This interview details Moonflower Farms, an indoor farming company based in The United States. The interview is with Federico Marques, CEO of Moonflower Farms.
What is the origin story of Moonflower Farms?
Started in 2016 as the first indoor vertical farm in Houston, Texas (maybe the first in Texas). We began in a 1200 SF garage and now we operate on 5 acres in a 20,000 SF greenhouse. Our goal was to find a way to make the promise of hydroponics and sustainable city farming scalable.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing Moonflower Farms in the future?
We began our new greenhouse operation and opened on March 2020. The timing could not have been worse as everything shut down and all of our pending contracts were canceled in April. Right now, we are in the opposite situation. We have great demand and have run out of capacity. We have multiple opportunities and need to determine the best way to move forward. Our mission is to bring sustainable city farming to every major city in the US by 2030. Right now, we need to determine the best way to make this a reality.
What is unique about Moonflower compared to competitors?
The crazy audacious goal of Moonflower Farms is to help NASA put “flowers on the moon”. The CEO/Founder got this start in hydroponics by working with NASA to clean air and water using hydroponics. In 2015, he was speaking with his NASA colleagues about this upcoming new venture, they said “maybe you can help us put flowers on the moon”. This is where our name comes from. We have a close relationship with NASA and plan on putting flowers on the moon on or before 2030.
How do you measure the impact of your company so far? (Revenue, Employees, Customer Quantity, Production Volume) etc?
We are on track to be profitable this year which is a great feeling, especially after Covid. We have very happy customers who continue to want more local, fresh, live, pesticide free produce. There is little to no competition when it comes to local farms who can produce thousands of pounds a day of product. We also have a strong relationship with our community as we are working with 12 different local schools in Houston to advance the promise of hydroponic farming.
What have you learned that you wish you knew when you joined or started the company?
I knew it would be difficult but did not anticipate Covid or its aftermath. We are very fortunate to have survived and are now thriving. We have very good strategic relationships now that I wish we would have made before I began the venture. Now I know better. This would have saved us a lot of time and money.
How can people connect with you or learn more about Moonflower Farms?
They can go to our website at www.moonflowerfarms.com. or send us an email at info@moonflowerfarms.com.
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