Tertill - Female Executive of the Year

Company: Tertill, North Billerica, MA
Company Description: As the first and only weeding robot on the market designed for home gardens, Tertill is a solar-powered, weatherproof gadget that lives in a garden, runs on sunshine, and weeds every day. It’s a completely new way to organically control weeds that doesn’t require spending hours on your hands and knees or spraying chemical herbicides.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Products –10 or Less Employees

Nomination Title: Helen Greiner

Helen was introduced to robots at ten years old after seeing Star Wars and becoming enthralled with R2-D2. After earning her master’s from MIT where she studied robotics and AI, Helen co-founded iRobot in 1990 and operated at the forefront of the successful launch of the iconic Roomba® Vacuuming Robot, which now lives in over 20 million households worldwide. Having served as president until 2004 and chairman until 2008, Helen guided iRobot into its position as a global leader with the release of the Roomba, PackBot and SUGV Military Robots.

Helen built a culture of practical innovation and delivery that led to the deployment of more than 6,000 tactical robots with our troops and over 15 million home robots worldwide. In addition, she led iRobot's financing efforts, raising $35M in venture capital for a $75M initial public offering.

Helen also founded CyPhy Works, a drone company that delivered persistent drones flying for many hours, days, weeks at a time autonomously. Throughout her career, she has worked at the Pentagon for the US Army, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and served as President of the Robotic Technology Consortium (now the National Ground Vehicle Consortium).

In the fall of 2020, Helen was appointed CEO and Chairman of Tertill, where she leads the company to bring disruptive technology to the gardening industry with its flagship product, the garden weeding robot, in an effort to help more people grow nutritious and delicious food, reduce the use of herbicides, and make gardening accessible to everyone. Helen’s appointment garnered media attention from outlets such as TechCrunch, Bloomberg Bay State Business, and The Boston Globe.

Since Helen joined the team, Tertill has started selling and delivering via Amazon and other online retailers in addition to the brand’s website to enhance customer convenience and keep up with growing demand. These efforts have increased sales by threefold.

Helen also leads Tertill’s fundraising efforts and during her first year with the company, secured $4 million in seed funding from investors including Garage VC, Moai Capital, Regah Ventures, R42 Group and MIT Angels, plus individual investors and family offices.

These accomplishments are significant because they will help average people live a more healthy, sustainable lifestyle. Tertill enables people to more easily grow their own foods. Homegrown food is more nutritious and delicious than produce purchased at the grocery store, as vegetables start losing flavors and vitamins as soon as they are harvested. Additionally, gardening promotes a healthy lifestyle of being outside and working with your hands (there is plenty to do beyond weeding like planting, twining, pest monitoring, pruning, harvesting etc).

Tertill is a green company focused on removing the barrier to a more sustainable lifestyle. With the time consuming problem of weeding taken care of, more busy professionals and parents will be able to indulge in growing their own food. This will result in less harmful chemicals ingested, less environmentally polluting transportation of food, less food waste (pick only what you need to eat), less environmentally damaging packaging, and more micronutrients from food.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials

The Benefit of Garden-to-Table Produce Versus Supermarket Varities: https://bit.ly/3Ac5qye