Latest / AI for Founders with Ryan Estes / Quit Code to Grow Lettuce

Transcript

Quit Code to Grow Lettuce · AI for Founders with Ryan Estes

0:00
What if the safest investment in an AI obsessed world isn't an AI
0:03
company at all? While everyone's dumping money
0:06
into models that get wiped out the second a new one drops,
0:09
smart founders are quietly building in a category that AI
0:12
literally cannot replace. They call them Halo companies.
0:16
Heavy asset, low obsolescence. The VC world is so obsessed with
0:19
software multiples that they're completely blind to the most
0:22
durable wealth building opportunity of our generation.
0:26
Every time a new model drops, 100 startups die overnight.
0:29
Halo. Several companies sit at the
0:30
intersection of physical infrastructure and biological
0:34
reality. Things that must exist, that
0:36
can't be digitized away, and that AI actually makes more
0:40
valuable, not obsolete. Labor shortages are
0:43
accelerating, supply chains are fracturing, climate pressure is
0:47
mounting. And the companies with hard
0:49
assets, proprietary process and real world outputs, they're not
0:53
just surviving the AI wave, they're riding it.
0:56
This is where the generational opportunity is hiding.
0:59
Not in the next chat. But in the businesses that feed,
1:01
build and sustain the world that actually runs the chat bots.
1:05
So are you investing in something that a better model
1:07
makes worthless? Or are you still early enough to
1:10
own a piece of the world that every model still depends on to
1:13
survive? Welcome to AI for founders.
1:15
I'm Ryan Estes, and today we're talking to Bryce from Planta
1:18
Farms. In this episode, you'll learn
1:20
how a Halo company founder is using controlled environment
1:23
technology and AI powered biofeedback to revolutionize how
1:26
food gets its start. This one's for founders who want
1:29
to think bigger about what but industries AI actually can't
1:31
replace, and how to build in those white spaces.
1:35
Want more founder frameworks like this delivered straight to
1:37
your inbox? Sign up at AI for founders.co,
1:40
where we skip the noise, skip the hype, and hand you the
1:43
actual playbook. Subscribe before we get smart
1:45
enough to actually charge for it.
1:47
And if this episode grew on you like a well lit seedling in a
1:49
controlled environment, leave us a review.
1:51
It takes 30 seconds and helps more founders find the show.
1:58
Bryce, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining
2:00
me. Thanks Ryan, it's a great beer.
2:02
Yeah, I'm really excited to talk to you because 1, you have a
2:05
really cool company. It's called Plantiva Farms dot
2:08
coms. People can check it out and
2:10
we'll dive into that a little bit.
2:12
And plus, I get so into the weeds talking about AI stuff
2:16
that I'm, I, I'm really excited to talk about what, what they're
2:19
calling Halo companies, which is high asset, low obsolescence,
2:24
which is just kind of a, a cool acronym for companies that are
2:27
not threatened by AI, but rather are in a position to optimize
2:31
with AI. So let's just dive right in.
2:34
Bryce, give us kind of an overview of your company.
2:38
Sure. Yeah, Plantiva Farms, newer
2:41
company we used, we actually found it in 2023.
2:43
So we've been working at getting the foundation of that set up,
2:47
but it comes from years of me seeing, you know, different
2:51
entry points of the agricultural market where I think there's a
2:54
bit less focus being put on. So we specialize in propagation.
2:59
And instead of doing propagation in a conventional method, which
3:01
is usually done either kind of on the side of the field or in a
3:04
greenhouse, we do it in a controlled environment.
3:06
So everything is highly controlled and allows us to
3:09
really drive the the, the the genetics of the plant like at
3:13
the seed level so that we get the best results possible and
3:16
then pass that on to our growers.
3:18
Amazing. So propagation from the seed is
3:20
not done in the soil in the field, rather it's done kind of
3:23
in a greenhouse prior and then delivered to the field.
3:26
That's correct. Most crops and this is kind of I
3:28
guess a little known fact for the general public, but most
3:30
crops that we consume are in fact started outside of the soil
3:35
and then brought as a transplant or a young plants depending on
3:38
where it's ending up. So we focus on three core
3:42
clientele. The first is indoor farms.
3:45
So we can provide a, a disease free, pest free seedling, a very
3:49
high quality for indoor farms. We also work with greenhouse
3:52
industry. And then we we've recently been
3:54
pioneering methods of production on our ends to go from indoor
3:59
production methods to outdoor field farming, which is really
4:02
interesting because we're seeing a very high increase in yield
4:04
for our customers with that. Yeah.
4:06
And then I suppose that totally makes sense for indoor vertical
4:09
farming, Outdoor is the what would be the value add was is it
4:14
like kind of like little critters coming by and eating
4:17
the seedlings? Is it, you know, spring storms
4:19
destroying them when they're small?
4:22
So there's a lot of things around that that that have a lot
4:25
of impact on outdoor farming. So your germination rate is
4:28
going to be a big one. And yeah, like seeds do get
4:31
consumed in the field. It's just a question of resource
4:34
management. You want to make sure to
4:36
maximize every square foot of land.
4:38
So the best way to do that is to start your plants prior in a, in
4:41
a more, I would say soft environment and then move them
4:44
outdoors after. It's typical practice even for
4:47
gardeners or or any smaller venture, but like even large
4:51
scale farms do this now and it it just gives a better yield and
4:54
better result. Yeah, 100%.
4:57
And I think all of us are kind of A use to that.
4:59
There's like those cool little discs that you get when you want
5:01
to plant a seed and it's expands up, you know, if you've got
5:04
kids, you got to do these like little experiments and it's
5:07
super fun. What, what kind of
5:08
differentiates Plantiva and maybe better question is what
5:11
opening in the market did you see that say like, hey, this is
5:14
a perfect place for me to get involved at this stage of of
5:17
propagation? Well, I think farmers are under
5:21
pressure from so many different places, you know, like cost of
5:25
increased the the cost of input materials is going out, there's
5:29
labor shortages, there's discerning customers that are
5:31
wanting a better product for a lower price.
5:34
There's environmental pressure and all those things compounds
5:37
making it harder and harder for farmers to turn a a healthy
5:40
profit. And one of those areas where
5:43
there was a lot of potential on on multi level is is
5:46
propagation. I think that, you know, it's,
5:49
it's often overlooked because it's one of these things where
5:51
it doesn't necessarily bring a yield, sorry, a revenue for for
5:56
a farmer, but it's a necessary piece of the puzzle.
5:59
So it tends to get overlooked from a technology standpoint.
6:02
So in my experience, I knew that if plants were started off
6:07
correctly, you'd get a better result at that yield once you
6:10
harvest it. So we decided to start really
6:13
working on better methods for propagation using like
6:17
technology that currently exists to to drive the genetic
6:21
potential of each seed as much as possible to then put that
6:24
increase in yield and that performance back in the hand of
6:27
the farmers so that they can actually get more benefit out of
6:30
the crops that they're planting. And so, you know, basically the
6:35
way that we approach that is that we, we look at, you know, a
6:38
typical method of doing this would be that you plant a seed
6:41
and you have one recipe for the whole time is how you're growing
6:44
it. We actually will change that
6:46
recipe multiple times during the process.
6:49
So if we're doing lettuce, for example, for an indoor farm and
6:52
then the same variety for an outdoor farm, we've developed
6:55
methods of tuning that that first phase of growth very
7:01
differently in both ways. So that the results that we're
7:03
getting is really destined to the environment that it's going
7:05
to be heading to. And interestingly enough, we've
7:09
actually embedded a lot of technology to be able to do that
7:12
as well. So we're getting to the point
7:13
now where we're going to be having, you know, internal
7:15
software where multi spectral camera is actually looking at
7:19
the the growth rate of the plant and also how it's actually
7:22
metabolizing so that we're only giving it energy when it really
7:26
needs it. And so we're managing our
7:28
resources that way. And what ends up happening at
7:30
the end is that when the plant transfers to the field, for
7:33
example, it it's performing so much better than it would if
7:37
it's just being grown like in a traditional method.
7:40
Cool. So is the actual material, the
7:42
substrate different for each plants or?
7:46
It can be, I mean, we're, we don't want to disrupt so much on
7:50
the way things are done for the farmers.
7:51
So we tend to just kind of go off of what their needs are.
7:54
So if they're used to working with a certain substrate, we, we
7:57
keep things pretty much the same.
8:00
Where we do change is, is in the method behind that.
8:02
Like we'll change the lighting recipe for lettuce seedling, you
8:05
know, four or five times during its 12 to 14 day cycle, which is
8:10
very unconventional compared to most most approaches to
8:13
propagation. Amazing.
8:15
And what brought you to this product?
8:18
Well, I mean, I'm in a, I've been in this industry for about
8:22
2025 years now. I started working like on a
8:27
farm. I was a software engineer prior
8:29
to that and I just, you know, I wanted to move away from
8:33
software and get into something that was a bit more hands on.
8:36
And this is literally about as hands on as you can get.
8:38
So yeah, I just felt that there was a big opportunity to do
8:45
something that was like not only good for the environment, but
8:48
was good for the people as well. Like the better produce we can,
8:51
we can create, like the, the healthier it is.
8:54
You know, agriculture really is kind of our biggest industry and
9:00
it is quite disruptive when it comes to the environment.
9:02
So if there's ways that we can get more, more out of what we're
9:05
already doing with less, I think that that's going to have a
9:08
major impact. So I just always kind of, I
9:12
don't know, just I've always had a passion for it.
9:14
Yeah, seemed like a good time to get out of software engineering.
9:19
This was like years and years ago, like I, I went through the
9:22
whole transition from like mainframe systems to to online,
9:26
like the first versions of online applications.
9:28
So that cool a little bit. But yeah, that was like early
9:31
2000s kind of thing. Quick side note for founders who
9:35
are using AI to write content, you've probably noticed this.
9:38
It's incredibly fast, but it doesn't really Dr. meaningful
9:42
traffic. And honestly, that's because
9:44
most AI generated content is just average.
9:47
There's no real insight, no depth, no structure missing.
9:50
Things like internal linking and Google's getting very good at
9:53
filtering that out. So instead of trying to just
9:55
prompt better, I actually came across something interesting
9:58
called Neenah. It's a system that combines
10:01
human strategy and review with AI writing to create high
10:05
quality SEO optimized blog content that's actually designed
10:09
to rank and keep ranking. What I like about it is that
10:11
it's done for me. Their team handles the topic
10:14
strategy in the content review and data markups for Google and
10:18
turns blog posts into actual long term traffic assets.
10:22
So if you're a founder thinking seriously about organic growth,
10:25
this is one of those things worth paying attention to.
10:27
You can check it out at Try neena.co.
10:30
That's TRYNIN a.co Try neena.co. While you were recording your
10:38
last episode, Casey Taylor was out there pitching your podcast
10:41
to brands and securing sponsorship deals.
10:44
Well, she's not yet, but she could be.
10:46
Casey is Howdy's AI partnership agent and she does something
10:50
pretty wild. She actually secures
10:52
sponsorships for your show. Not a match list that you have
10:55
to work through yourself, not a template you have to send.
10:57
She handles the outreach to follow up the whole thing and
11:00
brings back partners. You started your podcast because
11:03
you had something worth saying. Casey makes sure that you get
11:06
paid for sayingitgomeetcasey@gethowdy.com.
11:10
That's GETHOW di.com. 2 minutes to get started, then Casey takes
11:15
it from there. That's howdy.
11:17
Partnershipsgethowdy.com. Yeah.com to cloud era.
11:23
Exactly. Cool, nice.
11:25
And it's So is this predominantly designed for like
11:30
edible foods? Oh yeah, we, we have, our focus
11:33
is entirely on like your traditional agriculture.
11:37
So we do a lot of lettuce for indoor farms.
11:41
Strawberry is becoming a very big product for us, but our our,
11:46
you know, kind of our Holy Grail is, is all the field crops.
11:49
So we're finding, for example, this is kind of interesting,
11:52
like in going into specific crops, like, you know, not very
11:57
exciting, but celery, for example, there's a particular
12:01
problem with large scale celery propagation as that as you go
12:05
more towards automation for transplanting, the seeds are
12:09
actually pre sewn into these big trays.
12:12
And then propagators receive those trays and place them in
12:14
the greenhouse and they'll keep them for 65 to 80 days
12:17
typically. And then once they've grown to
12:19
that ideal size, they'll get transferred out to the field.
12:22
The issue is that when you pre sow, there's a layer of dirt or
12:26
substrate that goes on top of those seeds.
12:28
And celery seeds actually need light to germinate.
12:30
So you have this problem where logistically you're burying the
12:35
seeds, but like so that that light's not penetrating.
12:38
So we're actually able to monitor how to do this with like
12:42
these these cameras and we can see certain spectrums like of
12:46
light actually penetrating under the surface of the soil and
12:50
triggering germination a lot faster.
12:51
So we're able to bring our germination rate for example,
12:53
for celery from an average of 50% to 60% all the way up to 89
12:59
to 95% on our end. And we're getting our crops
13:02
ready in, you know, 40 to 45 days instead of the 65 to 80
13:07
days that you would traditionally get in the in the
13:09
standard rehouse as well. Amazing and I I don't know much
13:13
about agriculture, particularly Canadian agriculture, but I'm
13:17
assuming that there's probably some some challenges just being
13:20
so far north and maybe some advantages like talk to us a
13:23
little bit about just agriculture in Canada broadly.
13:26
I'm is it safe to assume that most of kind of the the the
13:31
fruits are being shipped to the states?
13:34
Totally, Yeah, it's interesting because Canada has reliance on
13:38
foreign markets for half of the year.
13:42
We're really tied to import 2012 months a year.
13:45
So, so we even though we produce a lot, most of what we produce
13:48
does get exported. So it creates this weird
13:51
cyclical market here which is which is quite interesting to
13:54
look at. But yeah, I would say that most
13:56
of our greenhouse produce, and there is one hub in Leamington,
14:00
Kingsville area, which is like the southernmost tip of Ontario
14:03
that produce a lot of food. It's the biggest greenhouse
14:07
cluster outside of the Netherlands, I believe so.
14:10
So they really do a big, big production and most of what they
14:13
produce does get exported to the US actually.
14:16
Interesting. We import after that, like we'll
14:18
ship tomatoes from Canada to the US and then we'll import
14:22
tomatoes from the US. It's it's kind of this weird
14:25
fact. Hope you do.
14:27
Yeah, I was in the grocery store a few years ago and there's like
14:30
all their grass fed beef was from Australia.
14:33
I was like, bro, what? I tried to ask cattle all the
14:38
time, like what are we doing? It's a global, I mean, it's such
14:41
a global market. I mean, US is definitely one of
14:44
the biggest consumers. This interesting stat on the,
14:48
the animal protein side, like during the the Super Bowl,
14:51
there's a half a billion chicken wings.
14:52
They're eating, eating just enough, right?
14:56
You can give me nightmares thinking about that.
15:01
There's like a squawk, a silent squawk you don't hear in between
15:06
halftime. Amazing.
15:09
Yeah. That's now it.
15:11
It seems like the agriculture in the States is largely to feed
15:15
the cattle. I I think large in large part.
15:18
So whether that's corn or it's soybeans, is this applicable for
15:21
those as well? No.
15:23
So that's all that's all under the broad acre kind of way of
15:27
doing agriculture. So that that has its own
15:29
science. Like we're really focused on
15:31
vegetable crops primarily and. What?
15:35
Oh, no, go ahead. Well.
15:36
I was going to say, like 60% of the vegetables consumed in North
15:39
America come from like a pretty small area of California like
15:44
Salinas Alley down to Santa Maria.
15:46
And so that's where we are focusing a lot of our attention
15:49
right now as well. Cool.
15:51
And you're, you're Canadian company, are you largely for
15:55
Canadian growers? Are is there a barrier of entry
15:58
to markets in the United States? I would say that because of the
16:02
success rate that we're seeing, barrier of entry is relatively
16:06
limited. Like we wouldn't be selling
16:07
crops directly across the border.
16:09
We would be setting up farms close to our clients.
16:12
So the goal of the expansion is to pretty quickly actually
16:15
branch out into California. Yeah, our lead investors is
16:18
actually located in in California.
16:21
And so that they have a location on site that that we're scoping
16:25
for our second farm and that would be primarily to produce
16:29
transplants for the strawberry industry and a few other large
16:32
crop industries in California. Yeah, You know, my grand folks,
16:36
rest in peace. They lived in Vista, which is
16:38
outside of San Diego, and we would go to the strawberry
16:41
patches. And I mean, they were the size
16:43
of like oranges. You know, it's incredible cool.
16:49
And you mentioned your investor and I know you just closed
16:51
around. Congratulations, you have all
16:54
the the guns blazing coming out of the what am I mixing
16:58
metaphors here? Guns are blazing, which is
17:00
really cool. Now for people that are thinking
17:03
about like Halo investments, you know, obviously AI is so frothy,
17:06
but it also seems like every time there's a new model update
17:11
that it washes out 100 startups, you know, so people might be
17:15
looking for alternative investments.
17:17
And I don't think food is necessarily an alternative
17:20
investment, but give me the pitch as far as like.
17:23
When you're looking. For investors like what's the
17:25
opportunity for return? What are you looking for
17:27
attributes in a an ideal investor relationship?
17:31
Yeah, we, I mean, we got really lucky with our investor pool.
17:35
The more on the private equity even like family, family office
17:39
kind of kind of groups. We have a large scale farmer
17:43
that's involved. We have a corporate partner
17:46
that's a large greenhouse manufacturer that that invested.
17:50
And then the rest is local families that, that, that are
17:54
pretty close to where we're located that just wanted to
17:56
expand their, their portfolio. And, you know, I think that it's
18:01
a difficult area to raise money in.
18:03
Like we are not software based like we are actually, as you
18:06
mentioned, like it's, it's pretty CapEx intensive to set up
18:09
these farms. And also we're not running after
18:11
some, you know, Unicorn eggs, that kind of thing.
18:15
And I think that the VC world is really structured in a way
18:18
that's rather limiting to, to the types of markets that it's
18:22
going after. Even like investors in AG tech
18:25
in the VC world tend to have a pretty narrow investment thesis.
18:30
A lot of it is focused on on more on like the tech side.
18:34
So for us, we really needed to bring investors that we're in
18:37
for either some sort of personal interest.
18:41
Like for this farm in California, they're egg farmers
18:44
and the market in California for anything that's animal product
18:48
is becoming more and more difficult.
18:50
There's also a lot more pressure from like disease.
18:53
So they're just looking for ways to expand their footprint and
18:56
their market into something that's a little bit more, I
18:59
would say, stable and in some, some cases lucrative.
19:04
So yeah, I mean, we pitched to like 115 or 120 BCS and like, we
19:09
got shut down a lot. Like I'm very used to rejection
19:12
now. It's a good muscle to build.
19:15
Rejection. You know it, but you are in an
19:19
interesting position because you are a software engineer, you are
19:22
a founder and you are hands on seeing these farms in action.
19:27
I mean, is there any temptation to start to like, you know, we
19:30
could, we could put together a little software product.
19:33
It's, it's been really incredible watching something
19:36
that I don't think could have happened even like a year ago,
19:39
which is that like our, for example, our, our head grower
19:42
has developed this entire platform because we work with
19:45
like a specific lighting technology.
19:47
And then we have a specific growing technology and we have a
19:50
climate controlled system and they kind of speak to each
19:53
other, but it's not like integrated into a full
19:55
dashboard. And like as as an agronomist,
19:58
she actually sat down with I think Claude or one of the AI
20:02
like systems and like was able to actually model out like
20:06
something where it took all these different APIs.
20:09
And she's starting to connect them together like as a, as an
20:11
agronomist, she's doing like high level programming work,
20:14
which it's just insane. Like to see that happen.
20:16
And like, same with our, our, our, we have an aggro engineer
20:19
who's responsible for like connecting what comes out of the
20:22
lab and all of the research we're doing into the growing
20:25
systems. And now he's developed like with
20:27
a, with an AI, he developed this whole protocol to help everyone
20:31
enter information so that everything communicates properly
20:34
and it's, it's seamless. Like it just kind of, you know,
20:37
so, so these are people who are not software engineers, don't
20:40
have a software background and are now able to design these
20:44
relatively complex systems with the help of AI.
20:47
Like it's incredible how well that's integrated into our into
20:50
our, our process. Yeah.
20:53
And I just think it's going to get bigger and bigger because I
20:55
mean it's a semi controlled environment, it's in a
20:59
greenhouse. So you have all the data on, you
21:02
know, sun, you have all the data on humidity, you have the data
21:06
on moisture, everything. You have all these data points.
21:10
Plus you have cameras so you can see.
21:12
So all the like, kind of like, you know, diagnostic tools, you
21:16
know, this is kind of stuff where AI is going to play more
21:19
and more and more of being able to grab stuff quick, you know.
21:24
It's interesting like so the early stage we actually do in a
21:27
completely controlled environment like in a warehouse.
21:29
And so we're able to monitor everything within, you know,
21:33
minute fractions and with these multi spectral cameras, we can
21:37
actually detect photosynthesis. And that's creating this
21:40
biofeedback to something where right now we're in the data
21:44
collection phase. But eventually where we're
21:46
trying to get is where the system's constantly recognizing
21:49
what the plants are doing and how they're behaving and, and
21:52
micro adjusting lighting and climate to better match what the
21:56
plant needs. And I think that what's going to
21:58
end up happening for us in the next, I would say like 2 to
22:02
three years. Is that all of that agronomist
22:06
process of determining like these game time decisions is
22:08
going to become more and more automated and it's just going to
22:10
be layered in with the with machine learning?
22:13
Yeah, you could have like little laser.
22:15
So if there's like a mosquito, like I'll grab it just like zaps
22:19
the mosquitoes in the air. It's a stupid joke.
22:25
I was originally going to say snails with a salt cannon but I
22:27
always thought that was mean. You know something, I feel like
22:32
there's a little bit of rush into it, but.
22:34
Yeah, always feel bad for snails, but like mosquitoes, we
22:38
can we can rid the world of. Those think so.
22:43
Which came from the the Dalai Lama.
22:45
I heard a video of him speaking, and he was like swatting
22:48
mosquitoes. And they're like, hey, is it all
22:51
sentient beings? He's like, we don't need
22:53
mosquitoes. I was like, oh, OK, there we go.
22:55
It's OK to hate one creature. I'm I'm with you.
22:58
I'm with you. Cool Globally alliance.
23:03
Let's kind of take a stab into the future.
23:06
You know, partly AI is obviously going to come into play here,
23:09
but with agriculture, I think that robots are going to make a
23:11
massive play. I've interviewed a bunch of
23:14
folks about robots while, well, culturally we're wrestling with
23:18
the fact of do we want humanoid robots?
23:21
Can a robot even navigate my house and and my cat and a cord
23:26
and the fold in the rug like it? Will it be able to do that?
23:30
But meanwhile, all of the warehouses are being replaced
23:33
with with robots. And so it seems only natural
23:36
that in a greenhouse or in the field, like we're going to see
23:39
explosion of robots. What's your take?
23:43
Yeah, I mean, I've been in a very fortunate position for the
23:47
last years, like before I founded Plantiva, which is that
23:50
I was, I was doing a lot of consultation for a tech cluster
23:54
here called Zone AG Tech. This is an organization that was
23:57
put out by the Quebec government to support agricultural
24:00
technology in the province. The thing in Quebec that we do
24:03
really well is innovation, like we're very good at the
24:06
government actually puts a lot of funding into innovation
24:09
process. You know, where there's a bit of
24:12
a challenge is on the export of those technologies because we
24:14
are a very small, small market. So during that period, I was
24:18
working with a lot of companies that were developing these
24:20
incredible technologies here, but then helping them also reach
24:23
larger markets. And I'll give you an example.
24:26
There's a company here called Samiag Tech that develops a
24:29
broccoli harvesting machine. And this thing is like the
24:33
coolest thing I've ever seen. It's, it's probably about 40
24:36
feet wide and it has an AI vision system, a software and
24:41
then a robotic arm like a Fenu robotic arm.
24:43
And there's like 20 of these stations along this long, this
24:47
long line. And if you see a broccoli
24:49
harvesting equipment in the field conventionally, it's
24:52
literally like this stand that's pinned behind a tractor and
24:56
people are hunched over and they're, they're harvesting
24:58
broccoli and they're putting it on this conveyor and then it get
25:00
goes up to conveyor and into the, the packaging that's next
25:04
to it. Well, this thing does exactly
25:05
the same thing as that, except it's all automated, like it
25:09
happens like a visual system that actually recognizes the
25:12
size of the crown. There's a calculation that's
25:15
done and then there's a decision where it comes in and cuts it or
25:17
not. If it doesn't cut it, it logs
25:20
it. So then the farmers know what's
25:21
being left in the field. Like it's incredible to see how
25:23
how that that's fun. And the interesting part of that
25:28
is we, they started developing that maybe I'd say about 5 or 6
25:32
years ago. And the time it took to develop
25:35
that, you know, was and the, the energy and the resources and the
25:38
money was substantial. And more recently, I was
25:41
consulting with another firm that was doing something more
25:44
unlike the logistics side for, for large scale saw it growing
25:50
and the same approach to the logistics on the computer, like
25:54
the, the software and all that was a fraction of the cost and
25:59
what we accomplished in a year before we're able to do in like
26:02
a month and 1/2 for something similar.
26:05
So I'm, I'm really excited to see where this is going to go in
26:07
the next couple years because I think that it's, it's, you know,
26:11
the speed at which we're able to, to develop and, and, and
26:15
bring technology to, to life is really incredible now.
26:18
Yeah. You know, we, we just kind of
26:20
went through kind of a challenging period.
26:22
I'm sure this summer will be the same where it's hard to find
26:24
people that can actually collect the to harvest the the fruits,
26:29
whether that's for immigration concerns or political concerns.
26:33
A lot of stuff swirling around. I mean, do do you see that kind
26:36
of increasing? It's it's a huge problem and I
26:39
like labor shortages is one of the two biggest challenges and
26:44
obviously robotics is going to have a lot to do with that.
26:47
Yeah, yeah, 100%. You know, the the food trends
26:51
are interesting too. And I know you have history and
26:53
kind of vertical farming and optimizing kind of like yields
26:58
and, and space and things like that.
27:00
You know, traditionally we've always had our city centers and
27:02
like all of our food is grown outside of the city cities and
27:06
kind of brought in. And now obviously we have global
27:09
markets where like somehow I'm eating a grapefruit at, you
27:12
know, 8000 feet in Colorado. You know, obviously it's getting
27:15
trucked all over the place. You know, what do you see kind
27:17
of the future of like food and humans?
27:20
Do you do you think we bring the food closer to us?
27:23
Are there some things that can and some things that can't?
27:26
Yeah, I think so. I mean, there's challenges to
27:29
that, like anything, I think there's a lot of potential
27:32
around logistics. You know, right now it's it's
27:36
still the guesswork a little bit as to where the markets are
27:39
going to be requesting to have certain things at certain times
27:42
of year. Like like anything, the market
27:44
fluctuates a lot and consumer behavior changes throughout the
27:47
year. So I once we start having like a
27:50
more global view of that, I think that it's going to impact
27:53
a lot of the ways that food actually moves around the
27:55
planet. So I'm curious to see how AI
27:58
models are going to be affecting that.
27:59
And I think that's like a really high growth potential area for a
28:03
frag. You know, growing food in a city
28:07
or in like a peri urban model is really interesting from I think
28:14
like an ethical and like the science approach, but it's still
28:20
I think a little ways away just because of certain restrictions
28:23
that are that are, you know, hard to get around, which is
28:26
cost of energy. Real estate is a big one too.
28:29
You know, if you, if you're thinking about a farm, like if I
28:31
build a greenhouse on farmland here in Canada, I'm buying that
28:35
land for, you know, 25 to $0.75 a square foot.
28:39
And if I'm doing the same greenhouse on industrial and
28:43
closer to a city, I'm paying, you know, $25 or something like
28:47
that. So like the cost of the the
28:49
infrastructure goes up a lot and then the cost of like your
28:51
operating expenses go up a lot too.
28:54
And food is really like a high volume, low margin business.
28:59
So, you know, we've seen a lot of failure in in urban like like
29:03
the big indoor farms recently. I think there was a lot of
29:07
issues around the approach. Like it was this very heavily VC
29:11
backed, kind of like, you know, software approach where if you
29:15
get enough traction and you build it big enough, it's going
29:18
to, you know, eventually going to make money and become this
29:21
big thing. But farming is is all
29:23
infrastructure and it's all relatively low margin, high
29:29
volume. And I think a different approach
29:31
is going to be needed for that. You need different incentives
29:34
with food. At least you'd hope you would,
29:37
yeah. You know, it's totally it's,
29:40
it's a different, it's just a way different industry.
29:43
I think there was we're in a really interesting learning
29:46
process with, with the way this this industry is evolving.
29:49
Like some of the big players that are doing well now in
29:51
controlled environment agriculture, which is kind of
29:53
the umbrella that lies over greenhouse and indoor farm.
29:58
We're seeing this convergence of both kind of coming together to
30:01
use the right tool for the, the, the job.
30:04
You know, like I think indoor farming, like the, the highly
30:07
controlled stuff is really good for propagation like we do.
30:10
It's good for certain crops, but it's not a one tool fits all
30:14
kind of thing. And now greenhouses are becoming
30:17
a lot more effective when you fill them with with higher
30:20
quality plants, for example. So I think we're going to see
30:22
this kind of, you know, same as the automotive industry back in
30:27
the day, Like there was all of these different players and like
30:30
everyone had to design their own chassis and brake pads and all
30:34
these kind of things. Like as the that industry
30:37
evolved, like there was a lot of consolidation and then you saw
30:40
all these companies emerge bringing secondary solutions to
30:43
kind of streamline the process. I think we're in the midst of
30:45
seeing that now and that's kind of where Plantiva fits in.
30:47
Like we're going to like the brake pad manufacturer for a
30:50
Ford and GM, you know, that's where we position it.
30:53
Cool. Yeah, it's interesting.
30:55
I mean, AI is creating like all these data centers everywhere
30:59
and we're going to bring nuclear online to power all these data
31:03
centers. So at some point, like the cost
31:05
of energy is going to go to 0. It's going to, it's going to be
31:08
so, so vast that like, you know, being able to support
31:14
greenhouses will probably become a little bit more efficient.
31:17
But you know, what we've seen in Colorado as far as, you know,
31:20
indoor grows it, the the cannabis industry has done that
31:23
at massive scale. And, you know, but what happens
31:27
is you get conglomerates and then you get people cutting
31:29
corners and then you get to, you know, some, some shoddy product.
31:33
And ultimately, especially if we're talking about our food and
31:35
for some people talking about their cannabis, they want love
31:39
involved in the process, for lack of a better word.
31:41
You know, I mean, the organic movement is all obviously so big
31:44
and maybe controversial in some ways, but ultimately the food
31:47
that you're feeding your children and you're consuming
31:49
yourself, you hope someone behind it is bringing love to
31:53
the table. And on, on that question, you
31:57
know, I, I worked for a, a summer in a greenhouse and it
32:00
was wonderful because there's just something that there's a
32:03
feeling of all these little seedlings popping out at the
32:06
same time in a vast greenhouse that is you can feel like a
32:10
palpable, like joy. Oh yeah.
32:12
It's such a cool environment, you know, like to be part of
32:15
that. I think it's the, you know, just
32:17
it taps into our, our nurturing tendency and it does take a lot
32:23
of care to do that. And I think that's one of those
32:25
things that I've always been passionate about is like
32:27
reconnecting people with that, that feeling of like food is
32:30
important. It's this one resource that we,
32:32
we overlook a lot of times. And really like, you know, the
32:37
more people understand the effort and energy that goes into
32:39
producing it, the more that connection strengthens and it
32:42
brings more value to it. And I think that's, it's such a,
32:46
a, an important resource that it's really important to look at
32:49
it from from that perspective, you know, like that connection.
32:52
Yeah, I miss that. You know, I, I'm a sportsman, so
32:56
I love hunting and fishing and, you know, feed my family with,
32:59
with stuff from the forest and, you know, when as when as just,
33:02
you know, kind of a hobbyist gardener.
33:05
It's so great. You know, that's one thing I
33:06
really miss about my grandparents place is, you know,
33:09
they had like mature lemon trees in the backyard.
33:13
So, you know, you go, just go in the morning, grab a couple of
33:15
lemons and squeeze it in your waters.
33:17
It's incredible. Yes.
33:19
You know, we don't. We don't get that in Colorado.
33:21
You get that in Montreal. No, actually, oddly enough,
33:26
there is one grower here that does them in a greenhouse.
33:28
But she does like this stuff. It's really cool.
33:30
I visited her a couple times. She does like these little
33:33
fingerling finger lines which are like, but it's it's all
33:36
catering to like high end chefs and stuff like that.
33:39
Like to do wanted scale be a major undertaking, but it's
33:43
still neat to see. I know our our Southern
33:46
California and Texas gardeners. I'm so jealous.
33:49
There's like, oh, you got okra and citrus and avocado and
33:52
strawberries. I mean, that's, that's a
33:54
different kind of garden. Yeah.
33:56
And it's like pretty year round too for them, so that's good.
33:59
Totally cool. We're at that time in the
34:01
podcast. We're ready to enter the Quantum
34:03
round. Are you ready for this?
34:05
All right, question #1. Why are your books pointed pages
34:11
out? You'd have to ask my girlfriend
34:14
that. Everything looks better.
34:16
It's like it's more of an aesthetic than.
34:20
Like, yeah, but how do I find my Kerouac book that I'm trying to
34:23
read here? What's going on it?
34:25
Takes me a while. My my books are in another
34:27
bookshelf and I can clearly see what I'm looking for.
34:31
I like it. Cool.
34:33
If you were to enter college now as a freshman, what would you
34:36
study? Oh man, I've been thinking about
34:39
that lately. Actually.
34:40
I think I would go into agro engineering.
34:43
Interesting. Yeah.
34:44
For what I'm doing right now, you know, I have some really
34:47
talented people around me. And I feel sometimes that my, my
34:52
ability to kind of keep up with the more technical aspects of
34:55
the conversation is, is lacking. And, you know, it's not really a
34:58
requirement for my job right now, but I find that so
35:01
fascinating. And like that field of work, I
35:03
think it's going to be in high demand in the future.
35:06
So I'd probably do one for that. Is that like understanding like
35:10
the nitrogen components of soil and things like that or is it
35:13
more of like the hardware application to the craft?
35:16
Yeah, it's more of like the the marriage between the agronomy,
35:19
which is the study of, you know, the nutrients and all the all of
35:23
the plant life sciences stuff and the actual equipment and the
35:28
running of that equipment and the infrastructure and the
35:30
building management and all of that is isn't kind of under the
35:33
agro engineering umbrella. Aside from running the company
35:39
like you have, any AI experiments you're running or
35:41
things you're playing around with?
35:46
Yeah, there's this one project that I've been kind of like a
35:48
side project I've been having fun with, which is called Seed.
35:52
And Seed is actually, it's, it's the brainchild of an architect
35:56
called Anthony Feldman. So I met him a few years ago
36:01
with the under the idea that he, he really wants to change kind
36:04
of what we were talking about earlier, like he wants to change
36:07
the dynamic of food production in cities and in North America
36:11
right now there's or actually across the world, there's all
36:13
these like class B&C buildings that are either not utilized or
36:18
completely underutilized. And he has this vision of like
36:22
basically like revamping those and having them all have an
36:25
agricultural component. So, you know, there's kind of
36:29
this AI model that we're, we're playing around with that would
36:33
look at these individual buildings and come up with
36:36
calculations and, and, and options to like look at the
36:40
footprint and the, the location, all that, and come up with like
36:43
a scenario or a couple scenarios that would actually be
36:46
economically viable for these, these rebuilds.
36:49
And I think that's pretty cool just in the fact that we can
36:52
actually build out models like that.
36:53
They wouldn't just take a bunch of data like in a, in a library
36:57
and then be able to pump out some very useful information.
37:00
I think is a is a pretty neat idea.
37:02
That's awesome. What is this like skyscraper
37:04
type stuff or what kind of Yeah. Well, any like large scale
37:08
commercial building. Yeah.
37:10
You know, there's a lot of buildings that were designed in
37:12
the 70s and 80s that have a floor plate that doesn't really
37:16
work for like conventional like housing or something like that.
37:19
So to revamp them, you need to kind of be a bit more creative
37:22
on how you you approach it. And I think for some of them
37:26
there's high potential for farming just, you know, or, you
37:30
know, it could be like high end laboratories or, or like there's
37:34
a lot of nutraceutical companies now that are getting more
37:36
involved in flat production to, to do like molecular
37:39
multiplying. And so maybe something like
37:41
that, but it's, it's an interesting approach.
37:43
Yeah, I know. That's cool.
37:44
I mean, it's like every large city in North America is dealing
37:48
with like, what are we doing with these empty skyscrapers in
37:51
the middle of our downtowns because they can't put anybody
37:55
in them? To have, like, farms in there
37:56
would be really cool. Is the challenge than light?
37:58
You'd have to like, reproduce the sun somehow.
38:01
Yeah. And that's not the challenge
38:03
anymore. Like there's for the lights that
38:05
we use for Plantiva, for example or multi channel.
38:07
So there are 7 spectrum lighting, We can really dial
38:11
that in super precisely and we get like really fast results out
38:14
of the growth rate for that. So energy, I think energy is
38:18
like the main. Yeah, just too expensive.
38:21
Yeah. Yeah.
38:22
Well, actually, yeah, that and like the the real estate cost
38:25
like to rent real estate. And I guess if you're taking a
38:28
building that has 0 tendency and you're creating some, you know,
38:31
you could probably do it for a lower cost, but it's still going
38:35
to be more expensive than operating a farm out in, you
38:37
know, farmland. 100% cool you've had so many successes you want
38:42
to share a a a terrible. Failure, you know, in like my
38:53
previous startup, it's called nutrient tower rink.
38:56
It's still going and we're really kind of re heading the
38:59
pavement with with a new product soon.
39:02
I, I put in someone to, to help manage that now.
39:05
So he's doing a great job. But that was like going into
39:10
product design and development is so hard.
39:12
Like I remember, I remember we started doing manufacturing like
39:16
offshore in China. And I remember when we had just
39:21
signed an agreement to, to, you know, manufacture a bunch of
39:25
these, these gardens and we were told, OK, in three months we're
39:28
going to have these things ready.
39:29
And then, you know, a month and 1/2 went by and we didn't get
39:32
any news in two months. Then like 3 months swirled
39:35
around and still no news. So the board looked at me and
39:37
was like, I guess you got to get on a plane and get out there.
39:41
And I ended up going to China for like, why?
39:44
I spent like 2 1/2 years out of four years there, something
39:46
crazy like a streamline. And that that whole process was
39:51
kind of like one small failure after another.
39:54
And then finding solutions to, to get over these massive
39:57
hurdles. And you know, as an
39:59
entrepreneur, it's, it's impossible to, to move ahead
40:02
without dealing with failure. It's an integral part of the
40:05
job. So.
40:07
You kind of have to learn to get a thick skin and and deal with
40:10
with the idea that mistakes are are there to be made and learn
40:14
from instead of to to be avoided.
40:17
So yeah. It's, it's hard to learn that
40:20
lesson 'cause you got to learn the hard way.
40:21
And I, I know like mental health for founders is important to
40:24
you. You know how?
40:25
How do you positively affect your your mental state?
40:33
Well, you know, I, I think that being an entrepreneur,
40:35
especially a founder is, is just by nature kind of an isolating
40:39
process. You know, like we, we end up
40:42
having to take decisions that are very meaningful and
40:45
significant very early on in our careers.
40:49
It's hard to know if you're making the right choice.
40:51
And that, that's a really heavy burden, I find, especially when
40:53
you're building startups that are, you know, more capital
40:57
intensive, because at the end of the day, you're, you're running
41:00
the risk of losing a lot of money for a lot of people.
41:02
So I think that isolation is, is hard to deal with.
41:06
So I, I, I do a lot of work around the, the ecosystem.
41:11
I try to help other founders kind of connect and come
41:14
together and, and talk and just like have open conversations
41:17
about the struggles that they might be going through.
41:22
You know, there's this kind of like image of the, the, you
41:26
know, the, the tech CEO, which is this guy that gets up at 4:30
41:30
in the morning and has his routine and that does the sports
41:33
and doesn't like, Julie drives this like perfect condition.
41:36
And like, it's all I, I, you know, I've known enough founders
41:40
to know that maybe some of them operate that way.
41:43
But most, most of us are human. And we, we struggle sometimes to
41:47
get out of bed in the morning just like, just like a lot of
41:50
other people. And it's because it's tough.
41:52
It's really a demanding job. And.
41:55
Yeah, failure is absolutely a big part of what we deal with on
42:00
a day-to-day basis. And it's not easy for, you know,
42:04
friends or family, whoever has the typical job or day-to-day to
42:09
understand what it's like to go through that constantly.
42:13
So, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's important to talk
42:15
about that too, because I, I think the stereotype too is like
42:19
whether it's like Zach or Elon or Sam Altman or, or these guys
42:24
who seem to like wake up and fire 40,000 people with an
42:28
e-mail like it's nothing. And the next day they're doing
42:30
some inspirational speech and they they have kind of a robotic
42:34
kind of almost cruel energy to them.
42:38
A lot of times I think founders get lumped into that group where
42:40
it's like, man, there's emotional toll to this.
42:42
That's like excruciating at times, you know?
42:46
Yeah, I, I remember having to to lay off a bunch of people with
42:50
one of my first startups and that was like I told myself,
42:52
never again. I'm not going to put myself in a
42:56
position like that. I thought that was really tough
42:57
because you know, you have all these people counting on you to
43:00
to show up so. Yeah, yeah.
43:02
I is a part of this group called Hampton.
43:04
It's like a founders group. And, you know, you have like a
43:07
little cohort and a part of it is like sharing tools and
43:10
resources and stuff, but a lot of it is just like, you know,
43:13
crying in each other's beers. It's just like, dude, this is so
43:17
hard. It's like, yeah, I mean, that's
43:20
just it, you know, and. The other side of that, sorry,
43:24
the other side of that is like sharing the wins too.
43:26
That's really the, the, the other side is like all of the,
43:31
it's easy to like lose track of the, the, the growth and the
43:36
progress and the wins and kind of just sweep those under the
43:38
rug because there's always something else like right around
43:41
the corner. So I find it taking time to
43:43
celebrate those little victories and, and share that with your
43:47
team and make sure that everybody's like really
43:51
transparently aware of what's going on.
43:53
So when you have those moments, like everyone can kind of get,
43:55
take a moment and celebrate. I know, I know.
43:58
It's, that's important because you have the goal post always
44:01
moves. You know, you're like, I just
44:03
got to get to that $1,000,000 run rate and then you get there,
44:05
you're like, no, we need 2 and I got to hire these people and
44:08
then you're like, no, we need 10.
44:09
It's like it, it's the hungry ghost realm, you know, where
44:12
it's like never satisfying to like stop and be like, man, I'm
44:16
kind of proud of what we did. This is kind of cool, you know,
44:18
like allowing yourself to have the win is sometimes a
44:22
challenge. Yeah, it's nuts.
44:23
I mean, we just closed our seed round and we did really well.
44:26
Like we, we brought on a good group and we raised a good
44:30
amount of money for our sector, especially in Quebec, especially
44:33
in this economic time. Like, I don't know what it's
44:34
like in the US, but man, the things of tight like the
44:38
market's tightened up so much here, so completed around says
44:41
says a lot about the company itself.
44:43
But like the the moment that closed, I was already like
44:47
starting to like input my information for the series of
44:50
hey, like can and it was like a day of breaking.
44:54
And I say, you know. It never ends.
44:57
All right, this has been great. We'll kind of wrap up with a
45:00
question. You know, the the current
45:02
American administration was kind of like experimenting with the
45:06
idea of making Canada a state of the United States.
45:09
Was that popular at all up there?
45:10
I was. Hoping you wouldn't go
45:13
political, but I'll be for my No, I mean, I have family in the
45:17
US and I'm there all the time. And I love the States.
45:21
It's just, I think it's it's an interesting time, put it that
45:24
way. Yeah.
45:25
We are not a political show. And I, I was kind of, I thought
45:30
that proposal was ghastly, but I was also like, damn, that would
45:33
be kind of cool though. Well.
45:35
I mean, we're already and it's just like it's not on paper, but
45:39
realistically, like Canada and the US are so tightly tied
45:42
together, like we're, we're, we're family already, you know,
45:46
So I don't know, push it any further than it is now.
45:49
Exactly. I'm not a fan of imperialism or
45:51
anything, but I was like, oh, we bring Mexico on board, we bring
45:53
Canada on board. Like what a cool country is
45:55
that? I think it's cooler for the
45:58
states than it is for the the other two, but.
46:01
Probably. So, Bryce, this has been
46:03
amazing. Everybody can check out his
46:05
company. It's plantivafarms.com.
46:08
What's the best place to connect with you personally online?
46:13
Yeah, if you just write to our website, you know that'll go
46:17
straight to me. So the info@plantivafarms.com
46:20
direct link and happy to take any questions or comments and
46:24
looking forward to to hearing from your audience.
46:27
Yeah, absolutely. Congratulations on closing that
46:29
route and congratulations on such a cool business.
46:32
Thanks, Ben. Appreciate it.
46:34
Founders, you know better than anyone the game changed
46:37
overnight. Every industry runs on AI now.
46:39
Medicine, law, finance, design, all of it.
46:42
And while you're busy building the future, there's a whole
46:45
generation of students about to enter the workforce who have no
46:48
idea how to compete in it. ainativestudent.com fixes that.
46:53
It's one-on-one AI coaching built specifically for high
46:56
school and college students, personalized to their goals,
46:58
their career path, their actual life.
47:01
Your kid isn't learning to code. They're learning how to be
47:03
fluent in the operating system of modern work.
47:06
And colleges and employers. They're already noticing.
47:09
Head to ainativestudent.com. It takes a couple minutes to
47:12
apply for your student and lock in the 30 day money back
47:15
guarantee. The window to get ahead is right
47:18
now AI native student.com and definitely have them sign up for
47:22
the AI chat. It's the fastest growing for
47:24
students in the world. Every week I sit down and ask
47:28
myself one question. What do founders actually need
47:31
to know about AI right now? Not the think pieces or the
47:34
stuff that sounds impressive. The real useful put it to work
47:37
today stuff. Then I write it up, set it to
47:40
you in your inbox free. That newsletter is called AI for
47:43
Founders and I built it because I was tired of waiting through
47:45
hit pieces and people that are afraid of the future.
47:48
Each issue I breakdown the tools worth your time, the strategies
47:51
that are working, and the ways you can use AI to grow your
47:54
company without burning out or getting left behind.
47:56
Thousands of founders read it every week and I'd love for you
47:59
to be one of them. Subscribe for free at AI for
48:01
founders.co. 3 seconds to sign up, and I promise it's worth it.
48:07
Here's what separates the founders who become icons from
48:09
the ones who stay invisible. A weekly newsletter.
48:13
Not because it's trendy. Because Inbox is where business
48:15
actually gets done. It's where investors read your
48:18
thinking before they take the call, Where future hires decide
48:21
they want to work for you. Where customers remember why
48:24
they chose you. Your social posts disappear in a
48:26
couple hours. Your newsletter compounds for
48:29
years. Inbox Alchemy builds your entire
48:31
founder newsletter operation from scratch.
48:34
The writing, the design, the beautiful branded website, and a
48:37
growth engine that takes you from zero to 25,000 subscribers
48:41
in your first six months. They manage everything.
48:44
So your personal brand is working for you around the
48:46
clock, building reputation, deepening relationships and
48:50
driving real pipeline, all while you run your company.
48:53
The founders building e-mail audiences right now are playing
48:56
a game the algorithm can never touch.
48:58
That's Inbox alchemy.co and go build yours.