There's this company in the Bay area called Plenty. It's into indoor vertical farming. Backed by Jeff Bezos, Masayoshi Son and a couple of other top tech folks. It has a bunch of tech people and hired a lot of ex-Tesla folks. Does anyone have any insights into this company's culture? Competitive advantage? Will this stand the current downturn? #plenty #startup #agritech #tech #downturn #bayarea
Sure. 🤣
How random, I have actually spoken with them twice in the past (~3-4 years ago) and forgotten ever since. Well, because I knew two alumni from my school working there. My impression is, it’s one of those startups that has a luxury project that would be nice for the world, but not essential at all. So this kind of startup may have troubles during the economic downturn.
My concerns spoken. This is very futuristic operations model they are using right now. Not really sure if they are able to even make any money on their spinach based products. I was curious as they are currently hiring. They absorbed a bunch of Tesla folks during Tesla's round of layoffs last year. If the Tesla folks stayed back, I'm thinking it is worth giving a shot at it. Don't know what "backed my Jeff Bezos" means for this company right now.
Current employee. No spinach to date. Technology is all built in house and is really superior in terms of scale to any other indoor or greenhouse farms because of the efficiency with space and automation equipment. Company culture is great, though they are working on increasing transparency. Progress has been made on that front. Jeff Bezos’ personal fund is an investor, not Amazon. We currently sell produce at Whole Foods and subsequently Amazon Fresh. Lots of Tesla folks still at company, some have moved on to Rividian. We have actually tripled our output to fulfill increased demand from home cooks since COVID has started; with no site in reducing those sales. We’ve also stood out at grocery stores during several shortages of lettuce from the Salinas valley because we can grow year round. There will absolutely be a place for this technology in the future as farmable land shrinks, skies darken with smoke and potable water runs out.
How's the hiring scenario? And the pay? Is it competitive enough? I had a recruiter reach out for a senior engineer role. I quotted some Bay Area standard figures and she said they weren't interested. That exchange really left me scratching my head.
Not sure about engineering. I’m on a different team. Still hiring people but would recommend considering total compensation with stock.
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Sure I know plenty about it! 🤣🤣