S6E72: Allison Kopf / iUNU - Augmented Reality & AI in CEA: The Intersection of Technology & Humanity

Episode Summary

Allison Kopf is the Chief Growth Officer at iUNU, a software development company that’s building the future of the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industry through their AI-driven LUNA platform that enables growers to develop a feedback loop between capturing data and managing processes to create precise, predictable production. Today, Harry welcomes Allison back to the show for Round 2 where they discuss the merging of Artemis and iUNU, her new role as Chief Growth Officer, and the many ways she’s helping to promote and empower female founders and entrepreneurs.

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Key Takeaways

07:13 – Harry welcomes Allison Kopf back to the show to talk about her experience at Indoor AgTech and her new position as Chief Growth Officer at iUNU

10:54 – The origin story of iUNU and feedback from growers on implementing this new system

20:13 – Where Allison is identifying new opportunities for growth

26:58 – The learning curve going from Artemis to iUNU and the amazing potential of AI and augmented reality

31:47 – Nokia’s Influencer Series on Food Waste

34:46 – Allison reflects on her time as Entrepreneur in Residence at NDRC

39:58 – How XFactor Ventures is helping female founders

41:58 – A tough question Allison has had to ask herself recently and best practices that have become critical to her success

46:41 – A specific ask Allison has for the audience

48:04 – Harry thanks Allison for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with her and learn more about iUNU

Tweetable Quotes

“Honestly, it’s so hugely valuable with a system like this. Yes, it’s sometimes difficult to start up with a new system like this. Old technology has a learning curve to it, so you have to kind of get used to this, or maybe change your processes slightly to fit into the new system. But at the end of the day, what we’re focused on is driving real, tangible, calculable value for these growers. Our growers on average are seeing 3x returns on investment every year that they implement this system. And it’s continuous throughout the system because of how much value we can drive.” (14:29) (Allison)

“One of the really neat things about this system is it really helps drive that comprehensive coverage component that is really tough to do.” (16:39) (Allison)

“There’s a huge understanding process that has to happen because, especially for growers, they’re very very talented at doing these things. And so they’re used to seeing things that they’ve created. So, you take a tomato grower who’s used to doing crop registration and they’re great at it. The problem isn’t that they’re not good at it. The problem is that they can’t do it comprehensively for each plant.” (24:56) (Allison)

“I think that the augmenting of what we’re doing in reality is amazing. We have a grower shortage. We all know this. We have to acknowledge this. But, if we can augment our growers and turn one grower into ten growers and think about it that way, that to me is almost magical. Except that it’s not magic, it’s science.” (28:17) (Allison)

“The more I get into something, the more questions I end up having. It’s not the more answers you have, it’s the more questions. And that’s a good scenario because it prompts you to think about things in different ways.” (33:23) (Allison)

“I’ve always been deeply curious. I just want to dig into things more, and more, and more, and learn because there’s so much to learn. If we ever want to have the belief that we can build something bigger and make a lasting impact on an industry or on the world, to me, part of that has to be this open mindset of learning.” (37:29) (Allison)