CAREER IMPACT
After graduating from the MBA program in Shanghai in 2015 , Sabrina Palme and Andre Quintanilha took the entrepreneurial leap of faith to launch the world ’ s first personal smart garden . Now , 14 months later , they ’ ve raised over £ 200,000 in investment and are delivering simple food sustainability solutions to one smart household at a time .
Sabrina Palme German CEO and Co-founder Gartenzwerg Technologies Class of 2015 Shanghai campus
“ During one summer evening in Shanghai , Andre and I randomly discovered we had a mutual interest in hydroponics . It was just one conversation , but my imagination was sparked . I enrolled in the MBA program in the hopes of finding my passion and making a difference in the world . I couldn ’ t help thinking this could be something big .
After graduation , while both living and freelancing in London , Andre and I decided to go for it . We dedicated all our spare time to developing our food tech startup , Gartenzwerg . Pairing IoT technology with natural home gardening designs , the business champions the shift into smart households to encourage better food sustainability practices .
Having previously worked together to launch our own startup as part of our core business challenge , we knew we had complementary skillsets . The learnings we took from our practical challenges were invaluable in understanding our concept for Gartenzwerg . How do you project sales ? How do you estimate the value of your company ? The questions we needed to answer were the same . And we had honed our skills of working as a team and making decisions in uncertain environments — we were already half-way there thanks to our MBA experience .
We would come home in the evening and start researching prototypes . We were functioning on about four hours ’ sleep a night and dedicating every waking moment to our day jobs or to the startup . Our office resembled a jungle ! But it was exhilarating to be back in such an intense environment .
A few months later , everything changed when we found an angel investor through the Hult alumni network . He invested in Gartenzwerg , and we could now start focusing fulltime on the startup . Shortly after , we participated in the IoT Tribe accelerator program and hired three more members of staff , covering expertise in embedded systems , software engineering , and plants science .
It ’ s been incredible to see we ’ ve been getting more and more exposure to the outside world . We have just launched pre-orders on Indiegogo and we plan to commence worldwide shipping by the end of this year .
Earlier this year , we had an exciting new opportunity in the Asian market come in . Andre and I traveled to China to visit manufacturers there , and the fact that we lived a year in Shanghai turned out to be a huge benefit for us . We knew their business customs , understood the cultural differences and knew what things to look out for ( especially in terms of IP protection ). It was then I realized it wasn ‘ t just the Hult MBA courses that added value , but also the international exposure of where we did it .”
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