VermiPod Inc., founded by Bill Kreitzer, is located in Elliott, Illinois in the heart of America’s farm land. Bill’s family came to the United States from Prussia in 1879 and established a general store and farm in and around Elliott, Illinois. For three generations they worked, prospered and established their mark on the surrounding community. Bill grew up working in his father’s furniture and appliance store in Elliott. While attending Arizona State University, Bill established a life-long friendship with Barry Goldwater, Jr., one of his trusted partners in the worm business.

After attending Arizona State University, Bill returned to Elliott to manage the family farm. Knowing that just one foot of top soil had all the fertilizer needed to grow 150 bushels of corn every year for the next 300 years, he became frustrated with having to purchase fertilizer every year. Bill asked, “why do I have to buy this fertilizer every year?” His son told him that there were not enough micro-organisms in the soil to convert the natural fertilizer. Hearing this, Bill began experimenting with ways to put micro-organisms back into the soil, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.

Once Bill discovered that the earthworm, the largest of the micro-organisms, laid a cocoon with eggs inside, he began experimenting with a process for collecting and protecting the earthworm cocoon. The idea being to insert a sufficient quantity of earthworm cocoons into the soil to serve as a natural fertilizer to replace the expensive chemical fertilizers that were negatively impacting his farm’s profitability.

In 1991, the University of Illinois came to the Kreitzer farm and preformed research to learn how many earthworms it would actually take to grow corps without the use of fertilizers. It was during this time that Mr. Kreitzer began to develop the idea of planting earthworm cocoons (eggs) at the same time as the crop was being planted. Bill’s work soon produced his first Patent on July 7, 1992, on one type of encapsulation method; US Patent 5,127,186. This particular method of encapsulation was not economically viable because of the high cost. It was not until December 28, 2004, when Bill received his second Patent, US 6,834,614, “Method and Apparatus for Encapsulating, Implanting, and Reducing the Mortality Rate in Earthworm Cocoons” that it became economically feasible. He called these encapsulated cocoons VermiPods™. Now for the very first time, earthworm cocoons could be planted like ordinary seed, which was previously biologically impossible.

In the Spring of 2009, Kreitzer and Goldwater had the good fortune to meet Mike Hecomovich, a seasoned entrepreneur with a broad base of skills in general management, sales, marketing, customer service and business development. Mike is an exceptional leader, mentor and visionary who spearheaded the start-up and management of growth strategies and initiatives of nine different companies. Mike had just sold his company, Global Marketing Services, the exclusive sales and marketing organization that represented IBM Printing Supplies in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and was looking for a new adventure. In August of 2009, Mike became a partner. The three VermiPod partners, Mike Hecomovich, Bill Kreitzer and Barry Goldwater, Jr. complement each other and represent the management of VermiPod Inc.