3 Lessons From My Short-lived Waste Entrepreneurship

Nobody told me that getting an MBA would mean waking up at 7am every Sunday to deliver milk. As part of our Startup Garage experiment, my team was delivering milk in reusable containers to test whether consumers want the “milkman” back in their lives.

This idea stemmed from my personal frustration with the single-use waste problem (watch more “trash talk” in my LOWkeynotes). Arriving at the GSB, I was eager to roll up my sleeves, scratch my entrepreneurial itch, and apply all the startup lessons to this problem I care deeply about.

However, I failed — not once, not twice, but three times. This Startup Garage reuse venture was my third attempt at creating a solution to change consumer behaviors around waste. After the winter quarter experiment, I decided to let go of this path.

Here are three takeaways from my short-lived waste entrepreneurship. My goal is to share my recommendations on how educational institutions like the GSB can better support environmental and social entrepreneurs. I also hope my voice will give solidarity, strength and support to those on a similar journey.

1. Entrepreneurship is not the only way to innovate.

Rather, there are many valid theories of change to explore based on your personal strengths and the nature of the problem you are solving for. And business school is a great place to do this exploration.

I thought creating a user-friendly solution was the key to shift consumers away from single-use. But I have since learned otherwise. To compete with the convenience and cost effectiveness of single-use products, the key lies the ability to scale things up quickly. Otherwise, the market potential will remain limited to a small pool of motivated customers seeking to do good.

Disruption doesn’t always mean building from scratch; waste ventures are much more scalable in impact if built on the existing infrastructure. Therefore, industry incumbents (i.e. the Coca Colas of the world) must be part of the solution and we need entrepreneurial leaders to innovate from the “belly of the beast”.

While the GSB offers multiple startup classes, I would like the GSB to draw in more diverse perspectives on entrepreneurial leadership. For example, I wish there could be more case studies and training programs on how to become an effective intrapreneur who can influence executive level decision-makers, source fundings from corporate VCs, design and prototype ideas with limited human resources, and develop workarounds for legal restrictions.

2. It is critical to expand the lens of entrepreneurial training to encompass system-level change.

Unlike a more conventional startup mindset, wherein you have one set of pain points and a specific customer persona, solving the waste problem requires a system-level approach that aligns incentives across producers, consumers, governments and waste operators.

While I learned the political science frameworks from courses such as Strategy Beyond Markets, I wish the GSB broadened its lens of entrepreneurial training to include more skills and techniques necessary for system-level change.

For example, municipal governments can benefit from effective waste management because of its potential in creating employment opportunities. According to a study by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, every 10,000 tonnes of waste can produce 115 jobs from recycling and 7 from composting, but only 2 from landfilling.

I wish I learned how to pitch different value propositions to a non-business audience. During my waste journey, I had a chance to get involved in the petition process for a California assembly bill around reusables. I could have been more confident and skilled at navigating such situations, if I had learned and practiced techniques to engage diverse stakeholders for system-level change — e.g. how to interact with government officials, how to create industry alliances for lobbying, and how to mobilize local constituents to advocate for policy changes.

3. Save yourself before saving the world.

I had a voice in my head that constantly reminded me, “if this were an easy problem then it would have been fixed already.” I got applause from my friends, family, mentors, advisors who cheered me on despite the highs and lows. I felt good about myself every morning when I looked in the mirror because I was working on something out of passion.

Despite all of this encouragement, I found myself devastated and burned out by the end of winter quarter my MBA2 year. Besides the aforementioned lessons learned, I attributed the short-lived nature of my entrepreneurial journey to my failure to detach myself from the problem at times.

We are taught at the GSB that the “all-in” mentality is a key formula for success. I have learned, however, that this is not sustainable for me. The constant stress of wanting to take on this insurmountable beast from an outsider’s perspective, coupled with the loneliness of not having a co-founder, cracked me. I didn’t build in the time and space to take care of myself.

One resource that helped me a lot was a peer support group put together by Russell Siegelman. We met biweekly to celebrate wins and discuss challenges, and I feel lucky to have had informal GSB mentors and peer groups to support me along my trash journey. I would like the GSB to offer a more formalized, structured space for topics such as slow burnouts, mental health, and identity issues faced by future change makers.

Change is messy, uncomfortable, and even painful, especially for environmental and social problems. I have learned a lot from my two years at the GSB, and I hope my reflections can encourage institutions like the GSB to build a better environment for students fighting the good fight. Let’s change lives, change organizations, change the world (and our planet Earth) together.

Thanks to my dear friend, Sophie Janaskie, for her contribution to the article.