Ryan Lee

Post-pitch story

Ryan Lee and Kay Kim pitched Rooted in October 2019 on an episode with a memorable title: "Stop Killing Your Plants." Their New York startup delivers houseplants straight to your door, with the care guidance to keep them alive. The idea was to make plant ownership easy for apartment dwellers who'd lost one too many ferns. The timing worked out better than anyone could have planned. A few months after the episode, the pandemic kept people at home, and houseplants became one of the hobbies of the lockdown era. Plant-industry press including Plant People featured Rooted in 2020 as a direct-to-consumer plant brand to watch. Rooted is still running. Crunchbase lists it as active and private, operating under the legal name LFG Corporation, with Lee still co-founder and CEO and several funding rounds recorded. The amounts haven't been disclosed. Its exact size and revenue aren't public, but the company is still growing and shipping greenery years after the pitch. In a category where many pandemic-era plant startups faded, simply still being here is a win. Rooted, it turns out, put down roots.