The Story Behind Be Leaf Microgreens

austinhopper (53)in #business • 6 years ago

Travis and Austin were both Navy Divers in San Diego when they met and became friends. While on deployment in the Persian Gulf in 2014, they hatched plans to get out of the military, travel Europe, and start a business.

Austin was the first to finish his enlistment and moved back to his home state of Washington to study finance at Seattle University. During his first summer break from classes, Austin rode a bicycle from Seattle to NYC in 47 days. With 45 days remaining, Austin started building himself a cabin in Montana where he fell in love with construction. This prompted him to switch majors to Construction Management and transfer to Central Washington University.

During the summer of 2016, Travis and Austin re-united in Europe and travelled through 20 countries together. Over the course of their travels, they discussed dozens of business ideas but none of them seemed to make sense at the time.

After Europe, Austin went back to school in Ellensburg. Travis moved to Medellin, Colombia for 6 months to learn Spanish and immerse himself in a foreign culture. Feeling inspired by Austin's ride across America, Travis flew to Oregon where he started his coast to coast run. 133 days and over 3000 miles later, Travis reached the Atlantic Ocean.

On his run, Travis was taken in by a fellow veteran in Georgia who introduced him to growing microgreens. Travis liked the idea of cultivating his own food year round and knowing exactly what was in it. When he returned home to Ohio, Travis started growing radish and sunflower microgreens in his mom's basement and found it very therapeutic and enjoyable. Unbeknownst to both of them, Austin was experimenting with growing hydroponic lettuce in his living room. Through concurrent posts on social media they discovered their mutual interest and began muling over the idea of starting a microgreens farm. Never ones to hesitate, Austin and Travis started to run with the idea a few days later. Within two weeks, they had leased a building in Yakima, Washington and Travis started driving from Ohio.