S8E101: Samuel Bertram / OnePointOne - Seeds of Transformation: From Philosophy to Farming, One CEO's Remarkable Journey

Join Samuel Bertram, the CEO and Co-Founder of OnePointOne and Willo Farm, on an inspiring podcast journey as he shares his vision for revolutionizing the way we grow and consume food through vertical farming. With a passionate drive to solve the world's poor nutrition problem, Samuel’s innovative approach includes a patented automated vertical farming solution called Opollo Farm and a direct-to-consumer marketing and sales business known as Willo. Discover the challenges faced by his companies, the significance of healthy competition, and their ultimate goal of promoting human and environmental well-being. Get ready to be inspired by Samuel’s unwavering dedication to making a lasting impact on our world.

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Key Takeaways

• Discover Samuel’s inspiring journey from discovering nanotechnology to founding two companies that aim to revolutionize the way we grow and consume food.
• Uncover how Samuel’s passion for vertical farming is driven by his belief that poor nutrition is the number one problem facing humanity.
• Learn about Apollo, the automated vertical farming solution integrated with cutting-edge technologies, developed by OnePointOne under a patent-protected umbrella.
• Find out how Willo, a direct-to-consumer marketing and sales business, allows members to receive fresh produce directly to their doorstep.
• Explore the company's ultimate goal of promoting human and environmental health through personalized health and diet.
• Gain insights into the challenges faced by OnePointOne, such as adapting to global macros and capital limitations.
• Understand why Samuel believes in the power of competition and the positive impact of other vertical farmingcompanies.
• Hear Samuel’s advice on the importance of demonstrating large-scale production and having patience in scaling this technology.

Tweetable Quotes

“Poor nutrition of humanity is the number one problem that faces humanity quite clearly. And so we said, how can we possibly solve that problem? And we've got to take a big swing. That the problem's. Got to be big, and the solution's got to be big. Big doesn't mean fast. There's a huge conflation between big and fast. Big and fast can exist in software. Big and fast cannot exist in hardware. So big is important to us. Fast is less important to us. So when poor nutrition came up as the biggest problem, we couldn't quite find that match on the traditional farming side, couldn't quite find that match on the greenhouse farming side.”

“I have very little internal negative speak. So I'm not negative on myself, really at all. None of those loops apply. So there's a lot more of the board game that it is now available to me to be critical. So I think it's just so fundamentally important to your improvement as a human and your ability to be efficient as an operator, to be able to look at yourself and see where you have flaws and deficiencies.”

“Our goal is human health. Our goal is environmental health. It's much wider than that. We think we have to put one foot in front of the other mate. Believe me. We have to get the first five facilities up this year, 100 facilities next year. Once that's up and running, we're hitting real volume. Then we can start to juice the Willo side of the business more. Because health is going to become personalized. It's just flat out inevitable. When is the real question and how. So Willo is going to participate in the personalization of health, the personalization of diet.”

“I reckon the best thing any vertical farming business can do for this industry and for the Earth is to demonstrate large scale production.”

Resources Mentioned

Samuel's Website - www.opo.farm

Samuel's Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelbertram/

Samuel's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sambcbertram/

Samuel's Email - [email protected]

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Mentioned in this episode:

2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews

2025 Precision Ag Report

2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews

2025 Precision Ag Report