S6 Ep7: Smart Growing— Getting People Closer to Their Food with Micro Farms with Alexander Olesen
“We’re helping people who’ve never grown crops before be successful farmers in places that they never thought they could.” — Alexander Olesen
Simplifying farming to provide more access to good food is becoming the new norm. With technology advancing the way it has, people are now able to grow their own food in spaces where they never thought were possible with fewer resources needed than traditional farming methods.
This was the idea behind Babylon Micro-Farms. It all began when co-founders Alexander Olesen and Graham Smith started working on automating most of the processes associated with indoor farming. Eventually, they came up with the idea to design a low-cost Micro-Farm™ by taking advantage of sustainable hydroponic farming and all its benefits. Their technology not only simplified crop production but made it more executable for everyone as well.
In this episode, Justine interviews Alexander about how this revolutionary technology is making an impact on agriculture, climate, and people’s lives. Alexander also shares helpful business advice on keeping the momentum going, raising funds, the importance of having mentors, and how co-founders can work together to keep their businesses growing and thriving despite their differences.
Connect with Alexander:
Alexander Olesen is the CEO & Co-Founder of Babylon Micro Farms Inc., a company dedicated to bringing urban farming solutions to cities all over the world. He has become a well-respected Social Entrepreneur, presented at numerous keynotes and TEDx speaker events, and has become a respected Urban Agriculture Expert. He is passionate about building a more sustainable food system and is determined to make urban farming a reality for everyone through their Micro-Farms.
Episode Highlights:
01:21 What Are Micro-Farms?
05:44 Different Skillset, Same Passion
08:09 Business Advice
13:18 How Great Co-Founders Make It Work
Tweets:
Farming has never been easier with Micro-Farm™. In this episode, @jreichman and @OlesenAHP introduce us to a new way of smart growing where we can grow our own food in a much more sustainable way. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #BabylonicroFarms #urbanagriculture #microfarming #verticalfarms #hydroponics #smartgrowing
Inspirational Quotes:
02:05 "We're helping people who've never grown crops before be successful farmers in places that they never thought they could.” —Alexander Olesen
09:46 "People are often willing to help when you come to them with something that's relatively defined and something that they probably know a lot about.” —Alexander Olesen
10:46 "Being intimidated by it all is normal but you've got to get out there. The nature is just speaking to people day in and day out and trying to define the Northstar of where you're trying to get to.” —Alexander Olesen
11:56 "Many times, we build what we think people want… but it's really important to ask them what they want.” —Justine Reichman
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman Welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman, with me today is Alexander Olesen, who is the CEO and founder of Babylon Micro-Farm. Welcome, Alexander.
Alexander Olesen Thanks, Justine. Great to be here.
Justine Reichman Okay, so I am super excited to get to chat with you. Because as I deal with every guest that I bring on, I investigate them. Investigate them before I invite them on or before they, you know, are recruited to come on the podcast but I then do more due diligence before and I was so excited to read more about what you have. In fact, I want one in my kitchen.
Alexander Olesen Coming soon.
Justine Reichman Coming soon. Well, great. So before we get too in depth, in all fairness, we need to tell my guests and my listeners, what Babylon Micro-Farm is because people that are listening right now are like what are these people talking about? So Alexander, would you do me the honor of telling our listeners and our guests what we're talking about?
Alexander Olesen Absolutely. So about one we build modular vertical farms that are remotely managed by us. So what that means is we have these appliances, they look a little bit like a double door refrigerator, that can actually grow fresh food for people. So they help people grow leafy greens, culinary herbs, microgreens, and flowers only around using 90% less water, no pesticides or chemicals. And, yeah, these modules, we typically are putting them in sort of commercial foodservice locations and eventually we hope to have them in people's homes.
Justine Reichman And you know what I heard there, that they're managed by you remotely.
Alexander Olesen That's right.
"We're helping people who've never grown crops before be successful farmers in places that they never thought they could.” —Alexander Olesen
Justine Reichman You lead with them. Very smart in my mind, because that means that I can't-- I'm not going to kill them.
Alexander Olesen That is exactly the problem we've overcome. And for us it's all about helping people grow their own food when they may not have had any experience or they've had a bad experience, which is more often than not. So we're helping people who've never grown crops before be successful farmers in places that they never thought they could.
Justine Reichman This New York city girl needs a little help with our farming.
Alexander Olesen You're not the only one.
Justine Reichman That's good to know. Okay, so I love this. This is brilliant. Okay. So what year did you start this in?
Alexander Olesen So we founded the company in April 2017.
Justine Reichman Okay. So 2017 and it is 2023, which I can't believe so six years-ish, coming up on six years. What inspired you to start this business?
Alexander Olesen So we were originally researching low cost hydroponic systems and the potential to deploy them in refugee camps as part of a project at UVA, in the social entrepreneurship department. So we were looking at how small could a hydroponic farm be to feed someone, to sustain a family, or support a business, and that sort of gave rise to this idea of micro farming. And well, that was a research project we kind of ran with the idea and thought about what would it actually take to build a business around micro fariming. Now, that was it.
Justine Reichman Wow. So smart. And I love the fact that you've manage that. And I know that I'm focusing on that, that's mostly because I feel like I would kill the plants. And that would not be good. So I've seen a lot of these other ones that look similar, they're not the same. What's the main difference between yours and some of the others that exist right now?
Alexander Olesen Yeah. So I think it'd be helpful for your listeners, so hydroponics is growing plants in water. There's no soil involved. And it's much more resource efficient. So you can grow plants three times more quickly using 90% water and less of chemicals. And actually, there's a thriving DIY industry and a lot of what we see out there are kind of various countertop or tower systems that are really made of plastic. They have a pump, and you kind of it's a DIY kit, and that's a thriving industry. And you know, it's great to see that as a tool for people. What we're doing is applying technology to the equation to make it much more reliable and much easier. And so as a result, we run these farms remotely so you don't have to do this little science experiment and then we provide a service on top of that. So you receive little preset parts. You plug them in, you scan them with a barcode through an app we take over and alert you when it's ready. So it is sort of elevating the concept and just making it even easier.
Justine Reichman Smart growing?
Alexander Olesen Pretty much. We collect a lot of data and we're using that to make the crops tastier.
Justine Reichman I said smart growing.
Alexander Olesen That may already be taken, but I like it
Justine Reichman Affects smart growing. Smart planting. Smart something. I like it, because I do think it's very smart. Are you investigating that right now?
Alexander Olesen We are. It's literally a smart system. So we learn from the way that the-- we have an algorithm that administers kind of recipes to the crops and we're able to analyze data from off farm fleet across the country and refine that algorithm to grow plants more effectively.
Justine Reichman So I know that this was part of or came out of a school project, right. But why was this your school project? Like nobody told you how to go investigate agriculture or create this for your school project, did they?
Alexander Olesen I guess there are two parts. So the project itself was looking at specifically the potential for hydroponics. It wasn't secure regions. They didn't say go and create a micro farming business. That was us.
Justine Reichman Okay. I didn't know if you had a specific interest in agriculture but it sounds like they had a specific request around agriculture.
Alexander Olesen Yeah. And I am personally very interested in I think, at the intersection of kind of agriculture, climate, and technology is really something that I'm passionate about and so it's my co founder.
Justine Reichman So talk to me about that. So you started this with your co founder, was he a classmate of yours?
Alexander Olesen He was a classmate, and he's a biomedical engineer. So he had a couple of kind of electronic devices under his belt. And we teamed up to create this kind of remote management system that we thought would crack the code for this form of sort of distributed vertical farming.
Justine Reichman Wow. So you guys have very different skill sets that you bring to the table here.
Alexander Olesen Completely different and it's great.
Justine Reichman So tell me, where do you fall in? What's your skill set here?
Alexander Olesen So we're very collaborative as a company, but also together. You know, for me, I'm focused a lot on the customer side, both the support, the sales, and just general kind of business development. And I have some very strong opinions on the products and service of which so does he. And then he's much more focused on the software, hardware and kind of general operations of the business.
Justine Reichman So when you were in school, you were in school together working on this project?
Alexander Olesen Yeah. So it was sort of outside of class time. But yes, we were in school together.
Justine Reichman So how did you guys find each other to come up with this?
Alexander Olesen So kind of I think a school hack civil, which was a nonprofit in town, sort of hacker house for entrepreneur activities, and we've teamed up on a few projects that led to this. And yeah, it was very fortuitous. And we've been working together now for six years.
Justine Reichman
So in school, you came up with this project, were you one of those kids that in high school, in college were doing entrepreneurial things all along?
Alexander Olesen I think in hindsight, yes. I didn't really think of it as a grand plan at the time. I'm like, oh, yeah, he was always sort of quite keen on trying to make money and trying to figure out different kind of solve different problems. And he was the same, you know, he had an electronics repair business when he was like, 14, and I guess it kind of had the bug. And together, you know, with this, we've benefited from a kind of fast growing industry, and the fact we're doing something very different. So we were able to apply for grants, and then eventually raise and invest capital. And all of that kind of helped catalyze this from an idea into the business it is today.
Justine Reichman Wow, that's amazing. So talk to me. So here you are, you're young, you're at a school, what was going to raise money, like without any, you know, prior experience as an entrepreneur with this great idea? Were you intimidated?
Alexander Olesen I think at the beginning, but it's very much sort of, we had conviction in what we're doing. As I mentioned, we're fortunate the industry has really kind of reached a tipping point. There's so much energy and activity that we were able to ride that wave a little bit. And, yeah, we had to learn a lot on the go to make it work. And if you see our pitch decks or our prototypes from six years ago compared to where they are now, it's pretty funny to look back. And yeah, at that time, we had a lot of refining to do. So it was one of those things we just got out there spoke to as many people as we could, both on the customer side and on the investor side. And eventually, the pieces started to come together.
Justine Reichman Wow. So did you have mentors that you leaned on for direction and insight?
Alexander Olesen Yeah. I feel very lucky that throughout this journey, and to this day, some of them still around. At various stages, we've had people from, you know, professors at UVA through to people we've met on our journey that have really gone out of their way to help us. At the beginning, you know, for really giving us a lot of time and help. And, you know, that's been great. Without those mentors, we would not be where we are today.
Justine Reichman Are those mentors, I heard you say some of them are still around.
"People are often willing to help when you come to them with something that's relatively defined and something that they probably know a lot about.” —Alexander Olesen
Alexander Olesen Well, they are stillaround. But they still involved in company. Yeah. We tried to keep all of them super in touch. And you know, we really treasure those relationships.
Justine Reichman What would you say was the biggest asset to having those mentors?
Alexander Olesen I think in general, we're quite comfortable knowing what we don't know, and trying to find people who do know. And I think that generally makes things go a lot easier. Because, you know, we're very open about, hey, this is kind of where we want to take this thing. We don't know about these areas, whether that's manufacturing through to kind of some more technical sides of the business and people are often willing to help when you come to them with something that's, you know, relatively defined, and something that they probably know a lot about.
Justine Reichman Yeah. Because I think it's really important coming from where you are to share this information with other young entrepreneurs, because it can be intimidating and scary. So for those other fellow founders that are listening that are young, is there a piece of advice you might give them or something that you learned along the way?
Alexander Olesen Yeah. I think it's all about-- it's all a game of momentum, right. So as long as you have lots of different things on the go, you're maintaining a really high tempo of conversations that's whether it's fundraising, customer research, or sales, you've got to just keep the momentum going. And that means that when you get the nose, which are 99% of the time to speak to people, it doesn't matter, because you've always got more conversations going on. So I think that's something we've-- that was how we started and that's still how we do things today. And you know, being intimidated by it all is normal but you've got to just get out there. And I think, again, the nature is just speaking to people day in and day out and trying to define, at least no way, the Northstar of where you're trying to get to.
Justine Reichman Yeah. Is there anything that when you look back, you would have done differently?
Alexander Olesen So many things, so many.
Justine Reichman Okay. Maybe just pick one or two things that you think really could have-- you would have done differently, you know, given all the given what you know today?
"Being intimidated by it all is normal but you've got to get out there. The nature is just speaking to people day in and day out and trying to define the Northstar of where you're trying to get to.” —Alexander Olesen
Alexander Olesen Yeah. I think structured customer discovery and iterating based on that is key, especially on software, and any even more, so on the hardware side. So you've got to build things based on feedback. And you know, the beginning, you don't have any feedback. So it's all a bit of like, you're sort of educated guessing to a degree. But we've tried to build much more rigorous processes around that to avoid making any mistakes. The worst thing you can do is deploy something, or put in the effort of the people to build something and then people say they don't like it. Right. So you're just trying to minimize that and that would be something that, again, we'd spend a lot of time on now that we probably didn't as much as we could have done in the beginning.
Justine Reichman I think, you know, there are many times we build what we think people want. "Oh, they definitely are gonna want this." But it's really important to ask them what they want.
Alexander Olesen Yeah. I think there are challenges that especially because like no one, like I don't think people knew that growing their own food was an option, other than like building a garden or building a farm, and I encourage people to do that. But for us, there is an education component where like, okay, so if it produced this much, if it was this size, this price, like, can you see that fitting in, and it's hard, because you have to educate them along the way. And I think that's what we're finding now is as we install more and more of these things, people like, "Oh my God, I actually really do like growing my own food. I have this little automated chef's garden in the corner of my kitchen or my dining room. And that's a huge asset to my culinary program, to my community." But people didn't really know it was an option before. So you have to kind of get the reps in and get the customer base. Excited about what you're doing.
"Many times, we build what we think people want… but it's really important to ask them what they want.” —Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman Yeah. I think I can't wait to get mine.
Alexander Olesen Soon enough.
Justine Reichman So I know you said you mentioned, you know, this co-founder. So, you know, I'm curious, what would your co-founders say about you?
Alexander Olesen Oh, god, that's-- what specifically, they're probably a lot of--
Justine Reichman As his co-founder.
Alexander Olesen I hope I'm like, not too annoying to work with. I think we've made it six years, I hope you would say.
Justine Reichman What would you say your biggest asset, your biggest asset is?
Alexander Olesen I think, as in a we're very complementary skill sets very different. I think I'm very comfortable out there talking about what we're doing and why we're doing it. And that helps because, again, we're talking about, you know, you've got to get out there and talk to people all the time. And I don't have a problem doing that, which I think has put us in pretty good stead. And in the same way, I think he's a brilliant engineer and loves thinking very deeply about some of the challenges we face. And I think without that, we wouldn't be where we are today.
Justine Reichman Sounds like you're a great pair.
Alexander Olesen I think so. I hope he did say so too.
Justine Reichman I was gonna ask you, what do you think of him but you just told me. So how would people if they wanted to learn more about these Babylon Micro-Farms, how would they learn more about them.
Alexander Olesen So I recommend checking out our website BabylonMicro-Farms.com. And you can see the products and case studies. We've got a lot of videos on YouTube. And then we're very active on LinkedIn, and Instagram. So Babylon Micro-Farms on all of those platforms.
Justine Reichman And if anybody wanted to find out how they might get one of these micro-farms.
Alexander Olesen That is through the website, we're typically serving business customers are always looking for new use cases. So reach out, we have a form there and someone will reach out to you.
Justine Reichman Great, I'm looking forward to somebody reaching out to me.
Alexander Olesen Okay.
Justine Reichman All right. Well, thanks so much for joining me today on Essential Ingredients. It was great chatting with you.
Alexander Olesen Thank you so much. Justine.
