February 2026 Startup Grant Awarded to Prairie Roots Sod Company

Video Transcript

Marcia: Hello, everyone out there in our WomensNet community. Welcome to a chat with our February Startup Grant winners. Today, I’m speaking with Lisa Pace of Prairie Roots Sod Company. She and her business partner, Catherine Moravec, are our Startup Grant winners. Our Startup Grant is for entrepreneurs who are in the early phase of developing their business, who haven’t yet hit $10,000 in sales.

I’m Marcia Layton Turner. I’m just one of our advisory board members here at WomensNet, and every other month I get to learn more about our grant winners, which I just love.

So, let’s start at the beginning. Lisa, tell everyone a little bit about your company, what you do, where you got the idea—all the things, briefly.

Lisa: Prairie Roots Sod Company is focused on creating native grass sod that will thrive in Colorado. And this idea came from years of watching homeowners really feel trapped between having to spend a lot of money and time watering and maintaining their yard, which contradicts our state’s situation, where even though we’re a headwater state, water is a really precious resource.

So, we really need a product that’s going to provide a water-wise alternative to traditional high-water turf grass lawns and give customers an instant solution that will also improve ecology. We’re super excited to just start this project. This is a brand new business venture that we’ve been working on for about the last year and a half or so, and we think this product is needed to help our customers find better ways to landscape.

Marcia: So, I’m going to ask what is probably a dumb question, but it sounds like there are standard sods that are used nationwide, but they are not necessarily the best choice, depending upon your climate. Is that right?

Lisa: That’s absolutely it. The grasses that are available here in Colorado are the same grasses that are going to be used in Minnesota or Florida. I mean, it’s grasses used across the United States. And it’s really not meant for our environment, which is why people have to spend so much on watering maintenance to keep it looking green. And we’re lucky. We live in a high plains environment, and we have so many amazing local native grasses we could look to.

Catherine and I have been doing this professionally for the last 10 years as water conservation specialists. We help customers transform their yard. And we know native grasses work really well here, but it’s not a sod product that’s available for them. So, we’re really trying to transform the market to create something that will help in this water shortage state.

Marcia: Very smart. Awesome. Thank you for explaining that. Now, let’s talk a little bit about some of the resources that you found and relied on as you were getting started. Are there one or two that have been especially helpful to you? Maybe an agency, a consultant, a book, a website? Anything like that that’s been really helpful to you?

Lisa: Yes. About a year ago, I attended this event on controlled environment agriculture. And when I was there, I actually met a women’s group just for controlled environment agriculture. These are women who’ve been doing these indoor growing facilities all across the world and were extremely inspirational.

They actually started a mentoring group. So, they set Catherine and me up with a person whose job is just to figure out the production of new products related to agriculture. They have been super helpful.

We’re excited to continue to work with them so they can help us as we navigate problems with growing stuff in the way that we intend to. But that women’s group for controlled environment agriculture, they’re just amazing, and I can’t say enough great things about them, and really just love the support that we’re seeing from women across the world. So, they have been great and have been really instrumental in helping us to feel like we’re on to something, like this is a path worth pursuing.

Marcia: Amazing. So glad you found them. It’s funny to learn about the very specific, niche groups that are out there that you might not imagine exist and are available to you.

Now let’s talk about marketing. Is there a marketing strategy that you have found especially helpful?

Lisa: Catherine and I are both full-time water conservation specialists and have been in this field for 15 years. During that time, we’ve really developed a reputation statewide as people to go to for native grass advice. And now we’re at a place where we speak to thousands of people every year on this topic. And that’s just our normal day jobs.

This company we’re pursuing on nights and weekends. We don’t have a ton of time as busy moms, but we really believe in it, and we think it’s such a good product that is really going to help not only people figure out better solutions, but it’s an amazing environmental solution that we need. And this is the right time.

Colorado is in drought right now; over 50% of the state is in abnormal to severe. And most of us rely on the Colorado River, along with 40 million other people across the West. So if we can find a way to squeeze some water out of our landscapes, that can be shared with the bigger group, and still give us an amazing place to live and work, that’s the big vision that we really want to achieve.

So that’s our story that we’re using. But the platforms and networks we already have just from our professional careers are going to be people that we can reach out to and lean into as we figure out how we’re going to sell this product. Right now, we know how to grow it. Now we’ve got to figure out how to sell it.

Marcia: That’s great. So, let’s wrap up with a quick question about what the WomensNet community of fellow women business owners can do to support your company.

Lisa: Well, I think for me it’s just supporting us, whether that means, as this video airs or as we promote it on LinkedIn and other resources, just sharing it—sharing it with networks, especially anybody that’s passionate about sustainability, or water conservation, or ecology. If those are things that pique your interest, or if you know people who live in that space, connect us to those people, or reach out to us if you’re one of them.

I think right now it’s just really understanding where this can go, how big it can grow, and leaning into other women who have been in our shoes, are developing these businesses, and looking to each other for support. I think what you guys do at WomensNet is amazing, and it’s just such an amazing opportunity and platform for us, our small businesses, to really get started. So, thank you for already doing this.

Marcia: Thank you so much for your time today, and congratulations again on being our Startup grant winner for February.