Terracycle Interview
TerraCycle Interview
CEO of TerraCycle, Tom Szaky provided Mike and I with great insights, memories, and experiences of running a rapidly growing enterprise. Tom shared his exciting story, which began with him in a blue ocean only to pave the way in the new market he exposed. I found Tom’s story very inspirational. Tom grew TerraCycle with great determination and intuitive innovations. He managed one of the fasted growing companies in the world and managed to give back to the community the whole way. Tom is a trend-setting social entrepreneur.
While visiting friends in Montreal, Tom Szaky noticed his Canadian friends feeding their table scraps to red wiggler worms. They were utilizing the worms’ droppings as fertilizer for their indoor plants. Tom, a freshman from Princeton University, was only nineteen years old at the time. However, he was so impressed by the results of his friend’s composting bin that he decided to submit it as his business idea for the Princeton Business Plan Contest. Knowing that he could feed worms organic waste, and produce a high quality fertilizer from the worms’ excrement.
Tom finished fourth in the Business Plan Contest, He realized the potential to create a competitive product while addressing a major environmental issue at the time, and so he decided to pursue his idea any way. Tom borrowed money from family and friends, emptied his savings accounts, and maxed out his credit cards. The high-spirited college student was able to afford a worm poop conversion unit. The next few months consisted of Tom spending most of his time shoveling rotting food from behind the Princeton Cafeteria. Tom recalled, “like any entrepreneur, I found my biggest challenges to be limited funds and limited man-power.”
Tom believes that the two most important characteristics an entrepreneur should have are, persistence and intuitiveness. These two characteristics undeniably assisted Tom in turning his idea into a reality. A persistent and intuitive
CEO of TerraCycle, Tom Szaky provided Mike and I with great insights, memories, and experiences of running a rapidly growing enterprise. Tom shared his exciting story, which began with him in a blue ocean only to pave the way in the new market he exposed. I found Tom’s story very inspirational. Tom grew TerraCycle with great determination and intuitive innovations. He managed one of the fasted growing companies in the world and managed to give back to the community the whole way. Tom is a trend-setting social entrepreneur.
While visiting friends in Montreal, Tom Szaky noticed his Canadian friends feeding their table scraps to red wiggler worms. They were utilizing the worms’ droppings as fertilizer for their indoor plants. Tom, a freshman from Princeton University, was only nineteen years old at the time. However, he was so impressed by the results of his friend’s composting bin that he decided to submit it as his business idea for the Princeton Business Plan Contest. Knowing that he could feed worms organic waste, and produce a high quality fertilizer from the worms’ excrement.
Tom finished fourth in the Business Plan Contest, He realized the potential to create a competitive product while addressing a major environmental issue at the time, and so he decided to pursue his idea any way. Tom borrowed money from family and friends, emptied his savings accounts, and maxed out his credit cards. The high-spirited college student was able to afford a worm poop conversion unit. The next few months consisted of Tom spending most of his time shoveling rotting food from behind the Princeton Cafeteria. Tom recalled, “like any entrepreneur, I found my biggest challenges to be limited funds and limited man-power.”
Tom believes that the two most important characteristics an entrepreneur should have are, persistence and intuitiveness. These two characteristics undeniably assisted Tom in turning his idea into a reality. A persistent and intuitive
Cited: TerraCycle.com TerraCycle. 12/12/12. <http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/>