Stomata

Plants die from too much water or too little, and most owners find out too late. Stomata's founders needed an app that makes the sensor useful from the first day, and a store to sell it, while the hardware was still being finished. They hired me remotely, and I don't know them personally.

You pair the sensor with the app, pick your plant from a list of profiles, and the app suggests where to put it. From then on it shows water, soil moisture, light, fertilizer, temperature and battery for each plant, and warns you when something drops below what that plant needs. With the Pro, you set a watering schedule or water with one tap, and the app keeps the history. On the website, shoppers compare the two models and buy without creating an account.

I had the honour of building both, the app and the store, while the hardware was still being developed, so they were ready when the sensor was. The app had to make sense to someone who has never used a plant sensor: pairing in a few steps, one screen per plant, and an alert when a plant needs attention.

The sensor has shipped, and the store at stomata.ca is taking orders.