Back in 2016, a very nervous Matt Harris (Vegepod’s inventor and founder) made his first major TV appearance pitching the Vegepod to the Sharks on Shark Tank AU. Although Matt was sweating bullets, one Shark, Naomi Simson, founder of RedBalloon, was seriously taken with the idea of a self-watering raised garden bed and decided to buy a stake in the company!

The investment and even more importantly the publicity, gave us the push we were looking for. With Naomi at our side, we continued to expand around Australia. Two years later, we feel we’ve grown in leaps and bounds. Here are a few milestones to celebrate!

Two Australian Business Award Wins

In 2017, we won not one but two Australian Business Awards (ABAs) for Product Innovation and Product Excellence.

We’re extremely proud of this achievement. Many small businesses apply each year to win recognition of their product. The fact that we won in two categories shows that the Vegepod meets a “high criteria of exceptional quality and point of difference from our competitors.” ABAs words, not ours! ;)

Vegepod Goes International

Credit: Vegepodsg

In 2015, we went international. It started first by branching out to our neighbours in New Zealand.

From the success of NZ, we committed to a global urban gardening movement. Our founder, Matt, moved his family to California, USA in 2017, and also launched distribution into Canada and Portugal.  In 2018 we opened a branch in Singapore and the UK. Currently, we have 20 Vegepod employees around the world and we’re still counting!

Global Trade Show Events

We’ve been hitting more and more shows every year and showing off just what the Vegepod can do. We’ve showcased at some big name expos including Queensland Ekka, Philadelphia Garden Show, Auckland Home Show, Sydney Royal Easter Show, Melbourne International Garden Show and the Pacific North West Garden Show in Seattle.

If you want to know where we’ll be popping up next, check out our Events page. We’ve got a trade show coming up in Hamilton Fieldays (NZ), the Singapore Garden Festival in July, and the Spoga Gafa, in Cologne, Germany in September.

2018 Chelsea Flower Show

Speaking of global shows, we were recently invited as a guest exhibitor to the most prestigious garden and flower show in the world! The RHS Chelsea Flower Show asked us to exhibit the Vegepod and highlight its urban farming features and therapeutic benefits.

20,000 Social Media Followers

In 2018, we hit the milestone of 20,000 total social media followers! That includes 12,716 Facebook likes and 9,237 Instagram followers. None of these social profiles have spam bots we’ll have you know - we’ve got a thriving, real community of Podders online that we love to engage with.

Naomi Simson’s Favourite Investment

Two years after the red shark went green, we’re still Naomi’s favourite and most successful investment to date! Don’t believe us?! Check out Naomi on a recent episode of the Fitzy and Wippa Radio Show.

Our thanks to everyone who has supported us and encouraged us along the way, here’s to two more years and what we can achieve between now and then!