Industry Expert Interview
My interviewee was Jacob. He is a CSUMB alumnus and is the co-founder of GrowTech. GrowTech provides monitoring and automation solutions for farming/agricultural applications. I reached out to Jacob 1) because he is a business owner and 2) because he developed and works on a product that is both software and hardware. These are things that I am interested in so I knew that I could gain some useful insights from our conversation.
Jacob has been interested in technology and farming since long before he attended CSUMB. He started building robots in high school. After high school he worked in commercial and consumer gardens before going on to secure a position in product development at an electronics company. He eventually rose to the position of Product Development Manager. By the time that he enrolled at CSUMB, he already had well over a decade of work experience. However, not having the academic credentials and having some knowledge gaps was limiting his career growth. He rectified that by earning his CS degree. I found this highly relatable and encouraging. I have been working in tech for many years but I know that not officially having a degree is a limitation. Hearing about Jacob’s path to get where he is was reassuring.
GrowTech’s product is not just software, they also build the hardware. For example, farms and vineyards use GrowTech hardware to monitor moisture levels in soil, control irrigation pumps, monitor weather sensors, etc. The centerpiece of these systems are the GrowTech hubs that manage the telemetry data from sensors and other devices at the site. Knowing that hardware design is not necessarily covered as part of our curriculum, it was heartening to see an example of someone who went beyond the scope of our coursework to learn what was necessary and bring an idea to life. He did not need to have a formal education in electrical or electronics engineering.
If a client already has sensors, irrigation pumps, or other components GrowTech will integrate them with their equipment and software. They will fabricate housings and assemblies to allow them to work with GrowTech’s automation and monitoring suite. I.e., they will work with the customer to build out a custom solution. This is another key takeaway for me. It speaks to being willing and able to be flexible to the needs of the customer. It made me reflect on the pros and cons of building that type of flexibility into a technical product from the outset versus building a product, waiting until it attains some degree of success or market acceptance, then adding flexibility. There are quite a few factors to consider but it definitely gave me food for thought.
Jacob’s team of 8 to 10 people at GrowTech includes at least one of his former CSUMB classmates. They participated in an incubator program sponsored by another university. GrowTech was a product of that experience. I read this as an example of the proverb, “no man is an island.” Sometimes I get nervous about working in groups. Sometimes I don’t know at what point it is ok to ask for help. Sometimes I put too much on my plate. Jacob recruited other people to help make his vision a reality and through the incubator, sought the advice of industry veterans in order to make good business decisions. This is a reminder for me that teamwork, collaboration, and good guidance are invaluable. It is absolutely possible to breathe life into an idea, if I look beyond myself.
Jacob’s capstone project was a garbage bin monitor that would send an app notification if a bin was full. He entered this project in a business plan competition and won. CSUMB had planned to use these sensors on campus but unfortunately, the pandemic put an end to those plans since no one was on campus. However, Jacob took what may have looked like a failure and rolled it into something else. The same fundamental technologies that he used for that project are the ones that he used to build the GrowTech’s product line. I see this as another lesson in flexibility. An example of how being able to pivot can mean the difference between failure and success.
Jacob and his success as a founder, non-traditional student, and a scientific generalist is inspiring. His story offers a lot of insights about collaboration, flexibility, and perseverance on the path to reaching a goal. That is regardless of whether the challenge is in industry or academia. As I progress on my own path, a cycle of advancing, reassessing, and recalibrating, I am certain that I will find value in recounting the lessons and insights that I took from this conversation.
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