Startup Spotlight #206: reUser
reUser provides software to help dining services and their clients such as universities, hospitals, and corporate campuses reUse takeout packaging.
James Wilson is the founder and CEO of reUser, providing software to help dining services and their clients such as universities, hospitals, and corporate campuses reUse takeout packaging. He fell in love with the software development life cycle at TicketNetwork, working closely with clients to understand their problems and lead development teams to build solutions.
In the midst of the pandemic, he became increasingly frustrated with how much takeout packaging waste was contributing to the global plastic waste crisis and thought back to his time as a student 5 years beforehand, when he used reusable takeout containers that could be brought back and cleaned just like plates, and questioned why these were not being used in other places.
After talking with restaurants and dining services about their difficulty in ensuring this packaging continued to be returned, he started working on a solution to make it easier for individuals to reUse and easier for dining groups to ensure its continued return.
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Startup Spotlight: reUser
Problem: Dining services and their clients in the U.S. spend $1.5bn every year on takeout packaging that ends up in our landfills and oceans, fueling our plastic waste crisis.
Market: Our initial beachhead is the 15,000+ universities, hospitals, corporate campuses, military bases, and their dining service partners spending over $100,000 every year on takeout packaging. Our TAM expands this to include the 3mn restaurants, campuses, hotels, and meal-kit delivery services spending over $65bn on takeout packaging.
Solution: reUser provides software to track the use of reUsable containers and incentivize their return, saving clients $45k per account per year and reducing their environmental impact by making sure each container is reUsed hundreds of times.
Team: James and Luke met as freshman-year roommates at Wesleyan University, have lived and worked together on multiple occasions, and remain best friends. James is the CEO, and Luke is the CTO with over 6 years of experience developing complex backend software solutions.
Recent Success:
Wilson: We’re solving a real problem for our clients. We’re already helping dining services such as Chartwells, Bon Appetit, and Creative Dining Services reUse takeout packaging at Wesleyan University, Cornerstone University, and Trinity College. Our clients are already saving over 4,000 takeout containers, the equivalent of a garbage truck full of takeout packaging, from the landfill on a weekly basis.
Recent Struggle:
Wilson: Sales - before starting reUser, my primary expertise had been in building and designing products. Working with university dining clients, large enterprise clients, there has been a lot to learn about who makes the purchasing decision, who are the key stakeholders, and the timeline for how to launch a client successfully. However, we are learning and have been thrilled to hear the resounding response from our clients about how much our solution has helped them with this process that used to be painful.
Founder Advice:
Wilson: Build a deep and strong network first. The founder journey can be very lonely and it has been immensely helpful to be able to talk to other founders about the struggles on that journey. Even with co-founders, there are topics that are difficult to discuss. Shared experience with other founders going through similar struggles can not only build stronger bonds for continued support but also help you grow faster together.
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