Members

Born and raised in Harlem, New York, I found my passion for food at an early age. Unable to travel outside the city I traveled to different ethnic neighborhoods in search of new flavors and experiences. Growing up, when asked what my career choice would be, I felt it necessary to say a chef. It was not until I had my daughter Sariah that I would truly pursue the life. My cooking style: High personal expression using influences from my culinary experiences

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I believe that humans will need to figure out how to grow food where people live, which right now looks like cities. With new technology and the every growing externalizes of climate change, i fundamentally believe people will need to figure out how to grow food in cities, and I am working to try and help build better and smarter hardware for allowing anyone to grow food anywhere My day job is as a Virtual CFO to startups and entrepreneurs to help them figure out how and IF they can make money. Come say hello!

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C. Mike is a lifelong learner with a diverse background spanning neurobiology, public radio, veterinary medicine, the restaurant industry, and urban farming. Over the past few years, sustainable agriculture has become his primary focus while growing in a wide variety of soil-based and hydroponic applications in NYC. He recently co-founded NexLoop, an interdisciplinary team of architects, biologists, and engineers designing nature-inspired solutions to make urban agriculture more natural and resilient. NexLoop won the 2017 Biomimicry Global Design Challenge for AquaWeb, a modular building facade retrofit that passively collects water from air for use in irrigation. C. Mike is also active in several other relevant communities including A/D/O, SlowFood NYC, Smart Cities NY, and Biomimicry NYC.

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Wythe is an anthropologist of plant-based startups. He's currently finishing his Ph.D. in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard, where he has taught courses on the history of biotechnology and science fiction studies, among others. His dissertation examines the production of value—in all senses of the word—using indoor agriculture. He explores the different ways in which these startups are trying to "disrupt" the food economy and change how we think about plants and urban space. Previously, Wythe worked in the world of advertising and co-produced exhibitions on art and science in Brooklyn, critically exploring biotechnology and visions of future cities. Wythe received his BA in literature from Bennington College and his MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College, where he taught in the English Department for five years.

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I am a patent attorney representing innovators of sustainable technology, and I’m particularly passionate about inventions in the realm of food and agriculture. With over a decade of patent law experience, I started my own practice to focus on assisting not just inventors, but true innovators- those that are developing technology to bring social and environmental progress.

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Lead Designer at Agrilyst

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Sarah Sanders is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of NATIVE. Sarah began her career working in hospitality at the Tavern Restaurant Group, a family-owned business started by her father. Sarah’s passion for the food & beverage industry has been apparent since a young age, but during graduate school Sarah began to focus on technology and sustainability. Upon completing her MBA in 2014 she joined Rubicon Global, a cloud-based platform for waste and recycling services now valued at $1B, where she worked for the CEO managing investor relations efforts through multiple rounds of fundraising. After tremendous company growth she transitioned to recruiting to build Rubicon’s first SMB sales team. In 2017 Sarah joined Toast, a cloud-based point-of-sale system now valued at $1.4B. She relocated to New York City to aggressively grow Toast’s market share in the iconic Manhattan restaurant scene. She earned her undergraduate degree in Business Management from the University of Kentucky and her MBA in International Business from Xavier University.

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Note: Anina was an inaugural member of the Co-Lab, from June-August 2017. "I joined AgTech X because I had made a decision to enter the industry of Controlled Environment Agriculture, but I had no idea how to go about it. The process of exploration, immensely stimulating and fruitful conversations, and cultivating connections helped me to hone in on my interests and finally feel that I found 'my people.' I have started a new job that Ricky helped me find and it has put me on a path I was only dreaming about. I am eternally grateful and look forward to the many others who, like me, want to get involved but just need the key to get across the threshold."

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