As anybody in the Kansas City startup
world knows, our city is full of great startups. But in the grand scheme of things, we are just one city on a
large United States map. There are
thousands and thousands of startups being built throughout our country, and
standing out from the rest is an extremely arduous task. Of all of the hundreds of thousands of
startups in our nation, it’s nearly impossible to narrow down the best
ones. But thanks to some
incredible work and research done by a publication called The Wall Street
Journal, it can be done...and has.
The Wall Street Journal
recently announced 24 companies for its Wall Street Journal
Startup of the Year
(#WSJSOTY) initiative. Over the
next few months, The Wall Street Journal will be tasking their 24 finalists,
from over 500 entrants, with milestone tasks, ultimately leading up to the
crowning the Wall Street Journal’s Startup of The
Year.
Of those 24 finalists, only one hails from Kansas City. Lucky for us, this new company is stationed on the 5th
floor of Think Big Coworking, our well-known coworking space in
downtown Kansas City. Which
company, you ask? PlanetReuse Marketplace powered by InvenQuery, one of the oldest members of Think
Big Coworking.
 |
| Nathan Benjamin, CEO of PlanetReuse. |
Think Big was fortunate
enough to snag 10 minutes with Nathan Benjamin, CEO of PlanetReuse to talk more
about being a top 24 finalist for Startup of the Year.
THINK BIG:
How did you hear about The Wall Street Journal’s Startup of the Year
award?
NATHAN: We heard about the opportunity through
Pipeline and applied for the program. There was an extensive application process
and out of more than 500 startups nationwide, we were selected. We’re excited to represent not only the
Midwest, but our local Kansas City startup community as well.
THINK BIG:
So far, what has this experience been like?
NATHAN: It's
been challenging, but in a good way. Wall Street Journal is assigning tasks for
each of the companies along the way. The first task (which will be aired in a
few weeks) really encouraged us to step outside our comfort zone as a team and
look at the way we were presenting ourselves to our current and potential
customers. The task asked us to re-imagine our logo, our tagline even our
company name. It urged us to examine our core value and to consider how we
might best communicate it to different audiences, which gave us a deeper understanding
of what makes us unique among our competitors.
They also just announced
which mentors would be paired with which startups and we couldn’t be more
pleased. We're excited to study under the expertise of our mentors Carly Fiorina and Alex Osterwalder, who
both have incredibly impressive, successful backgrounds. We're looking forward
to their suggestions and feedback on our concept, our marketing and our
operations.
THINK BIG:
Of all the business challenges of the program, what task(s) do you feel
PlanetReuse will excel in?
We think that we will
excel at many of the tasks and feel that our mission and direction of the
company are aligned with the criteria for the SOTY: First, the social impact of
the business and second, the viability of the business.
I also think we can nail
the elevator pitch task. We’ve been working to narrow down exactly what makes
PlanetReuse Marketplace a viable, disruptive company and our passion shows
through in our presentation. I was actually just asked last week by Scott Case
with the Startup America Partnership to deliver a 30-second pitch on the spot
at the 1 Million Cups
event at Kauffman Foundation here in Kansas City—a little nerve-wracking, but
great practice for the tasks to come.
THINK BIG:
Have you seen or experienced any impact from being chosen as 1 of 24
finalists?
Definitely. We’ve seen a deluge of support from the
Kansas City startup community. We’ve been overwhelmed by the number of friends
and family who have voted for us on the WSJSOTY site, along with so many of our startup
comrades. The KC startup community is incredibly kind to one another and the
social media attention we’ve received has been just amazing. We’ve also
received really great press from local media outlets. It just reaffirms our
belief that Kansas City really is the best place to start a business.
THINK BIG:
Even though it is early, if PlanetReuse were to win SOTY, how do you
think that would elevate the business?
It is a once in a lifetime
opportunity for us to educate the country about the positive impacts of
material reuse, inspiring a huge audience to think reused before new and donate
before ditch. Communicating this message to millions nationwide makes us and
the reuse industry "winners" already.
We take a triple bottom
line approach to business, ensuring that people, the planet and profit are all
taken into account. Winning would be a fantastic platform for fundraising and
finding like-minded individuals who share our belief that we can do well by
doing good. It would also be confirmation that sustainable businesses, ones
that can make money while making a difference in their communities, are not
only valuable, but viable and the way of the future.
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We’re excited for what’s in store for Nathan and the
rest of the PlanetReuse Marketplace team. Learn more and follow along with
their journey on WSJSOTY and be sure to vote for PlanetReuse here.
