How Crowdbotics Helps InnerPlant Revolutionize Farming with Synthetic Biology

Santiago Freyria knows what it takes to build a great product. As the first product manager and second overall hire at Clip, he played a key role in growing the company to over 200 employees and a nearly $400 million valuation. In his subsequent tenures as a consultant (BCG), investment analyst (Bee Partners), co-founder (Callisto, StEP), MBA student (UC Berkeley '20), and now head of product at InnerPlant, his passion for product execution has only grown.

So when he approached Crowdbotics to build InnerPlant's MVP, he knew what he was doing. “I received very positive feedback from a few startups that had worked with Crowdbotics, and once I saw firsthand how Crowdbotics operates, I understood why.” For Santiago, speed was everything: "Crowdbotics pretty much saved my life by building our product super rapidly and enabling me to focus on getting traction fast."

InnerPlant codes crops' DNA to enable them to emit fluorescent proteins when they experience stress. These visual signals can be read remotely from as far away as satellites, giving farmers an early detection system for specific field threats such as insects, fungi, diseases, changes in weather, water deficiency, nutrient deficiency, and excessive watering. We recently sat down with Santiago to discuss his experience with Crowdbotics and his larger plans for InnerPlant following initial product development.