Welcome to FF
Welcome to the team!
It was only five-short-months ago when our team was five-people-strong. Since then, we’ve more than doubled! Our Engineering capacity quadrupled, our innovation and business development efforts have scaled up AND, most excitingly, we have welcomed four of the brightest minds UBC’s co-op program has to offer. We are thrilled to welcome students with backgrounds in physics, cognitive systems, and electrical/mechanical/civil engineering to the team. They will be joining us for the summer and are already working on a number of innovative projects to scale up our engineering efforts in many capacities. To say this company has attracted individuals with compassion, kindness, curiosity and smarts would be an understatement. We couldn’t be more proud of the calibre of people we get to work with every day.
Bryce-the-pod-man-Jones
Our fearless CEO, Bryce, has been working day and night for three-weeks straight making seed pods with our new automation machine. He has been able to produce over 60,000(!) pods almost entirely on his own thanks to this new equipment, all while managing the day-to-day operations of the company. We have a few pilots lined up across various environments where these pods will settle into their new homes. A few weeks ago we also took the time to run experiments in multiple conditions using our pods and we are seeing incredible results! Every single species we have trialed with our new formula has sprouted—even in less-than-favourable environmental conditions. We’re extremely happy with the outcome and are celebrating this milestone in the company!
Friends & Family of Flash Forest
The runway provided by the crowdfunding campaigns allowed the team to build out our automation equipment, purchase new drones, seeds, soil, software, and supplies and helped offset the cost to rent space in a production facility. This was the boost we needed to scale and move quickly. While we’ve been able to keep costs low and stay frugal, the need to move to an investor-model was realized and we recently closed out our Friends & Family equity round. The added injection of capital will continue to allow us to scale up in terms of employees and equipment, which will give us the added runway needed to continue our pilots while still pre-revenue. We are so thankful for the support of these individuals and are proud to have them along for the ride!
All the best from everyone at Flash Forest!