Key Takeaways
- Jon Karwacki & Dominick DiMucci highlights how upstream produce quality directly impacts customer retention in direct-to-consumer food models
- Dominick DiMucci explains why greenhouse automation does not eliminate biological or operational risk
- Consumer data is increasingly feeding back into greenhouse production and varietal decisions
- Collaboration between growers and buyers can improve quality consistency and economic outcomes
- Early alignment between production strategy and market demand supports scalable growth
Jon Karwacki on the operational pressure of direct-to-consumer fresh food
Delivering fresh produce directly to consumers places significant strain on sourcing, shelf life, and consistency. For Inspired Go, a salad company operating across Canada and the United States, these factors are central to business performance.
“What we do is really hard,” said Jon Karwacki, Founder and CEO of Inspired Go. “Fresh produce at people’s door, especially when you put a knife to it and cut stuff, is really, really difficult to do every week at a high level.”
Inspired Go’s business model depends on repeat customers rather than one-time purchases. According to Karwacki, even minor quality failures upstream can quickly erode trust and margins. “You can’t run a business if you have to refund people for bad cucumbers,” he said.
Jon Karwacki on why sourcing decisions extend beyond price and volume
As Inspired Go expanded into Ontario, the company assessed several greenhouse lettuce suppliers. Karwacki approached the process cautiously, informed by previous experiences with operations that struggled to deliver consistent quality.
That changed after visiting Haven Greens, a greenhouse operator based in the Greater Toronto Area. “I walked out of there thinking that was one of the best greenhouses I’ve ever seen in my life,” Karwacki said, citing execution, attention to detail, and product quality.
Haven Greens operates Canada’s first fully automated mobile gully lettuce greenhouse. While automation is central to the facility’s design, Karwacki emphasized that execution ultimately determines performance.
Dominick DiMucci on why automation does not remove complexity
For Dominick DiMucci, Director of Cultivation at Haven Greens, one of the most common misconceptions in controlled environment agriculture is that automation guarantees success.
“It is not difficult to unsuccessfully operate a greenhouse,” DiMucci said. Despite climate control systems and automated production flows, greenhouse operations remain biologically complex.
DiMucci prefers the term “mitigated environment agriculture,” noting that greenhouses reduce exposure to external variability but do not eliminate it. “You’re still very reliant on what happens outside for what happens inside,” he explained, particularly when it comes to seasonal output fluctuations.
Dominick DiMucci on the role of people in automated greenhouse systems
Despite high levels of automation—from seeding through harvest and conveyance into cutting and packaging—Haven Greens places strong emphasis on staffing and execution.
“Despite all the automation, people are the drivers for your business,” said Dominick DiMucci. Early investment in skilled teams allowed the operation to reach commercial output targets quickly during its first year.
Daily operations involve coordination across cultivation, production, logistics, and maintenance. Any disruption along the system can affect output and delivery schedules, reinforcing the importance of cross-functional communication.
Jon Karwacki on using consumer data to guide supplier relationships
For Inspired Go, supplier performance is reflected directly in customer behavior. The company tracks weekly customer cohorts and measures retention at the meal level.
“We can actually trace an increase in customer retention… to when we switched over,” Karwacki said, referring to the transition to Haven Greens as a lettuce supplier in Ontario.
This data-driven feedback loop has reshaped the relationship between Inspired Go and Haven Greens, moving it beyond a transactional buyer–seller model.
Jon Karwacki & Dominick DiMucci on varietal collaboration
One area of active collaboration involves red lettuce varieties. While visually appealing, red varieties typically yield less in high-density greenhouse systems.
“You’re generally going to look at a 25 to 30% reduction compared to what you get out of your greens,” DiMucci said, outlining the production trade-offs.
Rather than treating these limitations as fixed, the two companies are working together with seed suppliers. “We’re approaching seed companies together,” Karwacki said, combining Inspired Go’s consumer insights with Haven Greens’ agronomic performance data.
Jon Karwacki & Dominick DiMucci on redefining grower–buyer relationships
Both leaders emphasized that consistency and trust form the foundation of effective grower–buyer relationships. For Haven Greens, that means delivering predictable quality and volumes. For Inspired Go, it allows focus on customer experience and market expansion.
“At the end of the day, what matters is the customer experience,” DiMucci said.
Karwacki echoed that perspective, noting that once a reliable supplier relationship is in place, stability becomes the priority. “We want to find great partners, agree to the right price for everybody, and then not really think about it,” he said.
Expansion plans shaped by execution, not narrative
Haven Greens is preparing to double its footprint from five to ten acres, targeting a significant increase in daily output. Inspired Go has recently launched operations in the U.S. Northeast and plans further expansion along the East Coast and into Texas.
Despite operating in different segments of the value chain, both companies view their growth as interconnected. Their experience illustrates a broader trend in controlled environment agriculture: long-term success is increasingly defined by alignment, data, and execution rather than technology alone.
