My family and I have been growing sustainable, high quality, living hydroponic leafy greens in a 6,000 sq.ft. greenhouse in Oberlin, Ohio since 2014. Since then, about 1M people have eaten our sustainable, high quality, live produce grown and sold in northern Ohio.

We quickly reached our ceiling with our current operating capabilities and have been generating flat growth since 2015. We want to grow more – in every way! 

With this raise, we hope to get the capital to expand 10x, providing more hydroponic lettuce and greens from our community and to our community.

Our Investment Opportunity

We’re offering investors a revenue share opportunity where investors receive 2x return on their investment within a target 5-year repayment period. 

How it works is we will pay a percentage of our quarterly revenues back to investors until all investors have received a 2x.

Example: $10,000 today --> $20,000 in 5 years; this is a 14.87% IRR!

Here is an economic model that shows revenue projections and a payback schedule for investors.  

By investing in Tyler’s Farm, you're not only gaining a multiple on your investment; you're also supporting a positive mission by bringing local, sustainable food to our community.

Salinas Valley Problem

The vast majority (76%) of the lettuce grown in the US comes from the Salinas Valley in California. Once harvested, the produce takes 4-5 days to arrive at our local stores. More than enough time for the produce to decline in freshness and quality.

 Prices of produce are rising due to union labor of railroads and California trucking companies, in addition to rising costs of fossil fuels. Since labor costs account for 40% of the costs in produce, any changes to labor force conditions have significant impacts on the prices. 

The bigger picture is that the carbon footprint in growing and shipping produce has to change, and right now shipping produce 2,500 miles isn’t sustainable.

What if we thought outside the Salinas Valley box and looked close to home for produce that’s fresh, sustainable, non-GMO, with no pesticides, and produced all-year long?

Tyler’s Farm Solution

After living through the drought of 1988, I knew I wanted to be a farmer and solve for future droughts. I just had to control the weather first. I graduated from the Ohio State University’s Agricultural Technical Institute with a degree in Greenhouse Production and have 20+ years of growing wholesale and retail experience. 

In 2014, I received hydroponic grower training and Tyler’s Farm was born.

Our farm uses Controlled Environment Agriculture and specifically the Nutrient Film Technique. For more on that go here: Tyler's Farm

Some of the benefits to hydroponic growing include:

• Biological insect control
• Little to no chemicals used
• 1/3rd the amount of fertilizer
• Sustainability through water conservation (1/10th of the water used!)
• Locally grown, year-round
• Only uses supplemental heat and light
• Product is living with the roots intact so it stays fresher longer

How We’ve Grown

We grow lettuce in any leaf shape, color and texture, as well as kale, arugula, basil and other herbs. 

Our produce is available at:

• Multiple wholesale accounts including a retirement community, schools, restaurants, CSA's, and a brewery.
• 7 independently owned IGA grocery stores
• Farmer’s markets
• Online ordering and delivery

We’ve sold about 95k heads of lettuce annually over our 8 years, equating to approximately $1.2 million in revenue.

Tyler’s Farm has a solid, committed following and an extensive network of vendors and community partners. Our brand is well-known for our freshness, quality, and shelf life.

Here are some articles written about us:

• Greenhouse Grower
• The Oberlin Review
• Produce Grower

While we’ve had great success over the life of our farm (even through COVID), we aren’t ready to settle with our limitations. After turning down vendors because we couldn’t provide produce at the scale they needed, we knew it was time to think bigger.

Partners for Purpose

I partner with and serve on the board for the Center for Food Innovation (CFI), a nonprofit organization from Oberlin College. CFI is working to transform Northeast Ohio into a leader in food production and agricultural innovation.

CFI’s goal is for 25% of the produce consumed be produced locally by 2026. While that’s feasible during summer, it’s difficult to source consistent, local produce year-round. CFI is a big supporter of hydroponic farms like Tyler’s Farm since only with farms like ours can they meet the distribution volumes needed.

There is a large market opportunity both with the changes in the Salinas Valley and with the interest from our community to expand local options. We plan to capitalize on this opportunity and bring produce home to Northeastern Ohio.

Raising Our Ceiling

Now that I can “control the weather” with Controlled Environment Agriculture, the obstacle for expansion is the overhead cost. Since operating at our ceiling for the last 8 years, it’s time to raise the overhead.

We chose a community raise through Wefunder since our community is such a big part of who we are – we wouldn’t be here without you and we’d like to give some of that back through this revenue share opportunity.

 We’re looking to raise $250k of operating capital that will go to: 

• Infrastructure: increasing our greenhouse by 25,200 sq. ft. and upgrading our Nutrient Film Technique system to an automated, seed to harvest, growing system manufactured by Green Automation from Finland.
• Supplies: including cardboard boxes, clamshell point of purchase shipping containers, fertilizers, electric and natural gas costs.
• Hiring: 1 grower and  4 general laborers 

Once we get these in place, we expect to 10x our production capabilities in just under a year, with a forecasted revenue of $1.76M annually. (Forward looking projections cannot be guaranteed)

Tyler’s Farm is also in the process of working to achieve a kosher label on our produce, opening up the door to many more vendors and differentiating us on the shelves.

Leveraging the relationships we’ve built and our strong brand identity, we know we can operate at this new ceiling and provide our community with a healthy, sustainable, local produce for their families.

We hope you join us on this dream!