Get Started is a series of pitch competitions put on in cities across the country by Cox Business.
GroGuru’s founder and CEO Farooq Anjum competed against five other entrepreneurs, all of whom got two minutes to convince judges that their startup was worthy of investment.
GroGuru is proud winner of the first Get Started San Diego pitch competition.
Read the full story here.
Meet Get Started San Diego Winner Farooq Anjum of GroGuru
Anjum’s background is in wireless communications and machine learning, but a few years ago, he and his wife bought a house and were quickly overwhelmed by one aspect of its upkeep. “We had to maintain a nice lawn and a nice garden, and I don’t have a green thumb,” he says with a laugh. “I’m more like a brown thumb person. But being an engineer, I started looking for something that could help me do this job better, and I found out that there really are no good sensors out there.”
Looking beyond the residential market, Anjum discovered that even in the commercial agriculture segment—where the need for data on water and fertilizer efficiency is acute—there existed no accessible technology to bridge the gap. Around this time, he met GroGuru’s co-founder, Jeff Campbell, who had a background in soil sensor agronomy. “We thought we were a good combination. And obviously there’s a pain point out there, there’s a need, so let’s combine forces and try to provide a solution that the world will appreciate,” he says. So they set out to create a technologically advanced system of sensors that would provide growers with up-to-the-minute data to help them increase yield, conserve water, and reduce operating costs.
More from “Meet Get Started Winner Farooq Anjum” here.