Pot for Food

1. We want to enable anyone, anywhere to sustainably grow food at home year-round through the use of affordable, efficient, and easy-to-use smart hydroponics appliances.

2. annaBoto is an automated, set-it-and-forget-it, deep water culture hydroponics appliance with a proprietary arrangement of sensory systems and a method for controlling the plant growth via an Artificial Intelligence that keeps improving through collecting data from the distributed network of deployed annaBoto systems. Initially, the machine will be optimized to grow Cannabis because the unit economics justify development costs while also producing large amounts of data due to the plant’s turnover.

3. As this solution evolves it could contribute to people growing a portion of their food year-round, promoting better diets, and reducing the supply chain costs and carbon footprint created by these. Furthermore, these systems could scale to different living accommodations (e.g. single homes, large apartment buildings) while utilizing rarely used spaces (e.g. basements, building cores)

We want to reduce the reliance on transportation and cold-chains for food by growing at the source of consumption.

We want to enable anyone, anywhere to sustainably grow food at home year-round.

The Allocation of a consumer’s food dollar found that only 19% of the cost of food was directly related to the cost of the food itself. The rest goes into labor, transportation, packaging, etc. Food and drink cause 20 to 30% of the environmental impact of private consumption (Tukker et al., 2006).

Britain, with its short growing season and powerful supermarket chains, imports 95 percent of its fruit and more than half of its vegetables. Food accounts for 25% of truck shipments in Britain, according to the British environmental agency, DEFRA.

Consumers want access to different food year-round, but at what cost? 

While we can’t solve all of the food-related logistics problems, we can help do it for greens. And if we can provide this type of solution at a low cost (monetary and environmentally) for industrialized countries, we can subsequently find ways to further reduce the total cost of ownership of our appliances so we can make them available to most people around the globe, year-round.

An automated, smart hydroponics appliance that uses sensors to read environmental variables, a connected network of appliances that evaluate readings at a massive scale, an Artificial Intelligence that understands how these variables affect each other and their relationship with different seeds/nutrients/local water supplies.

The machine is focused on deep water culture hydroponics to promote rapid growth of plants. Because the process can be difficult to control, requires expensive sensors, and a cumbersome set-up we use AI, a proprietary sensory system, and an automated grow-control method, to give users a “set-it-and-forget-it” solution at a low cost. 

Cannabis is a relatively expensive product, which allows consumers to justify spending the money on a machine that has what we offer. Also, with a grow cycle of approximately 12 weeks, it can complete up to 4 cycles per year on one machine. This will provide enough data with enough variation to create a suitable dataset to build a robust AI. It will  also help us drive down the machine’s cost.  Eventually we will be able to sell a family of more affordable consumer-grade products for growing various other edible plants at home, year round.

Currently, the annaBoto serves Cannabis users who find the plant benefits their lives and well being, while also lowering monthly expenses and dependency on cannabis supply chains. In the US, there are more than 40 million people who consume cannabis regularly. After establishing ourselves in this niche market, and developing our AI, we’ll target the consumer market with a family of devices optimized for growing vegetables at home. With an easy to use, affordable device, and a robust AI, we could reach most people in the world. 

In order to understand user needs we need to start with a single plant. Because the appliance costs $599 today, Cannabis is a plant that can justify the initial costs. Through this interaction we will learn to efficiently grow consumable plants. We are engaging users through a Beta pilot in Massachusetts and will expand to other legal markets as we are able. Once we have enough scale and data, we can release a version of the appliance tailored specifically to edible plants for anyone. 

This can lead to a higher quality of life through improved diet, reduced monthly food costs, and lessened reliance on transporting food, especially in markets with four seasons.

By producing nutritious food directly at the source of consumption with an affordable, easy-to-use appliance that works year round, supply chains can be reduced and adjusted to those products that require them. Inevitably, this will lead to less food waste, less need for cold-chains, and an overall reduction of carbon footprint.

We have two main competitors:

• Consumer Hydroponics Devices for Greens
• Automated Devices for Growing Cannabis

The former can only sell devices that are fairly simple because consumers aren't willing to pay for something that is more expensive. The companies are stuck selling simple devices.

The latter sells devices that are very expensive because of how they chose to architect the solution: control for everything in the environment in an enclosed unit.

Our solution is a combination of both.

We want to make a device that is relatively inexpensive and relies on things like software and clever engineering to enhance those variables for which we can control.

At the same time, we understand that our device isn't priced low enough to justify purchasing it to grow greens at home. Therefore we need to sell to consumers who are willing to spend the money because the plant they are growing is relatively more expensive.

We have a vision for what we want the product to be. We are using software and clever engineering to get us to solve for that problem, and have created a business model that can help sustain us until we get there.

In order to create an unbiased, robust artificial intelligence, a lot of data is required. In order to solve the problem that we want to solve (enable anyone, anywhere to sustainably grow food at home) we require a lot of data from many different sources.

By creating a device that has enough sensing capabilities and a distributed network of hydroponics devices, we can collect a lot of data not only on the environment, but user behavior, type of plants they like to grow, and difference in water compositions, from a very diverse country like the USA.

With such a large distributed farm, we will also be able to perform A:B testing at large scale over many different geographies. This data will eventually be able to power the farms of the future, whether they exist in the consumers' home or at large greenhouses.

We need the data to build the AI. This is the most efficient way to crowdsource that process.

AI is being used in many applications these days, including agriculture. This is an academic paper that describes many of its uses in said field.

A comprehensive review on automation in agriculture using artificial intelligence.

In the US, Cannabis is now legal for Medical Use in 34 states and legal for Adult Use in 12 states. It's a matter of time before it's federally legal. Today, there are roughly 40 million Americans who consume Cannabis regularly and this number is only growing.

The average cost of an ounce of high-quality Cannabis flower is $326.00.

The average cost of Romaine Lettuce in Chicago is $2.00.

When we think about the amount of investment necessary in order to deploy automated hydroponics devices and collect data so that we can create fully autonomous systems in the future, we need to address a market that is willing to purchase such a device. In this case, Cannabis is the answer.

By spending $599.00 on an annaBoto device, customers can expect 2 ounces of high-quality Cannabis flower on average. Users will be able to pay for the device in as soon as the first grow. This is compelling enough for many users especially if it's a set-it-and-forget-it system. The company can be sustained by these consumers while the supply chain is further developed and the AI becomes more robust.

As the volumes increase, the device components will become less expensive and more available for lower cost devices. Think of the wonders that Mobile Phones and Gaming Consoles did for the price of micro controllers, sensors, etc.

With COVID, we saw Cannabis dispensaries remain open because they were considered essential businesses. This is going to further legitimize Cannabis and the demand for products like annaBoto will increase, perhaps not because of the price savings, but because of the quality of the product and the guaranteed pesticide-free nature of it.

In summary, you can think of the annaBoto in a similar way to the Tesla Roadster. It was a way to prove the technology out and have customers with a higher willingness-to-pay fund the development of the future. We are doing the same for hydroponics.

As it stands, we can serve 20 people in our Beta later this summer. We have 50+ signed up to be testers and may consider expanding our program.

Our projections show that we can sell 10,000+ units by the end of 2021.

In five years, we will be serving more than a million people with a combination of products that are optimized for different plants and are designed for different environments such as homes or buildings.

Our goal for the next year is to prove that we can create a device that is extremely easy to use and produces a high yield of high-quality plants. We also want to prove that we can make it scalable and that the business model can sustain us for the foreseeable future.

Within the next five years, our goal is to have a family of products that can grow many types of greens, sustainably and easily while remaining low cost enough. Primarily, we will be focusing on the US and Europe since we believe those are the markets willing to purchase our products. We need to do this so we can continue developing our products so that we can eventually sell solutions globally.

If in the next five years we can reduce the need of supply chains and cold chains to transport edible plants globally by 5%, we will feel very satisfied.

Next Year

• Technically - We just need to prove the technology works and start gathering data.
• Culturally - Even though Cannabis is legal in many states, there is still a cultural stigma associated with it.
• Financially - Because of the stigma, this makes it more challenging to raise funds.
• Legal - Cannabis is not yet federally legal and each state has different laws.
• Market - We believe we have an acceptable go-to-market strategy and have seen a lot of interest on our website; we need to verify.

Five Years

• Technically - Can we actually design a device that is affordable enough for most people to grow edible plants at home. Can our AI be robust enough to make growing most plants at home seamless.
• Culturally - Will people want to sacrifice ever decreasing spaces to grow their own food
• Financially - Will Cannabis be able to sustain the company enough to fund development
• Legal - Will Cannabis be federally legal in USA and legal in other countries
• Market - As more success is seen, will other competitors copy our ideas and develop for less money given they don't have to invest as much in R&D and Marketing as we do

Next Year

• Technically - We are now building units for a beta trial this summer and have 50+ people signed up to test in Massachusetts alone.
• Culturally - Engage with advocates, especially those who have seen medicinal benefits, to keep legitimizing Cannabis.
• Financially - Knock on more doors and keep investors posted on the progress of our beta trials.
• Legal - Engage with legal experts and create a state-by-state go-to-market plan with priorities.
• Market - Consider a Crowdfunding campaign and/or start pre-selling devices.

Five Years

• Technically - Driving down cost is always a priority and proving our AI will be the biggest challenge. Boston is probably the best place in the world to find the best engineers to help solve both problems.
• Culturally - Fund research on the benefits of growing at home and make it more compelling to do so.
• Financially - Focus on the vision
• Legal - Continue to advocate for legitimacy of Cannabis.
• Market - Create a strong enough brand with other lock-in mechanisms that ensure most users remain loyal to the company.

N/A

Full-time (1)

• CEO, Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing (1)

Part-time (5)

• Software Engineering (2)
• Mechanical Engineering (2)
• Electrical Engineering (1)

Advisors (4)

• Strategy and Fundraising (1)
• Legal (1)
• Branding and Marketing (2)

CEO - a seasoned Product Executive who has spent the greater part of the last decade making Robotics and Artificial Intelligence easy to use by anyone. He is passionate about using technology to solve problems and practical enough to look for business models that focus on urgent problems where people are willing to pay for solutions - linkedin.com/in/carlpalme/

Engineering Team - have a combined eight decades of bringing products to market, whether they are Consumer Electronics, Industrial Robots, or Medical Devices. They have experience designing, building, and shipping actual products.

Advisory Team - Experience with startups and large consumer brands, as well as the cannabis space.

Together - The team has all of the necessary skills to bring the initial product to market and create a sustainable business model to fund development of the devices that will enable anyone, anywhere to grow edible plants at home year-round.

N/A

For the most part, we intend to go direct-to-consumer and sell the appliance online. However, we will also pursue selling through a reseller network of brick & mortar stores.

Primarily, the revenue will come from selling the physical device priced at $599 (of which users can purchase multiples) and then recurring revenue from selling nutrient cartridges ($59) required for each grow. These prices can be justified for Cannabis and our intention is to lower the price of the machine and nutrients to make them affordable for other edible plants in the future.

Eventually, we may be able to sell the data, access to our AI algorithms, and paid A:B studies.

The mentorship, technical expertise, media and conference exposure will help us further raise money and learn about better ways to grow our company.

More importantly, SOLVE will help legitimize our approach of solving a bigger problem while using Cannabis as the first plant we grow on our devices. The exposure will further de-stigmatize the plant.

Because of the way we have architected our strategy of using Cannabis to help sustain our R&D efforts to create an affordable, easy to use appliance that allows anyone, anywhere to grow edible plants at home, we expect to see certain challenges that go beyond the technical and business model challenges. We know we can build the product and have seen a lot of interest in the solution already. However, we are really passionate about Boundless and would like to get all the help we can get in order to succeed.

• State Regulatory Agencies that are considering the steps necessary to legalize cannabis
• MIT Faculty who have experience with Hydroponics and AI

In order for our technology to work, we need a lot of data from a lot of different sources. We have the vessel to collect the data (annaBoto) and the interest from people to supply it (Cannabis home growers). Combining this with a grant that enables us to higher better talent and get a solution to market faster will help us design the devices and AI required to grow ANY edible plant, easily and at home.