Corey Ellis is the co-founder and CEO of Growcer, an Ottawa-based company building modular farms & food infrastructure used by communities, schools, and grocers across Canada and around the world.We talk about the impact our food system is having on the climate and how vertical farming can help solve those problems. We also talk about lessons learned from the vertical farming hype cycle, Growcer’s $30M infrastructure fund, and building a company for the long-term.About CoreyCorey started Growcer in 2014 with his co-founder Alida Burke after seeing firsthand how northern communities struggle with food security. What began as a social enterprise project in Nunavut grew into a mission-driven company tackling food affordability, waste, and access.Growcer has deployed over 800 farms worldwide, acquired its US competitor Freight Farms, and launched a $30M Growcer Fund to finance climate infrastructure.In this conversation, we cover:7:40 - What’s broken in our food system and why boring problems like distribution and shelf life matter11:03 - How modular farms cut food waste and fertilizer use - but aren’t a silver bullet16:51 - How Growcer turned customer criticism into their best R&D engine19:19 - What real food sovereignty looks like when communities own their infrastructure24:34 - The “vertical farming” hype cycle and why most players got it wrong39:37 - Borrowing lessons from real estate to finance climate infrastructure50:59 - Solving hard problems and building culture from first principles📬 ⁠⁠Sign up for our weekly briefing⁠⁠ for the latest deals, real-world projects, and policy signals. More→ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Show notes & resources for this episode⁠→ Support the show with a review on Spotify and Apple!→ Follow us on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠→ Send feedback and episode ideas to ⁠⁠[email protected]

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