Mike Jackson has always loved to watch things grow.
It started with his mother maintaining a garden outside of his childhood home in Louisville. He would often daydream of having his own farm with crops and livestock. His interest in agriculture — and the business of agriculture in particular — would be heightened by being a part of the Future Farmers of Association (FFA) chapter while attending Seneca High School.
“I don’t even know the words for it — honestly, man. It was just fun,” Jackson recently told me.
So it was a rather organic process that led to him starting what he called a “hobby farm” about six years ago, without any preconceived notion of what would later become his startup, Kentucky Greens Co.
Before long, he started growing and selling varieties of microgreens at farmers markets in 2019 as a side hustle, after testing multiple hydroponic systems the previous year. At the time, the growth of his career in the corporate world was being inhibited by not having a four-year degree, so he began to pivot.
In 2020, as a reaction to both grocery stores being closed down due to social unrest and Covid relief in Louisville, Jackson began donating food and forming partnerships with local food justice organizations — namely Change Today, Change Tomorrow.
“After a while [I realized] … ‘No. 1, you’re good at this. This is something that’s really fun to you outside of the money part. Go with this. Scale this up,'” Jackson said.
Getting up to speed
Jackson started to look toward a more commercialized effort with more partnerships by having three main categories: salad greens/mixes, herbs and cooking greens (eg. kale, collards and chard). He also started to look at the opportunities offered by local business accelerator to achieve the desired — you guessed it — growth of his company.
Two years later, he joined his first local accelerator, taking part in the Russell Technology Business Incubator (RTBI), where he learned of the pitfalls of not having enough operation capital — and other issues that can come along with starting a business too early (more on that later). He also learned about the importance of camaraderie and coaching, he said.
Earlier this year, Kentucky Greens was one of four startups chosen for the cohort of Founder Forward, which took part in conjunction with Amplify Louisville. In addition to receiving around $10,000 in funding, Jackson said he appreciated how the entire experience was “hands on with the advisors.”
“There’s no hand holding with any of these [accelerators],” he added.
Recently, Kentucky Greens was named as one 14 Black-founded businesses that was selected to be eligible to receive up to $25,000 in matching grant funding through the Metro United Way and the crowdsourcing capabilities of the FundBLACKFounders platform.
Jackson said that without all of these accelerators and other programs, the scalability that he desires going forward would not have been as attainable.
“I come from the corporate world, so I know how to work. I know how to do time management,” Jackson said. “I know all that stuff, but these incubator programs [have] really put us in a position to not fail when we get to this relaunch … I think a lot of people have seen that we know how to grow the food. We know about our products, but these incubators have put us in a position to get back growing and get back to actually serve our community.”
The next step
About that relaunch. Aside from producing microgreens, Kentucky Greens has currently suspended its main operation as it looks to transition into new space, which will be a shipping container.
Kentucky Greens had been operating inside a greenhouse — using a standard hydroponic system featuring nutrient film techniques (NFTs) — on Larkwood Avenue in West Louisville since 2017, but decided to change to the shipping container growing model after it began running into unforeseen pest issues, namely aphids.
“We could have gotten the container. We could have gotten the equipment. We could have gotten everything we needed to start, but we would have run out of funding after our first month because of operating expenses,” said Jackson, who also serves as the market manager of Farm + House Louisville.
In 2020, Kentucky Greens produced more than 1,728 pounds of produce with $18,000 in revenue. It had similar numbers in produce with a slight dip in revenue in 2021.
After beginning the transition process in 2022 with only 352 pounds of produce and $4,000, Jackson estimates that with the updated equipment in place, his company should be able to produce close 11,800 pounds of food and generate roughly $134,000 in revenue — and increase those numbers in 2024 to 18,000 pounds of food and $168,000 in revenue.
But first, Kentucky Greens is looking to raise approximately $42,000 to purchase the 8-foot by 40-foot shipping container. As of a recent date, it had reached close to 50% of that goal. Jackson said the company welcomes any interested investors.
Going forward, Jackson hopes to have direct-to-consumer ordering through local farmers’ markets as well as through online purchases.
He also envisions being able to have his greens sold in corner stores and bodegas in the parts of Louisville that need them the most — as well as to local restaurants and through local community organizations.
From there, the goal would be to have statewide and even regional distribution in five years.
“It’s gone from a passion project to something that’s scalable and can really benefit the people of Louisville," Jackson said.
