Jacob Pechenik on How He Developed a New Food System Through Lettuce Grow

Dan Churchill's The Epic Table

Team, I am stoked to bring you today’s episode with the incredibly smart Jacob Pechenik. This absolute legend is the founder of Lettuce Grow, a company creating “Farm Stands” which are small hydroponic micro-farms that allow you to grow your own pre-sprouted plants that are ready to harvest, fresh, within three weeks. This company is truly amazing. Not only are they giving their consumers the power to produce at least 20% of their own food while using 95% less water. They are pesticide-free, non-GMO, use recyclable eco-conscious packaging, and do a host of other amazing things. If you are interested in entrepreneurship, sustainability, and or the agricultural industry, this is definitely the episode for you.

Funny enough, too many it may seem like Jacob started Lettuce Grow out of nowhere. His story is actually quite incredible. Jacob attended MIT with no idea what he wanted to study. As he was undecided on his career trajectory, he chose the hardest major at the school, chemical engineering, and did it, graduating with a perfect GPA. I don’t know about you legends but to me, that’s pretty impressive. After graduating, he started a couple of companies in the finance and tech space, ended up becoming a film producer having helped produce over 30 films in his career, and then decided to drop all of that and get into the agricultural space in a unique way.

After leaving the film industry, Jacob co-created the Farm Project and eventually built Lettuce Grow to help consumers develop a new food system. At this point, Lettuce Grow has over 1.6 million square feet of farmland across all of their individual consumer farm stands, which are truly improving the health of people and the planet.

In today’s episode we specifically discuss:

• How do I start a food selling business?
  • Focus on the experience, flavor, and impact. By dialing these factors in, you can make a competitive product.
• How can a business be sustainable?
  • You have to address all aspects of your business from ideation, design, production, function, distribution, and end of life. Lettuce Grow focuses on this.
• How can a farm be environmentally sustainable?
  • Lettuce Grow provides individuals with fresh produce that is better for them and for the planet. It requires 95% less water, eliminates trips to the grocery store thereby reducing co2 emissions, and has a host of other benefits.

If you want to stay up to date with Jacob and Lettuce Grow, head to the following links:

• Jacob’s Instagram
• Lettuce Grow’s Instagram
• Lettuce Grow’s Website