speaker:approach, to which, of course, there are amazing companies in the space doing
Speaker:work already in that space. And so, of course, you keep coming back to Well,
Speaker:we should just do what they're doing or they should just do it. Let's just
Speaker:support them. And so you go down this sort of mapping project.
Speaker:So a ton of fun. I highly recommend if folks are interested in
Speaker:either the entrepreneurship journey or food waste in particular,
Speaker:both are pretty covered in the, in the docuseries. And it's, and it's great to
Speaker:kind of see the work that Nokia is doing in this space. Speaking of
Speaker:entrepreneurship, I saw that you had a stint as entrepreneur in
Speaker:residence with NDRC as well. Yeah. Yeah. So NDR— How did
Speaker:that come about and what was that experience like? Yeah. NDRC is
Speaker:a great program out in Ireland, really randomly. So the
Speaker:National Accelerator for Ireland, National Startup Accelerator for Ireland,
Speaker:and it's run by really, really incredible people at Dogpatch Labs
Speaker:who happened to also run an accelerator years ago that
Speaker:worked with Alltech, one of the big agricultural companies. And I
Speaker:participated in that. And so as an entrepreneur, I actually participated in one
Speaker:of the programs years and years ago. And really stayed in touch with the program
Speaker:leaders because they're just really incredible. For any entrepreneur in Ireland
Speaker:or in Europe in general, honestly, I cannot recommend this group enough, but
Speaker:they're great. They're entrepreneurial thinking. They structure programs in a
Speaker:really, really fantastic way. And there's just a ton of value.
Speaker:So I stayed in touch and I became a mentor with the program. And then
Speaker:recently Dogpatch took on this role as leaders
Speaker:of the national startup accelerator for all of Ireland,
Speaker:which is incredible. They run programs out of Dublin, but out of Out of Cork,
Speaker:out of all the places across the country. And so I've participated as an
Speaker:EIR where I get to actually work hands-on with the companies to
Speaker:help them develop from the earliest stages to kind of that fundraising and launching
Speaker:stage or launching and fundraising stages and just really
Speaker:help them build that business from the ground up. And it's been
Speaker:so rewarding to one, to give back to the community, but also
Speaker:two, to like learn from these other founders about how they're approaching
Speaker:problems and how they're thinking about things because it's just helpful to kind of get
Speaker:out of your own head sometimes. sometimes because you've been doing the same. You know,
Speaker:I've been working in the same industry for almost 15 years, and I know
Speaker:vertical farming, I know indoor farming, I know this space really well. I
Speaker:don't know the world of asthma, right? And
Speaker:like, there's a company that's working in the asthma space or
Speaker:pet nutrients and things, or, you know, all these different spaces
Speaker:where you're like, I don't know those spaces. It's interesting. How are you thinking about
Speaker:this? What can I learn from you? That I can bring back to my own
Speaker:company, right? So yeah, it's a lot of fun. It seems like you're
Speaker:always conscious of having that learner's mindset of
Speaker:always, you know, not assuming that you know everything and just— and also the
Speaker:entrepreneurial mindset because, you know, that's— that was your start. And so
Speaker:just understanding how entrepreneurs are tackling problems in different
Speaker:industries, I would imagine, gives you ideas and keeps you
Speaker:energized in your current role. current role to look at current problems
Speaker:you have from a different perspective? Yeah, I don't know if you can tell, I'm
Speaker:pretty high energy. And I, but I feed off of all of that,
Speaker:right? It's, it's, it's kind of fun for me, right? I've always
Speaker:been deeply curious. I think you could ask my parents probably, and they'll tell you
Speaker:the same thing. Like I've been, since I was a child, I've been a deeply
Speaker:curious person and I just want to dig into things more and more and more
Speaker:and learn because there's so much to learn, right? And so if we ever want
Speaker:to have the belief that we can build something bigger, and make a lasting
Speaker:impact on an industry or on the world, to me, part of that has to
Speaker:be this open mindset of learning. And the
Speaker:idea that you know everything is just always false, right? There's
Speaker:just too much to learn. And so the great example, right? Artemis at the
Speaker:time, B2B SaaS, right? Still B2B SaaS, right? At Unu, we're still
Speaker:selling B2B SaaS, B2B kind of enterprise SaaS. Now,
Speaker:what I could learn from a consumer product founder, So
Speaker:I invested in a company a few years ago that's doing consumer products
Speaker:in the safe skincare product realm, right? And so they're trying to create hormone-safe
Speaker:skincare products, totally different from what I do. Not
Speaker:food related, not agriculture related, not B2B related, not
Speaker:enterprise, not software, like nothing that I know, right?
Speaker:But they had this mechanism for how they went to market that
Speaker:scaled so fast by bringing champions on board and to
Speaker:really get people excited about this brand. That taught me
Speaker:how we could almost do the same. And like, they don't have to be exclusive.
Speaker:You don't have to have playbooks that are exclusive. Now you, we do, and we
Speaker:have great playbooks that work really well. But when you can think about
Speaker:how to bring stakeholders in as champions and to create this
Speaker:almost like, not referral, not the, like this
Speaker:idea that people could just kind of word of mouth the
Speaker:industry and the product and, and kind of take off almost a viral
Speaker:nature to it. is a fascinating concept in B2B
Speaker:enterprise SaaS because it's not like that happens, right? Nobody's out there going
Speaker:like, Oracle, I'm not like, yes, we are Oracle. We got to get
Speaker:Oracle products. It's just that, I mean, I love Oracle. Nothing against Oracle.
Speaker:It's just— There probably are some people doing that, but they probably work at Oracle.
Speaker:There may be some like Oracle cult, right? But most people aren't out there
Speaker:evangelizing B2B enterprise software. And so
Speaker:this idea that like, if you can get, capture a little bit of that concept,
Speaker:a little bit of the evangelizing of a product.
Speaker:that could be a spark that ignites
Speaker:crazy growth. And so that's just like a little
Speaker:example, but if you keep your mind open and learn from other people, it
Speaker:makes you that much stronger. It makes me that much stronger at the things I
Speaker:can deliver on a day-to-day basis. And is this part of the investments you're doing
Speaker:with X Factor Ventures? Yeah. So X Factor, really, really
Speaker:great fund, early-stage venture capital fund that only invests in
Speaker:female-founded, companies and the pre-seed and seed stage.
Speaker:And so that earliest stage. So we look for companies with a female founder or
Speaker:co-founder. And the reason is women are underfunded. We
Speaker:know this. So women receive less than 2% of the venture
Speaker:capital that goes out to companies every year. And that gets even worse as you
Speaker:start thinking about segmented populations, right? And underrepresented populations,
Speaker:Black women get less than 1%. And so we're really talking
Speaker:about a tiny, tiny sliver of what's available from a venture capital
Speaker:perspective. And we want to change that ratio. We want to change that dynamic. And
Speaker:so the fund was started with a thesis that
Speaker:founders actually have a ton of deal flow because we
Speaker:are around other founders. Yeah. And to capitalize on that, we created a
Speaker:fund that all of the partners are full-time founders or
Speaker:recently exited founders. And that also means we're too busy to do this
Speaker:like on a day-to-day basis, but there's a lot of us.
Speaker:So it enables us to kind of reach out and stretch out to our networks
Speaker:and invest in interesting things that we see along the way. And I've
Speaker:gotten the absolute pleasure to work with a ton of founders who
Speaker:stretch across every industry doing fascinating work
Speaker:from quantum computing to the skincare company to
Speaker:prebiotics for babies to help them poop more. I like everything, you
Speaker:name it, I've looked at it. It's fun. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, it
Speaker:must be. Well, kudos to you and for all the work you're doing for like
Speaker:to help, you know, female founders. And any time that there's, there's funds specifically
Speaker:dedicated, you know, to help underserved populations, I always think that's
Speaker:amazing because there's not enough support for those folks and
Speaker:they're doing great things and they have ideas that are just as
Speaker:innovative and just as groundbreaking as, you know, traditional founders.
Speaker:And to your point, they're just not getting the attention and the investments that they
Speaker:need to bring that idea to market. Yeah. And so, so just
Speaker:as we round up, close up, appreciate you taking the time to come back on.
Speaker:I'm curious. What's a tough question you've had to ask yourself recently?
Speaker:Oh, that's a great question. What's a tough question I've had to ask myself
Speaker:recently? Something personal that I've been thinking a lot about is
Speaker:where can and should I be really focused in a day-to-day? And part of
Speaker:this is, as an entrepreneur, you're focused on everything. You have to wear every hat.
Speaker:It's just by nature of it. It is— you end up specializing at some point,
Speaker:but generally speaking, you have to be able to touch, to work in and on
Speaker:the business. And that means that you're looking at every single element of the business.
Speaker:Yeah. And when we merged, that hat somewhat went
Speaker:away. It didn't really, because really it's Adam and I are working together on building
Speaker:this company. And so at the end of the day, it's, I'm still as
Speaker:entrepreneurial as I've ever been, but it also does allow you to step back for
Speaker:a second and say, where are your strengths? Where are your weaknesses? Where can you
Speaker:grow? Where do I want to grow? Where do I want to focus on a
Speaker:daily basis? And what does that look like? Like, what does that actually mean?
Speaker:And so one of the things that I'm very appreciative to Adam about is that
Speaker:this role that I've got here is kind of a made-up
Speaker:role to some degree. Like it's gaining traction as this like chief growth officer
Speaker:in the industry, but also it's really this idea that I
Speaker:wanted to really focus on things, all of the things that are commercial in the
Speaker:business and really focus on kind of growing that and what it looks like and
Speaker:developing new processes in there. And so getting the time to
Speaker:actually work on myself just as much as I get to work in
Speaker:the business is a luxury you don't have when you're actually you
Speaker:know, starting a company. And so that's been something I've been spending a lot of
Speaker:time thinking about. And then another thing is sort of, I want to
Speaker:open up my knowledge on different industries. And so I love
Speaker:our industry. I want to spend my career in the industry, but my curiosity side
Speaker:also wants to kind of explore what other industries are like,
Speaker:and especially legacy dirty industry, like these,
Speaker:like agriculture, like manufacturing, right? Like these industries that are really interesting to me
Speaker:are where tech and humans can kind of come together. And
Speaker:so I've been spending a lot of time trying to meet as many people as
Speaker:I can possibly meet just to have fun and learn more about the things that
Speaker:they're doing that we might be able to kind of benefit from too. Do you
Speaker:have systems frameworks for how you take in data? I mean, there's so
Speaker:much happening now. Like, I took this course once that's called Building a Second Brain
Speaker:by this guy named Tiago Forte, and he's helped me like figure out like how
Speaker:much stuff I need to— how to process this, all the,
Speaker:all if you're naturally curious, there's a lot available to you to take in. So
Speaker:you need tools and how to bookmark articles so you can read them
Speaker:later. And the idea of just-in-time learning versus just-in-case learning,
Speaker:which has been really helpful for me. And I'm just wondering, is there anything that's
Speaker:been working for you just to process everything that's coming in? Yeah, that's a
Speaker:very good question because it can be overwhelming, honestly. And especially if you're naturally
Speaker:curious, then the world is your oyster, right? The thing that I found in the
Speaker:last since the pandemic, really, honestly. So I used to not be a very good
Speaker:work-from-home person, right? I feed off people. I love being in an office.
Speaker:I like being around people. If I could be on the trade show floor
Speaker:24/7, I would do it. Like, I just, I like the energy
Speaker:of people because again, it's, it's that curiosity thing. Like the more conversations I can
Speaker:have with somebody, the more I can learn from them too. And vice versa, hopefully.
Speaker:And so the pandemic like threw a whole wrench in that, right? It was now
Speaker:you're at home in a space that's not necessarily an office, right? And it's this
Speaker:whole thing. And so you have to be a little bit more diligent about how
Speaker:you're receiving information because I find
Speaker:that when I receive information from a person, I can
Speaker:retain it potentially better than if I receive it digitally in some way, shape, or
Speaker:form. And so something that I've latched onto is really,
Speaker:I actually don't think I'm great at frameworks for this, but the one thing that
Speaker:has worked very well for me is I've, Todoist has become like
Speaker:part of my blood. Yeah. And so, and this can work for anything, Asana,
Speaker:whatever tool you use, but having some sort of a simple to-do
Speaker:management system. Has become literally my lifeblood.
Speaker:And so I prioritize things based on a version of the
Speaker:Eisenhower Matrix where you have this concept of, is it urgent and important? If so,
Speaker:then I work on it. And kind of the further off of the matrix of
Speaker:urgent and important, the more I'm going to just throw it away
Speaker:or delegate it out. And I only keep those things in. And then I
Speaker:have kind of a different to-do box that's all the stuff I'm
Speaker:thinking about. And I have to move it into, am I acting on this thing
Speaker:or am I just think, is it just information I want to have? And so
Speaker:that's kind of become the way that I think about things, but
Speaker:I don't know that I have the best framework, but that tool in particular has
Speaker:become the only way that I can seem to process the myriad
Speaker:of digital information that's in front of me at all times. Yeah. Well,
Speaker:that's a good one to start. Definitely. Like I hear like a lot of good
Speaker:things about the Eisenhower Matrix, so that's helpful. So given our
Speaker:audience that you're familiar with, obviously it's folks interested in the space,
Speaker:other founders and CEOs. I've been leaving some space
Speaker:at the end of these conversations for any messages or any requests you
Speaker:have for this audience. Yeah, so I would say,
Speaker:one, I'm an open book. Please reach out. So if you want to
Speaker:get into this industry and you're thinking about learning in this industry and you want
Speaker:to talk, please feel free to reach out. You can go on LinkedIn and just
Speaker:message me there and I'll Just say that you met me here and then I'll
Speaker:know who you are. We're also at a lot of events coming up. So if
Speaker:you want to meet up in person, we will be at Greenhouse Grower Connect in
Speaker:October. We'll be at Indoor AgCon when that comes up in the winter,
Speaker:February, I think this year. Yeah. And so we'll be at a bunch of
Speaker:shows. So please come up and meet us in person. And then frankly, if you're
Speaker:interested in working in this industry, like I said, check out our job
Speaker:postings. We're hiring. I know a lot of people are hiring right now. A lot
Speaker:of people have raised fresh rounds. This fall. And so I'm sure
Speaker:that from a startup perspective, there's going to be a lot of openings, but I
Speaker:would love to talk to anybody who's interested in learning more about the space or
Speaker:open to exploring it. Yeah, and we've got the free vertical farming
Speaker:jobs board, so I'm reaching out to all past guests and just make sure
Speaker:we get that filled up with just another avenue. I just want to have another
Speaker:opportunity for folks to see what's happening in the space and to see what's available.
Speaker:So I'll make sure I coordinate that with you as well. Yeah, that'd be great.
Speaker:Well, Allison, thank you again for coming back on. I'm glad we got to connect
Speaker:in person and now coming back. It's exciting to see
Speaker:how you think about the opportunities that exist in this space, especially
Speaker:with your background, and how excited you are for what YouNew is
Speaker:doing as well. I mean, it's very innovative and I think it's going to be
Speaker:very helpful for the industry. So, so much happening in space. I know if we
Speaker:have a conversation in 6 months or a year from now, there's going to be
Speaker:a whole new bunch of things that we're talking about that we're excited about. But
Speaker:I'm looking forward to connect. So I'll have all those links in the show notes,
Speaker:your LinkedIn profile as well, if folks want to reach out. And I
Speaker:really appreciate you sharing time with me today. Absolutely. It's always my
Speaker:pleasure. It was a lot of fun. And I agree, I think in 6 months
Speaker:it's going to be a different world. So maybe we'll do it again. Yeah, sounds
Speaker:good. Thanks again to Allison for coming on the show and sharing her story. As
Speaker:always, full show notes available at verticalfarmingpodcast.com. We go to
Speaker:great lengths to provide a lot of details about the conversation to make it
Speaker:easy for you to focus on just listening and not taking copious notes,
Speaker:as some people have mentioned they have in the past. We have an episode summary,
Speaker:we have key takeaways, timestamps, quotes from the shows,
Speaker:and any resources or links mentioned, we cover those as well. So
Speaker:verticalfarmingpodcast.com or the show notes in any of your
Speaker:favorite podcast apps. Thanks again to our season title sponsor, Cultivated.
Speaker:If you're looking into a vertical farm and don't know where to start or which
Speaker:technology would suit your needs, reach out to them today. Best of all, their
Speaker:service is free because they work on behalf of their partners. Learn more at
Speaker:cultivated.com, and that's spelled C-U-L-T-I-V-A-T-D.com.
Speaker:Just leave out that last E. Podcast production and marketing provided by
Speaker:Fullcast. Learn more about how a podcast may be helpful for your brand at
Speaker:fullcast.co. One more reminder, if you're enjoying this show, leave us a
Speaker:rating and a review at ratethispodcast.com/vfp, and we'll be
Speaker:sure to read those out on future episodes. Tune in next week for my
Speaker:conversation with David Ahmed. He is the CEO of Hexapharms.
Speaker:It's a new company that's part of the Techstars incubator, and
Speaker:they're doing some really interesting work. And David is high energy
Speaker:and has a lot of strong opinions about where there are opportunities
Speaker:for growth and development in this sector.
Speaker:I have a feeling that his energy level is going to be
Speaker:interesting and infectious. So that's
Speaker:all I want to say because I really enjoyed my conversation. I was smiling the
Speaker:whole time. I know you're going to love it. So make sure you listen out
Speaker:for that one. Okay. Until we meet again, here's to your health.
Speaker:Thanks for listening. To read the full show notes for this episode, which
Speaker:includes any links mentioned in the episode, as well as a full show
Speaker:transcription, Visit verticalfarmingpodcast.com.
Speaker:There, you can sign up for our email list to be notified when new
Speaker:episodes are published.
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