Meet the team - Mario Sanchez

Mario was born and raised in Pasto, Colombia. Shortly after finalizing his bachelor degree in his home country he moved to London where he lived for almost 3 years, to study and work. After the UK, Mario moved to Stockholm where he studied his master degree at Royal Institute of Technology, and since then he has been heavily involved in product development and the startup ecosystem. Co-founder of Botanium, previously co-founder and CTO of Tinitell, and now leading the Hardware team at iZettle/Paypal.

How did your Journey at Botanium begin? 
I am a plant lover, who really appreciates having fresh herbs from my own garden. 

Back in 2016, my balcony garden grew and I had too little time to take care of it due to intensive traveling so I came up with a way to make it smarter and self watering. This was the topic of discussion while having a meeting with Johannes, with whom I had had the opportunity to work with before, and who told me that at his current job there was a great industrial designer and plant geek, that had a nice product idea related to that and so, he set up a meeting.

This was when we all came together, and started a long but super interesting discussion of what later became... Botanium!

How do you spend your free time?
Cycling, running, hanging-out with my family and dog... I love to be close to nature.

Can you tell something that many do not know about you?
I worked as a rickshaw in London for a few months. Super fun! :)

How do you think Botanium can make a difference in the world?
By enabling more people to be a grower and bring micro farming to urban areas, these cannot only help us to consume better quality of food but also be beneficial for the environment.

What motivates you in life? 
Doing something that makes an impact in people’s life.

Let's end with some quick and fun questions.

If you could be someone else for a day, who would it be?
Elon Musk, it would be interesting to see how his normal days are.

What 3 things would you take to a desert island?
A torch, a swiss knive and a hammock.

Do you have a Bucket list and if so - what are the three things at the top of the list?

• Have my own, big garden.
• Learn Mandarin.
• Drive a Ferrari in a race track.

Thanks Mario!