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Insights on Rejection with Ryan Smith
7 Plays3 years ago
Being a founder is synonymous with facing rejection. What separates successful startups from the rest are founders who know how to work through that rejection. But how do you keep saying yes when the world is telling you to stop? Join us in today's conversation with Ryan Smith, Founder and CEO of Recylops, and investor Curt Roberts of Kickstart (a VC firm for startups in Utah, Colorado, and the Mountain West) as we bring you both sides of a Perfect Pitch. In this episode, we'll talk about:
How Ryan managed being a college student, working his day job, and being a founder all at once
Curt's thoughts on student entrepreneurship and how "side hustles" can be problematic
An investor's perspective on the benefits and challenges of social entrepreneurship
How a founder can know whether their startup is worth pursuing or if it's time to throw in the towel
Recommended
Transcript
Embracing Rejection as a Founder
00:00:01
Speaker
Being a founder is synonymous with facing rejection.
00:00:04
Speaker
What separates successful startups from the rest are founders who know how to work through that rejection.
00:00:09
Speaker
But how do you keep saying yes when the world is telling you to stop?
Introduction to 'Perfect Pitch' with Guests Ryan Smith and Kurt Roberts
00:00:12
Speaker
Join us in today's conversation with Ryan Smith, founder and CEO of Recyclops and investor Kurt Roberts, as we bring you both sides of A Perfect Pitch.
00:00:31
Speaker
Perfect Pitch is a podcast from Kickstart that reveals the minds of both investors and entrepreneurs throughout a startup's journey.
00:00:40
Speaker
I'm your host, Karen Zelnick.
00:00:42
Speaker
Ryan and Kurt, thank you so much for being here today.
00:00:45
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Thanks for having me.
00:00:45
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I'm excited to be here.
00:00:47
Speaker
Thank you, Karen.
00:00:48
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Looking forward to it as always.
Ryan Smith's Journey: Recyclops and Recognition
00:00:50
Speaker
Before we jump into the discussion, I want to tell everybody a little bit about you.
00:00:54
Speaker
Ryan, you're the founder and CEO of Recyclops, which for those who don't know, is an amazing company that leverages technology to bring recycling to communities that don't normally have access to it.
00:01:04
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So thank you from Mother Earth and the rest of us.
00:01:07
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In 2020, you joined the ranks of Forbes 30 under 30.
00:01:11
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Bringing it back to Kickstart ties, you were a partner for Campus Founders Fund, which is a student-run venture fund powered by Kickstart that's focused on empowering student entrepreneurs.
00:01:21
Speaker
Is there anything else you'd like listeners to know about you?
00:01:24
Speaker
I would actually say that I was on the inaugural Campus Founders Fund class.
00:01:28
Speaker
We were the first group to do it.
00:01:30
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So that was a lot of fun.
00:01:31
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And it was fun to get it connected to venture capital and to Kickstart early and to learn a lot of lessons.
00:01:38
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It's one of the best kept secrets, Campus Founders Fund.
00:01:41
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And I know they don't want it to be a secret.
00:01:43
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I was like, help us make it not a secret, Ryan.
00:01:46
Speaker
I was really good at making it not a secret when I was there.
00:01:48
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Awesome.
00:01:50
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Well, so glad to have you here today.
00:01:51
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And Kurt, so great to have you on the show.
00:01:53
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As always, we'll have a link to your bio in our show notes.
00:01:56
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And I'd love for you to tell listeners something that they don't yet know about you.
Kurt Roberts' Personal Story: Surgeries and Resilience
00:02:00
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I have had 16 surgeries.
00:02:03
Speaker
Oh my goodness.
00:02:05
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Yeah.
00:02:06
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These are resulting from living a relatively high wear and tear life combined with a very interesting set of genes given to me by my parents.
00:02:16
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Hopefully there won't be too many more, but we'll see.
00:02:19
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Hopefully 16's it actually.
00:02:21
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I am doubting it will be.
00:02:23
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Oh no.
00:02:24
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There's no way that that's it.
00:02:25
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You're going to have back surgery when you're old.
00:02:27
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You're going to get knee replacements.
00:02:30
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I've already had spinal surgery twice.
00:02:32
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So hopefully there won't be any more of those.
00:02:34
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Hopefully no more of those.
00:02:35
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Both of my parents have had spinal surgeries and no fun.
00:02:39
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Not fun.
00:02:41
Speaker
Well, thank you for being here today.
00:02:43
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It's going to be great.
00:02:45
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So Karen, I've got a question for you.
00:02:47
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Oh, no.
00:02:47
Speaker
What is it?
00:02:48
Speaker
What is an incredibly interesting thing about you that no one would suspect?
00:02:54
Speaker
I'm missing a rib.
00:02:55
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I had to have a rib taken out.
00:02:57
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That was one of my major surgeries.
00:02:59
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So that I find to be a little interesting, maybe not quite interesting or very interesting, but I'm missing a rib.
00:03:06
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I think that's pretty interesting.
00:03:08
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That is interesting.
00:03:10
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We can get into it.
00:03:11
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We can all get into our surgeries.
00:03:12
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That's the next podcast.
00:03:13
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Stay tuned, listeners.
00:03:17
Speaker
And Ryan, let's dive right into the discussion now.
The Birth of Recyclops: Inspiration and Beginnings
00:03:21
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Ryan, you were working on Recyclops while you were part of Campus Founders Fund in 2014.
00:03:25
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Can you tell us about your first inspiration for the company?
00:03:29
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My very first inspiration was I moved into an apartment complex.
00:03:33
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I had lived on campus my freshman year.
00:03:35
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I'd then taken a couple years off and moved to Russia and then came back.
00:03:39
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And when I came back, I bought a Sprite or something on campus.
00:03:44
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I was going to BYU and BYU didn't sell Coke at the time.
00:03:46
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So I know that it was probably a Sprite.
00:03:48
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Yeah.
00:03:50
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Which is so crazy to me.
00:03:52
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It's like, what the heck?
00:03:52
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It doesn't sound Coca-Cola.
00:03:54
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But anyways, I finished it when I got home.
00:03:57
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And I looked and I was like, oh, we don't have a recycling bin in our apartment.
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Okay.
00:04:01
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So we all just go take it out to the dumpster.
00:04:04
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And I got out to the dumpster and there was no recycling dumpster.
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And I was like, what?
00:04:10
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That was the first time that I had any exposure to not having access.
00:04:12
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Like, man, I'm in an educated college town.
00:04:15
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I'm in the United States of America.
00:04:16
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Like when I was in Russia, they didn't have recycling.
00:04:18
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That was not shocking to me.
00:04:20
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But when I was in Provo, Utah, that was shocking to me.
00:04:23
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And so I started poking my head around.
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I'd go on dates.
00:04:25
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And before the date, I'd like poke my head in the dumpster enclosure before I go to pick them up.
00:04:28
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And it's like, nope, no recycling.
00:04:31
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This is a big problem.
00:04:33
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That was actually 2011.
00:04:35
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I actually called my dad in 2011.
00:04:36
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And my dad works in physical facilities.
00:04:39
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He actually manages a recycling operation.
00:04:42
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So he actually has a good amount of exposure to this industry.
00:04:45
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So I was like, okay, I'm going to call my dad.
00:04:47
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Dad, I'm going to start a recycling business.
00:04:48
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And he said, don't do it.
00:04:50
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And I was like, okay.
00:04:52
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Okay.
00:04:53
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And so that was 2011.
00:04:54
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And then it took a couple more years for me to kind of get past that initial don't do it.
00:05:00
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In 2013 is when I started working on Recyclops.
00:05:02
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In 2014 is when we got our first revenue.
00:05:04
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That's amazing.
Entrepreneurial Hustle: Ryan's College Experience
00:05:05
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And you were a student at the time.
00:05:07
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So being an involved student and a founder must have really stretched you to your limits.
00:05:11
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How did you manage both?
00:05:14
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I was obviously doing school, had another job of teaching Russian to old people, people in their 50s, 60s, 70s.
00:05:21
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So that's, I don't know, I'd say the younger half of that isn't old.
00:05:26
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I super enjoyed that, but I literally just did everything.
00:05:31
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And one of the things I did is I took school really slow.
00:05:34
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I started college in 2008.
00:05:37
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I didn't graduate from college until 2016.
00:05:39
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I think part of it is just making it happen and just saying, hey, I'm going to do this and taking advantage that you had.
00:05:45
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It's like, I remember one time I was like, okay, I need to talk to off-campus housing.
00:05:49
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They have an off-campus housing guide that walks through amenities.
00:05:51
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And I was like, what if they listed recycling as an amenity there?
00:05:55
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It would have apartment complexes thinking about the fact that they don't recycle.
00:05:58
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So I'm going, okay, I'm going to go talk to the off-campus housing office.
00:06:01
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And I go there.
00:06:02
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And I'm like, hey, I'm a student.
00:06:03
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I wanted to see if I could talk to someone here.
00:06:07
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And they were like, oh, sorry, everyone's actually at the landlord conference today.
00:06:12
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And I was like, landlord conference?
00:06:14
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You're like, which building is that in?
00:06:16
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Where's this landlord conference?
00:06:18
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Like, oh, it's just the conference center.
00:06:19
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And I was like...
00:06:20
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He's like, okay, well, I guess I'm not going to any classes today.
00:06:23
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And I snuck in there and just ate free food.
00:06:25
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And then I went up to the guy who was the director of everything and said like, yo, I'm a student.
00:06:30
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I'm starting this business.
00:06:31
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Can I talk to everyone about that on stage?
00:06:33
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And he was like, no, I can't have you promote your business on stage.
00:06:37
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I was like, okay, what can I do?
00:06:39
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And he was like, well, I'll let you talk about recycling and tell everyone that there are options for recycling at apartments.
00:06:44
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And then if they want to come talk to you, you can talk about your business.
00:06:46
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And I was like, deal.
00:06:48
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We actually got our very first Recyclops contract as a result of going to a housing fair where landlords are selling housing to students.
00:06:57
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And I was going and selling recycling to landlords because they were all in one room.
00:07:01
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Taking advantage of what was there and starting small and working our way up.
00:07:07
Speaker
Well, that's a lot of hustle.
00:07:09
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It's really impressive, especially the fact that you got stage time at a previously organized conference the day of by just showing up.
00:07:15
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That's amazing.
00:07:17
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Kurt, because Recyclops was founded while Ryan was part of Campus Founders Fund, obviously it was natural and easy for Kickstart to become involved.
Investment Journey: Kickstart and Campus Founders Fund
00:07:25
Speaker
I would love to know specifically what excited you about the company.
00:07:29
Speaker
When the company was founded, Ryan just went through the timeline 2013-2014.
00:07:35
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We were not an investor in the company.
00:07:38
Speaker
And it actually took until 2020 before Kickstart ultimately decided to put some money into it.
00:07:45
Speaker
I think what Ryan was seeing early was a pretty strong desire on the part of consumers to participate in recycling because of a desire to sort of do the right thing for the planet.
00:07:57
Speaker
But also the market for recycled goods and the raw materials for recycled goods at one point
00:08:04
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in and around the Great Recession was really, really strong.
00:08:07
Speaker
And I'm sure Ryan will talk about this later, but it also went through a period where it was really, really challenging.
00:08:14
Speaker
And things like cardboard and other raw materials and recycling were not being shipped around the world like they had been done previously.
00:08:23
Speaker
And so, you know, it took some time, I think, for us as Kickstart to get comfortable with the idea that Ryan was on to a sustainable opportunity here, particularly in the United States, where we don't have the strongest legacy for taking this seriously, as it's done in many other parts of the world.
00:08:42
Speaker
One thing I'll add is that we actually had our first money from Kickstart come in from Campus Founders Funding.
00:08:49
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Obviously, when I was a partner at Campus Founders Fund, conflict of interest, couldn't do that.
00:08:55
Speaker
And then later, my wife was actually a partner at Campus Founders Fund.
00:08:58
Speaker
But once neither of us were at Campus Founders Fund, I had graduated, but she was still a student in, I think it was 2018.
00:09:03
Speaker
That's when we had our first $20,000 come in from Kickstart.
00:09:09
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It was fun to have that be a part of my journey and have Kickstarter be a part of the journey, really, my entrepreneurial journey from the very beginning.
00:09:16
Speaker
And then it helped me, I think, be more successful and get to the point where we're now doing pretty dang well.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yes, you are.
00:09:23
Speaker
I would say, yeah, I'd say, and we're going to get
Balancing Acts: Side Hustles and Main Responsibilities
00:09:25
Speaker
to that in a little bit.
00:09:25
Speaker
But I do want to talk a little bit more about student entrepreneurs.
00:09:29
Speaker
Kurt, what's your take on students who choose to balance their college studies while founding a company?
00:09:34
Speaker
Both are very demanding.
00:09:36
Speaker
Ryan has done it very well.
00:09:37
Speaker
What are your thoughts on student entrepreneurship?
00:09:40
Speaker
I'm a bit conflicted on this, to be honest.
00:09:43
Speaker
I write a regular column for Utah Business Magazine.
00:09:46
Speaker
And one of the columns that I wrote several months ago that turned out to be somewhat controversial from the comments that I got back on it was this idea that side hustles can be kind of problematic.
00:10:00
Speaker
And that the person who chooses to sort of have a second job, if you want to call it that, in addition to their primary vocation, whether that's to be a student or in a professional career, that that comes with consequences.
00:10:12
Speaker
I think what Ryan has already said in describing his journey to get through college is that he accepted those consequences and that it took him as a result a couple of years longer to graduate than it otherwise would.
00:10:27
Speaker
And so I think as long as the student who's deciding to start a business recognizes that there's no free lunch and that they're willing to put the time and effort required to really start the business, knowing that there will be some cost that gets paid for that,
00:10:42
Speaker
then I'm all for it.
00:10:43
Speaker
Where I think it becomes challenging is when a student wants to start a business, puts the time and energy into starting a business, and perhaps makes the assumption that that won't come at any cost, either to personal help or to their success in school.
00:10:58
Speaker
So go into it with your eyes wide open.
00:11:01
Speaker
And as long as you do that, I think it's great.
00:11:03
Speaker
We've supported this for some time through Campus Founders Fund.
00:11:06
Speaker
Honestly, a few of our very best investments have come through that program, including Pura, which is one of the most successful Kickstart companies we've ever funded.
00:11:16
Speaker
That was originally a Campus Founders Fund investment.
00:11:20
Speaker
I would be disingenuous if I said that we wouldn't ever want to see students making this choice.
00:11:27
Speaker
It's just you have to know that it comes at a price.
00:11:29
Speaker
And as long as you do that with your eyes open, I think it can be a great choice.
00:11:33
Speaker
I love the perspective of choosing that imbalance.
00:11:36
Speaker
Ryan, were you about to say something?
00:11:38
Speaker
Yeah, I wanted to highlight what you said and just say that I got my degree at BYU in the business strategy program, which was a really tough program to get into.
00:11:47
Speaker
And I think part of the reason why I got into it was because I had started a business and was able to leverage that into some good things for my education.
00:11:54
Speaker
But I literally graduated bottom of my class.
00:11:58
Speaker
Straight up bottom of my class.
00:12:00
Speaker
And I was cool with that.
00:12:04
Speaker
You were fine with that sacrifice.
00:12:06
Speaker
Bottom of my class and a really good program.
00:12:09
Speaker
It wasn't hard to be at the bottom, frankly.
00:12:12
Speaker
Every once in a while I go and speak on campus and I have them read that as my bio.
00:12:17
Speaker
Ryan graduated bottom of his class.
00:12:21
Speaker
My mom doesn't think it's funny, but everyone else does.
00:12:23
Speaker
But everybody does.
00:12:26
Speaker
And then also too, in addition to being a student entrepreneur, you're in the segment of social entrepreneurship, which has an added component.
00:12:32
Speaker
So for those who might not know, what does it mean to be a social entrepreneur?
Social Entrepreneurship: Doing Good and Impact
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, as I look at social entrepreneurship, there's an emphasis on doing good.
00:12:40
Speaker
And I feel really strongly that businesses have a, not just an ability, but a responsibility to do good in the world.
00:12:48
Speaker
It's been cool to see the impact that we can make as a company beyond job creation and all of these things that are huge impact that every company has that is great for the world, but going a step further.
00:13:00
Speaker
Thank you.
00:13:00
Speaker
And Kurt, you see so many companies a year.
00:13:04
Speaker
What are the benefits you see to social entrepreneurship?
00:13:08
Speaker
companies that have a clear sense of mission, not just mission in the sense that they've been able to distill what they're about into a statement of some sort, but a mission that really resonates in people's hearts and souls have a very distinctive advantage in recruiting.
00:13:24
Speaker
It's almost unfair in some ways to the companies that don't have that.
00:13:29
Speaker
And it's not easy to do across a wide range of business types and segments and sectors.
00:13:36
Speaker
But those that have it,
00:13:38
Speaker
attract talent, especially in the current market, disproportionately successfully has been my observation.
00:13:44
Speaker
Other things that I see as being advantageous of this, though, also are related to, I think, a macro trend throughout the world relating to consumer attitudes and business attitudes around businesses that are either exploitative or that have a mission that perhaps is not grounded in doing good.
00:14:03
Speaker
We're steering our money elsewhere.
00:14:05
Speaker
It's very clear to me that we are directing as consumers and businesses money toward companies that are doing good while they're conducting business.
00:14:14
Speaker
And that is a trend that I think is going to continue.
00:14:18
Speaker
And so there's not just an advantage in talent, but there's also an advantage, I think, in attracting the money from people's and businesses' pocketbooks.
00:14:26
Speaker
because that's the way we want to spend.
00:14:29
Speaker
And we're seeing that, I think, throughout the world now, that corporate social responsibility and a willingness to operate within parameters that do good by the world is something that's not just a nice thing to say, but it also is a significant advantage at present, I think.
00:14:49
Speaker
And on the retention side, we haven't had someone quit in months.
00:14:54
Speaker
Months and months.
00:14:55
Speaker
Especially during this great exodus we're seeing of people quitting.
00:14:58
Speaker
That's great.
00:14:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:00
Speaker
We've had a lot of people quit their other jobs and join us because they want to do something that's good.
00:15:05
Speaker
And Kurt, so obviously you don't want to force a social entrepreneurship angle to a company.
00:15:11
Speaker
And there are some companies that it just isn't a natural fit.
00:15:14
Speaker
What are the challenges that you see that come along with being a social entrepreneur?
00:15:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:19
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I don't think there have to be.
00:15:21
Speaker
I think there was an attitude that prevailed that's long since gone, that if this was a primary or a significant piece of a company's mission, that that would come at the cost of the success of the business, either in margins or lack of focus of the leadership team or some other consequence that would be negative to a business outcome.
00:15:44
Speaker
I think there is the possibility, depending upon how a leadership team approaches it, that it could become a bit of a distraction if the business itself is not directed at social good.
00:15:57
Speaker
But if the business is directed at social good, then it's a natural side benefit because the problem is being solved through the business itself that has social good as an outcome.
00:16:08
Speaker
Then there's no compromise whatsoever.
00:16:10
Speaker
It's when businesses try to make something up that goes along with the business that they're clearly just trying to check a box is where it can become a problem.
00:16:20
Speaker
And I think consumers see through that when it's there.
00:16:23
Speaker
So authenticity is very important.
00:16:25
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:16:27
Speaker
And you had mentioned earlier that when Recyclops was founded, the market for recycling material was sort of at a peak and giving the company an ideal tailwind.
00:16:36
Speaker
Ryan, I'd like to hear from you.
00:16:37
Speaker
How has the market fared since then?
Financial Challenges: Navigating Market Changes
00:16:40
Speaker
When I first started Recyclops, we were making most of our money from service revenue, but we were making some of the money from commodity revenue, selling recyclables.
00:16:50
Speaker
But over time, as I looked at the market, I saw some opportunities to make a shift and say, hey, if we focus more on commodity revenue and narrow our scope a little bit, let's say we offered like a cardboard only recycling program.
00:17:05
Speaker
We don't have to deal with sorting.
00:17:06
Speaker
We don't have to do anything.
00:17:07
Speaker
We can get top dollar for that cardboard.
00:17:10
Speaker
We built a whole system around that and kind of shifted away from this service revenue play into a commodity revenue play.
00:17:18
Speaker
It was awesome for a couple of years.
00:17:20
Speaker
We were selling cardboard for $120 a ton.
00:17:23
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And then literally just a couple months later, almost overnight, literally, I got a call and said, Hey, prices just dropped to $20 a ton.
00:17:33
Speaker
This was not like a normal fluctuation.
00:17:35
Speaker
This was lower than they'd ever been.
00:17:37
Speaker
We'd looked at the market and said, Okay, what's the lowest it's ever been?
00:17:39
Speaker
Can we sustain the business at that level?
00:17:41
Speaker
And it's like, it's going to be tough.
00:17:42
Speaker
There's challenges.
00:17:43
Speaker
We'll have to make some tweaks.
00:17:44
Speaker
But yes.
00:17:45
Speaker
This was not that.
00:17:47
Speaker
This was like way lower than that.
00:17:51
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So what happened is, we had like a 6x decrease in revenue and all of our expenses stayed the same.
00:18:01
Speaker
That was really tough.
00:18:03
Speaker
And it happened because a lot of the recycling in the United States was going abroad, most of it to China.
00:18:08
Speaker
And China said, hey, we don't want to be the world's dump.
00:18:11
Speaker
This was a good move for the earth, a good move for China, a good move for the United States in the long term.
00:18:16
Speaker
In the short term, it sure sucked.
00:18:21
Speaker
I'm like Googling bankruptcy and incognito mode because I'm like, I don't want anyone to know about this.
00:18:25
Speaker
I'm like, what do we do?
00:18:29
Speaker
What do we do?
00:18:31
Speaker
I did not know that I was capable as an adult to sob like a child, but I am.
00:18:39
Speaker
I am capable of that.
00:18:42
Speaker
It was like, okay, I'm either going to go bankrupt with no personal debt or I'm going to go bankrupt with all of my credit cards maxed out and me applying for new credit cards so I can get more credit that I can max out.
00:18:53
Speaker
And maybe I'll survive.
00:18:56
Speaker
And so that's what I did.
00:18:57
Speaker
And I was selling plasma, got on food stamps.
00:19:01
Speaker
But I love the thought that creativity loves constraint.
00:19:06
Speaker
And when this all happened, I was forced to look at my business differently and identify what was working, what wasn't, what could we change, and shifted our business into what our business is today during that time.
00:19:23
Speaker
Our first investor was University Venture Fund and Jim Sorensen.
00:19:28
Speaker
And they put money into Recyclops.
00:19:31
Speaker
And we were able to make it happen.
00:19:33
Speaker
And then we got the technology commercialization and implementation.
00:19:36
Speaker
It was a grant from the state that was focused on job creation and technology.
00:19:41
Speaker
It was a game changer for us.
00:19:44
Speaker
I remember driving down the freeway when I got the email from TCIP.com.
00:19:49
Speaker
And having to pull over because I couldn't control my emotions.
00:19:52
Speaker
Because it felt like we had a lifeline and we were going to survive.
00:19:56
Speaker
Not only did we survive, but we've thrived.
00:19:59
Speaker
Just one thing to mention, I want to shout out to my wife because Abby has been super involved in Recyclops from the beginning.
00:20:06
Speaker
She was in high school when the housing crisis happened and her dad's a CPA, has his own practice and went from doing very well to struggling very quickly.
00:20:17
Speaker
And she felt the burden of that on her family.
00:20:20
Speaker
And so being married to an entrepreneur was not the...
00:20:23
Speaker
easiest thing for her and has given so much both emotionally and intellectually.
00:20:28
Speaker
She's added tons of value.
Support Systems: The Role of Personal Relationships
00:20:30
Speaker
I would be remiss to not mention her as we talk about the challenges and the sacrifice that went into starting this business.
00:20:38
Speaker
That's another good point.
00:20:39
Speaker
Another good thing to highlight is the necessary support system that founders need, not just professionally, but personally too.
00:20:45
Speaker
So I thank you for highlighting that.
00:20:47
Speaker
And so lucky that you have her.
00:20:49
Speaker
That's so amazing.
00:20:50
Speaker
And I do think we do need to talk about the fact that the decision to keep going with Recyclops, that was the right decision for you and for the company.
00:20:57
Speaker
And now it's thriving and that's great.
00:20:59
Speaker
But there are some times where the company is doomed to fail in an unsupportive market.
00:21:03
Speaker
And so Kurt, how can a founder know whether they should keep their nose to the grindstone, whether they should keep making those unbelievable sacrifices or call it and walk away?
00:21:13
Speaker
I think the best way to do that is to pay attention to whether the signals that are coming back are fundamentally telling you that the market you thought existed was not there, or that your solution to the problem is just misplaced or misdirected, or whether what's really happening is that you just need patience to keep going in the journey of product market fit.
00:21:41
Speaker
And I think...
00:21:43
Speaker
In Ryan's case, what made this work was not just his strong belief in the mission of what RecycleOps is doing, but it was also, I think, based on a fundamental understanding that recycling might go through its ups and downs, but that as an overall trend globally,
00:22:06
Speaker
that it would continue to strengthen.
Market Signals: Persist or Pivot?
00:22:09
Speaker
And that if he could keep working his way through the pain of those down periods of the cycle, that ultimately it would pay off.
00:22:18
Speaker
It's never easy in the moment when you're trying to interpret the signals you're getting back from the market.
00:22:24
Speaker
But I think having a basic belief in this case that recycling was here to stay, that it would only become a larger part of the way we handle waste in the world, gave Ryan more conviction to keep going.
00:22:37
Speaker
Is that right, Ryan?
00:22:38
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, definitely.
00:22:40
Speaker
I think looking at the macro trends, looking at, hey, sustainability initiatives aren't going anywhere.
00:22:44
Speaker
Recycling is a big piece of that.
00:22:46
Speaker
That's not going anywhere.
00:22:47
Speaker
And then looking at our business and saying that like, Hey, we're onto something.
00:22:52
Speaker
This is working.
00:22:53
Speaker
This is working in a small way and it has the potential to work in a big way.
00:22:58
Speaker
And the only way to get there is to sacrifice.
00:23:02
Speaker
There was no doubt in my mind that we were onto something.
00:23:06
Speaker
And it is going to be big.
00:23:07
Speaker
So clearly there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
00:23:09
Speaker
Things are going well.
00:23:10
Speaker
Let's tell our listeners a little
Recyclops's Growth: Expansion Across the U.S.
00:23:12
Speaker
bit about it.
00:23:12
Speaker
How's it going, Ryan?
00:23:13
Speaker
Ryan?
00:23:14
Speaker
We leverage the gig economy to bring sustainability and circular economy solutions, primarily recycling to communities that don't have it.
00:23:21
Speaker
In the United States, that's a big market.
00:23:23
Speaker
There's 34 million single family homes that fit in that category where the city doesn't provide them recycling.
00:23:29
Speaker
And then 16 million apartment homes.
00:23:31
Speaker
So 50 million households.
00:23:32
Speaker
That's 38% of homes in the U.S.,
00:23:36
Speaker
We're now in 20 states doing this and servicing tens of thousands of homes.
00:23:44
Speaker
Hopefully soon that's hundreds of thousands.
00:23:46
Speaker
It's almost felt like we were a little bit early when it came to timing.
00:23:50
Speaker
But that little bit early gave us time to learn some lessons so that when the timing was right, we were ready to go.
00:23:57
Speaker
And it feels like timing is right and just getting better.
00:23:59
Speaker
And we're just... We're cruising.
00:24:01
Speaker
So still lots of things, challenges, problems, things to learn, ups and downs.
00:24:06
Speaker
It's good.
00:24:08
Speaker
It's so exciting to hear that progress.
00:24:10
Speaker
Really excited for you.
00:24:11
Speaker
And we just want to end, we ask everybody this question.
00:24:14
Speaker
What's an effective practice that you've implemented in your work or personal life that you think has had a great impact on your success?
00:24:22
Speaker
I would say this concept of embracing constraint and saying that, okay, there's a lot of constraints that are coming in and I can look at these constraints and I can use that as a driving force to help me problem solve, or I can use it to drive me into the ground and into the grave.
00:24:43
Speaker
It's been fascinating because we've been less capital constrained as we've brought on venture.
00:24:47
Speaker
And so we've said, okay, how do we keep that edge?
00:24:49
Speaker
How do we force that creativity?
00:24:51
Speaker
How do we make sure that we're leveraging constraint and looking at it as an advantage in my personal life and not as a hurdle?
00:24:59
Speaker
I love that insight.
00:25:00
Speaker
And Kurt, what are your thoughts on that?
00:25:01
Speaker
And how have you seen that benefit Ryan with Recyclops?
00:25:05
Speaker
One of the questions we consistently ask when we are evaluating companies for investment is exactly how much money the company actually needs and what they will accomplish with it.
00:25:17
Speaker
And we have a strong bias as a fund to try to help companies not over-raise.
00:25:24
Speaker
And that's tough in the current environment.
00:25:26
Speaker
There is so much money in venture that many founders are raising it because they can.
00:25:35
Speaker
not because they should.
00:25:37
Speaker
When there are competing term sheets and when syndicates are expanding, and let's say a company thinks it needs a couple
Scarcity and Decision-Making: Lessons in Focus
00:25:45
Speaker
of million dollars and it ultimately ends up raising four because there's so much demand, oftentimes that's the wrong decision.
00:25:53
Speaker
Because abundance oftentimes leads to waste.
00:25:57
Speaker
I've made the argument before in writing, and I really do fundamentally believe it, that scarcity is a virtue.
00:26:03
Speaker
It forces decision-making that really focuses on the most important things.
00:26:09
Speaker
And while it can feel painful at the time, and I think in Ryan's case, he probably had a little, well, definitely had too much scarcity for a good chunk of time there.
00:26:19
Speaker
That mentality makes for great companies and great founders.
00:26:24
Speaker
Thank you both for the insights that you've shared, especially the discussion at the end about reframing your perception of constraints.
00:26:31
Speaker
And I think that's really important.
00:26:32
Speaker
So thank you both for being here today and for the insights you've shared during this discussion.
00:26:36
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for having me.
00:26:37
Speaker
Thank you, Karen.
00:26:38
Speaker
And of course...
00:26:39
Speaker
Thank you for listening as we dive deep into what it takes to create the perfect pitch.
00:26:43
Speaker
If you want to learn more about our investor, Kurt Roberts from Kickstart or our founder, Ryan Smith and his amazing team at Recyclops, we'll have a link to the company and a longer bio in our show notes at kickstartfund.com.
00:26:55
Speaker
You can listen to more episodes of Perfect Pitch wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:26:59
Speaker
And if you like what you're learning, leave us a reviewer rating.
00:27:02
Speaker
We'll be back next time with more insights from entrepreneurs and the investors who fund them.
00:27:06
Speaker
So be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a thing.
00:27:11
Speaker
Oh, got a little visitor.
00:27:12
Speaker
Santa's here?
00:27:14
Speaker
Awesome.
00:27:16
Speaker
Our Santa's here.
00:27:17
Speaker
Awesome.
00:27:17
Speaker
I'll have to come check it out in a minute.
00:27:18
Speaker
Love you, honey.
00:27:19
Speaker
Can you close the door, please?
00:27:20
Speaker
Okay, don't come in again, okay?
00:27:23
Speaker
Love you.