Got the Green Thumb Itch but live in the Concrete Jungle? Dallas-Based Gardenuity combines tech and earth to offer a Customized Gardening Experience
Anyone living in Dallas can tell you that the urban space is not conducive to growing your own crops. But one Dallas-born entrepreneur hopes to change that. Donna Letier with cofounder Julie Eggers kickstarted the lifestyle tech company Gardenuity to cleverly mix modern technology with old-fashioned gardening. Hailed as the “Blue Apron” of gardening, Gardenuity helps urban dwellers get in touch with their green thumb.
“With technology we are changing the language of gardening,” Letier said. With its Gardenuity Match app, similar to Tinder but for plants and gardeners, users can find their ideal plant based on their zip code, food preference, and lifestyle. Geared towards newcomers to gardening who don’t live near agrarian spaces, Gardenuity then sends clients a customized gardening kit complete with pre-portioned soil, custom compost, the plant itself, a portable container, and planting instructions. Letier explained, “We won’t sell you something that it’s not the right time to plant. We also create custom compost based on your ZIP code, what you’re growing and the time of year. We’ve really customized it down to the ZIP code, which is really cool.”
The company also developed a “concierge” to assist clients through reminders, weather alerts, and growing tips. For instance, if you are keeping plants on a balcony and a heat wave is coming, the concierge would inform you to bring your plants indoors. As well, the app sends recipes to give you ideas for what to cook from the crops of your garden. Through its coaching, Gardenuity hopes to make gardening a little more convenient. Letier said, “Everyone is busy, the one thing no one has figured out how to grow more of is time, but the desire for people to connect with nature continues to grow. Gardenuity can make everyone a modern-day gardener.”
As Gardenuity shows, gardening and technology are not mutually exclusive. Letier and Eggers collaborated with horticultural engineers and seed breeders to develop Gardenuity’s high quality products. They also partnered with technicians to construct their customized state-of-the-art technology. They are constantly in search of developing new ways to improve their products. The company truly lives up to its namesake of “gardening meets ingenuity.”
While gardening isn’t typically associated with R&D, Gardenuity clearly demonstrates that it developed its current models through a rigorous process of experimentation with software, horticultural engineering, and app development. Did you know this experimentation is eligible for the R&D Tax Credit? If you are also conducting similar trials, even for a company that isn’t explicitly “R&D”, you could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.
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