During the early months of the pandemic, Hedgefund began as a personal experiment in growing and learning at home. I spent that year refining my approach, testing systems, and discovering what worked and what didn’t through a small run of "spicy tomatoes.”

My entrepreneurial spirit found its footing through Bougie Funk, a candle brand that became an unexpected classroom in running a business. From sourcing and production to branding and fulfillment, it taught me how ideas turn into systems.

Along the way, I began to notice something I didn’t fully understand at the time — many of the tools and materials I was using for candle making quietly overlapped with what would later become my work in tissue culture. I just didn’t know it yet.

We moved into a larger space, and with it came room to let the plant collection grow. What started as a personal interest began to take shape as something more deliberate, with more species, more experiments, and a deeper focus on how plants adapt to indoor environments.

Hedgefund stepped into a public chapter with its first PlantCon in Orlando, marking the shift from a growing personal collection to something meant to be shared. It was a moment where the work moved out of private spaces and into a room full of people, conversations, and plants finding new homes.

That same weekend brought the first live show on Palmstreet, opening a new way to connect with collectors in real time. Walking through each plant on camera, answering questions, and watching decisions unfold live added a different kind of energy to the process.

A first trip to Thailand marked a turning point, opening a direct connection to the global plant community and the places where many of these species begin their journey. Walking through nurseries and growing spaces abroad shifted how I thought about sourcing, scale, and stewardship.

The idea for a tissue culture lab began with a simple realization that many of the tools and materials were already on hand. What started as curiosity grew into a push toward greater self-sufficiency, supported by a formalized course of study. It became a space to experiment, refine methods, and build in-house knowledge around propagating and stabilizing plants over time.