Smart-farming startup Grow Computer, located both in Sacramento and Brooklyn, NYC, has just launched their first product—a digital growing platform called GrowStrip, as well as a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. GrowStrip offers a user-friendly way for growers of all kinds to make their grows smarter through a simple hardware and software platform.
GrowStrip gives any farmer, student, home grower, or researcher the easy ability to collect environmental and energy data, build automation, remotely monitor, and receive alerts. The system was designed for usability and takes only minutes to setup, requires no tools, and is totally plug and play. Indoor farming is an exciting global trend and is empowering anybody to almost any plant in their own homes. Hydroponics and other indoor systems conserve water, remove the need for pesticides, and allow a year-round growing cycle. Around the world, hydroponic systems are being used to build amazing indoor farms, empower entrepreneurs, and teach STEAM education in K–12 classrooms.
The company grew out of two communities of agtech startups, one in Brooklyn, NY, and the other in Sacramento, CA. Co-founders Dan Nelson (CEO) and Ian McEachern (CTO) met online through MIT’s Open Agriculture forums, and built out the rest of team at the urban farming co-working space AgTech X in Brooklyn. McEachern is a medical device engineer with over fifteen years’ experience developing exciting products and, cutting-edge medical devices, including artificial hearts. Nelson is an experienced startup founder and has worked with dozens of companies as a for-hire virtual CFO. 
Grow Computer’s vision is to empower people around the world to connect and share plant growing “recipes” and new ideas. They hope this will democratize critical technologies and techniques. In Nelson’s words, “Grow Computer may unlock a new urban farming revolution by providing access to better hardware around the world. If we can get a distributed community of growers working together, the potential for scientific, educational, economic, phenotypical, genetic, or operational innovations becomes incredible.”
Grow Computer is proud to launch their crowdfunding campaign in conjunction with Agritecture Xchange, taking place in Brooklyn from September 24–29. The Xchange conference is a week-long series of events in New York City that will explore agriculture’s role within the sustainable city movement. GrowStrip launched exclusively on Indiegogo starting on Wednesday, September 26, at 10 AM. GrowStrip retails for around $600 US and ships with a thermometer and camera, as well as the free, open-source software platform.
