Latest news with #KevinBoodram
New York Post
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- New York Post
Meet the 24-year-old law school dropout who started Long Island's only silent, self-driving lawn-mowing biz
Customers have no objections. A 24-year-old Georgetown Law dropout is all the buzz on Long Island as he commands the only local fleet of silent, self-driving lawnmowers that are revolutionizing the industry with their motion sensor capabilities. 'We market them as a Roomba for your lawn,' Kevin Boodram, who started Huntington-based Serenity Lawncare at age 21, told The Post. 3 Kevin Boodram dropped out of law school to pursue his Huntington-based Serenity Lawncare. Dennis A. Clark 'When we first told customers about them two years ago, I remember it like yesterday, they were extremely interested and hardly anyone was skeptical.' The futuristic device made by Husqvarna, which Boodram and his team leave at people's homes and check in on weekly, also allows customers to cut their lawn at pre-set times. 'It's so quiet that some people will set it to cut their grass overnight because neighbors can't even hear it,' he said. Admittedly, Boodram 'had no interest in getting into the lawn care industry,' but was compelled when the noise from other landscapers working in his Floral Park neighborhood made it hard for him to do his law school studying. 'Law school was the plan, but I got fed up with the gas lawn mowers making noise in my neighborhood while taking classes remotely. I literally couldn't concentrate because of it.' That was enough for Boodram to begin his grassroots business. And in just a few years, it has grown into 60 all-electric mowers — quieter than birds chirping and about the size of a car tire with no handlebars — that service about 80 customers on the North Shore of Suffolk County, all the way to Western Nassau. 3 'We market them as a Roomba for your lawn,' Kevin Boodram said. Dennis A. Clark Serenity installs guidewires to curbs to keep it from going onto a driveway or street and implants a battery port on the lawn as well. Guidewires also lead the mower back to charge automatically when its battery is getting low. 'It's also extremely safe around children and animals,' Boodram added after sticking his hand below the $700 unit to show how it will automatically stop for obstacles. Boodram does have some traditional, non robotic, employees, who do things such as seeding and edging that can't be so easily automated. 3 Serinity's next step is leasing the electric mowers — and landscapers are the most interested market. Dennis A. Clark The grass is always greener Needless to say, at first, Boodram's family wasn't thrilled to hear their son had foregone Georgetown Law for lawn care. At the time, he didn't even have robots as part of his company; instead, he was driving a noiseless push mower from job to job in his black 2001 Mustang. 'When I was mowing lawns in my neighborhood, I had random people come out and yell at me — people had never met in my whole life and say, 'What are you doing? I thought you were going to school!'' Boodram recalled. 'Random people thought it was crazy to see me, because they didn't really understand what I was trying to do…dropping out became the best business decision I could have ever made.' Initially, before calling it quits academically, Boodram was awarded grants from Georgetown for his eco-friendly business model that got the motor for Serenity running. After initial success and proof of concept, last January, Boodram hit it big with another grant for $20,000. The extra green to invest in greens allowed him to expand his robotic fleet — one that complements other all-electric devices. It includes a supplemental drivable lawnmower for customers who want their grass cut faster than the robot, which moves slowly. Now, conventional gas-guzzling landscapers are shaking more than their mowers as some customers literally tell Boodram, 'Serenity now!' like Frank Costanza of 'Seinfeld' iconically proclaimed. 'One of the other landscaping companies who does some of the houses got out of his truck and started yelling at me,' Boodram said. ''You're crazy, you don't know what you're doing, your company's trash, your equipment is trash, this battery stuff is garbage.'' Really, it was fear of the future vocalized, Bodram believes. As it is, Serinity's next step is leasing the electric mowers — and landscapers are the most interested market. 'The house they were working on when I was yelled at is now my customer.'
CBS News
12-05-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Deafening lawnmowers being replaced by quiet electric bots in some Long Island communities
Some Long Island residents are ditching their loud lawnmowers for something a bit quieter, tiny electric-powered bots. The idea came from a college student during the COVID-19 pandemic who couldn't focus because of the noise from gas-powered lawnmowers. The birth of Serenity Robotic Lawncare "Unbearable, that's the only word to really describe it. I couldn't hear myself think," Kevin Boodram said. So Boodram decided to figure out an alternative to the problem and Serenity Robotic Lawncare was born. The robots are battery-powered and use sensors to figure out where to mow. The company now has around 70 customers. "He's doing the neighborhood a service of getting rid of a lot of the gas-powered equipment," said customer Chris Deegan. "It goes out continuously. It can run 12 hours a day, 3 in the morning because it's silent, so it just takes off a little bit at a time," Boodram said. "With the traditional landscaper, you cut the grass and it looks nice, but three or four days later the grass is overgrown again. With our robot, the lawn is at the perfect height all throughout the week." The push to ban gas-powered lawnmowers The bots have gained popularity as many municipalities have banned gas-powered blowers. There has been a push for cleaner alternatives in landscapes in Huntington. "In the medical community, we are calling noise secondhand smoke. Whether you think the noise bothers you or not, it still has an effect on your health. It raises your cortisol levels. It increases your blood pressure," said Dr. Bonnie Sager, of Huntington Cleaner Alternative Landscaping Methods. "It's really a movement and a community coming together, to say let's come up with a solution to lawncare that's better for the community, safer for landscapers, and better for the environment," Boodram said. Battery-powered lawncare will be at the state capital in Albany next week as groups lobby for New York to offer incentives to keep neighborhoods quiet. The state Legislature is also considering giving rebates to companies and municipalities that convert to electric options.
