Colorado's juicy and sweet Palisade peaches might be one of the state's best-known exports, but they're also one of the most fickle. The Grand Valley has a short growing season and a high risk of frost, which is exacerbated by the ups and downs of climate change.
Ioannis Minas, an associate professor of pomology at Colorado State University, grew up on a peach orchard in Greece and is well aware that harvesting this valuable crop even a week late could be detrimental. So, he came up with a solution: a model that can help farmers determine the best time to harvest a peach using data gleaned from a handheld scanner and proprietary machine learning models.
"I realized I had really good tech, and I was trying to publish what I knew, but I wasn't sure what to do next," Minas said. "Do I share it with growers? I wanted them to be aware of what I was doing, but I wasn't sure how to go about it."
Luckily, one of Minas' colleagues told him that he could obtain a provisional patent through CSU STRATA. This led him to become connected with the Lab to Life Venture Studio, a hands-on incubator that helps bring the University's best innovations to the market.
How Lab to Life helps academics become entrepreneurs
Members of CSU's entrepreneur in training program helped Minas narrow down the market for his startup. Sidnee Peck, a CXO who works with Lab to Life, said when she first met Minas, he had no idea how his research could become a viable business. "Faculty has a very strong and particular skill set in research and discoveries and teaching, but the business side can be really intimidating," she said. "That's why we come in and help them understand their potential customers, pitch their ideas to customers and investors, and help them build a startup – right alongside them, as a part of their team."
The Lab to Life team works with CSU innovators on all aspects of venture creation, including market research, strategic planning, legal services, brand development and marketing.
Minas' startup, XLSOR, began its two-year incubation period in 2022. In the beginning, CSU student entrepreneurs in training spoke to potential customers to understand their pain points and worked to understand how XLSOR could serve them. These conversations included produce workers at grocery stores and visits to fruit sorting and distribution centers, but it soon became clear that farmers were the most interested in the technology.
"It's very critical in the beginning to make good decisions, especially in tech development," Minas said. "Receiving this support early on in the process was vital for me, and it was especially rewarding that it came from the CSU community."
XLSOR's 2023 pilot included 30 peach varieties and 40 orchards, ultimately demonstrating that Minas' model was extremely accurate at predicting both peach quality and the ideal harvest dates.
Meanwhile, the Lab to Life team helped him create a website, pitch deck, develop FAQs and streamline his processes. This allowed his venture to grow in 2024. Minas hired a cofounder, and the company was able to expand into six states and even Greece, where they collected data from peaches, apples and kiwis.
"As scientists, we don't necessarily think about whether what we discover can become commercial products," Minas said. "We get excited about what we've discovered, but we don't consider the growth potential." Lab to Life surrounded him with a team that does.
Even though XLSOR graduated from the program in fall 2024, Peck plans to stay on as an adviser and help as the venture expands to more states and countries, as well as test its technology on cherries and grapes. "I'm so grateful for Lab to Life for helping to hone the business side of things, so I can focus on what I'm good at," Minas said.
Applications are now open for the fall 2024 company cohort of Lab to Life, and professors, postdocs and graduate students who are affiliated with CSU and have impactful innovations are all encouraged to apply. "It's a big deal for a faculty member to go down this path, to be open to being a cofounder in a business," Peck said. "It's uncomfortable. They're used to being experts in one space, but they might be beginners in entrepreneurship, which is risky and intimidating.
She added: "But, faculty like Ioannis are really the magic behind what we do, and we would love to see more of CSU's researchers join us and see what their products can do in the market."
For more information:
Jim Poss
Colorado State University
Email: [email protected]
www.source.colostate.edu