Ashley Wright grew up among perennials and potting soil, but her path to transforming the green industry took her through boardrooms at McKinsey, innovation labs at General Mills, and the fast-paced world of startups. Now, as CEO and co-founder of Plantista, she’s bringing Silicon Valley-style innovation to one of the last industries to digitize. With deep industry roots and a sharp eye for strategy, Wright is building a vertical SaaS platform that helps independent garden centers, nurseries, and landscape designers thrive in an increasingly tech-driven economy. In this Q&A, she discusses why the timing is right, how AI is empowering small business owners, and why Plantista isn’t out to disrupt the industry, but to scale what’s already special about it.

You grew up in the green industry, how did your early experiences in garden centers shape the vision behind Plantista?

In short, they helped me identify the opportunity space for Plantisa. Growing up, garden centers didn’t store and manage their inventory digitally, it was done by sight and phone calls. In addition, their core differentiator was the 1×1 deep expertise they were able to provide. Eventually in this model, scale becomes capped at a mid-sized business. Recently, the industry has largely brought their inventory online. This paired with the introduction of AI and a new generation of digitally native plant owners has opened a massive opportunity to transform and grow this industry.

After stints at McKinsey, General Mills, and a VC-backed startup, what ultimately pulled you back into the green industry to start Plantista?

In considering new business ideas or career hops, I always think “Why me? Why now?” With green industry businesses passing down to the next generation, a move to digitized inventory, and a whole new set of market entrants that have come into plants via a COVID-era plant surge, the industry is demanding innovation and change. With my background in strategy and technology, paired with my roots in the green industry, I’m well positioned to come in and help catalyze that innovation and growth. I also love the people in this industry.

Why do you believe the green industry is one of the last major verticals to be modernized by SaaS, and why now?

A significant portion of the green industry is privately owned and passed down through generations. This has siloed the industry over time, leaving it and the $100B in revenue it drives each year, largely overlooked by investors and technology companies. In addition, the industry is passing down right now en masse to a third generation of owners. Where the second generation owners may have been resistant to technology advancement, the third generation is not only welcoming but demanding custom technology to help them run and grow these businesses.

You’ve said Plantista isn’t here to “disrupt” but to help garden centers thrive in the next era. What does that look like in practice?

Plantista scales (rather than replaces) the deep expertise of the green industry owners, operators and experts. As one of our customers with a PhD in Plant Ecology put it “So many plants. So few brain cells.” This industry is inherently complex and hyper localized. With Plantista, garden centers can offer custom landscape design, text message care reminders and individualized plant advice to their tens of thousands of customers all at the same time.

Many vertical SaaS companies seek venture capital early. Why did you choose to raise from green industry insiders instead?

It was important to me, particularly in the beginning stages of the business while we were building and shaping what Plantista would become, to grow the product from within the industry and be able to return any success back to the industry. Raising our pre-seed from strategic investors has provided us invaluable expertise and also the ability to grow our technology to serve our most important primary customer base, which is independent garden centers and landscapers.

How is Plantista leveraging AI in ways that feel intuitive and empowering to users who may not be tech-savvy?

I like to compare our technology to the use of a calculator. You could solve the math problem without a calculator, but with a calculator, you can solve so many more math problems better and quicker. The way we deploy our AI technology is the same. We guide you through the inputs, and we give you the answer you’re looking for, faster than you’d be able to do yourself. This applies to AI design, plant care reminders and plant advice. We also make it accessible through text message, a technology nearly everyone is familiar with.

What kind of feedback have you gotten from early adopters, especially multigenerational or family-run garden centers?

One of my favorite quotes so far from a third-generation owner (and now investor) in Plantista is, “It’s like my A-team…scaled.” Operating in the green industry inherently requires a high degree of skill and expertise, in a highly seasonal industry reliant on seasonal support to function. These owners are perpetually overworked and understaffed, limiting the time they’re able to put into growth, process optimization, or anything beyond getting through the day to day. With Plantista, green industry businesses can now scale the expertise of their best designer, best plant expert, best analyst, and best operations manager to every team member and every customer at any given time.

Talk to us about your product roadmap. What are the next tools or integrations you’re most excited about rolling out?

In the first half of 2025, we’ve been focused on building out our AI to optimize operations and drive customers in-store. This includes AI “Plantscape” Design across all plant zones, Intelligent Plant Care Reminders across 10,000+ species, and a text-based Alice AI Assistant which serves as a plant expert for both internal teams and external customers.

As we approach the back half of the year, we’re excited to be able to begin expanding our scope to include support for ecommerce, significantly expanding our ability to capture value for brick and mortar as well as online plant commerce businesses.

As you scale, what will success look like for you in the next 12–18 months, market share, impact, or something else?

Our goal is to be the vertical SAAS player in the green industry, connecting the entire green industry value chain to grow revenue, individualize customer experience and optimize operations.

What advice would you give other entrepreneurs building vertical SaaS in legacy industries that are just starting to digitize?

We built a Customer Advisory Board in the earliest days of our business, offering shares of equity in our company to our first customers, in exchange for their feedback and insights which were then used to guide product prioritization and feature development. I would advise every founder in a similar spot to do the same. This enabled us to move fast, test quickly, and build with ultimate focus on the solutions that will be most effective.

The post Q&A with Ashley Wright, CEO and Co-founder of Plantista appeared first on citybiz.

This contant was orignally distributed by citybiz. Blockchain Registration, Verification & Enhancement provided by NewsRamp™. The source URL for this press release is Q&A with Ashley Wright, CEO and Co-founder of Plantista.