HyperFarms | Discovery of an Engineer’s Passion for Sustainable Agriculture

• ByAnushka Singh     |    January 13, 2021

“There are things you don’t like still you have to do them but, the great things that you get to do is what keeps you driven”-Manikandan Pattabiraman, Founder HyperFarms

Sowing the Seeds of Hyper Farm

Manikandan Pattabiraman in conversation with Startup Story Media shared that, he has been passionate about agriculture, growing and caring for plants ever since he was a school kid. When he realised the lack of awareness concerning gardening and farming in the urban area and high- tech production, he started a blog called GeekGardener to serve as a reference for people. His blog soon prompted people to ask him to supply inputs for them and help them set up their farms. In response to the interest his blog received, Manikandan started Garden Guru, an urban farming retail company which later evolved into a large-scale commercial farm company called Hyper Farms.

The inspiring journey of an engineer to agriculture

Manikandan is extremely down to earth and believes he still has a long way to go before calling himself an entrepreneur. Still, his inspiring journey in a true sense is an engineer’s transition to an entrepreneur. The agriculture sector is very different from where he comes from. It is indeed a risky venture, but to Manikandan his journey was not a struggle just a lot of a getting used to. Not everything you do is something you love, but the best part is there are lot of great things that we take up and that keeps us driven..

Manikandan, “The name guy.”

For all the ventures Manikandan was associated with, he was “the name guy”. The name for his blog Geek Garden came from the amalgamation of his profession as an engineer (Geek) and his passion for gardening (Garden). Garden Guru came into the picture as people looked for advice and insights for their gardens and farms and who better to assist them but a “guru”. The name Hyper Farm stems from the fact that Manikandan wanted farms to be better than they were before, more hyper, more productive.

Do what has never been done before

What makes HyperFarms beyond extraordinary is the fact that the business is always on the lookout for something new. The engineer in Manikandan doesn’t see a product as a standard design but, endeavours to make every product better than the last one. Manikandan believes life is a continuous search and not being complacent with our situation is what keeps us growing. He is the kind of person who is always in pursuit of something new. He is thankful for his mistakes as those mistakes have helped him be better than before.

Investment doesn’t guarantee delivery

Hyperfarms is a bootstrapped business and is profitable. The partners pre-funded the company and eventually in started to pay off.

The motive behind the initiative

Talking about the goal of HyperFarms, Manikandan said to startup story media that “whatever it takes, we have to fully solve the problem. As we solve a problem, we discover that there’s more to it than meets the eye.” The primary goal for Manikandan is to make things sustainable, profitable and repeatable. My competition is substandard vegetables sold for a low price says the founder. Manikandan aims to work on reducing the cost of growing vegetables on high tech farms and make it affordable and reachable to everybody.

The founder’s message

Manikandan when asked by Startup Story Media for his precious advice he said “Keep doing what you are good at, and continuously improve; the results are just a positive side effect. Consistent effort is all that is needed for the success.”

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