Greatland Farms is an Agri Business. We are an indoor vertical farm, growing fruits and vegetables in a indoor setting. We use a hydroponics system to deliver the proper nutrients to the plants. For lighting, we use LED lights, which produce the right wavelength of light to most help the plants.
Turning the concept into a reality
Taking the idea from concept to reality involved overcoming some big challenges. We needed the right license and permits (so we were a legal business).
Location was a huge deal for us, and might have been the hardest thing. We knew exactly where wanted to be: a booming downtown area, surrounded by our customers, but to set up a farm somewhere like that is pretty unheard of.
Finding an actual building for us to use proved harder than we thought. Being small, we didn't need a lot of space, and we didn't want office space, which there seemed to be an abundance of.
What makes Greatland Farms so special
We tackle the problem of bringing fresh food to local markets, mainly in urban settings (such as Detroit), where there isn't that much viable land to farm on. By being an indoor farm (also called a warehouse farm), we are able to grow more food than traditional farmers while using less resources with the added bonus that it's local.
Where Namecheap came in...
We use your products to manage our domain name. Namecheap helps us take ourselves to the online world and have a place for people to discover us. For me, buying the domain was simple. Search, add to cart, then buy. On top of that, the process of managing domains is simple - everything from updating information such as DNS to adding additional services like email.
Creating the website was a huge turning point; we made the domain and the site before we even went through the process of making the business. It made things go from just an idea to the real deal!
Future 'growth'
I see Greatland Farms, five years from now, as a brand that is known nationwide. We want to grow from just selling to local restaurants and other businesses like juiceries, to selling our fruit and veg directly to stores. It's a big milestone but we know if we put in the time, and most importantly the effort, it's possible to achieve.
I'd also like to see indoor farming become even more efficient. We are still faced with heavy energy and water costs, which I hope can become more economical with future innovations. But as time goes on, I see Vertical Farming becoming more popular, and the farming industry as a whole shifting towards vertical farming.
If Darien could pick a real superpower
If I were a superhero, my power of choice would be time control. Simple as it may sound, there is more to it than it seems. With true control of time, you could make certain things faster or slower while other things around you stay normal. It allows you to go into the future and see what is happening what could happen. But it also allows you to slow down villains, which would allow you to capture them; slowing down everything on earth except yourself would give you an advantage over everything.
One innovation he'd wish for to help his business
I'd wish for is Solar panels to reduce our energy costs. With solar power, we could cut energy costs right down. With the amount saved, we could afford to expand the business in other ways.