Setup & onboarding
Unbox, pair the app, install the first trays, and tell us how onboarding actually felt.
Founder 100
The first households, doing real work.
Founders are not early customers with a discount. They are the households that find out whether this system actually works outside our own building — and tell us when it does not.
Apply nowFirst cohort: 20 households$599 — $299 back on completing your missionsApplications reviewed for fit
Purpose
One question: can an ordinary household keep this going?
We can already grow crops reliably in conditions we control. What we do not know is what happens across many real kitchens, over months, with real schedules and real interruptions.
Founder 100 exists to answer that — including the uncomfortable parts.
The machine
The real Luya X-1 — not a render.
The offer
$599 up front — $299 back when your missions are complete.
Approved participants purchase one LUYA system for $599. The program starts with a first cohort of 20 households.
First-cohort Founders who complete the seven Founder Missions get $299 refunded — an effective price of $300, half the Founder price, for doing the work the program exists for. Terms for later cohorts are published before those cohorts open.
If you do not finish, nothing extra is owed. The refund is simply not issued, and the price remains $599 — not a penalty, just the deal as stated.
Founder 100 is invitation-based and limited. We select for fit rather than order of arrival, considering household environment, intended use, and willingness to participate.
- Shipping on us
- Shipping within the US is covered by LUYA.
- Returnable
- If the program is not working out, contact the team and we arrange the return.
- No penalty when life happens
- A missed mission for a reasonable reason is adjusted, not punished.
- Ships Oct–Nov 2026
- September is application review and onboarding.
Founder status is tied to the invited participant: not transferable, not for resale. Founder 100 is for people who will actually use the product.
A quick sum
What are you spending on this already?
Your numbers, not ours. Most people have never added it up.
2 packs per week
$5 each
A 2 oz clamshell typically runs $4–6.None per month
That's about
$520a year
- $520 on fresh greens
A Founder system is $599 once — $300 for first-cohort Founders who complete their missions. Whether that is worth it depends less on the arithmetic than on how often you actually want fresh greens in reach.
This compares your current spending with the one-time Founder price only. LUYA is a consumable system — you will buy trays — and tray pricing is not published yet, so it is not in this sum. We will publish it before anyone is asked to buy.
What Founders receive
Access, influence, and a permanent place in the record.
- Founder pricing
- $599 for one system, by invitation — first-cohort Founders get $299 refunded when the seven missions are complete.
- Your name on the machine
- Every Founder system is engraved with its Founder's name. The first hundred machines carry the first hundred names.
- A direct line to the founders
- An email address that reaches LUYA's founders directly — shared at onboarding.
- Founder 100 status
- Permanent recognition as part of the first cohort.
- Priority support
- Not a support queue — direct access to the product team.
- Early access
- Selected features, growing recipes and software updates before general release.
- A voice in the product
- Founder feedback drives recipe and software changes during the program.
- Founder Stories
- By mutual agreement, a chance to be featured in LUYA's customer stories.
Some benefits may change as the product and operations develop. The binding version of everything here is the Founder 100 Participation Terms.
Recognition
CES Picks Awards 2026 — Winner
Luya Smart Indoor Microgreens Grower, selected by the editors of TWICE, Residential Systems and TechRadar Pro at CES 2026.
Read the announcement →
Cornell Rev — Manufacturing Hardware Accelerator
LUYA is a member of the Manufacturing Hardware Accelerator at Rev: Ithaca Startup Works, a Cornell University initiative supporting hardware startups with mentorship, prototyping resources and industry connections.
Growing science — a named team
LUYA's growing recipes are developed with Dr. Zhenlei Xiao (postharvest biology), Dr. Oumayma Shaiek (nutrition and bioactive compounds) and Dr. Muhammad Asim (plant photobiology) — with each person's actual scope of involvement stated.
Meet the team →In public
The machine has been out of the building.
Twice this year a Luya X-1 has run in front of strangers: at CES in Las Vegas in January, where it won a CES Picks award, and at Leap East in Hong Kong in July, where we exhibited at the organisers' invitation. Both times the same way — plugged in, doors open, crops actually growing.
This is not a customer testimonial and we are not going to dress it up as one. Nobody in these photographs has bought anything. It is simply the plainest evidence we have today that the device works somewhere other than our own bench — and the Founder 100 exists precisely because the next kind of evidence has to come from households.
CES 2026 · Las Vegas · January
Leap East · Hong Kong · July
Who it suits
This fits some households and not others.
- A good fit
- You have counter space, you will actually eat fresh greens, and you are willing to report problems in detail.
- Also a good fit
- You are comfortable with pre-production hardware and software that will change during the program.
- Not a good fit
- You want a finished, polished appliance today, or you want the gardening hobby itself.
- Also not a good fit
- You cannot commit to using it continuously for the length of the program.
Honest reviews
We do not ask for positive reviews.
Participation is not conditioned on liking the product. Negative feedback, bugs and failed cycles are worth as much to this program as the good runs — arguably more.
What we want is real use, real problems, real opinions.
If you post publicly about LUYA, disclose that you are a Founder 100 participant and received access to a special Founder price, as required by applicable law and platform rules.
The commitment
Seven Founder Missions over 30 days.
The participation period runs 30 days from the day your system is installed and activated. If a device issue, crop failure or shipping delay gets in the way, the period can be extended — tell us.
An unboxing video
30 seconds to 3 minutes. No script and no production values required — authenticity is worth more.
Two growing cycles
Capture day 1, progress, pre-harvest, harvest, and a real meal. A failed cycle still counts if you document it.
Two honest reviews
One after each cycle: growing, plant quality, taste, the app, and what disappointed you.
Two interviews
Two ~30-minute calls, around day 7–10 and day 30. Recorded only with your consent.
Report problems
Bugs, crop failures, confusing workflows. Finding these before launch is the point of the program.
Closing survey
5–10 minutes at the end: satisfaction, value, price perception, whether you'd recommend it.
All seven complete → $299 refunded.
Your effective price lands at $300 — half the Founder price — after the closing survey is in.
Risks
What could go wrong for you.
- It is an early product
- Expect software bugs, connectivity issues, firmware and app updates, and growing-parameter changes. Some cycles will fail.
- It will change
- Features and growing recipes will move during the program, sometimes disruptively.
- Time cost
- Two cycles, two interviews, two reviews and a survey — on top of ordinary use.
- No penalty for life happening
- If you can't finish a mission for a reasonable reason, tell us and we'll adjust. Missing a mission does not by itself trigger a charge or penalty on a system you have already bought.
Process
From applying to growing.
- 1 · Register interest
- A short form — name, email and where you are.
- 2 · Full application
- Household context, space, motivation, and time you can commit.
- 3 · Selection
- We select for fit and variety of household, not order of arrival.
- 4 · Terms
- Participation terms and any commercial arrangement, in writing, before you commit.
- 5 · Onboarding
- Hardware, setup, and the feedback rhythm for the program.
Questions
The practical questions, answered.
- When do systems ship?
- The first Founder systems are planned to ship in October–November 2026. September is application review and onboarding — that is when we talk to applicants and confirm the cohort.
- How big is the first cohort?
- Twenty households. Founder 100 grows in cohorts — the first cohort is 20, and terms for later cohorts are published before those cohorts open.
- How does the $299 refund work?
- You purchase at $599. First-cohort Founders who complete the seven Founder Missions — including any adjustments agreed with the team along the way — get $299 refunded after the closing survey, bringing the effective price to $300. Not finishing is not penalised; the refund is simply not issued.
- Where is Founder 100 available?
- The United States only, for this first cohort.
- Who pays for shipping?
- We do. Shipping within the US is covered by LUYA.
- Can I return the system?
- Yes. If the program is not working out, contact the team and we will arrange the return. Return terms are confirmed in writing before you purchase.
- What happens after I register interest?
- We review every registration and contact you either way. Registering is not a purchase and not a commitment — it starts a conversation in which we assess fit on both sides.
Register interest
- Shipping on usWithin the US
- ReturnableIf it isn't working out
- No penaltyWhen life gets in the way
- Ships Oct–Nov 2026September is onboarding
If it looks like a fit, we send the full application and the participation terms — nothing is agreed before you have read both.
Founder 100 — first cohort: 20 households.
Apply now