Compost Pedallers

CASE STUDY

CHANGING MINDS ABOUT WASTE

Compost Pedallers is a sustainability startup I founded after college and ran for six years. In what I now lovingly refer to as my unofficial MBA, here I learned how to build a brand identity from the ground up, to lead a team of 15, to manage a large subscriber base, and to communicate vision to a global audience. Equal parts logistics operation, service company and marketing firm, we built a distributed routing network that used electric cargo bicycles to transport 1.2 million pounds of organics out of the waste stream and into local gardens, without burning any fossil fuels. We also had to change a lot of minds about waste, which we achieved by designing a fun & rewarding membership service, producing a ton of marketing & educational content, and above all… making composting sexy. Ultimately, our multichannel marketing campaigns and grassroots community outreach helped to usher in Austin’s city-wide composting program. Featured in National Geographic, our innovative business model inspired entrepreneurs around the globe. I delivered keynote speeches across the country and was contacted for consulting by hopeful startups in 120 cities and 7 countries. What started as a crazy idea turned into a movement, and an experience I’ll never forget.