Hardware Podcasts

Back to the Roots: Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez

How I Built This · 8 Nov 2021 · 1h 19m

What this episode covers

Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez, co-founders of Back to the Roots, explain how they pivoted from a college project growing oyster mushrooms on coffee grounds to building a $100 million organic gardening brand. They detail their early bootstrapping strategy, the critical lesson learned from a failed Kickstarter launch of the AquaFarm (later Water Garden) that nearly bankrupted them, and their strategic shift to focus exclusively on lawn and garden products sold in big-box retailers like Home Depot and Walmart.

Most relevant to

founders before launch, early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Back to the Roots, Whole Foods, Pete's Coffee, Gourmet Mushrooms Incorporated, Home Depot, Walmart, Costco, Nordstrom, Petco, Acre Ventures
Products
AquaFarm, Water Garden
Also
Paul Stamets, Alice Waters, David Law, Johnny Ive

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