How our green journey began
It all started in February 2018: Us and a table at TU Berlin. We, that is Olga and Filip, two young visionaries with a background in architecture and civil engineering. With what mission? To bring more green into all of our homes and to harness smart technology for its maintenance. And to do it in a sustainable way, meaning: fair, local and high quality. With as many natural materials as possible.
The way to the proto-type
The financial resources of our mini startup were limited to our small stipend. So we didn't really have any money. Within the one year of product development, we did everything ourselves with the support of Filip's cousin: using a laser in a garage to cut the wooden housing to size and soldering for all it was worth. In this setting, we felt a little bit like Steve Jobs. :) Since we wanted to garden not only simply, but also cleanly without a lot of mud or sand, we were thrilled when we came up with the idea of PlantPlugs.
Today, the GreenBox has a microprocessor integrated in the handle that controls all electrical processes, so that the "cargo part" of the GreenBox only holds the water tank including plants. At that time, the space between the tank and the wooden wall still contained a considerable tangle of cables, which of course still had to be minimized. But in principle, the GreenBox worked. "Who dares, wins!" we thought to ourselves and started to present our Proto-Type at various trade fairs.
And suddenly the center of attention
The big moment came in the fall of 2020. As a tech startup, we had a booth at the IFA, the Internationale Funkausstellung, a major electronics and high-tech trade show. True, life in pre-pandemic Germany was still going "normally," as people would later look back wistfully on the pre-Corona era. But the virus was already wreaking havoc in the Asian hotspots of the electronics industry.
As a result, far fewer exhibitors presented their world firsts at IFA in the fall of 2020, which left room for ours. At the same time, media attention for IFA was definitely present. As a result, reporters who usually only deal with the big players had an eye for our small startup. In general, our tech stand with the wood and various plants danced out of line, as the usual setting of the trade fair was characterized by speakers in all sizes and TV sets in XXL format - i.e. by metals and plastics. With its combination of light, plants and smart electronics, our GreenBox radiated a certain magic. In any case, it was something quite different.
Thanks to the media interest, we soon appeared - as it felt - everywhere: at Bild, the China Morning Post, at rbb, at techradar ... The interest in our product increased in no time: Suddenly, there were 500 pre-orders in our inbox, which wanted to be served before Christmas 2020, i.e. in less than three months. How were we going to manage that? The only thing we had was our proto-type.
How the hell are we going to do that?
As mentioned earlier, we were grateful recipients of a small grant at the time, but it was not designed to fund the production of 500 indoor gardens. So the logistical challenge of producing a large volume of 500 GreenBoxes in a short period of time was joined by the search for funding. Fortunately, helping small investors appeared in the form of business angels, whose investment we were able to extend with the advance trust of our first customers. Thus, with the proceeds from the pre-sale and the money from the investors, we were able to start the first serial production of the GreenBox.
Off to the Mecca for Berlin hardware startups!
We had no time to lose! First, we needed a place to produce the 500 GreenBoxes. Our path led us to MotionLab in Berlin, a former East German machine factory and now a kind of open-plan workshop for various hardware startups. Especially for product development, the machine infrastructure still available there, such as the metal workshop or the laser cutter, is worth its weight in gold.
BERLIN GREEN - the team finds itself
In addition, the location with its open kitchen and communication rooms offers sufficient space for exchange among like-minded people. The fact that the MotionLab community has a lot of brainpower and talent from various backgrounds was very beneficial to us: On the one hand, we found an electrical engineer who was able to develop our first circuit boards for the microprocessor and the water level sensor of the GreenBox. After all, we wanted to make the GreenBox's electronics as compact as possible for easy handling. On the other hand, we met the software developer for the control of the smart features such as light control and water level management, which should run via the GreenBox app.
Through a friend we met the French DJane Sybille, our current product manager. This all-round talent introduced us to a whole bunch of other French DJs, who expanded their portfolio without further ado and started working for us as craftsmen. In just a few weeks, our team grew from 2 to 15 people.
We go into series
Day by day, our manufacturing process improved; our one table at the TU Berlin became ten tables in a MotionLab garage. Which meant we had realized an assembly line! On it, we had to complete a multitude of production steps, such as cutting the wood, sanding, assembling, installing the electronics, testing the GreenBox, and finally, lovingly packaging everything. "Since we hadn't partnered with DHL yet, but the packages had to be posted, I drove the truck to the receiving point myself," Filip recalls. "Thanks to our great team, we did it! 500 GreenBoxes in less than three months!"
Better, faster, more!
We marked a major milestone with the 2020 Christmas season. Our sales figures for the past year 2021 show that the home office can be greener and brighter: We were able to scale our production from 500 to 3000 GreenBoxes. This was again accompanied by the well-known search for investors, who this time gave us their financial trust via the Seedmatch platform. As these productions progressed, we continued to advance the technology and control of the imitated daylight and are continuously working on the usability of our software and the GreenBox App respectively.
In the professionalization of our local manufacturing, the exchange with our growing network of suppliers, engineers, craftsmen and employees helped and still helps us, of course. On the one hand, our team has become more and more professional, and on the other hand, our supply chain has been optimized more and more in the direction of sustainability - which was and is a great concern for us. Because with the GreenBox, we want to enrich the market with a beautiful, high-quality electrical appliance that was manufactured transparently, fairly and locally and has a long life expectancy. Thus, with the exception of the microprocessors and water level sensors, all materials come from the EU. Even the LED technology - like the birch wood - comes from Poland. We also work with the Berlin workshops for the disabled, who have responsibility for part of our production process. Our prototype is still working, by the way. It monitors the goings-on in our Neukölln office on Niemetzstraße.
How now
We have been operating in this separate office and workshop loft since April 2021. We still love the MotionLab: We still have the garage we rented in the fall of 2020, as storage space for materials and tools. For the new and further development of our products - such as the brand engraving of our limited Red Hot Chili Edition - we still use the MotionLab's fantastic range of machinery.
Projects for the next period
Our vision is to grow in two directions: On the one hand, we want to further develop the domestic ecosystem of indoor gardens. To do this, we have been experimenting with different seeds since the beginning to explore which plants are well suited to growing in the GreenBox.
The GreenWall
A major project is the serial production of our GreenWall, a modular wall garden for interiors. The light line of the GreenWall is flexibly controllable. In addition, its wooden cladding acts as a screen for light pixels for the viewer looking at it, which can display running graphics or text. In this way, the smart GreenWall can simultaneously inform the admirers of its splendor of leaves and blossoms with information on the weather or stock market events via the wooden screen. We already have the proto-type and potential customers. As soon as the negotiations with investors and sponsors have been concluded, we will go into production!
Other sensor technology
The further development of the BERLIN GREEN hard- & software is the second part of our current work. Besides optimizing our GreenBox app, we are currently working on the development of further user-friendly sensor technology for light and humidity. According to our vision for the future, domestic success with living and thriving greenery should not depend on the color of the gardener's thumb outside the GreenBox and GreenWall.
For example, we want to develop sensors that can separately and battery-powered record the status of light and moisture in planting areas independently of the GreenBox or GreenWall. This technology will then be integrated into a smarthome concept such as Google Home or Alexa 7 via the same app to guide users on how to achieve the plant optimum in just a few steps.
Smart devices from wood
Just with the work on the enclosures for GreenBox and -Wall, another project is on the horizon: the sustainable utilization of our wood offcuts. On the one hand, we aspire to become a brand for high-quality indoor gardening. In addition, we envision becoming a brand for friendly electronics: BERLIN GREEN? Those are the ones with the smart devices made of wood!