- Will you consider this?

You're young, you have a green idea, and you are incubating that idea even more, then voila, an actual incubator comes to the rescue.

Intrigued?

Stay right here.

(bright music) You've got the blueprint and it will make a huge difference.

You've won awards for the invention of this idea and you've been handpicked to proceed and receive some financial support for your smart irrigation system.

Please welcome young entrepreneur Khushi Shah, the founder and CEO of E-Code: The Smart Way to Irrigate, and Danielle Scarzello, the program manager for gBETA Distillery Labs locally.

Hope I don't have to say all that stuff again soon.

Welcome ladies.

How are you today?

- Great, how about you?

- Good.

- I am just fine after I got that all out.

Okay, let's start with you, Khushi.

You're young, you'll be off to college soon.

You took a year off before college 'cause you graduated early but when you were 12 years old, you came up with a brilliant science project and you've gone from there.

Fill us in.

- Sure.

So I was in middle school and I was looking for ideas for my middle school science fair project and I remembered I'd recently taken a family trip to India during which I saw a lot of communities that didn't have access to the fundamental right of clean water.

So this was always on my mind when I returned to the states and I kind of had my a-ha moment when I looked outside of the classroom window and saw that someone had their sprinklers on in the rain.

So I did further research and I found that 30% almost of the daily irrigation or the daily water usage is made up by irrigation.

And so I saw this as a space where we can reduce the water usage immensely.

So I developed E-Code, my smart irrigation system and at first I didn't think of it much more than simply a science fair project but after that science fair, I really saw the true potential of the product and decided just to run from there to turn it into a business.

- Your parents are both engineers, so you have a little bit of that going on in there too to jumpstart your idea.

It's just incredible that you were that young and that you noticed that much.

And then so you came up with this system and it's a little probe that you stick into the ground.

Here, let me show what, it's this, can you see that okay?

And tell me how it works.

So you don't have to have an irrigation system, it can work anywhere.

- Right.

So essentially each user will purchase a standard kit that comes with two of these sensors.

And the user experience is fairly simple.

So they just take the sensors and stick them into their plants or land, and from there they'll download the corresponding app and connect the sensors using Bluetooth and input two simple pieces of information.

So the first is their location, which will allow the app to pull a constantly updating precipitation forecast.

And then also they will input their plant type.

So that way the plant database in the app can find the specific requirements for that plant type.

- And the perfect time to do the watering then?

- Yes.

So with that information, the algorithms, databases, everything will all take over and communicate internally to only irrigate or suggest irrigation when necessary compared to the time-based systems that are very widespread right now and don't take into consideration some of these other important factors.

- Can it override, can that override what the program is for the irrigation systems?

- Yes, that is the ultimate goal is to kind of step away from that time-based system and just really consider when it's actually needed versus when it's been programmed to.

- Okay, so that's a little bit about that.

We'll get back more, but Danielle, gBETA is, explain what it is because I still, I kind of get it, but I'm pretty- - [Danielle] That's fair.

- Pretty blank there.

- And I think a lot of people are still trying to understand what it is that we do here at Distillery Labs.

- Because it sounds like you're- - Distilling.

- Doing alcohol, yes, okay.

- We like to say we're distilling ideas, so we're a think tank.

So gBETA is one of many accelerator programs that is offered by Generator, which is my company, and that's a nationwide company.

But gBETA is our local program and it's a free seven-week accelerator for startup founders.

And we select five startup founders at a time to work with.

And at the very end they get a chance to pitch in front of investors and then we do a showcase event where they get to open up their ideas to the public and talk about their businesses.

- All right, and you picked E-Code and Khushi as a result.

So you completed your seven weeks already, is that correct?

- [Danielle] Yes.

- And then where do we go from there?

- Well, the journey doesn't stop once seven weeks is up which is the beauty of the program.

Khushi will be part of our alumni group for life.

So I'll always be checking in on her through the course of her business.

- How do you vet the people or the companies, the potential businesses in order to get your support and encouragement?

- Wonderful question.

So luckily it's not just me, we have a great team of people as well.

So we do an application and then we do an an interview process where they get five minutes to pitch and then we have 10 minutes for Q&A.

So ultimately, whether their business is pre-revenue or they're actively making money and looking to raise which is sort of our VC terminology that we use for investing, but we meet them where they're at.

So the beautiful thing about gBETA is we're really working on the founders and yes, the business, but more so the founders in developing their skillset - And keep them going.

- Exactly.

- So your product was already invented before you were involved with gBETA.

So how was that marriage?

I mean, you were incubating together here.

- I would say gBETA is probably one of the best experiences that I've had through this process of just developing a science fair project into an actual business.

Throughout high school I was involved in a lot of business teams.

I went to a whole bunch of pitch competitions but it was never the real world.

So when I decided to graduate early and use the time and place of my senior year to work full-time on the startup, I was introduced to gBETA and gBETA really helped me make that transition from a high school pitch competition idea to a real business.

And now I'm making connections, ready to do things that I never thought I would be able to do during this time.

- You're a pretty smart cookie.

And you've always been a good student.

Now you went through, middle school is when you did this project, right?

But then you went to the Math and Science Academy, correct, for a STEM program.

So, but you graduated from Dunlap High School.

Let's hear how that all happened.

- Yeah.

So my freshman year I went to Dunlap High School and then the pandemic hit.

So that was kind of an interesting start to high school but I decided that I wanted to apply to the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora which is a residential STEM school you can apply to your freshman year and then sophomore through senior year, that's where you would go.

So I got accepted, I did my sophomore year and then like three fourths of my junior year or junior and senior year there.

And then I decided that early graduation is exactly what I wanted to do.

So came back to Dunlap, it was a great reunion to be back at Dunlap and just see all my old friends, teachers, and get to have those last couple of months of high school there.

And I received my diploma.

- Huh, just that simple.

So your invention E-Code, you actually coded it.

- [Khushi] Yes.

- How did, what all went into it so that you knew exactly what you were looking for and how do you code something?

I mean, I have a hard time sending a text, so this is all really, really way beyond my wheelhouse.

- So my whole life, just with my parents background and all the programs that I was in, I was in like robotics, Girls Who Code, all the STEM extracurriculars.

So I was very passionate about technology and coding was something that I always wanted to learn.

So I saw this as a great opportunity to be able to learn those skills at a younger age.

So I had a STEM teacher at the middle school that I first talked to, and I came up with this idea and she provided me with the resources, some of the background skills that I would need.

And again, with my parents' background, they were able to support me and their friends were able to support me.

So a lot of learning, making mistakes, learning again from those mistakes I think is how I would describe coding and just my overall experience.

So I developed the fully functional version of this product in eighth grade.

And from there I've just been reprogramming to make the experience even better for users.

- So, alright.

So this is a little picture of your science fair project.

What grade did you get on it?

- Eighth grade.

No, what grade did you get?

A, B, C, I would imagine an A.

- Oh oh, an A, yeah.

- All right.

But it wasn't functioning then.

This was just your idea at that point.

- So I actually did have the functional version at that point.

So it was- - [Christine] Oh, okay.

- Very much in the prototype phase but I had a little miniature version of it that I developed for myself to demonstrate at the fair as well.

- So what did that consist of?

I mean, did you have some prongs?

Did you have, I mean you had a little chip then in there to- - Yeah, so I had a older version of the sensor and the app which didn't really look like an app that you would want to use as a customer.

It looked more of just like a bunch of numbers and algorithms, but it did what it needed to do and it gave me the results to be able to prove my hypothesis with the product.

- Okay.

When she came to you, when she applied, what was that thing that grabbed you and said, you know, we have to move forward with this?

- Oh gosh, so many things, to be honest.

Khushi really exemplifies what we're looking for in a founder.

She is very curious, she's dedicated to the business, she's incredibly considerate and thoughtful and takes feedback well and coachable.

So that's something that we're really looking for in founders because gBETA is such an exploratory process that when you're going through it, you may or may not realize that your business idea is going to work.

So you have to be able to be able to pivot, learn from your mentors, and be able to take criticism.

And she's done all of that and more.

- Well, who are your mentors then?

Who are your coaches?

- We can both sort of answer this, I think.

But I'll start if that's okay.

We bring in local mentors, we bring in other business owners.

We have a really great pool of people with Generator.

Again, that's nationwide.

So we'll work with people in all different expertises and fields.

But ultimately what we're really looking for is someone who wants to serve as a mentor and give back.

And there's really nothing expected from them other than just endless curiosity.

- Do they all come locally?

- A good chunk of them.

A good chunk.

- And then who were your coaches and your mentors?

- So everyone in the Generator community, like Danielle said, whether they were local or halfway across the country there is just so much that I've learned from everyone at Generator.

Even just all of the other founders that we had in our cohort, being the youngest, they never let me feel like I was the youngest.

I felt very included and just a part of the family that our cohort had.

So it was very nice learning from all of the other founders and their experiences.

And then I would say outside of gBETA and Generator, my parents have been amazing mentors.

All of the teachers that I've had and just community members providing me feedback on my product and just supporting me.

- Where do we get these?

I mean, obviously you have a website.

And you go on and you buy one 'cause you want your yard to look nicer so your plants to look nicer.

What?

- Yeah, so actually right now I'm in the process of preparing for my first beta launch.

So very much still in the works, but I have been working for the past few months to gather interest from community members, some friends and family that may not live in our community but are still interested in trying the product and being some of the first customers.

So I'm very excited to be launching more information on that soon.

- Now, so you don't have to have an in-ground irrigation system, this will work with anything.

Because I spoke with a friend and she has something on her rain gutter or something and she has the irrigation system but that's not quite as accurate as yours, as your E-Code.

- Yeah, so there are other smart technologies in the irrigation space that are emerging that I've seen over the past few years.

And like you said, one of them is the rain sensor technology.

So with that technology, the sensor physically detects precipitation or drop in temperature and that's when it tells the system to not irrigate.

However, the difference between the rain technology and my technology is that it's my technology is predicting the forecast in the future.

- So you programmed that all in that it wouldn't be able to get that from a satellite?

The forecast.

- Yeah, so there's like a global weather database that I figured out how to program into my code as well as some other databases that I created myself.

And with that information, it's constantly updating so you're always getting the most accurate results out of your system.

- Oh.

- Truly impressive.

- It really truly is impressive.

So you have this now, you have added a name to, you're not only the CEO of E-Code, founder and CEO, but also Drizzl, D-R-I-Z-Z-L?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

Just spelled, okay.

So what does that all mean?

How did that all come about?

- So E-Code was the name that I actually had for my science fair project.

Wasn't really sure what the thought process is now but I'm definitely sure there was something that I had come up with that made me lead, go to that name for my project and that's just the name that I used over the years going to all different pitch competitions and that's also the name that my LLC is under.

And then being in the gBETA program, one of the pieces of feedback that I got was that it would be really cool if I had a name for my product that made it a little bit easier for users to understand what it may be related to just based on the name.

So after a lot of brainstorming bouncing ideas off of Danielle, as she knows, I came up with Drizzl, spelled like Drizzl without the e at the end.

And I just, I really like the ring that that name has to it and just the, I don't know, I feel like it gave the product a new identity which I'm really liking.

- That has to do with rain, drizzle, drops, all that.

Incredible.

So where do you plan to go from here?

I mean, what is, this is an early question, your bucket list with this and what's your next invention to go along with this?

Or is there one that you're still developing here?

- For sure.

So going through this process, being in gBETA and just having this experience, especially with my gap year, helped me realize that I do want to be a tech entrepreneur long term.

It's something that really excites me and it's a great way for me to combine all of my passions and interests.

So with this business I know that I really, really wanna take it to the finish line and I want this to be a product that's used all over the US, all over the world, whether that be residentially, in the ag space, or commercially.

I think there's a lot of opportunity for this product and I know that I have a lot of resources and supporters to help me get there.

In regards to other inventions, I know that this is just the first of many and with my passions for sustainability and technology, I know that there's a lot more that I am excited to take on in the future.

- And related to this, or have you thought of anything else?

You brainstorming, any light bulbs coming on?

- Yeah, so I've thought of some different versions of this product that can be used for different things, whether that be house plants or farms.

So I'm really looking forward to developing those once I'm able to do a few launches with this product.

And then from there I know that there are a lot of other things that go into sustainability that I can definitely dive deeper into.

- All right.

So this is a gap year and that means you just, you graduated early, you took the year off, you've applied to colleges, but you'll leave Peoria if you go away to school somewhere.

- Yes.

So I think with the community that I've been able to build in the Peoria area, I'm never truly leaving Peoria.

I think that there's always going to be a part of me here no matter where I go.

And especially just with all the work and the support that I've gotten on my business here in Peoria, I know that this is a place where I really want to continue accelerating the expansion of my business no matter where in the world I may be.

- All right.

And then once she goes away to school, you'll still be able to be in touch and coach in whatever capacity?

- Absolutely.

And that is part of the beauty of the gBETA program is now that Khushi is part of our alumni, we'll just do a simple check-in monthly if there's any particular asks and in regards to connections or resources I'm certainly willing and able to help where I can.

- Okay.

And, alright, so let's get back.

Now, you were born in Peoria.

- Yes.

- Because your parents came here but you have quite an interesting little journey where you've been.

- Yeah, so I was born in Peoria and then just because of my parents' jobs we moved around a lot.

So lived in Italy for three years, England for three or four years, and then also in North Carolina for a while.

So very much in and out of Peoria, and I think I attended 12 schools by the time I graduated high school.

So definitely quite the journey.

- All right.

And you've adjusted to life on the road basically?

- Yes.

I think it really helped me.

It really helped shape who I am and it gave me a lot of life skills and experiences that I don't think I would've gotten otherwise.

- So you wanna go away to college, you think you'll do it in less than four years like you did high school?

- I think that's something that I have not decided yet.

I know that I definitely, in addition to taking advantage of all the academic opportunities at school, I really want to enjoy the four years with my family and friends.

So I guess just kind of naturally seeing where things take me will definitely be the best way for me to go about it.

- And what will you major in?

- I'm planning to do a double major in computer science and entrepreneurship or some schools have programs that are already combining those.

So anything that will help me achieve my goal of becoming a full-time tech entrepreneur is what I would want to focus on.

- Well you could probably teach the classes because you're already doing all that, right?

What do you think her success rate will be, Danielle?

- Honestly, I wish I could predict the future but knowing the type of founder that Khushi is, I think her chances are wonderful.

- Well that's a lot of fun.

What ideas do you have to offer to Danielle and gBETA from everything that you've learned and what more they could do?

- [Danielle] This is a great question.

- I haven't thought about this one yet but I think the one thing again that I really loved about gBETA is even though I was the youngest one in the program, I never felt like I didn't belong in the family.

And I think it was a great way for me to really get a feel for the real world and what entrepreneurship really looks like outside of just pitch competition.

So I think the continuation of inspiring younger founders and giving them the same experiences is something that I really hope that gBETA continues to do.

- [Christine] And what do you think?

- [Danielle] I concur.

I love that.

- So do you have any friends who are as inspired as you that could be in or qualify for that program?

Or are you just kind of off on your own?

- I've definitely met a lot of other students internationally through pitch competitions and programs that have amazing ideas.

So I think that programs like Generator's gBETA would be very, very beneficial to them.

I also have friends that are not interested in entrepreneurship, but they're doing amazing things in whatever fields they're interested in.

So even having similar programs like gBETA for students interested in other fields would be an amazing opportunity, I think.

- Just really exciting.

Do you have brothers and sisters?

- I have a younger sister that's in fifth grade.

- All right.

And she got anything twirling around in her brain to match your achievements?

- She's doing, she's doing amazing things but she's still pretty young, I would say.

So I can't wait to see what she does as she starts middle school next year though.

I know it's gonna be great.

- Is she curious about what you've done so far?

- Yes, she is like my number one fan.

So everything that I've done, she's always been my hype man behind everything I do.

- That's so much fun.

And your parents are 100%, 150% supportive?

- Oh, yes.

- And family.

So now you recently returned from India.

Did you take any of these products with you in order to instill their benefits to your relatives there?

- Yes, I actually did.

And I was really excited about that because the last time I'd gone, I'd gotten inspiration to make this product and then, you know, five or six years down the line I'm going back and I actually have a product.

So I actually took my sensors with me, was able to test them while I was there and just really see what kind of potential my product has to make an impact, not only in the Midwest or in the States, but all over the world.

- And so what kind of readings did you get there?

I mean, too bad you can't make it rain if they need it.

- Right.

So with the forecast, I was still able to see, I think it was like 80 or 90 degrees when I was there.

So it was absolutely wonderful.

Not a lot of rain, actually.

I think their monsoon season is not happening right now, so.

But it was very cool to still get the readings of the ground humidity and obviously because the ground is even different there.

It was exciting to see that my product can still work in different environments.

- [Christine] And it doesn't go down very far.

- No, only up until this black line right here is where it will go.

- Just so interesting.

- Really is.

- Well, yeah, anything to add?

We're just about out of time.

- Oh gosh.

Well, by the time this airs, we will be ready to kick off our spring cohort.

So we will have five new founders that we're working with starting April 13th.

- All right, great.

Well thank you ladies for being with me today and for sharing this really interesting invention and all the best to you.

Best to gBETA and all the best to all of you as well.

Thanks for joining us.

I hope you stay safe and healthy and hold happiness.

(bright music)