Key Takeaways
- Felipe Hernandez outlines the origins of Hexagro, born from his design thesis addressing pesticide overuse in Costa Rica.
- The company’s modular vertical farming solutions aim to make urban food production accessible and customizable.
- Hexagro combines biomimicry, industrial design, and user feedback to refine its consumer-focused products.
- Through a Kickstarter campaign, Hexagro is validating demand while gathering insights to optimize product-market fit.
- Hernandez emphasizes collaboration and decentralization as key to scaling vertical farming impact globally.
Felipe Hernandez Explains the Vision Behind Hexagro
In a recent episode of the Vertical Farming Podcast, Felipe Hernandez, Founder and CEO of Hexagro (Profile), joined host Harry Duran to discuss his journey from industrial design student to AgTech entrepreneur. Based in Milan, Italy and originally from Colombia, Hernandez explained how his early academic work in Costa Rica exposed him to the health and environmental challenges caused by excessive pesticide use. This led him to explore soilless agriculture as a solution—eventually forming the foundation of Hexagro.
“My vision was always to redesign hydroponic and aeroponic systems to make them accessible for everyday users—not just industrial applications,” said Hernandez.
From Student Prototype to Startup: The Hexagro Journey
Early Recognition and Acceleration
The initial concept gained traction after Hernandez presented it during a graduation event in Italy. Encouraged by Nobel laureate Mohan Munasinghe to continue the project, he entered the Biomimicry Institute’s global design challenge in 2015. This experience introduced him to entrepreneurial fundamentals and helped formalize what became Hexagro in 2016.
Hernandez shared that starting a company in a foreign country with limited resources was a major challenge, but strong early support from peers and mentors allowed the project to advance. “We were working nights, building prototypes, and eventually formed a team with the engineering and business expertise to launch.”
Product Development Rooted in Biomimicry
Applying Natural Design Principles
A core principle of Hexagro’s design approach is biomimicry—drawing inspiration from nature to solve engineering challenges. Hernandez cited examples like hexagonal honeycomb structures and epiphytic plants that grow without soil as inspirations for modularity, efficiency, and resilience.
“Nature provides scalable, energy-efficient systems,” he explained. “Those principles guided us to design hardware that adapts to different user needs and urban spaces.”
Making Urban Farming Accessible and Flexible
Product Lines and User Experience
Hexagro currently offers three product lines. The entry-level Poty system targets outdoor growers and uses fertigation with low-tech modular towers. The more advanced Clovy system—currently in a Kickstarter campaign—integrates IoT, water-level sensors, and optional LED lighting for indoor growing. Both systems are modular and scalable, allowing users to expand based on their needs.
A distinguishing feature of Hexagro’s approach is platform openness. “We don’t lock customers into proprietary seeds or nutrients,” said Hernandez. “Users can grow whatever they want with local inputs.”
Software and Community Integration
The company also developed a companion app that functions as a growing assistant. Users receive tips, plant-specific care instructions, and notifications. A growing database, supported by AI and chatbot interfaces, helps personalize recommendations based on user feedback from over 4,000 customers across Europe.
This feedback loop directly informs product iterations. Hernandez shared that Clovy’s redesign—including a larger container, biodegradable materials, and plug-and-play IoT compatibility—resulted from Kickstarter community suggestions.
Navigating Entrepreneurship and Resilience Through Crisis
Leading Through Uncertainty
Reflecting on the early stages of Hexagro, Hernandez described the pandemic as a defining moment. When commercial clients closed and funding was pulled, his team continued without pay for several months. “That experience showed me the power of shared vision. Our team stayed committed because they believed in the mission.”
Today, Hexagro operates with a team of 10 from Colombia, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, and India, representing disciplines from agronomy to product engineering. Hernandez credited their diverse backgrounds as a strength in tackling challenges collaboratively.
Felipe Hernandez on Vertical Farming’s Future
A Call for Collaboration and Broader Impact
When asked about the state of vertical farming, Felipe Hernandez offered a candid perspective: “There’s been a lot of hype—robots, AI—but the question is, how many people are really eating food from these systems?”
He encouraged industry peers to focus on scalability, market access, and social impact. Rather than pursuing closed ecosystems and proprietary technologies, Hernandez advocated for open collaboration, likening today’s vertical farms to mainframe computers of the 1980s—valuable but limited in reach.
“We want to build the laptop of vertical farming,” he said, “something modular, affordable, and usable by anyone, anywhere.”
