“We’re down in Houston, Texas to conduct a pilot program with the city of Sugar Land… they have a 340 acre regional airport,” CEO George Leno Holmes Jr. told the 4thEst8. “We’re using our robotic lawn mower we call ‘Henry’ to drive through this space, collect data, understand what the city needs, and then be able to present the city with a solution.”
The goal of this pilot is to collect performance data and make a case for the use of Hire Henry.
The two person startup was founded in 2015 by CEO George Holmes, Ph.D. Co-founder Keiry “Katie” Moreno-Bonnett joined the company in 2018. The autonomous mower platform they’re developing is light enough that contractors don’t need a trailer to haul it around, and Hire Henry expects to lease it’s machines to make commercial lawn mowing accessible to a broader range of customers. Hire Henry came out of the University of Missouri, St. Louis ‘Accelerate D.E.I’ accelerator in 2021.
The mower has sensors and AI that integrates with a mapping app to navigate the area to be mowed. The company has been developing its Beta model for the past year, cutting grass for real-world feedback.
“There hasn’t been a lot of conversation around cost of pricing as of yet,” Holmes said of the pilot, rather it centers on productivity increase and reduction in greenhouse gasses… “this just affirms that we’re going in the right direction.”
Holmes is shy about showing close-up pictures of the prototype because it’s still changing, but that’s coming to an end. He said to keep an eye on the Hire Henry LinkedIn page over the next couple months.
In 2021 Hire Henry won the AlphaLab “Clean Tech, Consumer Products, Smart Homes, and Smart Cities” and a $50,000 undiluted grant. The competition is hosted by Venture Cafe, Rotterdam.
Links:
AlphaLab Gear Hardware Cup Winner – 2021
On the 4thEst8:
