Wow, what a year 2016 was! Some call it the worst year ever, but we're a couple of optimistic people. So here are some highlights over the past year :)

1) Minnesota Cup Division Winner

MN Cup is a startup competition and hub to connect Minnesota's entrepreneurial ecosystem. In fact, it is the largest statewide startup competition in the country. The MN Cup aims to create jobs and grow MN's already impressive innovation footprint.

 SelfEco Garden, along with 1500+ participants entered the competition in March. After many rounds of judging over the following 6 months, we managed to climb our way to the top of our division and claim the 2016 Food/Ag/Beverage Division title! Winnings included seed-capital, environmental marketing audit, MN DOA in-kind funding, and a professional photo & video shoot!

The MN Cup was a great place for us to grow the SelfEco Garden business plan. There were solid surroundings of mentors, professors, industry experts and people that cared and wanted to help. Tough questions were asked and great insight was shared. The MN Cup really is a boost for the state and for future entrepreneurs. It instills confidence, builds relationships and catapults innovation!

2) Iowa State University Case Studies

We asked Iowa State University Agriculture department to put our pots to the test vs. the current leading bio-pot in the market. The image results speak for themselves :)

So, do SelfEco garden pots really work? You bet they do. Bigger plants, healthier plants, less root wrap, bigger fruit, more fruit. What more could you ask for?

3) 7 Large Growers Are Testing Our Pots

We're not going to name names, but we can tell you that 7 influential growers are testing our pots on a large scale through their automated processes. This is big news. We already know our pots can stand up through these processes, so we can't wait to see what happens in the near future. As a reminder from our Kickstarter campaign, here is what an automated seed-starting process looks like in a grower/nursery production line. Thank you to our friends over at Wagner's Garden Center for letting us try out our seed-starting pots in their automation system.

4) Retail Launches

Since Kickstarter, we've had a few key meetings with some retail superpowers. We'd like to announce that we're now on Amazon under their Lunchpad Program and we're launching soon on Walmart.com! Our 6-packs will be sold at Wagner's Garden Centers and various other growers and nurseries around MN. With more retailers on the horizon that we'll announce as we move forward with negotiations. We couldn't be more excited to work with our first retailers to help better the Earth!

Do you have a testimonial about your pots? How did they perform? We'd love it if you wrote us a review on Amazon :)

Please email any pics or video to info@selfeco.com

– Danny, Al, Ben, & crew