Kompakt is pleased to welcome Anke Bührmann from DasEgg to talk about their innovation…
Would you like to introduce yourself, your team and DasEgg?
We are a small team of five experts with very different backgrounds. But we are all fascinated by the idea of creating DasEgg, which is a unique high tech indoor greenhouse, and we enjoy working together. I am an Engineer of Horticulture and a specialised journalist. Due to my horticultural experience I write a lot about plants, garden design and green cities. I joined the team because DasEgg is an interesting project as it combines design, technology and plant cultivation in a very innovative way.
Arndt is in a way the “father” of DasEgg. He is a Business Developer with a passion for unusual plants, technology and innovation. While travelling for a client he had the idea that it would be great to have a smart indoor greenhouse to control the growing conditions by using a sophisticated gadget to check his plants while travelling. Some friends support that eureka moment now by developing this greenhouse with state of the art technology together.
DasEgg needs to have its own website and Social Media channels. There are many more aspects where an expert for design and for building websites is needed. That is Ollo’s part of the project. He is a designer and loves creative ideas and the fun of developing something new. DasEgg combines his passion for great design and technical challenges with the world of plants.
Bernd is a Master of Engineering. He is our expert for technical questions about electronics and safety aspects. Finances are also a part of developing a new product. Hans is our CFO. He keeps an eye on production costs and makes sure that DasEgg will be produced to a very high standard but is still affordable.
This diversity and a passion for innovation is part of our strength, and it makes working together very inspiring. Due to our different experience and knowledge, we come up with different ideas and different questions to find the best solutions. It is great to see that there is this good team spirit and no frustrating competition as we all want DasEgg to be as good as possible.
Where did the story begin for DasEgg?
It started with the problem of finding indoor greenhouse for bigger plants which looks good and fits into every environment, and which offers its owner the freedom to be away for some time without having to worry about his favourite plants. There are a lot of small indoor greenhouses for the window sill or for the table which have a good size for cuttings or seedlings and herbs.
We were thinking of a smart solution for bigger plants and did not find one on the market that would match with our requirements. That led to the idea of creating DasEgg – a greenhouse for indoors that looks more like a design object than a greenhouse and still offers everything you need to keep plants happy and healthy. After the idea was pretty vague in the beginning, we began with the planning, the discussions about necessary equipment and technical aspects, and developing the design in 2014.
What can you tell us about the machine itself?
It is a great combination of design and high tech. The design is in a way very simple, but to plan an indoor greenhouse shaped like an egg is very unusual. We wondered in the beginning if the shape makes sense and we came to the conclusion that it looks very good and that it would fit for many plants.
DasEgg is very sophisticated and will be equipped with an LED Light System that is adjustable to choose the ideal light for the specific needs of a plant. DasEgg also will have an Airflow System with integrated fan to keep the plant(s) healthy, a M5 Pollen filter for allergy sufferers and a Carbon filter for clean air. We also would like to have a HD Camera inside to check the plants via your smartphone, and there is an interface to handle the greenhouse remotely.
What needs does DasEgg fulfil?
Most of us love nature and would like to grow their own plants, be it tomatoes or chillies or other veg, herbs for the kitchen or for your wellbeing, or a special plant which means a lot to you. DasEgg allows growing a plant even if the surrounding is not appropriate at all for cultivating plants. With this indoor greenhouse it is possible to control the environment of your plant and to adjust the temperature, the light, the water supply and the relative humidity depending on the needs of a certain plant variety.
DasEgg offers also other advantages: If you have a plant that contains substances which are dangerous for children or animals or if the plant is prickly, you can use DasEgg to make sure, that they cannot get in touch with the plant. You can keep smelly plants in your living room and you can even grow plants if you suffer from their pollen as DasEgg can be equipped with a pollen filter and has a totally closed shell.
DasEgg can be used for bigger plants, and also for the multiplication of plants from cuttings or seeds. It makes people more independent because it allows its owner to make sure that his favourite plant is well look after when he is away. Therefore DasEgg has to work fully automatically with sensors for water, temperature and humidity and a control unit. It has to have a water tank so that water can automatically be supplied for some time.
What have been the greatest challenges so far?
There are quite a few challenges involved. It is a very unusual design and it means to create special moulds to form it, which is expensive. Also we needed to make DasEgg known to as many people as possible. So we used press releases and the crowdfunding platform indiegogo, which was also very good to get feedback. To make a new product well known takes time and a lot of effort. Luckily the internet helps a lot to reach even people in Asia and the USA who are interested in DasEgg.
DasEgg has a mobile app, what can be done from this?
All settings of DasEgg can be monitored and modified with this app – its light duration, light spectrum, timer and temperature. In addition all sensor settings can be read with the app.
We also integrate a camera in DasEgg which can also be monitored using our mobile app.
What is DasEgg made from and how strong is it?
DasEgg will be made of solid, food safe plastics. The material will be 4-5 mm thick, which will give the device a strong outer skin.
What can you tell us about the plastic thermoforming process of DasEgg?
We have been searching a long time for the right thermoforming company and found one that is mainly working in the medical world.
DasEgg is divided in multiple parts and for each element a separate moulding form will be produced. From the design side we made a few parts identical to save some costs. Thermoforming is a slow, but very precise production process. Quality has always been one of our key elements of our strategy.
Tell us about your decision to use Indiegogo?
Indiegogo gave us the chance to present DasEgg worldwide. Such a crowdfunding platform is very good to sell a product all over the world and it also helps to generate feedback, to see if people like it, what they like and what they think should be changed or adapted. Instead of having a product ready and learning then what the customers would like to have changed, you still have the chance to adapt the product more to the wishes or needs of the customers.
Machinery has changed the world for the better, how far would you agree?
I agree pretty much with what you say. Technology and clever machinery is great if it is used in a sensible and responsible way. Just imagine if we could not travel by car, train or plane, or how people would suffer if the dentists did not have the fine high quality tools they have now. I do not want to go back to “the good old times”, they were not good even if they might look idyllic on pictures. Machinery gives us much more power than we had ever before, and that is the big challenge: Technology has to be used to make the world a better place. So it is up to us to use it in a wise way to make life better, safer, healthier and easier.
Where do you see DasEgg in five years time?
We see ourselves as a market driven team. DasEgg is a product which contains several different technologies, each of which can be developed to become individual products or fit into other products. Our list of possible follow up products is long, but for the time being we will focus entirely on DasEgg and permanently listen to what our customers are telling us.
Would you like to make a pitch for our audience for your campaign?
DasEgg is a unique indoor greenhouse with high tech control. We wanted it to be a great design object with additional functionalities and to make it easy to use. It is a very smart way to grow a wide range of plants indoors because it can create the ideal environmental conditions: You can set the technical features individually for the specific requirements of the plants for their growing and flowering phase. And it fits to our modern lifestyle as it allows you to travel frequently without always having to ask friends or neighbours to look after your plants. But it is much more than a smart indoor greenhouse, as it is a very unusual design object that brings nature into your living room by combining high tech with plant growing.