Now you can "grow what you want, where you want"

A think-tank-style competition at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business has announced its 2019 winner, which it hopes will make cannabis cultivation more accessible to the masses.

Sponsored by Green Lion Partners founders and Questrom alumni Jeff Zucker and Mike Bologna, the Innovate@BU Cannabis Start-up Competition is open to Boston University students and alumni-led start-ups. Nearly 30 groups applied for a chance to be one of five finalists to pitch their product to the judging panel.

This year’s winner is Trella Technologies, a 2016-founded start-up that helps facilitate easy home cultivation via an automated, horizontally-structured plant-training system that allows home-growers in small spaces increase their yield and manage their plants thanks to vertical stacking and low-stress training that can “automatically train a tall plant to grow in a small space,” according to co-founder Aja Atwood.

The company has also developed an accompanying app to help cultivators track various aspects of their plants.

Trella founders Andres “Dre” Chamorro III and Atwood were thrilled with the win, which has earned them a $10,000 cheque and significant publicity.

“It means that I’m not crazy,” Atwood told BU Today. “People understand what we’re doing and see value. The judges are highly respected in this space, so to have their input, to have their feedback, really helps legitimize the ideas that we’re trying to do. It’s the very beginning step — this will help us move on to the next stage.”

Judging the event were Coldwater Consulting managing partner and former dispensary chain COO Jaime Lewis; Converge Venture Partners partner Peter Bleyleben; and Massachusetts-based attorney and The Hempest retail store co-founder Kim Napoli — all of whom returned from judging last year’s competition.

It's a celebration! TrellaGro LST™ announced as the winner of the 2019 BU/GLP Cannabis Start-Up Competition! We're… Posted by TrellaGro LST – The Horizontal Plant Trainer on Friday, November 8, 2019

“With this competition, we aim to show that cannabis offers a true professional career opportunity for anyone,” Zucker said during his opening speech. “We hope that this sends that message — and having BU’s support is a big part of that.”

With the continuing spread of cannabis legalization and the ongoing de-stigmatization of the drug, home-growing systems for small spaces are garnering increased interest from investors and consumers alike.

Trella’s system will face competition from home cultivation pods like the mini-fridge-sized Seedo, which claims to produce up to 120 g of cannabis in 90 days sans pesticide, as well as machines with similar concepts such as Grobo and Cloudponics.

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