I spent 10 years in tech — I was at the top of my game and my career was progressing surprisingly fast. I was engaging daily with exceptionally bright minds at the most innovative companies — I had a seat that the table with leaders at companies who were building technology that would change the world. Then I left it all behind to start a wipe company. Crazy eh? More than a few people thought so and I can assure you there was a birdie on my shoulder smirking as it said, “that’s going to be a real conversation starter when people ask you what you do for work at a dinner party”. I had trepidation around how people might react because I knew it didn’t sound all that interesting on the surface. Then the lightbulb went off, the fact that I would have to explain it was all the more reason to pursue it. I had stumbled into a learning that I felt was too compelling to ignore. Here’s some context: Trillions of wet wipes are produced, used, and discarded every year. The weight of wet wipes produced annually is heavier than The Great Wall of China (the heaviest man-made object on earth). There are many problems within, below are the most notable. Problem #1: 90% of wet wipes contain plastic fibers, which are effectively microplastics from the moment they are produced. Millions of these wipes end up in the ocean. Parts of the wipe breakdown but the polyester fibers stay. This is not regulated. Problem #2 Major education gap around how/when to use cleaning products. If the objective is to stay healthy: 99% of the time, we don’t need to kill 99% of germs. Most of the time soap and water is best. This said, disinfectant wipes make up 70% of the cleaning wipes that are purchased annually. The large majority of these products contain 'quats', many of which are toxic and have been linked to serious health issues (cancer, infertility, pulmonary disease). Read the ingredient list: If it starts with a “ch” and ends with “ide” — take caution. The fine print states: “Wash Hands and Surface that come in contact after use”. It’s wild that the EPA allows this... Problem #3 Packaging: this is an issue across the entire industry (baby, personal care, etc) — one market is particularly illogical: cleaning wipes in the US. Over 300 million single-use wipe tubes are produced annually in the US. The volume of the tubes created annually could fill the 20 largest NFL stadiums to the brim. Unfortunately, most of this packaging ends up in landfills. Cleaning brands package in this format because it sells better in retail. The past few years building Biom have been an MBA 4 times over. There have been ups and downs — but man it has been fulfilling. Today, 30k customers use biom in substitute for toxic products that pollute our planet. My closing thoughts: if you’ve built conviction around a problem/opportunity, it doesn’t need to be popular to make it worth pursuing. Build the plan, assemble the right people, and march forward. You can look back just don’t turn around.
Ben Zises
1mo
🎯 Nailed it Will Gahagan
Brook Stroud
1mo
This is a powerful message. "If you’ve built conviction around a problem/opportunity, it doesn’t need to be popular to make it worth pursuing. Build the plan, assemble the right people, and march forward." Hats off for doing the hard, often lonely work and marching forward!
Michael Dadlani
1mo
100% agree. If you don’t take a risk at some point throughout your career, you’ll spend your whole career working for someone who did... Anyone want to talk about innovative golf towels? 😂😂
Martin Bernstein
1mo
🚀
Michael Brown
1mo
Way to go Will… Congratulations
Colleen Nicoll
1mo
Wow Will!! Impressive.
Anna Robertson great climate impact visualizations here for The Cool Down 👀
Josh Bowen
1mo
Congrats Will Gahagan on the growth so far - wishing you much success!
I hope many more follow your example. This is a massive problem and the solution is within our reach. Way to go Will ✨✨