Lumo's Devon Wright on how Startups Can Solve The Climate Crisis

Startups love to tackle big problems in entrenched industries, but when it comes to the biggest problems, like say the Global Climate Crisis, sometimes it can be hard to find a new way to solve the problem. Our guest today, Devon Wright, Founder and CEO of Lumo, a smart irrigation system that helps growers save water, improve crop quality, and reduce costs. We talk to Devon about what Lumo is doing and how other startups can help solve the climate crisis.

About Devon Wright:Devon Wright founded Lumo. Our mission is to massively improve fresh water efficiency for humanity. Our focus is on helping growers optimize their irrigation to continue to meet our growing food demand with an increasingly volatile water supply.

Prior to this, he co-founded Turnstyle Solutions and grew it to one of the largest local marketing platforms of its kind before being acquired by Yelp in 2017. He helped build and run the Yelp Restaurants division until 2022.

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In this episode we discuss:

02:44 Devon’s background and how he got here05:47 How capitalizing on opportunities has helped his career07:14 Challenges he’s faced as a non-technical founder11:05 The perils of outsourcing versus trying to make it work yourself13:26 How Devon found himself living on a farm17:10 Why the pandemic helped spur his interest in sustainable farming21:02 How Lumo came to be from Devon’s person need for a better solution to irrigation26:08 The prevalence of manual watering in 202227:35 Building the early prototypes32:38 How Lumo actually works33:54 Where Devon found his co-founders38:48 Why speed to market is so important to founding a company40:24 Lumo’s recent fundraising round led by Fallline Capital42:53 The longterm vision of Lumo

Fast Favorites:

* 🎙- Podcast: My Climate Journey (MCJ) 

* 📰- Favourite Newsletter/Blog: Wine Industry Advisor

* 📲- Favourite Tech Gadget: Arduino

* 📈-  Favourite New Trend: Substack and direct content monetization

* 📚- Favourite Book: “Dreamt Land” by Mark Arax and “The Water Paradox” by Ed Barbier

* 🤔- Favourite Life Lesson: Follow your heart. Do what you care most about. Your passion is your biggest asset

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