{"452791":{"#nid":"452791","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Start-Up Puts Farm Next to Table","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EAlex Weiss is an ardent advocate of the farm to table movement. He wants you to eat the freshest produce possible and to know where it came from. And he\u2019s willing to do his part to see that it happens.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWeiss, a recent graduate of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering is one half of an entrepreneurial team that created \u201creplantable\u201d (with a lower-case \u2018r\u2019) \u2013 a company that emerged from under the broad CREATE-X umbrella at the Georgia Institute of Technology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ETogether with Ruwan Subasinghe, a recent mechanical engineering graduate, Weiss took part in Startup Summer, a 12-week accelerator program (part of the CREATE-X suite of entrepreneurial training programs) for Georgia Tech students and recent graduates who want to launch startup companies. These companies are based on the students\u2019 own inventions and prototypes, and the program teaches participants to understand potential customers and the market so they can address real needs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe \u201cnanoFarm\u201d (the lower case \u2018n\u2019 also is by choice) actually is replantable\u2019s latest incarnation after the team pursued a winding road of ideas, all based around a similar theme.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cEverything we\u2019ve done has been about trying to get the freshest food to the consumer,\u201d says Weiss, who met Subasinghe during their freshman year. This past February, Subasinghe contacted Weiss and asked if he wanted to do a start-up together.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cHe\u2019d gotten into hydroponics and was growing strawberries, and I had a backyard garden in Philadelphia, where I\u2019m from. So we both come from a background of growing stuff,\u201d says Weiss, who was a member of Petit Institute faculty member Wilbur Lam\u0027s lab. \u201cThe first thing we talked about was live shipping, which would fundamentally change the food production industry.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EIt involved the shipping of plants in hydroponic containers, preventing spoilage without the costly energy expense of refrigeration, reducing food waste as well as methane and carbon dioxide emissions. The concept, \u2018Living Local,\u2019 earned the team $2,500 with a runner-up finish in the Ideas to Serve competition, March 27 at the Scheller College of Business.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThere was one significant challenge, though.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cWe met with farmers and it would have been cost prohibitive for them,\u201d Weiss says. \u201cIt didn\u2019t make sense for them.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ENext they tried to remove the need for transportation altogether by growing produce on the roofs of grocery stores. They got a quick buy-in from Sevananda Market for their roof planting pallets. Weiss and Subasinghe got to be friends with the produce manager who told them, \u201cI\u2019ll take 40,\u201d according to Weiss.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EBut then they started talking to professors in civil engineering and discovered that putting stuff on the roof was a big liability hurdle, and not within their realm of capability. What followed was a week or two of soul searching.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cWe wondered what we were going to do,\u201d Weiss says. \u201cIt was hell. But every startup I talked to has had this kind of week. It\u2019s like, you know you\u2019re going to get through it, but you don\u2019t see any light until the light just hits you.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EUltimately, it was a light-emitting diode, or LED, that hit them. They\u2019d been focused on getting fresh food to consumers, and they finally asked themselves, Weiss says,\u0026nbsp; \u201cwhy not let the consumer grow it? We were working our way down the chain.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ETheir first nanoFarm container concept was six feet tall, a couple of feet wide, utilizing hydroponics and LED lighting. The current model of the nanoFarm cube is 18 inches tall, about 12 inches wide and deep, and really easy to use. In other words, you don\u2019t need a green thumb.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cWe talked to more than 100 people who love fresh food, and their favorite part of growing was choosing what they wanted to grow, planting it, then harvesting it. In other words, not watering and weeding,\u201d says Weiss, whose product requires the user to two basic things after sliding a sheet of seeds into the cube: fill it with water and close the door. Oh, then you\u2019ve got to pick it before you eat it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWeiss shows pictures of the produce he and Subasinghe have grown, indoors, out of the sunlight. Vivid greens and reds leap out of his smartphone, making the viewer hungry. The average apartment kitchen can easily accommodate several cubes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EHaving graduated, Weiss and Subasinghe are now operating as the braintrust of replantable. They are engaged now in a beta test of their product and will soon launch a Kickstarter campaign. They want to be a success story on the path toward a sustainable and delicious lifestyle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.replantable.com\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EFor more information, visit the replantable website here.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Recent grads create product that makes it easy to grow your own produce"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ERecent grads create product that makes it easy to grow your own produce\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Recent grads create product that makes it easy to grow your own produce"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-09-28 10:45:49","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:40","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-09-28T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-09-28T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"452761":{"id":"452761","type":"image","title":"Subasinghe and Weiss","body":null,"created":"1449256297","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:11:37","changed":"1475895194","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:14","alt":"Subasinghe and Weiss","file":{"fid":"203389","name":"21443846162_d09440a02b_b.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/21443846162_d09440a02b_b_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/21443846162_d09440a02b_b_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":261666,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/21443846162_d09440a02b_b_0.jpg?itok=Uvlap68k"}}},"media_ids":["452761"],"groups":[{"id":"1254","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"137161","name":"CREATE-X"},{"id":"166972","name":"startup summer"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}