Teens create tool to help keep pot plants alive
Stephanie Ockhuysen profiles the five finalists in Venture Taranaki’s Powerup Kickstart innovation scheme. Today the spotlight is on Ezsoil.
After their parents kept killing indoor plants at home, Jayden Clark and Ashkan Azarkish came up with a product to help.
The teenagers co-founded Ezsoil as part of their Young Enterprise Scheme class last year at New Plymouth Boys’ High School.
They have created an all-in-one digital plant monitor, called Sprout, that enables people to keep track of their pot plants’ soil moisture, sunlight, temperature and humidity requirements via an app on their phone.
It will tell them if the plant needs more, or less, water and if it is getting enough sunlight.
‘‘From there you’ll be able to help keep your plants alive based on recommendations based on the vitals,’’ 16-year-old Ashkan said.
This year, they have been named as one of five finalists in Venture Taranaki’s Powerup Kickstart, a business capability building programme and ideas competition, with one idea ultimately winning the grand prize of $10,000 to spend on developing their enterprise.
Each finalist is paired with a mentor to refine their business before giving a final pitch on June 29.
The students have been paired with Jeff Man, an Auckland-based tech start-up businessman.
‘‘He’s been helping us by going back a little bit and really making sure we’ve got that problem right and then going through the solution and really refining everything,’’ 17-year-old Jayden said.
They are keen to talk to people who have issues keeping their plants alive so they can perfect the product.
‘‘Even if people want to get in touch with us, we have a Linkedin or Facebook,’’ Jayden said.
The pair are in their last year at
New Plymouth Boys’ High School and both plan to go to university next year while still continuing on with the business.
Ashkan will go to Canterbury and Jayden to Auckland, both to study engineering.
Despite the idea coming from their parents’ plant woes, the pair think their parents are proud.
‘‘They’re sort of proud that we’ve been able to create something like this as they would never have because this sort of programme didn’t exist in their day,’’
Ashkan said.
‘‘So they are kind of amazed that we have been able to create a business and create something like this.’’