We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Albert Lin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Albert below.

Alright, Albert thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Most people, when they first begin learning about indoor hydroponic growing, end up getting exposed to rockwool and peat. Since you can’t use soil in a hydroponic system, these substrates tend to be the most popular, although not sustainable.

I used them initially as well but thought we could do better. I saw issues in the substrate market and decided to try and create something novel that could help the industry grow more sustainably.

The logic behind the idea was to go in the opposite of trying to raise multi-million VC funding and do it completely bootstrapped, but with some sort of replenishment model – think printer ink.

To this day, a majority of vertical and indoor farms still utilize rockwool or a peat-based substrate to grow their seeds in. However, many countries now ban the harvesting and purchasing of peat outright.

So Vegbed’s mission was to come up with a new and unique substrate that was somehow both made from something sustainable while also being biodegradable. The goal was to reduce a farm’s downstream waste by making sure the substrate would naturally biodegrade if it happened to end up in a landfill.

Albert, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got into hydroponics a few years ago as a hobby. After seeing a friend’s home setup, my curiosity drove me to read up and experiment with this type of growing as much as I could. I was wondering why we weren’t doing more indoor hydroponic farming.

My 1st startup idea in the space actually failed. It was supposed to be a unique vertical farm in upstate New York, providing fresh greens to the tri-state area. However, we weren’t able to raise any funds after almost a year of trying. I decided to leave the project, but I wanted to continue to solve problems within vertical farming. That’s when the idea for Vegbed came about.

Our core product is our bamboo grow mat for microgreens. What sets us apart from others is that we are an extremely clean substrate that is made from a sustainable material and is naturally biodegradable. It does not have to be taken to a commercial composting facility either.

We also help farms save time by being more efficient in their operations. Our grow mats help speed up seeding, harvesting, and cleaning. This becomes significant time savings (compared to loose substrates) as a farm scales up and has to grow thousands of trays per week.

I’m most proud that NASA tried and experimented with our mats as a way for astronauts to grow food in space! It was really cool research and I look forward to further testing in the future.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Two of the best sources of clients recently have been via Vegbed getting featured in industry newsletters and having my first booth at a conference.

The times an article has been published about Vegbed, I normally get many emails within the following 72 hours that turn into discovery calls from people interested in our product. There are some large B2B clients whom I am still in conversations with (after many months) that are still doing trials with our product. It’s a long process!

Booths at conferences are not cheap, but last year I pulled the trigger and got my first booth. I was a bit worried at first since this was the inaugural conference and wasn’t sure if many people would show up.

However, it turned out great. I managed to give away all my samples and ended up booking a lot of follow-up calls with potential clients as a result. I made sure to collect emails and information so that we could set up meetings. Always write down what you discussed at the conference immediately, so that you don’t forget. This will also help refresh their memory when you finally have time to reach out!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I initially started Vegbed as a side hustle while having full-time jobs. My goal was to scale it up to the point where it could overtake my main job income.

Over the past 3 years, it has been growing, but a lot slower than I had wanted it to. I was only spending a few hours a week on it since my full-time jobs took up so much of my time. It came to the point where I could see the business plateauing and if I didn’t make a big decision soon, it would slowly die.

At the same time, I was serendipitously referred to a startup fellowship program by a colleague. I spoke to many friends about quitting and doing Vegbed full-time. To my surprise, every single one told me to go for it.

Once I found out that I was accepted into the program, I decided to quit my job and focus on building the business. My previous employer was also very supportive of my goals and we left on very amicable terms. If things didn’t work out in 6 months, I could always go back!

After the 6 month program was over, I began to shift my focus to B2B. The main reason was that most of my sales were coming from this channel and I didn’t have to explain or educate clients about our product. I still sell B2C, but the main focus now has been large commercial farms and distributors.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vegbed.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vegbed/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vegbed
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albert-lin1/
• Other: https://www.vegbed.com/blogs/news/