June 2025 Business Support Services Grant Awarded to FloraMetrics LLC

Video Transcript

Katelyn, FloraMetrics LLC, Business Category Winner, Business Support Services

Jama: Hi everyone, this is Jama with WomensNet. We are so excited to talk with our winners from June who are doing amazing things. We have with us Katelyn, Founder of FloraMetrics. Katelyn is our business category grant winner, and for this month we focused on business support services. So we’re going to learn about how she is supporting our farmers and our growers in the agroecology industry, and also in doing some really great sustainable things too. Katelyn, tell us what FloraMetrics is about in a few sentences.

Katelyn: I am also a graduate researcher at the Ohio State University and I’ve been working on studying ways to improve strawberry production in controlled environment agricultural systems. FloraMetrics is a service that I designed to help growers predict their upcoming harvest using a technique called flower mapping. So it’s rooted in science, it’s derived from research, but it’s designed to actually put that into action for strawberry growers in the U.S.

Jama: Wonderful, thank you so much for sharing. And before your application, I had not heard of flower mapping, so that was really cool. And what a great way to have this tool so that we can grow better food and also protect our environment. So thank you.

Jama: I know we talked a little bit about flower mapping, which is really hard to say right? <Laugh>. But what makes your business approach unique from other businesses that are doing something similar?

Katelyn: FloraMetrics is unique mostly because it is something that already exists in parts of Europe as a service, but it is completely non-existent in North America. So there’s not a single US grower that actually has this tool available to them. And as I mentioned, by using flower mapping, one is analyzing the early stages of the flower buds- well before you see open flowers or fruits. What a lot of growers in the US currently use, if they have the tool at all, is looking at things that are currently visible. Which at that point it’s a little bit too late to change your management decisions or to ensure that you’re going to meet market demands. So flower mapping involves dissecting the plant and looking at these really early early stage flower buds well before you can see them on the outside. That gives growers the advantage of predicting yield much further in advantage because there’s much longer before these structures become flowers or fruit. This gives growers a huge advantage compared to the traditional timeline of predicting yield coming up soon.

Jama: That’s pretty amazing. I would love to see what that looks like under a microscope. So cool. And it’s even more amazing that this service that you’re providing is something that is largely untapped here. And so how cool is that? You have to tell us, what or who inspired your business?

Katelyn: So as I mentioned, it’s largely because of my research at OSU. I’ve always been drawn to plants in nature, and I’m a first generation college student, so I really wanted to pursue something that was important to me. And so I was able to align my studies in sustainable agriculture with that passion. I have my wonderful advisor, Dr. Chieri Kubota. She’s the one who’s been the driving force behind this goal and this idea and really helping it progress. And she helped me realize that this wasn’t just a thesis topic, but it was something that I could actually turn into a real business. I could actually solve a real problem for growers. And so that’s where this began and that’s the goal coming up soon.

Jama: Very cool. We can’t wait to learn more about what you’re going to continue to do with these grant funds in the next few months- because It’s going to be awesome. And to know all about the other, the many growers that you will help. Thank you so much for this very important work, and for being a part of this interview. We know that it’s not easy as business owners to carve out a little time and do something extra. But thank you so much for sharing with the WomensNet network. We really appreciate it!