Our Farm - A Brief Video

Why We Started Beanstalk Farms

Health + Happiness

Eating right is not only the most challenging part of living a healthy life, but it’s the most important.

A steady diet of produce:
- increases the effectiveness of exercise
- improves sleep quality
- heightens brain function
- and boosts mood.

On top of all that, produce prevents and can reverse the most common diseases: heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Given the importance of healthy foods and the deep-rooted problems of the modern food system, we have decided to put our heads together and build a new food system based on fresh foods.

Jack and I are both engineers, and in true engineering fashion, we started with our success criteria:
(1) increase the taste
(2) and convenience of fresh produce
(3) using a completely sustainable process.

If produce tastes amazing, you’ll crave it;
if it’s convenient, you’ll default to it,
and if it’s sustainable, it will be around forever.

After five years, thousands of trials, and nearly as many errors, we successfully invented a new form of farming. Our vertical farm uses soil and renewable energy to grow a wide variety of produce indoors that can be delivered the day after harvest. We grow non-GMO seeds selected for taste and nutrition. Our farm replenishes soil, sequesters carbon, eliminates run-off, conserves water, reduces food waste, and provides food security.

Getting here required new scientific discoveries, new robotics, new environmental control systems, and plenty of software to tie it all together. It is with this new technology that Beanstalk can increase the taste and convenience of fresh produce using a completely sustainable process.

Instead of depending on supplements and prescriptions, we can now eat our way to health and happiness.

Sincerely,

The Ross Brothers

Mike Ross, CEO

Mike previously worked as an engineer and consultant where he architected, developed, and sold enterprise software, ranging from e-commerce platforms to AI-based recommendation systems to Fortune 100s and federal agencies. While earning his degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech, Mike worked on projects for NASA, DARPA, and Georgia Tech’s Nanotechnology Research Group. His projects included designing novel rotorcraft propulsion systems, building and maintaining flight control systems, and building aircraft performance analysis software.

Mike is a triathlete, enjoys cooking with friends, and loves hiking with his dog, Viper.

Jack Ross, CTO

Jack started in business at age 14 when he built an iOS app that helped him pay for college. He graduated from UVA with a degree in Computer Engineering, focused on autonomous fleet robotics and worked as an enterprise software engineer. In 2018, Jack was awarded the STEM award for the state of Virginia by Governor Northam for his development of a new method of farming at Beanstalk.

Jack is an avid runner, talented chef, and is usually playing golf with friends on the weekend.

Viper, Farm Dog

He's travelled from Charlottesville, to Palo Alto, to Washington D.C. He's the spirit of Beanstalk. Come on by and say hello to Viper - he's normally asleep in our front office window.