S6E69: The Intersection of Emerging Technology In Agriculture & Energy with GrowFlux’s Eric Eisele

Episode Summary

Eric Eisele is an entrepreneur, environmentalist and CEO of Growflux, a horticultural tech company offering automation and cloud technologies aimed at resource efficiency and yield expansion for indoor farms, and greenhouses. Today, Harry speaks to Eric about Eric’s Philly roots and his rich experience in design and architecture, wireless engineering and renewable energy. Eric expounds on circadian lighting, providing controls for lighting and his passion for fostering resource efficiency and environmental stewardship in agriculture.

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Key Takeaways

07:13 – Harry welcomes to the show, Eric Eisele, who talks about his Philly roots, building lasers and computers at a young age, and the mentors who have been inspirations to Eric

13:07 – An intense interest in photonics

15:46 – Working with KieranTimberlake

19:47 – From high-performing architecture to vertical farming

23:44 – Circadian lighting, horticulture and GLASE Consortium

27:20 – Mesh lighting and the hospitality industry

35:13 – Providing controls for lighting as opposed to manufacturing lighting

38:37 – How Eric has grown and evolved as a leader and CEO

41:09 – Future trends and innovations Eric expects in the controls and lighting segment of vertical farming

43:51 – A tough question Eric has had to ask himself recently

45:09 – The importance of maintaining and fostering relationships

49:36 – A specific ask Eric has for the audience

51:50 – Harry thanks Eric for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him and learn more about Growflux

Tweetable Quotes

“One of the most fascinating things to me about that trajectory - moving from architecture of high-performing buildings to this space - is I’ve been able to see how this industry is maturing and borrowing practices and concepts from the commercial building space.” (20:35) (Eric)

“At GrowFlux, we haven’t been doing a lot of sensor work commercially lately. Internally we use a lot of sensors. We do a lot of sensing with our own technology. We’ve seen how a building envelope can drive thermogradients within a cultivation space; we’re very familiar with that. And it’s something that there’s really not enough people that are looking at it and accounting for it in the design process.” (23:12) (Eric)

“We’ve always known that light is a very significant driver for our own biological clocks. But in 2008, researchers discovered some cells inside the eye that are called Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs). What these cells do is they don’t create images, they detect light. And they detect specific wavelengths of light that are centered on blue. And what that does is it triggers a hormonal response that regulates the release of serotonin and melatonin that ultimately determine our biological clock throughout the day.” (25:22) (Eric)

“What we’re doing is we’re supporting a lot of these initiatives by providing very robust API- addressable controls down to every light.” (34:49) (Eric)

“For me, who I look to for inspiration is really other founders because it is a really unique circumstance when your passion project for many years is your livelihood and is your entire existence really.” (40:10) (Eric)

“Ultimately, this industry has so much growth ahead of it. And, I really feel, in the coming years and decades, that we are going to have to hyperscale and we have to learn from other industries.” (50:40) (Eric)