It's been over six months since New Mexico Inno picked out 10 startups in the state that we thought were primed for big things in 2023. Since we're now over halfway through the year, New Mexico Inno wanted to follow up with those startups to see how things are going and if our January predictions were accurate.
Over the coming weeks, New Mexico Inno will roll out stories checking in with our 2023 Startups to Watch. First up is the compost tech startup Vital Grow Inc., which has picked up some customer traction since its feature early in the year.
Click here to see the full list of New Mexico Inno's 2023 Startups to Watch.
Christian Chavez, the founder of Albuquerque compost technology startup Vital Grow Inc., and business partner Casey Williams have spent much of the past six months talking with compost farmers nationwide to better understand those composters' needs. Now, through those conversations, the startup is ready to roll out a new product it thinks could help farmers keep better track of their compost's temperature.
That new product is a Wi-Fi-only temperature-monitoring probe. It's different from other products Vital Grow sells, which require separate base station units communicating with temperature probes before sending temperature information to the internet, Chavez said.
"That really opened up a lot of market to us, being able to allow kind of a lower entry point for composters," he said. "It's something that is easier to make the investment in."
Chavez told Albuquerque Business First Vital Grow has installed its compost temperature probes, which it sells for $300, at a rate of about 10 per month. The startup also charges composters a $10 monthly service fee for using its probes.
Those probes — whether Wi-Fi-only or connected to base units — help compost farmers more accurately measure the temperature of their compost piles. That's important, Chavez told Business First in early February, because compost farmers must keep their compost piles at a certain temperature to maintain regulatory compliance.
Since Business First featured Vital Grow as a startup to watch in February, the company has expanded its reach into new states besides New Mexico, California and Oregon. Those include Wisconsin and Connecticut, as well as two provinces in Canada.
And while Chavez said he's currently focused on rolling out Vital Grow's products in smaller batches and "streamlining" the startup's technology, he expects to begin scaling distribution this coming spring, when there's more seasonal demand for composting. It costs about $150 to manufacture the startup's compost temperature-monitoring probes, Chavez said.
"The plan right now is to just keep getting devices out there slowly, getting feedback, doing that incremental improvement until we're at the final date where the device is able to pass certifications and things like that," he said. "Then we'll be looking for a larger scale."
