May 6, 2025 • 37 mins
Episode Description:
“How can we make growing your own food possible in environments where it normally wasn’t? Or can we drastically lower the impact of water use, fertilizer use, or resources used to drive to the grocery store? That’s a big impact that we can have if we can allow you to grow your own food right at home.” —Conner Tidd
What if you could grow fresh, pesticide-free produce just steps from your refrigerator, regardless of where you live? Indoor vertical farming isn't just a trend— it's a revolutionary approach to sustainable, accessible food production.
Conner Tidd is a sustainability expert and the co-founder of Just Vertical, a pioneering company reimagining how urban dwellers grow food. With a Master's in Sustainability and a passion for solving global food challenges, Conner has developed innovative indoor gardening solutions that make fresh, local produce possible for everyone.
Tune in as Justine and Connor reveal how indoor vertical farming can slash water usage, eliminate pesticides, reduce food miles, and empower individuals to become home producers—transforming our relationship with food, one garden at a time.
Meet Conner:
Conner Tidd is the co-founder of Just Vertical, an innovative indoor farming company that designs indoor gardens and vertical farming solutions. With a Master's degree in Sustainability, he aims to make fresh, locally grown food accessible to people in urban environments and remote locations. Conner's entrepreneurial journey focuses on addressing food security, reducing environmental impact, and providing sustainable solutions for growing produce in challenging climates. Through Just Vertical, he helps individuals grow pesticide-free, fresh vegetables and herbs in their own homes, with a mission to create resilient and affordable food systems.
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Episode Highlights:
03:25 Historical Context and Current Trends in Food Production
05:09 Water and Resource Efficiency in Vertical Farming
21:14 Pesticide-Free Produce
23:23 A Journey Into Entrepreneurship: Mistakes and Lessons Learned
33:37 How to Set up a Vertical Garden
Resources
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:38):
Conner, if you would, I'm soexcited to have you here. We
have guests each week that tunein. They tune in so that they
(01:03):
can make better decisions. Theytune in because they want to
hear from you and what yourstory is, be inspired and
(01:28):
equally better understand how wecan make those more informed
choices. So for those guests andlisteners who we are so grateful
(01:55):
to have each week, would youplease just give us a quick
intro to you and Just Vertical.
Conner Tidd: (02:14):
I'm Conner Tidd, I'm one of the two co founders
here at Just Vertical. And notJust Vertical, we build indoor
gardens for your home, all theway up to full scale indoor
vertical farms that we put inaround the world so that you can
grow food locally no matter whatthe climate is, what the weather
is, and what the conditions areoutside. So whether you're in a
(02:36):
desert or you're above the frostline, you can have access to
your own fresh food.
Justine Reichman: (02:42):
That's great. For me, growing up in New York
City, it didn't seem quite asaccessible to have that garden
to understand how to grow it, toeat locally. Aside from going to
the Union Square Farmers Market,we were not necessarily eating
locally. And it could also be,in all fairness, the timing,
(03:03):
right? We're here in 2025, thisis a much bigger conversation
now than it was in the 1970s. Ifeel like for me, I don't know
that we were talking abouteating locally and eating
organic, although my mom wasvery advanced on that. So I
think this is a reallyinteresting conversation on a
personal level. Because when Ilook at my garden in the back,
(03:24):
and I have an edible garden. Tome, it seems like, okay, we can
do that. That's easy. But Ithink about it in terms of an
apartment or a condo in themiddle of an urban city like New
York, Toronto, Montreal orwherever where you're living in
a large building wondering, howdo we get to do that too, and
what does that mean? Becausewe're growing here. The things
(03:44):
that they tell us thrive in thisclimate at this time. So I'm
thinking about what you'resaying, and you're saying we can
grow everything anytime, and wecan make that happen. That poses
some questions for me out ofcuriosity, we're no longer
focused on eating locally andwhat's in season. Seasonally,
(04:05):
we're now making everythingavailable. So can you walk me
through that a little?
Conner Tidd: (04:33):
I think it's very interesting. You kind of said
that historically, I thinkpeople were very concerned about
local food, and where it camefrom. You look back World War
II, everybody was growing avictory garden. It was almost
like a point of pride of theboard effort. And then you read
a cookbook from the 50s and 60s,and we all got obsessed with
(04:54):
jello and cheap accessible food.And there's all these weird
recipes of like jello and CoolWhip, because those were the new
things, which is gross now inthe 2025 context. But you really
saw that that kind of fall off,and it was all about
globalization, and how do we getfood as cheap as possible. And I
think there's been a bigresurgence in people wanting to
(05:17):
know where their food's comingfrom, what's going into it? And
that's where we see peoplethinking about their seasonal
diets, what's the impact of it?And that was kind of part of the
genesis for us was, all right,you lived in New York City. I
live in downtown Toronto. You'rein a concrete jungle. How do you
grow your own food? It's not anoption, right? My balcony faces
(05:39):
north. There's tall buildingsall around me. I barely get
anything. The community gardensgot a three year wait list
because people are obsessed withit. So it was like, okay, what
if we could take a lot of thecool cutting edge science around
vertical farming and put it intoa piece of furniture? We can't
quite grow everything. We don'tdo root vegetables, so potatoes
(06:01):
and carrots. if you do growthem, they come out tiny, like
smaller than a golf ball. Butthe freshness really matters.
Your lettuces, your leafygreens, your herbs are a huge
one. Cherry tomatoes, mostpeople bite into a fresh cherry
tomato in the middle of winter,and it's like night and day
difference compared to what's atthe grocery store.
Justine Reichman: (06:23):
It's true. As I was learning a little bit
about your indoor farming andthe technology, and this is a
big conversation here inCalifornia that it uses a lot
less water, and that's it.That's a big conversation in
California with the drought andeverything, so I'd love to learn
a little bit more about that.Because from my understanding, I
(06:44):
thought it was like 95% less. Isthat right?
Conner Tidd: (06:47):
Yeah. So it's really cool. So the way the
systems work, andthis is onething we're proud of, but it's
not unique to us. It'snecessarily just our system, but
it's a closed loop. So the waterthat goes into it gets pumped up
to the plants, runs along theroots. And then whatever the
plants don't want to drink atthat time goes right back into a
(07:08):
water reservoir, so a holdingtank, and it constantly
recirculates. So what that meansis you don't have any ground
water runoff. You don't have anyloss that way. And the tanks
closed up, so you don't evenhave evaporation out of it. And
it also leads to not only wayless water use, but way less
fertilizer use. You use about aa tablespoon of fertilizer every
(07:31):
two weeks, which, if anyone'sever used fertilizer in your
garden, that's (inaudible). Isay to imagine adding liquid to
a garden and how much it justsoaks in, and it's gone. With
hydroponics with a recirculatingclosed loop system, you don't
run into any of that.
Justine Reichman: (07:47):
So with that being said, that's like a real
win, right? Especially in theseenvironments where they don't
want us to have grass, they wantus to have things that are
drought friendly, and so thatwould really facilitate people
being able to grow and makefruits and vegetables, aside
from root, more accessible. Sothat's a really big win. How do
(08:11):
you find that people arereceiving that in areas like
California with drought? What'sthe conversation around it? huge.
Conner Tidd: (08:19):
It's huge. Our family who lived in California
Justine Reichman (08:19):
Aall of that makes it tangible. You can
and during the water rationing,I don't know if it's still going
on, and I remember howcontroversial it was that some
people's lawns mysteriously keptsurviving, and other people's
were letting theirs brown. Sodefinitely, it's part of the
conversation. I view it as anextension of concern of where
(08:40):
your food's coming from, andwhat's going into it. Concern
for the environment like, are wegoing to be able to live in
California in 50 years? You lookat the Colorado River that's fed
California, the water levelsthat have gone down, and you
look at the reservoir levels.They talk every summer like, how
much water is going to be inthere? It's interesting. The
(09:05):
deserts of the far north, likethe tundra where you don't have
access to a lot of fresh waterbecause it's all frozen, it's
the same thing as like, how dowe grow? How can we grow our own
food possible in environmentswhere it normally wasn't? Or can
we drastically lower the impacton whether that's on water use,
(09:26):
fertilizer use, or, even forpeople who are out in the
country where you gotta drive anhour to the grocery store.
That's a big impact that we cantake away if we can allow you to
grow your own food at home,whether that's in the kitchen,
or container farm out back, orshed.
(09:52):
imagine that. You can seegrowing it in your house. You
can see the possibilities. Andso I just want to go back
because as we think about eatinglocally, and now we're growing
anything, and the idea of eatingwhat is grown that is seasonal,
they say, is healthier for us.So while you can grow everything
(10:12):
you're not, are you advocatingthat people just grow whatever
they want or is part of theethos to maintain things that
are so seasonal? Or do you notthink it matters?
Conner Tidd: (10:23):
The seasonality and what you're growing, it's
very regional dependent. We havethis conversation a lot in the
Statesbecause when we're dealingwith somebody, customers in
Missouri, in Louisiana, they'vegot a very different idea of
what's seasonal. We're talking alot of like collard green, Swiss
(10:46):
chard, kind of like Hardy fiberstuff versus not to stereotype
California, but like kale. Akale trend never die, right? And
then we have the conversationwith somebody in Alaska, and
they're like, what is seasonalproduce? Like, nothing seasonal
here. So there's all thesedifferent approaches to it on
(11:06):
where it grow and what you'regoing to eat. And when we talk
about the health impacts, one ofthe biggest things is actually
having it fresh. Because thefresher the food, the more
density the vitamins and themicronutrients are. You gotta
think that as soon as you pick aplant, you're killing it, and
you start to have thatmicronutrient break down right
(11:27):
away. So the fresher the food,the better it is for you. And
then grow what you're gonnagrow, what you're gonna eat, and
kind of have some fun with it.Because the other big thing is
you can grow a lot of stuff youcan't get at the grocery store.
There's 200 different kinds ofbasil out in the world, but
you're only going to findprobably one or two on the
grocery store shelves.
Justine Reichman: (11:44):
I agree. We grow Thai basil, regular basil
and different herbs. I can'ttell you how many different
thymes we have. It allows you tobe creative and be fun, have all
these different smells andcreate new kinds of recipes. I'm
enthusiastic about this as Icome from an urban jungle, and
(12:05):
the idea that you could do that.But I also really appreciate the
impact you're having on theenvironment, whether it's about
travel and going to get food,whether it's about the machines
that people are using. I'd loveto just dig a little further
into that, understand how doesthis impact the farmer? How does
(12:29):
this impact all the fruits andvegetables that we get from
Mexico and everywhere else? Andwhat is your overarching goal?
Conner Tidd: (12:38):
For us, living myself and my co founder Kevin,
we really started this throughsustainability lens. We met when
we were doing our Masters ofScience and Sustainability
together. Kevin was working inthe far north in an indigenous
community where a head oflettuce was $20, and it was
already raw. These are likeplaces you can only fly in to
(13:00):
get it. So you're shipping stuffthrough the air. It's crazy.
We're sitting there saying like,okay, it's 2017 when we're
starting this company. Theworld's got enough food. It's
just, how do we get it topeople? And how do we get it to
people in a way that's not goingto kill the environment? So for
us, it's really that food impactsustainability mission. And when
(13:22):
you look at the impact of yourfood, people are often surprised
where the impact is because wehear about food miles, a lot
about food getting transportedto grocery stores, which is
true. But when you actually boilit down to the numbers, often,
there's actually more impact ofyou driving to the grocery store
(13:44):
than the food getting there.When you think about it, that
truck is bringing in 100,000heads of lettuce, right? Your
box of spinach went bad becauseyou told yourself again, I'll
get through the box this week.And then you don't, because
we've all been there, and yougot to run to the store to get
that spinach in that one trip tohave a big impact. And the other
(14:07):
big thing is the packaging onthe food. You go and buy like,
I'm making tacos tonight, I wentand bought peppers. And like, I
don't put them in a littleplastic bag, but the person at
the checkout did. The single usebag, and I'm like, that might
have more impact than the pepperitself. So by being able to, if
we can save you a trip to thegrocery store because your herbs
(14:29):
are growing fresh and you'reonly picking what you need, and
then there's no plasticpackaging around it, on top of
your water savings and yourfertilizer savings, you can make
a real dent in your food impacton that part of your life. And
not only do you get to eatbetter food, but you feel good
about it too.
Justine Reichman (14:50):
buy five days worth of food. Because if I
don't eat it, then I'm going towaste it, or then I gotta freeze
it. And how long can you freezeit? All these different things
that go on in your head. Butequally, if you grow what you
(15:10):
like, that stuff would go bad ifyou cut it prematurely, or you
pick it prematurely. But if youleave it there, and you can do
that same thing without makingthat drive to the grocery store,
and you can eat as you wishdaily, and go there
periodically. Maybe buy yourmeats from wherever you're going
to do them and stick those inthe freezer, as opposed to all
(15:33):
the different trips and all thedifferent places. You want
cucumbers and they're reallyfrom Mexico, but had I grown
them, I could have had them atthat time of year, or just a
little prematurely. So I thinkthat's really interesting. I
think the other thing that'sreally interesting that you
bring up is that it's a way forus to make an impact. And so
often, I feel like people aretrying to do so many different
(15:56):
things, but this is somethingthat is easy to understand, and
you can certainly see theimmediacy of it. Doesn't mean
that on a larger scale or from a40 foot viewpoint. We don't want
better solutions. But I thinkthis is one that people can feel
good about, get involved with,create new recipes, do all sorts
(16:20):
of things and share withfriends. And even if they have
excess, share.
Conner Tidd: (16:23):
Absolutely. If there's all these big challenges
Justine Reichman: (16:24):
I know you mentioned that you and your co
the world's got to take on, itcan seem intimidating. It can
seem hard to be like, okay,where am I making an impact?
founder were in school getting asustainability degree. So what
What's real? We got toacknowledge human nature. You
might feel good about choosingthe green laundry detergent, but
it really doesn't do much foryou in the long run. So what can
(16:46):
we do to put up solutions thatare fun, tangible, they're
immediate and it's easy toadopt? And our thought behind it
is like, let's make people feelgood about their gardening, feel
good about their food and buildthat connection, because it's
something you want to talk,something you want to share with
(17:06):
friends.
in particular generated thisidea? Sustainability, we could
talk about so many things. It'svast, but you really focused on
something around growing yourown gardens and your own stuff.
(17:33):
So if we want to circle back andtalk about when you first kick
(17:56):
this off with your co founder,and you're in school and you're
studying sustainability, why wasthis so meaningful to you?
Conner Tidd: (18:04):
When I was in school, younger and more naive,
put me in one of the biggest,baddest polluters, and I'll get
this solved for four months. SoI went to one of the largest
agricultural companies in theworld. And when they bought
another one of the largestagricultural companies in the
world, that is also the mosthated, whose name I'll leave
out, but it's pretty easilydeducible for anyone in this
(18:27):
space. And I saw firsthand howupset people were with the way
they view food, whether it wasfactually correct or not. People
are saying like, I wish I couldgrow my own food. I wish I had
knew what was going into it. Iwish I had some control over it.
And then Kevin, at the sametime, like I said, he was in
that far north community workingthere on, how can we grow food
(18:51):
in remote communities? He said,the technology exists to do
this. It's not anythingrevolutionary. It was just in
our view, nobody had dressed itup properly to make it palatable
to your people in Toronto, NewYork, Montreal, LA. And that was
the original thesis for the ideaof like, can we build this into
a cool piece of furniture whereit's functional, cool and easy
(19:14):
to use? Because when you sayhydroponics, most people think
like light tubes, like a grow upin your house. So how can we
make this palatable for folks?
Justine Reichman: (19:26):
And when you first kick this off, what was
the response from buyers, fromcommunity members.
Conner Tidd: (19:41):
When we kicked it off, people were really
enthusiastic, but they had notheard of vertical farming. It's
(20:04):
kind of something you saw in thenews once or twice. They didn't
realize that it was somethingthat could be done inside your
home. So there's a lot ofeducation with folks, but a lot
of excitement. One thing I willsay is the younger generations
always got it, and they werecompletely on board. I think
(20:25):
there always has been a littlebit of skepticism with some
older folks around, it's stilllike grow lights. It's like
you're putting stuff in thewater. We got to educate people.
Is it nutritionally valuable? Isit safe? And of course, it is.
But you've got to talk peoplethrough it and get them on board
(20:47):
with it.
Justine Reichman (20:48):
So what role did education play for you in
kicking this off, and gettingpeople committed to using this
in their homes?
Conner Tidd: (20:56):
There's amount of workshops we've done around
Justine Reichman: (20:56):
I know it's like the third party pitch,
planting seeds. Here's how aplant grows, here's what it
looks like, here's thedifferences. And as many
workshops as I like to havedone, what we found was the best
people to teach is the peoplewho took that initial dive, got
a garden, and then you'll seetheir friends come over for
(21:16):
dinner and like, oh, what isthat like? Is that in here? And
they've become our customers.Have become our biggest
advocates. We like to make surethey're equipped with the
knowledge. We do a lot of workwith universities and colleges
to validate what we say, becausewe don't want to just be making
things up, or saying things. Wewant somebody else to validate
(21:37):
it. But our customers, they'vebeen our biggest advocates for
getting things done.
right? Everybody can pitchsomething else that's not
themselves better than peoplethat pitch themselves. Oh,
absolutely genuine. Becausepeople are really advocating and
(21:57):
explaining why this idea,concept, product, person is the
answer.
Conner Tidd: (22:08):
Obviously, I've got a bias to sell it at
somebody in the company. Butwhen it's your friend, your mom,
your grandma, your uncle, oryour cousin telling you about
this, it's like, okay, I trustwhat they're saying. This is one
of the fun parts about us beinga food and a hardware product is
the proof is right there. Take abite. It tastes good.
Justine Reichman: (22:28):
And the other thing that I read that I thought
was super interesting was theamount of water that you've
saved by getting these productsin people's homes. I read it was
like 2.3 million liters orsomething?
Conner Tidd: (22:44):
Yeah, yeah. That itself is actually a little out
of date, where we're well abovethe 10 million liters to age
now. One of those things I jokelike, that's the one thing I can
live guilt free on here. It'slike, I don't do this, don't
advocate for it. But it's like,if I forget to turn off the tap
while I'm brushing my teeth,okay, on balance, I think I've
(23:07):
saved enough to take care ofthat.
Justine Reichman: (23:10):
I think so. And I think equally, I read the
number of miles that you savedin people commuting, or working
on this. And I'm sure that thisnumber may be out of date too.
But I think at that point when Idid the research, or when it was
brought to my attention, it waslike 112 million food miles. Is
that right?
Conner Tidd: (23:31):
That's a little out of date. We're about five
times that now. Not the billionmiles mark yet, but we're well
on our way. We do have some ofthe larger farms that contribute
to this like, everybody makes itan impact. We've got some farms
that are growing 3,000, 10,000,100,000 plants in city centers,
(23:54):
which can make a huge, hugeimpact for those communities.
Justine Reichman: (23:58):
And so on these in these farms that we're
doing, that you would be doinginside people's homes or even in
their gardens, my understandingis they're pesticide free,
right? And so if that's thecase, I'd love to hear the
statistics around the number ofproduce that you're producing,
or that are being produced bythis that are pesticide free.
Conner Tidd: (24:21):
Yes. This is one of the really cool things about
growing indoors, is there's nopests. It's the worst things we
like to say for your indoorgarden at home are dogs and
kids, because they both like togo outside, roll around in the
grass and bring stuff back in.But because there's no soil in
it, it's just water fed thattakes away the main environment
(24:43):
for pest to reproduce so youdon't have that. Then the other
thing is, because you gotanywhere from 12 to 88 plants,
is what most people are growinginside, it's pretty
controllable. And if you seesomething, spray it. Get some
eco friendly dish soap, hotwater, and spray it on there,
(25:03):
wipe it off, and you're good,because you might get aphids on
there. But we don't usepesticides in 99.9% of
situations here. Another bigimpact there, both on human
health works, not necessarilyyou at the grocery store because
(25:24):
it's all certified and cleanedoff by then. But if you've ever
worked on a farm applying apesticide, often, you're out
there with a backpack sprayer,you're spraying, and you got
your mask on. But sometimes,that's leaking. Sometimes, your
mask isn't great, and it is areal danger to human health, on
the operator side.
Justine Reichman: (25:43):
And I was gonna say, in all fairness, if I
have to wear a mask to spraysomething, gives me pause to
what the spray is that I'mspraying on the vegetables to
eat the vegetables. The wholething just gives me a little bit
of pause when I think about thisintellectually.
Conner Tidd: (26:00):
It gives you the second thought. I will say it is
mostly safe for humanconsumption by the time it gets
Justine Reichman: (26:08):
You put a mask on someone that spray,
to you.
you're like, well, why can I eatthis, but they can't? They have
to have a mask on to spray it soit just makes you think. It
makes you curious, and it makesyou wonder, how is that okay? So
I just want to go back, you andyour partner, your co founder
(26:28):
found this company after gettingyour masters. And was this your
first foray into a startup?
Conner Tidd: (26:37):
I never viewed myself as the entrepreneurial
type. I love the cateredcorporate lunches, the easy 9:00
to 5:00, and toss that all tothe side into this.
Justine Reichman (26:51):
What inspired you to make that change since
you're so comfortable with that,and it seemed like something you
liked? Being an entrepreneur,many times they say it's in your
DNA, or you gotta have the bugor something. So it gave you the
bug.
Conner Tidd: (27:06):
I hear that a lot. It's one of those pieces of
advice. I don't know if thatreally resonates with me, but it
grip the side of it. I alwayssay when people ask me, should I
get into entrepreneurship? I'mlike, you gotta be really ready
to go through the ups and downs,and there's a lot of highs and
lows. And it's a battle. And forme, I think what pushed it was
(27:31):
the passion. The drive to make adifference in the food system,
to feed people. We're incrediblyproud of some of the food
security projects we've donewith food banks across Canada
and the US, to feeding refugeesin the Ukrainian border. For me,
(27:51):
seeing that impact and seeingthose changes has been the
drive. for sure.
Justine Reichman: (27:57):
I can imagine, and you have control
over it to some extent. You candrive where you're going to
focus your energies, yourefforts, and who you're going to
help, which is so meaningfulbecause you're choosing what is
dear to you. So I'm curious, andI'm thinking about this. Many of
the guests that tune in areeither they're first time
(28:20):
entrepreneurs, they'reresearchers. There's a whole
list of people in health andwellness. But a lot of times, we
have founders that are tuning inand similar to you. Maybe they
got an idea from business schoolor something inspired them, but
it's scary. It's scary to takethat leap to go start a company.
(28:40):
I'd love you to just sort ofwalk us through that. Because
all of a sudden, you're goingfrom getting a paycheck to now
being responsible to be takingcare of people at some point. In
the early stages, it's reallyjust very scrappy and gritty,
and you're trying to make allthings work, and you don't have
(29:01):
that life vest that you do whenyou're at a company. So how did
you come to resolve that foryourself? People that want to be
founders, but maybe don't havethat experience.
Conner Tidd: (29:13):
Absolutely. I was fortunate that coming out of
grad school, I was used toliving on student salary. It was
like two years in grad school,you get back into the student
mindset. But the biggest thingwe always say is, you got to
just get out there and do it.You're not going to know until
(29:34):
you've done it and you've triedit. So we immediately started
prototyping as fast as we could.And the first units, looking
back, were kind of embarrassing.But you got to get out there and
test the concept, test the idea,and start selling. Because the
amount of prospectiveentrepreneurs I talk to like,
(29:56):
I've got an idea, but I reallywant to refine it. I want to
make it perfect. I want to makeit. It's never going to be
perfect. Even today, we say thatour products aren't perfect. So
get out there, start talking topeople right away, and really
start trying to sell yoursolution. And for a lot of
(30:16):
people, they've got commitmentswhere it's a family, a mortgage,
can you start it on the side?Can you try and ramp it up
slowly? And then the other bigthing I say, we've taken venture
capital money, we've done thefundraising, but that's not
necessary for every singlebusiness out there. It's
completely okay to have smallside hustle or a lifestyle
(30:41):
business like, not everythingneeds to be millions or billions
of dollars in value. I thinkreal impact comes from a lot of
people doing small things everysingle day.
Justine Reichman (30:54):
I couldn't agree more. Because I feel like
when you try to do everything,you don't feel successful. You
don't feel like you're doinganything well or good, or that's
going to support our health, ourwellness or the environment. But
if you can focus on one thing,like for me, if I could focus on
providing a platform so peoplelike yourselves can showcase
(31:14):
what they're working on, theimpact of it, and how people can
make change, small change, thenwe have a greater opportunity to
feel success for ourselves, andalso an impact without feeling
failure to feel like you'refailing. It's so easy to feel
like there's so many things thatwe got to do, but it's daunting.
(31:36):
Because if we recycle, thisthing doesn't actually get
recycled because it's too smallor because there's food on it.
So your statement reallyresonates with me. It resonates
with me because I feel like myimpact is this podcast and the
ability to provide people withthe information from people like
yourselves that are changing thefuture of food, creating greater
(31:58):
accessibility, and makinghealthy food available to people
regardless of where they are.
Conner Tidd: (32:05):
Absolutely. You gotta kind of dead on there. If
you can do one thing well, thatis far more valuable than trying
to do 10 things half right. Getyour one thing. Do it well, and
be proud of it. Be enthusiasticabout it, and people are going
(32:26):
to notice. They're going tonotice, because there's a lot of
stuff. I'm sure we allexperience a day to day where
there's certain things you'rebuying or you're seeing, and the
people don't really believe anddon't want to sell it. If you
can be the one who believes inyourself, believes in what
you're doing, then it's going torun off.
Justine Reichman (32:43):
So if you wanted to share with people how
easy this is for them toimplement, could you give us
three things they need to knowso that they're like, I can do
this too.
Conner Tidd: (32:55):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. In terms of being an
entrepreneur, in terms of,growing their own food. What do
you think?
Justine Reichman: (33:01):
Let's start with an entrepreneur. Then let's
go with growing your own food.
Conner Tidd: (33:05):
In terms of starting to be an entrepreneur,
it's as easy as, take the ideaout of your head, put it on
people, and put it out in theworld. Talk to somebody about
it. See what they have to say,and gage the reaction. Readjust,
get in and keep going. You gotto get out there, take that
(33:26):
first small risk. I find mostthings are a lot scarier. The
idea of it is scarier thanactually doing it. So take it a
little bite sized chunks. Youdon't need to do everything all
at once, just do it little bylittle. And before you know it,
you'll have that momentumrolling, and you'll have
something started up.
Justine Reichman (33:48):
Yeah, I think that that's great. For me, I
think it's also celebrating thesmall wins. The small wins are
equally as important as the bigwins. It's the small wins that
get you to the big wins.
Conner Tidd: (34:02):
Sometimes, it's hard to recognize those small
wins, because you always feellike there's more coming or more
to do. But you definitely gottareflect on those wins and take
them where and when they come.
Justine Reichman (34:13):
I don't know what your experience on this,
but everybody makes mistakes.Are there any mistakes you've
made that maybe, ultimately werea good thing. Because if you
didn't make that mistake, youwouldn't have found the right
answer.
Conner Tidd: (34:29):
100%. We make mistakes all the time. Whether
it's something simple like, youforget me to send a follow up
email. Like, we made some prettydrastic mistakes on like
hardware selection, nothingdangerous, but things that have
cost real dollars that haveslowed us down. The mistake is
valuable if you can accept thatyou've made it, know how to fix
(34:51):
it, and reflect like, okay, whatcame out of this? Because a lot
of the time, you get happymistakes. Sometimes, like you
said, I got the wrong part. Iput it in here, but actually,
that's given me an idea, and wekind of stumbled on something
else. And that's how ourcommercial arm of the business
was born. We were ripping apartsome consumer units, and
(35:14):
somebody looked at it and said,if I could have those parts and
put 10 of them together, I wouldlove that. I could have a whole
ball that produces 10 times asmuch. I was like, man, why don't
we do it? You do find thosehappy mistakes. I say I was
ripping this apart because therewas a malfunction in that
machine that we sold them. Soyou get happy mistakes all the
(35:36):
time.
Justine Reichman: (35:38):
And I think the mistakes are really part of
the journey. They can befrustrating, they can be
expensive, they can be a timedelay, but they can also end up
leading you somewhere you mightnot have otherwise been or gone
to.
Conner Tidd: (35:51):
Absolutely. I will say like, it's almost like a
muscle. The more you workgetting those mistakes, the
easier they do become to dealwith.
Justine Reichman: (35:59):
Yeah, I would agree, and they're not so scary
anymore. So we're lookingforward, and we're looking at
your company, the industry,agriculture, all of it,
accessibility to food. Can youmaybe give or share with us what
impact you hope to have on thefuture of food?
Conner Tidd: (36:18):
We want to make sure that everybody, no matter
where you live, has access totheir own source of fresh food,
and that it's affordable. Likewe said, we live through a time
where the price of food camedown for about 50 years
straight. Then the last 10years, it started going the
other way really quickly. We'renot a silver bullet solution to
(36:40):
everything, but it's okay. Howcan we help stabilize the food
system? And give it someresiliency where we want to make
sure if there's a drought inCalifornia or hurricanes hit the
East Coast, all of a sudden,that we're not able to eat
lettuce. How can we add thatresiliency? How can we make that
food affordable for folks again,especially in those communities
(37:04):
where it typically might not beavailable? Whether that's your
urban jungle in downtown NewYork, or Kodiak, Alaska where
there is no such thing asseasonal vegetables.
Justine Reichman (37:16):
So Conner, as you built this company, you're
growing it, it's super exciting.People listening to this
episode, I can imagine themsaying, okay, so how do I get
this? What do I do next? Can youmaybe talk to that person that's
asking that, that's curiousabout how to get this going in
their kitchen?
Conner Tidd: (37:34):
Yeah. So it's super easy. The gardens in your
kitchen, they're about nineinches deep, so less than a foot
deep. All you need is a singleelectrical outlet to plug them
in, and then the water is selfcontained so you just fill it up
with a jug or bring it to yourtap. And we'd like to say, we've
got people used to kill cactuswho are now successful growers.
(37:55):
So it is built to be as easy aspossible. And we do ship direct
to people's doors. It's fullyassembled. You're up and running
in under 15 minutes.
Justine Reichman (38:05):
What's the price point for this?
Conner Tidd: (38:08):
Our gardens range from 499 up to, if you're
building a full scale verticalfarm, they can go into the
millions of dollars for thecommercial builds, but they
start at 499. The really coolthing we do with all our
consumer gardens is we give youall the supplies you need in the
box when you buy it to grow thevalue of the garden back. So
(38:30):
you'll grow at least that muchvalue back in produce before you
need to spend another dollarreordering.
Justine Reichman: (38:35):
You answered my next question. I said, Wow. I
think I need one of these for mykitchen, so that I can perks,
try it out, and then maybe, Ithink it would be really, really
cool to be able to show peoplehow they're doing this inside
versus outside, and what itlooks like. It seems like we can
(38:57):
have an abundant amount of foodin our kitchens that we can eat
off of. And I'm super excited.So for those listeners that
(39:27):
tuned in today that listened tothe whole episode, whether
they're watching it on the videocast or on YouTube, or when
they're listening to it onSpotify, if they've tuned in and
listened to the whole episode,is there any special discounts
we can give to our loyalEssential Ingredients listeners?
Conner Tidd: (39:39):
Go to the website, www.justvertical.com, and at
checkout, you can put in thecode essential, and that will
give you 10% off the entireorder, no matter how big it is.
Justine Reichman: (39:59):
Great. Thank you so much for joining me
today. I know that it was aneducation for me, an ability to
learn how to bring that gardeninside and make those vegetables
accessible even when living inan urban jungle because mine is
right outside my back door. Butgrowing up in New York, I don't
(40:21):
see how easy it is there. Andnow, with this solution, with
Just Vertical, it seems likeeveryone gets to be a gardener.
Everyone can eat locallysourced, healthy, pesticide
free, organic fruits andvegetables.
Conner Tidd: (40:37):
Great to be here. We love telling the story and
just getting the word out thatpeople do have a way to grow
their own food.
Justine Reichman (40:43):
I want to thank our listeners and our
viewers for tuning in today.It's always great to be
surrounded by my friends and mycommunity to hear what our
founders are sharing with us sothat we can make more informed
choices. If you have additionalquestions or you want to learn
more, Conner, what's the bestway for them to get in touch
with you?
Conner Tidd: (41:04):
Check out all our info at www.justvertical.com. If
you want to see a commercialsolution, it's at
commercial.justvertical.com.Feel free to connect with me on
LinkedIn. Shoot me an email at(inaudible)@justvertical.com.
We're always happy to chat,connect with like minded folks
and and work our way to a betterworld together.
Justine Reichman (41:26):
And you know what I want to hear? I want to
hear those folks that tuned intoday that goes and get the
vertical farm. And I want tohear how it's working for you. I
want to hear, is it easy? Is iteasy to set up? How long does it
take for everything to grow? Andwe want to hear from you so that
we can share those stories here,so people can better understand
the vertical garden wherever youlive. Thanks again. Conner.
Conner, if you would, I'm soexcited to have you here. We
have guests each week that tunein. They tune in so that they
(01:03):
can make better decisions. Theytune in because they want to
hear from you and what yourstory is, be inspired and
(01:28):
equally better understand how wecan make those more informed
choices. So for those guests andlisteners who we are so grateful
(01:55):
to have each week, would youplease just give us a quick
intro to you and Just Vertical.
Conner Tidd: (02:14):
I'm Conner Tidd, I'm one of the two co founders
here at Just Vertical. And notJust Vertical, we build indoor
gardens for your home, all theway up to full scale indoor
vertical farms that we put inaround the world so that you can
grow food locally no matter whatthe climate is, what the weather
is, and what the conditions areoutside. So whether you're in a
(02:36):
desert or you're above the frostline, you can have access to
your own fresh food.
Justine Reichman: (02:42):
That's great. For me, growing up in New York
City, it didn't seem quite asaccessible to have that garden
to understand how to grow it, toeat locally. Aside from going to
the Union Square Farmers Market,we were not necessarily eating
locally. And it could also be,in all fairness, the timing,
(03:03):
right? We're here in 2025, thisis a much bigger conversation
now than it was in the 1970s. Ifeel like for me, I don't know
that we were talking abouteating locally and eating
organic, although my mom wasvery advanced on that. So I
think this is a reallyinteresting conversation on a
personal level. Because when Ilook at my garden in the back,
(03:24):
and I have an edible garden. Tome, it seems like, okay, we can
do that. That's easy. But Ithink about it in terms of an
apartment or a condo in themiddle of an urban city like New
York, Toronto, Montreal orwherever where you're living in
a large building wondering, howdo we get to do that too, and
what does that mean? Becausewe're growing here. The things
(03:44):
that they tell us thrive in thisclimate at this time. So I'm
thinking about what you'resaying, and you're saying we can
grow everything anytime, and wecan make that happen. That poses
some questions for me out ofcuriosity, we're no longer
focused on eating locally andwhat's in season. Seasonally,
(04:05):
we're now making everythingavailable. So can you walk me
through that a little?
Conner Tidd: (04:33):
I think it's very interesting. You kind of said
that historically, I thinkpeople were very concerned about
local food, and where it camefrom. You look back World War
II, everybody was growing avictory garden. It was almost
like a point of pride of theboard effort. And then you read
a cookbook from the 50s and 60s,and we all got obsessed with
(04:54):
jello and cheap accessible food.And there's all these weird
recipes of like jello and CoolWhip, because those were the new
things, which is gross now inthe 2025 context. But you really
saw that that kind of fall off,and it was all about
globalization, and how do we getfood as cheap as possible. And I
think there's been a bigresurgence in people wanting to
(05:17):
know where their food's comingfrom, what's going into it? And
that's where we see peoplethinking about their seasonal
diets, what's the impact of it?And that was kind of part of the
genesis for us was, all right,you lived in New York City. I
live in downtown Toronto. You'rein a concrete jungle. How do you
grow your own food? It's not anoption, right? My balcony faces
(05:39):
north. There's tall buildingsall around me. I barely get
anything. The community gardensgot a three year wait list
because people are obsessed withit. So it was like, okay, what
if we could take a lot of thecool cutting edge science around
vertical farming and put it intoa piece of furniture? We can't
quite grow everything. We don'tdo root vegetables, so potatoes
(06:01):
and carrots. if you do growthem, they come out tiny, like
smaller than a golf ball. Butthe freshness really matters.
Your lettuces, your leafygreens, your herbs are a huge
one. Cherry tomatoes, mostpeople bite into a fresh cherry
tomato in the middle of winter,and it's like night and day
difference compared to what's atthe grocery store.
Justine Reichman: (06:23):
It's true. As I was learning a little bit
about your indoor farming andthe technology, and this is a
big conversation here inCalifornia that it uses a lot
less water, and that's it.That's a big conversation in
California with the drought andeverything, so I'd love to learn
a little bit more about that.Because from my understanding, I
(06:44):
thought it was like 95% less. Isthat right?
Conner Tidd: (06:47):
Yeah. So it's really cool. So the way the
systems work, andthis is onething we're proud of, but it's
not unique to us. It'snecessarily just our system, but
it's a closed loop. So the waterthat goes into it gets pumped up
to the plants, runs along theroots. And then whatever the
plants don't want to drink atthat time goes right back into a
(07:08):
water reservoir, so a holdingtank, and it constantly
recirculates. So what that meansis you don't have any ground
water runoff. You don't have anyloss that way. And the tanks
closed up, so you don't evenhave evaporation out of it. And
it also leads to not only wayless water use, but way less
fertilizer use. You use about aa tablespoon of fertilizer every
(07:31):
two weeks, which, if anyone'sever used fertilizer in your
garden, that's (inaudible). Isay to imagine adding liquid to
a garden and how much it justsoaks in, and it's gone. With
hydroponics with a recirculatingclosed loop system, you don't
run into any of that.
Justine Reichman: (07:47):
So with that being said, that's like a real
win, right? Especially in theseenvironments where they don't
want us to have grass, they wantus to have things that are
drought friendly, and so thatwould really facilitate people
being able to grow and makefruits and vegetables, aside
from root, more accessible. Sothat's a really big win. How do
(08:11):
you find that people arereceiving that in areas like
California with drought? What'sthe conversation around it? huge.
Conner Tidd: (08:19):
It's huge. Our family who lived in California
Justine Reichman (08:19):
Aall of that makes it tangible. You can
and during the water rationing,I don't know if it's still going
on, and I remember howcontroversial it was that some
people's lawns mysteriously keptsurviving, and other people's
were letting theirs brown. Sodefinitely, it's part of the
conversation. I view it as anextension of concern of where
(08:40):
your food's coming from, andwhat's going into it. Concern
for the environment like, are wegoing to be able to live in
California in 50 years? You lookat the Colorado River that's fed
California, the water levelsthat have gone down, and you
look at the reservoir levels.They talk every summer like, how
much water is going to be inthere? It's interesting. The
(09:05):
deserts of the far north, likethe tundra where you don't have
access to a lot of fresh waterbecause it's all frozen, it's
the same thing as like, how dowe grow? How can we grow our own
food possible in environmentswhere it normally wasn't? Or can
we drastically lower the impacton whether that's on water use,
(09:26):
fertilizer use, or, even forpeople who are out in the
country where you gotta drive anhour to the grocery store.
That's a big impact that we cantake away if we can allow you to
grow your own food at home,whether that's in the kitchen,
or container farm out back, orshed.
(09:52):
imagine that. You can seegrowing it in your house. You
can see the possibilities. Andso I just want to go back
because as we think about eatinglocally, and now we're growing
anything, and the idea of eatingwhat is grown that is seasonal,
they say, is healthier for us.So while you can grow everything
(10:12):
you're not, are you advocatingthat people just grow whatever
they want or is part of theethos to maintain things that
are so seasonal? Or do you notthink it matters?
Conner Tidd: (10:23):
The seasonality and what you're growing, it's
very regional dependent. We havethis conversation a lot in the
Statesbecause when we're dealingwith somebody, customers in
Missouri, in Louisiana, they'vegot a very different idea of
what's seasonal. We're talking alot of like collard green, Swiss
(10:46):
chard, kind of like Hardy fiberstuff versus not to stereotype
California, but like kale. Akale trend never die, right? And
then we have the conversationwith somebody in Alaska, and
they're like, what is seasonalproduce? Like, nothing seasonal
here. So there's all thesedifferent approaches to it on
(11:06):
where it grow and what you'regoing to eat. And when we talk
about the health impacts, one ofthe biggest things is actually
having it fresh. Because thefresher the food, the more
density the vitamins and themicronutrients are. You gotta
think that as soon as you pick aplant, you're killing it, and
you start to have thatmicronutrient break down right
(11:27):
away. So the fresher the food,the better it is for you. And
then grow what you're gonnagrow, what you're gonna eat, and
kind of have some fun with it.Because the other big thing is
you can grow a lot of stuff youcan't get at the grocery store.
There's 200 different kinds ofbasil out in the world, but
you're only going to findprobably one or two on the
grocery store shelves.
Justine Reichman: (11:44):
I agree. We grow Thai basil, regular basil
and different herbs. I can'ttell you how many different
thymes we have. It allows you tobe creative and be fun, have all
these different smells andcreate new kinds of recipes. I'm
enthusiastic about this as Icome from an urban jungle, and
(12:05):
the idea that you could do that.But I also really appreciate the
impact you're having on theenvironment, whether it's about
travel and going to get food,whether it's about the machines
that people are using. I'd loveto just dig a little further
into that, understand how doesthis impact the farmer? How does
(12:29):
this impact all the fruits andvegetables that we get from
Mexico and everywhere else? Andwhat is your overarching goal?
Conner Tidd: (12:38):
For us, living myself and my co founder Kevin,
we really started this throughsustainability lens. We met when
we were doing our Masters ofScience and Sustainability
together. Kevin was working inthe far north in an indigenous
community where a head oflettuce was $20, and it was
already raw. These are likeplaces you can only fly in to
(13:00):
get it. So you're shipping stuffthrough the air. It's crazy.
We're sitting there saying like,okay, it's 2017 when we're
starting this company. Theworld's got enough food. It's
just, how do we get it topeople? And how do we get it to
people in a way that's not goingto kill the environment? So for
us, it's really that food impactsustainability mission. And when
(13:22):
you look at the impact of yourfood, people are often surprised
where the impact is because wehear about food miles, a lot
about food getting transportedto grocery stores, which is
true. But when you actually boilit down to the numbers, often,
there's actually more impact ofyou driving to the grocery store
(13:44):
than the food getting there.When you think about it, that
truck is bringing in 100,000heads of lettuce, right? Your
box of spinach went bad becauseyou told yourself again, I'll
get through the box this week.And then you don't, because
we've all been there, and yougot to run to the store to get
that spinach in that one trip tohave a big impact. And the other
(14:07):
big thing is the packaging onthe food. You go and buy like,
I'm making tacos tonight, I wentand bought peppers. And like, I
don't put them in a littleplastic bag, but the person at
the checkout did. The single usebag, and I'm like, that might
have more impact than the pepperitself. So by being able to, if
we can save you a trip to thegrocery store because your herbs
(14:29):
are growing fresh and you'reonly picking what you need, and
then there's no plasticpackaging around it, on top of
your water savings and yourfertilizer savings, you can make
a real dent in your food impacton that part of your life. And
not only do you get to eatbetter food, but you feel good
about it too.
Justine Reichman (14:50):
buy five days worth of food. Because if I
don't eat it, then I'm going towaste it, or then I gotta freeze
it. And how long can you freezeit? All these different things
that go on in your head. Butequally, if you grow what you
(15:10):
like, that stuff would go bad ifyou cut it prematurely, or you
pick it prematurely. But if youleave it there, and you can do
that same thing without makingthat drive to the grocery store,
and you can eat as you wishdaily, and go there
periodically. Maybe buy yourmeats from wherever you're going
to do them and stick those inthe freezer, as opposed to all
(15:33):
the different trips and all thedifferent places. You want
cucumbers and they're reallyfrom Mexico, but had I grown
them, I could have had them atthat time of year, or just a
little prematurely. So I thinkthat's really interesting. I
think the other thing that'sreally interesting that you
bring up is that it's a way forus to make an impact. And so
often, I feel like people aretrying to do so many different
(15:56):
things, but this is somethingthat is easy to understand, and
you can certainly see theimmediacy of it. Doesn't mean
that on a larger scale or from a40 foot viewpoint. We don't want
better solutions. But I thinkthis is one that people can feel
good about, get involved with,create new recipes, do all sorts
(16:20):
of things and share withfriends. And even if they have
excess, share.
Conner Tidd: (16:23):
Absolutely. If there's all these big challenges
Justine Reichman: (16:24):
I know you mentioned that you and your co
the world's got to take on, itcan seem intimidating. It can
seem hard to be like, okay,where am I making an impact?
founder were in school getting asustainability degree. So what
What's real? We got toacknowledge human nature. You
might feel good about choosingthe green laundry detergent, but
it really doesn't do much foryou in the long run. So what can
(16:46):
we do to put up solutions thatare fun, tangible, they're
immediate and it's easy toadopt? And our thought behind it
is like, let's make people feelgood about their gardening, feel
good about their food and buildthat connection, because it's
something you want to talk,something you want to share with
(17:06):
friends.
in particular generated thisidea? Sustainability, we could
talk about so many things. It'svast, but you really focused on
something around growing yourown gardens and your own stuff.
(17:33):
So if we want to circle back andtalk about when you first kick
(17:56):
this off with your co founder,and you're in school and you're
studying sustainability, why wasthis so meaningful to you?
Conner Tidd: (18:04):
When I was in school, younger and more naive,
put me in one of the biggest,baddest polluters, and I'll get
this solved for four months. SoI went to one of the largest
agricultural companies in theworld. And when they bought
another one of the largestagricultural companies in the
world, that is also the mosthated, whose name I'll leave
out, but it's pretty easilydeducible for anyone in this
(18:27):
space. And I saw firsthand howupset people were with the way
they view food, whether it wasfactually correct or not. People
are saying like, I wish I couldgrow my own food. I wish I had
knew what was going into it. Iwish I had some control over it.
And then Kevin, at the sametime, like I said, he was in
that far north community workingthere on, how can we grow food
(18:51):
in remote communities? He said,the technology exists to do
this. It's not anythingrevolutionary. It was just in
our view, nobody had dressed itup properly to make it palatable
to your people in Toronto, NewYork, Montreal, LA. And that was
the original thesis for the ideaof like, can we build this into
a cool piece of furniture whereit's functional, cool and easy
(19:14):
to use? Because when you sayhydroponics, most people think
like light tubes, like a grow upin your house. So how can we
make this palatable for folks?
Justine Reichman: (19:26):
And when you first kick this off, what was
the response from buyers, fromcommunity members.
Conner Tidd: (19:41):
When we kicked it off, people were really
enthusiastic, but they had notheard of vertical farming. It's
(20:04):
kind of something you saw in thenews once or twice. They didn't
realize that it was somethingthat could be done inside your
home. So there's a lot ofeducation with folks, but a lot
of excitement. One thing I willsay is the younger generations
always got it, and they werecompletely on board. I think
(20:25):
there always has been a littlebit of skepticism with some
older folks around, it's stilllike grow lights. It's like
you're putting stuff in thewater. We got to educate people.
Is it nutritionally valuable? Isit safe? And of course, it is.
But you've got to talk peoplethrough it and get them on board
(20:47):
with it.
Justine Reichman (20:48):
So what role did education play for you in
kicking this off, and gettingpeople committed to using this
in their homes?
Conner Tidd: (20:56):
There's amount of workshops we've done around
Justine Reichman: (20:56):
I know it's like the third party pitch,
planting seeds. Here's how aplant grows, here's what it
looks like, here's thedifferences. And as many
workshops as I like to havedone, what we found was the best
people to teach is the peoplewho took that initial dive, got
a garden, and then you'll seetheir friends come over for
(21:16):
dinner and like, oh, what isthat like? Is that in here? And
they've become our customers.Have become our biggest
advocates. We like to make surethey're equipped with the
knowledge. We do a lot of workwith universities and colleges
to validate what we say, becausewe don't want to just be making
things up, or saying things. Wewant somebody else to validate
(21:37):
it. But our customers, they'vebeen our biggest advocates for
getting things done.
right? Everybody can pitchsomething else that's not
themselves better than peoplethat pitch themselves. Oh,
absolutely genuine. Becausepeople are really advocating and
(21:57):
explaining why this idea,concept, product, person is the
answer.
Conner Tidd: (22:08):
Obviously, I've got a bias to sell it at
somebody in the company. Butwhen it's your friend, your mom,
your grandma, your uncle, oryour cousin telling you about
this, it's like, okay, I trustwhat they're saying. This is one
of the fun parts about us beinga food and a hardware product is
the proof is right there. Take abite. It tastes good.
Justine Reichman: (22:28):
And the other thing that I read that I thought
was super interesting was theamount of water that you've
saved by getting these productsin people's homes. I read it was
like 2.3 million liters orsomething?
Conner Tidd: (22:44):
Yeah, yeah. That itself is actually a little out
of date, where we're well abovethe 10 million liters to age
now. One of those things I jokelike, that's the one thing I can
live guilt free on here. It'slike, I don't do this, don't
advocate for it. But it's like,if I forget to turn off the tap
while I'm brushing my teeth,okay, on balance, I think I've
(23:07):
saved enough to take care ofthat.
Justine Reichman: (23:10):
I think so. And I think equally, I read the
number of miles that you savedin people commuting, or working
on this. And I'm sure that thisnumber may be out of date too.
But I think at that point when Idid the research, or when it was
brought to my attention, it waslike 112 million food miles. Is
that right?
Conner Tidd: (23:31):
That's a little out of date. We're about five
times that now. Not the billionmiles mark yet, but we're well
on our way. We do have some ofthe larger farms that contribute
to this like, everybody makes itan impact. We've got some farms
that are growing 3,000, 10,000,100,000 plants in city centers,
(23:54):
which can make a huge, hugeimpact for those communities.
Justine Reichman: (23:58):
And so on these in these farms that we're
doing, that you would be doinginside people's homes or even in
their gardens, my understandingis they're pesticide free,
right? And so if that's thecase, I'd love to hear the
statistics around the number ofproduce that you're producing,
or that are being produced bythis that are pesticide free.
Conner Tidd: (24:21):
Yes. This is one of the really cool things about
growing indoors, is there's nopests. It's the worst things we
like to say for your indoorgarden at home are dogs and
kids, because they both like togo outside, roll around in the
grass and bring stuff back in.But because there's no soil in
it, it's just water fed thattakes away the main environment
(24:43):
for pest to reproduce so youdon't have that. Then the other
thing is, because you gotanywhere from 12 to 88 plants,
is what most people are growinginside, it's pretty
controllable. And if you seesomething, spray it. Get some
eco friendly dish soap, hotwater, and spray it on there,
(25:03):
wipe it off, and you're good,because you might get aphids on
there. But we don't usepesticides in 99.9% of
situations here. Another bigimpact there, both on human
health works, not necessarilyyou at the grocery store because
(25:24):
it's all certified and cleanedoff by then. But if you've ever
worked on a farm applying apesticide, often, you're out
there with a backpack sprayer,you're spraying, and you got
your mask on. But sometimes,that's leaking. Sometimes, your
mask isn't great, and it is areal danger to human health, on
the operator side.
Justine Reichman: (25:43):
And I was gonna say, in all fairness, if I
have to wear a mask to spraysomething, gives me pause to
what the spray is that I'mspraying on the vegetables to
eat the vegetables. The wholething just gives me a little bit
of pause when I think about thisintellectually.
Conner Tidd: (26:00):
It gives you the second thought. I will say it is
mostly safe for humanconsumption by the time it gets
Justine Reichman: (26:08):
You put a mask on someone that spray,
to you.
you're like, well, why can I eatthis, but they can't? They have
to have a mask on to spray it soit just makes you think. It
makes you curious, and it makesyou wonder, how is that okay? So
I just want to go back, you andyour partner, your co founder
(26:28):
found this company after gettingyour masters. And was this your
first foray into a startup?
Conner Tidd: (26:37):
I never viewed myself as the entrepreneurial
type. I love the cateredcorporate lunches, the easy 9:00
to 5:00, and toss that all tothe side into this.
Justine Reichman (26:51):
What inspired you to make that change since
you're so comfortable with that,and it seemed like something you
liked? Being an entrepreneur,many times they say it's in your
DNA, or you gotta have the bugor something. So it gave you the
bug.
Conner Tidd: (27:06):
I hear that a lot. It's one of those pieces of
advice. I don't know if thatreally resonates with me, but it
grip the side of it. I alwayssay when people ask me, should I
get into entrepreneurship? I'mlike, you gotta be really ready
to go through the ups and downs,and there's a lot of highs and
lows. And it's a battle. And forme, I think what pushed it was
(27:31):
the passion. The drive to make adifference in the food system,
to feed people. We're incrediblyproud of some of the food
security projects we've donewith food banks across Canada
and the US, to feeding refugeesin the Ukrainian border. For me,
(27:51):
seeing that impact and seeingthose changes has been the
drive. for sure.
Justine Reichman: (27:57):
I can imagine, and you have control
over it to some extent. You candrive where you're going to
focus your energies, yourefforts, and who you're going to
help, which is so meaningfulbecause you're choosing what is
dear to you. So I'm curious, andI'm thinking about this. Many of
the guests that tune in areeither they're first time
(28:20):
entrepreneurs, they'reresearchers. There's a whole
list of people in health andwellness. But a lot of times, we
have founders that are tuning inand similar to you. Maybe they
got an idea from business schoolor something inspired them, but
it's scary. It's scary to takethat leap to go start a company.
(28:40):
I'd love you to just sort ofwalk us through that. Because
all of a sudden, you're goingfrom getting a paycheck to now
being responsible to be takingcare of people at some point. In
the early stages, it's reallyjust very scrappy and gritty,
and you're trying to make allthings work, and you don't have
(29:01):
that life vest that you do whenyou're at a company. So how did
you come to resolve that foryourself? People that want to be
founders, but maybe don't havethat experience.
Conner Tidd: (29:13):
Absolutely. I was fortunate that coming out of
grad school, I was used toliving on student salary. It was
like two years in grad school,you get back into the student
mindset. But the biggest thingwe always say is, you got to
just get out there and do it.You're not going to know until
(29:34):
you've done it and you've triedit. So we immediately started
prototyping as fast as we could.And the first units, looking
back, were kind of embarrassing.But you got to get out there and
test the concept, test the idea,and start selling. Because the
amount of prospectiveentrepreneurs I talk to like,
(29:56):
I've got an idea, but I reallywant to refine it. I want to
make it perfect. I want to makeit. It's never going to be
perfect. Even today, we say thatour products aren't perfect. So
get out there, start talking topeople right away, and really
start trying to sell yoursolution. And for a lot of
(30:16):
people, they've got commitmentswhere it's a family, a mortgage,
can you start it on the side?Can you try and ramp it up
slowly? And then the other bigthing I say, we've taken venture
capital money, we've done thefundraising, but that's not
necessary for every singlebusiness out there. It's
completely okay to have smallside hustle or a lifestyle
(30:41):
business like, not everythingneeds to be millions or billions
of dollars in value. I thinkreal impact comes from a lot of
people doing small things everysingle day.
Justine Reichman (30:54):
I couldn't agree more. Because I feel like
when you try to do everything,you don't feel successful. You
don't feel like you're doinganything well or good, or that's
going to support our health, ourwellness or the environment. But
if you can focus on one thing,like for me, if I could focus on
providing a platform so peoplelike yourselves can showcase
(31:14):
what they're working on, theimpact of it, and how people can
make change, small change, thenwe have a greater opportunity to
feel success for ourselves, andalso an impact without feeling
failure to feel like you'refailing. It's so easy to feel
like there's so many things thatwe got to do, but it's daunting.
(31:36):
Because if we recycle, thisthing doesn't actually get
recycled because it's too smallor because there's food on it.
So your statement reallyresonates with me. It resonates
with me because I feel like myimpact is this podcast and the
ability to provide people withthe information from people like
yourselves that are changing thefuture of food, creating greater
(31:58):
accessibility, and makinghealthy food available to people
regardless of where they are.
Conner Tidd: (32:05):
Absolutely. You gotta kind of dead on there. If
you can do one thing well, thatis far more valuable than trying
to do 10 things half right. Getyour one thing. Do it well, and
be proud of it. Be enthusiasticabout it, and people are going
(32:26):
to notice. They're going tonotice, because there's a lot of
stuff. I'm sure we allexperience a day to day where
there's certain things you'rebuying or you're seeing, and the
people don't really believe anddon't want to sell it. If you
can be the one who believes inyourself, believes in what
you're doing, then it's going torun off.
Justine Reichman (32:43):
So if you wanted to share with people how
easy this is for them toimplement, could you give us
three things they need to knowso that they're like, I can do
this too.
Conner Tidd: (32:55):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. In terms of being an
entrepreneur, in terms of,growing their own food. What do
you think?
Justine Reichman: (33:01):
Let's start with an entrepreneur. Then let's
go with growing your own food.
Conner Tidd: (33:05):
In terms of starting to be an entrepreneur,
it's as easy as, take the ideaout of your head, put it on
people, and put it out in theworld. Talk to somebody about
it. See what they have to say,and gage the reaction. Readjust,
get in and keep going. You gotto get out there, take that
(33:26):
first small risk. I find mostthings are a lot scarier. The
idea of it is scarier thanactually doing it. So take it a
little bite sized chunks. Youdon't need to do everything all
at once, just do it little bylittle. And before you know it,
you'll have that momentumrolling, and you'll have
something started up.
Justine Reichman (33:48):
Yeah, I think that that's great. For me, I
think it's also celebrating thesmall wins. The small wins are
equally as important as the bigwins. It's the small wins that
get you to the big wins.
Conner Tidd: (34:02):
Sometimes, it's hard to recognize those small
wins, because you always feellike there's more coming or more
to do. But you definitely gottareflect on those wins and take
them where and when they come.
Justine Reichman (34:13):
I don't know what your experience on this,
but everybody makes mistakes.Are there any mistakes you've
made that maybe, ultimately werea good thing. Because if you
didn't make that mistake, youwouldn't have found the right
answer.
Conner Tidd: (34:29):
100%. We make mistakes all the time. Whether
it's something simple like, youforget me to send a follow up
email. Like, we made some prettydrastic mistakes on like
hardware selection, nothingdangerous, but things that have
cost real dollars that haveslowed us down. The mistake is
valuable if you can accept thatyou've made it, know how to fix
(34:51):
it, and reflect like, okay, whatcame out of this? Because a lot
of the time, you get happymistakes. Sometimes, like you
said, I got the wrong part. Iput it in here, but actually,
that's given me an idea, and wekind of stumbled on something
else. And that's how ourcommercial arm of the business
was born. We were ripping apartsome consumer units, and
(35:14):
somebody looked at it and said,if I could have those parts and
put 10 of them together, I wouldlove that. I could have a whole
ball that produces 10 times asmuch. I was like, man, why don't
we do it? You do find thosehappy mistakes. I say I was
ripping this apart because therewas a malfunction in that
machine that we sold them. Soyou get happy mistakes all the
(35:36):
time.
Justine Reichman: (35:38):
And I think the mistakes are really part of
the journey. They can befrustrating, they can be
expensive, they can be a timedelay, but they can also end up
leading you somewhere you mightnot have otherwise been or gone
to.
Conner Tidd: (35:51):
Absolutely. I will say like, it's almost like a
muscle. The more you workgetting those mistakes, the
easier they do become to dealwith.
Justine Reichman: (35:59):
Yeah, I would agree, and they're not so scary
anymore. So we're lookingforward, and we're looking at
your company, the industry,agriculture, all of it,
accessibility to food. Can youmaybe give or share with us what
impact you hope to have on thefuture of food?
Conner Tidd: (36:18):
We want to make sure that everybody, no matter
where you live, has access totheir own source of fresh food,
and that it's affordable. Likewe said, we live through a time
where the price of food camedown for about 50 years
straight. Then the last 10years, it started going the
other way really quickly. We'renot a silver bullet solution to
(36:40):
everything, but it's okay. Howcan we help stabilize the food
system? And give it someresiliency where we want to make
sure if there's a drought inCalifornia or hurricanes hit the
East Coast, all of a sudden,that we're not able to eat
lettuce. How can we add thatresiliency? How can we make that
food affordable for folks again,especially in those communities
(37:04):
where it typically might not beavailable? Whether that's your
urban jungle in downtown NewYork, or Kodiak, Alaska where
there is no such thing asseasonal vegetables.
Justine Reichman (37:16):
So Conner, as you built this company, you're
growing it, it's super exciting.People listening to this
episode, I can imagine themsaying, okay, so how do I get
this? What do I do next? Can youmaybe talk to that person that's
asking that, that's curiousabout how to get this going in
their kitchen?
Conner Tidd: (37:34):
Yeah. So it's super easy. The gardens in your
kitchen, they're about nineinches deep, so less than a foot
deep. All you need is a singleelectrical outlet to plug them
in, and then the water is selfcontained so you just fill it up
with a jug or bring it to yourtap. And we'd like to say, we've
got people used to kill cactuswho are now successful growers.
(37:55):
So it is built to be as easy aspossible. And we do ship direct
to people's doors. It's fullyassembled. You're up and running
in under 15 minutes.
Justine Reichman (38:05):
What's the price point for this?
Conner Tidd: (38:08):
Our gardens range from 499 up to, if you're
building a full scale verticalfarm, they can go into the
millions of dollars for thecommercial builds, but they
start at 499. The really coolthing we do with all our
consumer gardens is we give youall the supplies you need in the
box when you buy it to grow thevalue of the garden back. So
(38:30):
you'll grow at least that muchvalue back in produce before you
need to spend another dollarreordering.
Justine Reichman: (38:35):
You answered my next question. I said, Wow. I
think I need one of these for mykitchen, so that I can perks,
try it out, and then maybe, Ithink it would be really, really
cool to be able to show peoplehow they're doing this inside
versus outside, and what itlooks like. It seems like we can
(38:57):
have an abundant amount of foodin our kitchens that we can eat
off of. And I'm super excited.So for those listeners that
(39:27):
tuned in today that listened tothe whole episode, whether
they're watching it on the videocast or on YouTube, or when
they're listening to it onSpotify, if they've tuned in and
listened to the whole episode,is there any special discounts
we can give to our loyalEssential Ingredients listeners?
Conner Tidd: (39:39):
Go to the website, www.justvertical.com, and at
checkout, you can put in thecode essential, and that will
give you 10% off the entireorder, no matter how big it is.
Justine Reichman: (39:59):
Great. Thank you so much for joining me
today. I know that it was aneducation for me, an ability to
learn how to bring that gardeninside and make those vegetables
accessible even when living inan urban jungle because mine is
right outside my back door. Butgrowing up in New York, I don't
(40:21):
see how easy it is there. Andnow, with this solution, with
Just Vertical, it seems likeeveryone gets to be a gardener.
Everyone can eat locallysourced, healthy, pesticide
free, organic fruits andvegetables.
Conner Tidd: (40:37):
Great to be here. We love telling the story and
just getting the word out thatpeople do have a way to grow
their own food.
Justine Reichman (40:43):
I want to thank our listeners and our
viewers for tuning in today.It's always great to be
surrounded by my friends and mycommunity to hear what our
founders are sharing with us sothat we can make more informed
choices. If you have additionalquestions or you want to learn
more, Conner, what's the bestway for them to get in touch
with you?
Conner Tidd: (41:04):
Check out all our info at www.justvertical.com. If
you want to see a commercialsolution, it's at
commercial.justvertical.com.Feel free to connect with me on
LinkedIn. Shoot me an email at(inaudible)@justvertical.com.
We're always happy to chat,connect with like minded folks
and and work our way to a betterworld together.
Justine Reichman (41:26):
And you know what I want to hear? I want to
hear those folks that tuned intoday that goes and get the
vertical farm. And I want tohear how it's working for you. I
want to hear, is it easy? Is iteasy to set up? How long does it
take for everything to grow? Andwe want to hear from you so that
we can share those stories here,so people can better understand
the vertical garden wherever youlive. Thanks again. Conner.
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