Tom Szaky is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of TerraCycle, Inc., producer of the worlds first product made from and packaged in waste.
At 14, Szaky started his first business, a web design company called Flyte Design, which employed three associates and earned its young proprietor a five-figure income. Szaky then engaged in the start-up of three small dot.com companies: Werehome.com (an online home improvement site), piority.com (an online fundraising school), and studentmarks.com (an online grade tracking software).
In 2002, Szaky took a leave of absence from Princeton University to dedicate himself full-time to starting TerraCycle, Inc., beginning as a 2 man outfit in the crowded basement of an old office building in Princeton. Today TerraCycle occupies a 20,000 sq. ft. factory in an urban enterprise zone in Trenton, NJ, where it employs over 20 workers and makes and ships its unique consumer products to WalMart Canada, Whole Foods, Home Depot, and other major retail stores.
It's very funny getting funding, very funny. It's supply and demand. You have to create a demand for a product and then you have to go see if people are willing you know, to spend on it. You know like, for example, this round... other rounds took us four, five months to close. We've done maybe ....(Full transcript available to logged in subscribers.).
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Tom Szaky States Reality That There Are Many Small Eco-Friendly Companies In Marketplace
Tom Szaky States That Press Releases Are More Interesting When They Are About The Story and Not the Numbers
Tom Szaky States Biggest Challenge Is Getting Consumer To Pick The TerraCycle Product For The First Time
Tom Szaky Discusses Challenges In Providing Products To Big Box Stores As Well As Independent Stores
