747 Lauren Gropper, Founder and CEO of Repurpose

0:00I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be.

0:09Kara Goldin:You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to The Kara Golden Show. Today, I'm joined by Lauren Groper, founder and CEO of an incredible brand called Repurpose, the brand leading the way in compostable household goods and making sustainability accessible for millions of consumers.

1:01Kara Goldin:And Lauren's path into entrepreneurship is anything but traditional from a career in sustainable design to an unexpected detour in Hollywood. She saw firsthand the waste created by so many consumers in everyday life and decided to do something about it. So that spark led to Repurpose, which has since replaced hundreds of millions of pieces of plastic and is now sold in upwards of 20 ,000 stores nationwide. I can't wait to hear all about how she is building her company, Repurpose, and the challenges of scaling sustainability in a very much plastic-dominated world and her vision for what's next.

1:47Kara Goldin:So Lauren, welcome to the show. It's so nice to finally meet you. You too. Thank you so much for having me. This is a thrill. Thank you. Absolutely. We were just connecting that we're both part of YPO and you're part of the YPO Malibu chapter. Very, very cool. So, so excited to make that connection. So for someone new to the brand, to repurpose, I actually have, if anybody's watching it, I have my repurpose cup right there. How do you describe what the brand is all about? I think first I sort of focus on the product itself because I think the product and the mission and the brand are all so connected.

2:35essentially what we make are plant-based non-toxic everyday household products so easy swaps for everyday plastic disposables that you would find in your home we want to be sort of the authentic trusted brand in the space so that you don't have to think about it or second guess what you're bringing into your home and that using a disposable doesn't have to feel bad the thought always was in creating the brand was really coming from this design thinking point of view that, well, disposable doesn't have to be bad if it's made from something good. Could you make disposable of something good? And if it's made from something good, therefore it doesn't have to be a bad thing.

3:17So I think our products really do lead the way in terms of what our brand is all about. And it means just everyday simplicity where you can feel good about what you're buying and you can swap plastic out of your life.

3:31Kara Goldin:Definitely. So you started in sustainable design. And what was the moment? Do you remember when you decided, I'm just going to go do this? Yeah. Well, I was also a lot younger. We've been around 15 years. So at the time, I was just very, you know, you don't know what you don't know. Right. And I was just a very passionate environmentalist. I still am. But I think I was on these sets basically taking what I had done in the sustainable design world building commercial buildings and kind of applied the same principles to set design and set construction. And so we were going through quite a bit of effort to make a sustainable set.

4:17And then we would break for lunch and I would eat my salad out of a giant plastic bowl using a plastic fork, drinking out of a plastic water bottle. And when you do that several times a day, day in, day out, while you're trying to build a green set, it just sort of feels like maybe this is something we need to look at. And so I just went back to kind of sustainable design thinking, if we could really just make this out of something good that was non-toxic, that could be degradable, that could be maybe made from something different than petroleum, this would be widely accepted and really change the world because we could get rid of plastic as a terrible thing in our lives.

4:55So that was the spark. Obviously, I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea about how to build a consumer brand. I had no idea about how to make products. It was all a huge learning curve, but I just had all the kind of like that mix of like naivete, overconfidence, all the things that, you know, young founders have just thinking, of course I can do it. So I went dove into the pool and I guess never got out. I'm still here swimming. I love it.

5:26Kara Goldin:I love it. So what were your first products when you launched 15 years ago? So we started actually with one SKU, which note to all consumer goods founders start with more than one SKU or at least several versions of the one SKU. We had a cup that was an alternative to like a styrofoam coffee cup. It felt like styrofoam in a way. It had this filmy exterior, and then it had a compostable lid. So it could replace what people were buying for sort of coffee cups for their homes, their offices on the go. And it felt like this super innovative solution. No one ever seen anything like it. So we got some early press because of that and had an incoming call actually for like a holiday special at Bed Bath & Beyond.

6:16That's how that is. That was the first you see we did an in and out at Bed Bath & Beyond. And then we took that one item. And that led to obviously many more. But that one item was what we were really pitching to many retailers with a hope and a prayer that they would take it. And we really spent the first many, many years trying to convince retailers that this should exist and that, you know, sustainability had a place in the category. As this was sort of before the mainstream sustainability movement.

6:49Kara Goldin:Yeah. I mean, you're essentially creating an entirely new category and it's, uh, and you know, the interesting piece is that you're not just trying to educate consumers, but you're also, to your point, educating buyers to give you a shot on the shelf. And for anyone who has never thought about that, who has never done that, we did it at Hint as well. And it's really tough. And it's certainly, you know, oftentimes, I think, If you have more competition when you're trying to do things, it actually helps a category to scale. And certainly that probably helped you repurpose as you were starting to grow.

7:41Kara Goldin:So how did you get retailers and consumers to take you seriously and know that this was a better thing? I mean, I would imagine that the fact that you've been in sustainable design and you could actually speak to how actually a cup, for example, is made and what products to use in order to create a cup. So understanding the, you know, all the ingredients to, I guess, is the components to that item is really key. But I'm curious how you got retailers and consumers to give it a shot. I think we really did address an unmet need even 15 years ago. I think consumers were looking for something different because, and the reason we thought this would actually work is because, you know, at the time, I think I was pregnant with my first child or almost pregnant.

8:38And I could see around me many, many friends and family members were having kids and basically detoxing their homes. So they were using organic baby food. The whole house had organic food in it. They were using green cleaning products. They just didn't want any toxins or anything like that around the baby or in the home. And so I think people were looking for, you know, alternatives to plastic that they could bring into their home as well if they were having a gathering or whatever. but it just didn't really exist on a retail shelf. So it felt like there was a hole there. And then when we could sort of use those adjacent categories as examples to the retailers saying, here, look what happened when you put in green cleaning, or look what happened when you put in these other sort of eco-organic, what have you, household products, these categories were transformed.

9:26And so, you know, we tried to use all the data we could. We were trying to be as compelling as we could. We explained actually a lot. There's a lot of education here, as you were mentioning, that people aren't aware of. For example, in a coffee cup, even in an everyday paper cup, which people think is sustainable because it's paper, it's lined with polyethylene, which is a petroleum derivative. And when it's lined with polyethylene, recyclers cannot separate that lining from the paper. So nothing gets recycled. It's all going to landfill. Never mind the microplastics and the polyethylene that are seeping into your drink.

10:03So I think, you know, this is something we were kind of preaching way back then, way back one, and there were buyers that were interested or felt like, hey, you know what, if you pay the slotting fee, we'll give you a shot, you know? So we sort of had to pay our way a little bit at the beginning, honestly, and prove that we could actually, you know, earn our keep and pay the rent, so to speak. and it worked because I think we were addressing this unmet need. So that one SKU led to two, led to four, led to six, led to eight, et cetera. And we have continually tried to sort of innovate and stay ahead of that curve and just address these unmet needs.

10:45Just to say, hey, okay, is this something our consumer would be interested in? And we listened to them as well. So So, you know, what's so great about the Internet is that you can pull your customers and understand what they're looking for and what they want. So we can provide that for them. And now that we have the retailer relationships, it's a lot easier. But it's still, I mean, even 15 years in, it's still a challenge across the board to do everything right. And many failures. I mean, we've had SKUs that it's like, well, that didn't work. You know, and we've had to pivot and adjust and continually iterate.

11:19Right.

11:19Kara Goldin:So when you develop products, you touched on this a bit, but I guess with your first product that you were developing that had almost like the feel of styrofoam, do you feel like you have to make a better version of an existing product versus an entirely new product, for example? Like, this is probably a bad example, but a cup. Like, getting people to move from a cup to something else. Maybe you tried and they were not going to do that. So then you decided to go back to let's just make that design better. I'd love to hear if you've encountered that. Yeah. I think what's interesting is I think the consumer is much more interested in using a better version that performs as well or better and that they don't have to pay more for, that's an easy adjustment.

12:22I think we see conversion happen quite easily there. There also is this mix though where you want to stay innovative, you want to be ahead of the curve, but if you're too far ahead, it's hard for people to make that connection and actually buy into that innovation if they don't have all the education beforehand. So what we've seen from our growth is that like we are doing better with just innovating or tweaking something that exists and making it better or making it more sustainable and making it more accessible. I think what's interesting is competitors that have sort of come and gone along the way may have like a super sustainable straw, let's say, made out of whatever, some very innovative material, but it's a dollar a straw and you're paying$10 for a pack of 10 and people just won't do that.

13:14They love that it's so innovative, but it's got to be accessible. It has to perform. And maybe you don't know what that innovative material doesn't perform as well. It's hard when you're being, when you're on sort of that far end of the curve to really like hit all the metrics that people care about. I think people say, oh, we love, for example, especially in sustainability, oh, we want, you know, the most sustainable X, Y, or Z. But when it comes to, well, you've got to pay this much more for it, or maybe it won't work as well. I think that's where you lose them. So I think one of the big reasons we've been successful is we've given performance and durability.

13:53We put that front center. We put an accessible price point on it. And yes, it is sustainable and third-party certified in all the things. And when those three things work together, you have success in our category. When we've tried to be too innovative and then therefore the price is too high or maybe the performance isn't there, it just hasn't worked.

14:15Kara Goldin:Definitely. So what myths about compostable products frustrate you the most? I think the one, well, there's a few. One myth is that they don't work as well, you know, and I think that's a myth across all eco friendly products that, you know, the efficacy isn't there. Maybe in the beginning that might have been true and that's what sours people. But the fact is, it's just not true anymore. I think you also have to think about what you're comparing it to. So if you're comparing a compostable trash bag to a like heavy duty plastic trash bag, yes, a heavy duty plastic trash bag is going to be a little more sturdy.

15:02And I think you have to know what you're going into. A compostable trash bag is meant to break down. It is made of plant material. It is thinner. It can't withstand as much as like a heavy duty plastic, but there are so many applications that you need that disposable trash bag. So the myth that like, you know, it doesn't work or, oh, the bamboo toilet paper, it's so scratchy. It's not. I think it's just an easy excuse for the naysayers. So it works just as well or better. Another myth is, oh, these don't actually break down. It does break down. they can break down they're third-party certified to break down um and so i i don't know where that comes from i think that's coming from kind of different industries and naysayers but you know the proof is in the certification so i think what's what's harmed the compostable industry in the past is um you know greenwashing and fakes that aren't really you know certified and they claim, you know, one thing or other, and it's just, it's a plastic product that says it's compostable.

16:10So unfortunately there are bad actors, but now there are regulations that require products like ours to be third-party certified. And so you weed those, those companies out, those products out.

16:22Kara Goldin:So I think consumers can be so overwhelmed by sustainability. You know, there's also, I've heard, aluminum is more sustainable. What are your thoughts on, on aluminum? I think aluminum is great because it's heavily recyclable, but I think the recyclability is a bit of a myth, speaking of myths. I think people think that once it goes into their blue bin or they're sorting it correctly, it gets recycled and just turns into something else. The fact is about 6 % of our recyclables actually get recycled, which is really sad. It used to be actually just sorted and then shipped to China where it was, you know, turned into other products there.

17:06So plastic water bottles would turn into sort of plastic rope or fishing wire or what have you. Now it has been shipped off to Indonesia and Malaysia, but they're refusing a lot of it. So because there's not a market for recyclable products, it's often these products are burned or destroyed. Some are recycled and aluminum is highly recyclable. So I think it's great. But plastics, less so. Glass, less so. Yeah, it's one of those big mess. I'm more concerned today. And I think one thing that we're really trying to educate consumers on is microplastics. I think that's what's more concerning. I mean, the sustainability piece obviously is usually concerning on the waste issue, but the amount of microplastics in our environment, in our homes, in our blood, anything we can do to avoid microplastics, I think is huge and will matter collectively.

18:06So that's something we're focused on and trying to educate consumers on about our products that our products don't break down into microplastics.

18:13Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. Just to add to the aluminum piece that the aluminum is lined with plastic in most of those aluminum bottles. And I didn't believe it, but actually my husband, he loves to take things apart. So he took apart a bottle and actually melted down the plastic because a lot of people don't realize there's plastic on the top of many of those aluminum water bottles. And there was twice as much plastic in the top of an aluminum water bottle as there are in plastic bottles. And so it's crazy. Like, that's like one of the myths that I have thought. And to your point, you know, the whole recycling process, you know, so many consumer products companies just believe like, well, you know, state by state laws and companies that are handling these recycling and, you know, what ends up happening.

19:22Kara Goldin:But I think it's just, it's everyone's issue, right? And if they're sending it across the world and it's burned, I mean, it's a problem, right? Or it can't be recycled because the recycling company can't do that. So I think that it's, you know, it's something that I think most consumers want to do the right thing, but there's just, it's so confusing, right? It's so confusing. It's so overwhelming. I think this is why we're just trying to be like a simple solution that you don't have to feel guilty or bad about, that you can use us and go on about your day and make a simple swap and not fret that you know we're putting out something bad into the world like this is what we care about i personally care about this our entire team cares about this about putting out a healthy non-toxic you know sustainable product into the world it's hard it's really hard to do to have a product that you know meets all the needs and is at the right price and, you know, is a brand that stays ahead of the curve, it's a challenge because I think as a sustainable product, you're held to a different standard.

20:40There's just so much education that is expensive to do. Yeah, definitely.

20:46Kara Goldin:So you started Repurpose 15 years ago. If you had to say there was a moment in the, I always think of it as a timeline, where you thought, okay, this is going to make it. Was there like one like moment when you could say, oh, my gosh, finally, someone's paying attention? Was it getting into a major retailer? Was it press? Was it, you know, what was it that a milestone, whether it was revenue or EBITDA or number of employees? What was that milestone when you said, wow, we've made it? I still am like, have we made it? I think really it was, I don't know if you remember, it was probably 2016 or so.

21:33There was a straw pictured in a turtle's nose in a National Geographic and the image went viral. And we had about a year prior launched compostable straws, not paper. They were actually made a corn and cassava based product, but we had straws. And so we were being called by every major retailer in the US. Do you have straws? Can you make straws? And we were like, yep, we do. And we also have plates and we also have cups. And that was kind of the moment that we went from kind of like trying to knock on every door to being in the income and call business. and that felt to me like okay people are really sick of plastic they want something different if if a straw is what it needs to be amazing and that was really the moment and we got into oh god thousands of retail doors from because of that and that was that was like about a six month process but i do remember it was 2016 or 2017 thinking okay wow we just we we We've got it.

22:42From my point of view, when people are aware of the problem and there is a solution sitting in front of them that they don't have to pay more for, there's not a lot of obstacles in the way of them wanting to buy the product, liking it, and then buying it again. So awareness is key.

23:04Kara Goldin:So regulation around plastics is evolving, changing. But what role do you see policy playing in pushing this industry forward and or backwards? Right. So I think with every industry, I think whether it's tariffs or you don't know who to call anymore to have this discussion. I mean, we've heard it all on this podcast. But what would you say to how do you see policy really playing and pushing this industry forward? So currently, policy is being enacted at a state-by-state level. which is not great for a national brand because it's very hard to have labeling or certain requirements for one product in one state that is different in another state.

24:00It's very challenging, especially for smaller brands like us. I think what I'm hopeful for is national legislation that I'm helping to advocate for that will allow just a broad stroke kind of regulation on labeling and requirements for combustible products, recycling, etc. that also provides more income for infrastructure that helps to recycle or compost products. So you may have heard of these EPR laws, extended producer responsibility. They're different state by state. It would be so wonderful to have a national EPR standard or one that really helps incentivize composting, recycling. It's just all different state by state.

24:53There's so many different advocacy groups in each state kind of advocating for different things, which makes it difficult. So I'm hoping for a national solution and working on that.

25:05Kara Goldin:So last question. On a personal note, what's your favorite product in the repurpose lineup and maybe the one that you tend to reach for the most often? It's without a doubt. We have Stemless wine glasses. And so they're very attractive. They're sort of a rounded bottom. Very cool. They look amazing. They feel great in your hand. They come in very handy when you're having people over and don't want to use wine glasses. You could put anything in them, obviously. And they're a huge hit for our brand. So love them. Can't recommend them enough. I think stemless wine glasses all the way. That's awesome.

25:50Kara Goldin:Well, Lauren, thank you so much for joining us and sharing the Repurpose story. And I love the journey, how you've changed careers and did something that really helped enable another industry to do better. So for everyone listening, you can learn more about repurpose.com. Also follow Repurpose and connect with Lauren as well on social. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, tell all your friends, buy from Repurpose. So thank you so much, Lauren, for coming on. I really appreciate it. Thanks again for listening to The Kara Golden Show. If you would, please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit.

26:37Kara Goldin:And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Golden. I would love to hear from you too, so feel free to DM me. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now.