Francis Pellegrino is co-founder and CEO of Advanced Growing Resources.
“I got this opportunity to be self-made [with co-founding Advanced Growing Resources] and I took it,” Pellegrino says.
The company is currently developing a handheld spectrophotometer and platform technology specifically geared toward diagnosing plant health in a way that the user will be able to easily understand and at a price point that will make it affordable for all small, family-owned farms. For commercial crop growers and consultants who need to contain plant afflictions, the company’s AgCorder device sees beyond the human eye to provide quicker and earlier detection using leaf-level optical scanning and data aggregation.
A native of Nashua, NH with a background in agriculture, his dedication to such work stems from his life-long experience with constantly changing New England weather, which can make it difficult to keep plants healthy and thriving.
The technology has already garnered support from the University of Rochester, Hamamatsu Photonics, Navitar, and OptoSigma, as well as through the Swarm Starter Business Competition.
“I was pretty surprised to find out I was chosen [for a Rising Star Award],” Pellegrino says. “This is a tremendous honor.”
He is also currently a junior at the University of Rochester in New York.
