September 20, 2023 • 23 mins
In 2014, Graham became focused on the idea that we have an outdated, cost prohibitive and inefficient process of commercial waste and recycling. With a landscape of growing environmental concerns and the growing rate of commercial waste production, the lack of emphasis on recycling and rising costs was alarming. In 2014, the EPA claimed a national recycling rate of 34% - today that number is 32%. What's even more alarming is there has been no reliable data to know exactly how well (or poorly) we're doing or how efficiently we’re doing it.
RoadRunner was born from the belief that there had to be a better way.
RoadRunner was born from the belief that there had to be a better way.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:08):
Hey, and welcome in. Thisis the CEOs You Should Know podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Hartwell,let's say a look to Graham Ryan,
Roadrunner Waste and Recycling. Thank youfor joining me. Thanks for having me,
Johnny. All right, so tellus everything we need to know about
your company. Yeah, so weare a Roadrunner. We work with businesses
to help them save money on theirwaste and recycling, and our goal is
(00:29):
always to increase their recycling rate.There was a big buzz about Roadrunner.
You guys, when did you guysstart up? We actually started in Manhattan
in New York City in twenty fourteen, so a little over nine years now.
But then we moved the headquarters toPittsburgh in twenty seventeen. All Right,
(00:49):
so I know nothing about waste management, So what is it I need
to know? What makes you differentthan other waste management companies? I think
the main difference I think it's fairto say that we live in a world
dominated by waste. So, yeah, the US is most of our materials
go into landfill. With Roadrunner,it's different. We align our incentives with
(01:12):
the customers and so what we meanby that is we can help them recycle.
But also advance our own profitability thatway. All right, So what
does that mean? Where does thisgo? Then? Well, you know,
when we started Roadrunner, it wasit was a small company. We
started in you know, three cities, and we really wanted to see what
the opportunity was. But now atthis point where nationwide, and so I
(01:34):
think the opportunity is to make ahuge impact on this country's recycling rate.
That that opportunity exists, and we'recertainly running at making that happen. All
right, I'm going to play somethingfrom your website that I was very curious
about, and I'll listen to it. I've got some questions, all right.
This is from the website Roadrunner WMdot com castle free, affordable and
(01:57):
sustainable waste and recycling men management.Every business knows they need it, but
constantly dealing with unreliable service, unexpectedfees and unpredictable rate hikes, that's a
mess you don't need. And that'sexactly why Roadrunner has become the new standard
in waste and recycling. We providefully managed waste and recycling services enhanced by
(02:19):
cutting edge technology. First, we'llconsolidate management of your waste operations, whether
it's in one location or cross yourentire portfolio, and we'll leverage our trust
and network of over three thousand dollarsand vendors to deliver dependable services nationwide.
Next, we'll leverage our proprietary technologysuite to monitor, collect accurate data,
(02:39):
and analyze every aspect of your wasteoperations. The result better service, simplified,
flexible dilling and landfill diversion opportunities thatmake sense for your business. And
we'll do all this and more forless than you're paying for waste management and
recycling services today. Let us accelerateyour road toward affordable and sustainable waste and
(03:00):
recycling Roadrunner Modern waste and recycling.All right, you use some terms like
new standard. The standard is thestandard, Thank you, Mike Tomlin.
Cutting edge technology, proprietary technology whenit comes to waste management. I don't
know if it was like this islike high tech field, but tell us
(03:24):
tell us things that we should knowabout waste management. I think that's probably
what makes the industry itself so interestingfor us, is that data, availability
of information, even just how nobodyknows anything about waste. That's why I
got excited about the industry early onand so if we can take all that
(03:47):
data and find patterns of it init, you can get insights that can
that can really change the way ofbusiness is operating and that that means saving
money. So it's seems like overlycomplicated, but when you have all of
the data, it makes it alot easier. We'll give us an example.
You don't have to name names,but kind of as an example,
(04:09):
how you helped a company save moneyand you know, kind of solve some
of their problems. Yeah, everycompany, like take your typical let's say
office building. Okay, okay,we will analyze what they're currently doing.
Ninety percent of their material maybe goingto landfill, and they may be spending
X dollars a month, let's justsay one thousand dollars a month. After
(04:31):
we analyze that, we run machinelearning that tells us all right, in
their way stream, it's actually fiftypercent recyclables. So we have a high
degree of confidence that half of whatthey're generating can be recycled right now,
it's going to landfill. So weput programs in place what help them take
advantage of that opportunity and then begiven what they're spending, we can just
(04:51):
say Hey, we can guarantee youten fifteen percent savings and doing this so
for the business, it's not aheadache anymore. They're spending fifteen percent less
and they just three x their recyclingrate. All right, So this started
in New York. What what madeyou bring Now? You're a Pittsburgh guy,
aren't you. I'm a Pittsburgh guy, all right? So what made
(05:12):
you bring it to Pittsburgh? Ithink this was in twenty seventeen, So
twenty seventeen. There are certain thingsabout New York which allowed us not to
excel there. We weren't actively gettingcustomers in New York, but we already
had operations in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,and in DC. We had just raised
(05:34):
sixteen million dollars and it was timeto grow. We made the decision to
pick a city that was where thequality of life could be high for our
employees. So we did an evaluationand we ultimately chose Pittsburgh. Obviously I
had a little bit of a biasthere because I'm from here, but no,
(05:54):
it's been a it's been a greatplatform. And we came. At
that time we had twenty five employeesand now we have five hundred. So
it's it's been a heck of arid since twenty seventeen, all right.
So when you analyze somebody's waste practices, basically you can pinpoint where they can
save and when when you say save, what does it mean when you are
(06:15):
you recycling some of those things?And there's so many misnomers about recycling.
Can you clearly error about some ofthat? Sure? Yeah, I think
recycling has certainly had its challenges.I think if all of us take our
what we do at home as theproxy for recycling, that's a that's a
challenging stream. Very little of that, not all of that gets recycled,
(06:39):
I would say with confidence. Andwe just wanted to simplify it for businesses.
We wanted to shepherd them through thatprocess and say, let's take the
complexity out. We're the expert,as roadrunner. We can make this easy
for any business to implement and allthe while save money doing this. So
we felt that that was something thata lot of businesses would get interested in.
(07:00):
How did you become interested in wastemanagement and recycling? You know,
I've always been interested in data.That's just been something that that's when I
start to really understand things we'll say. So back really dating to since I
graduated from college, I'd just beenlooking at big industries and what made me
really excited about waste was how bigit was. It's a massive industry.
(07:23):
Not a lot of people know that, but not only is it big,
but it is incredibly behind the times. And you know, this was probably
twenty ten, twenty eleven time frame. I couldn't believe how much opportunity there
was in this industry to still enhancethe technology aspect of it for the better.
(07:46):
And the better for me was gettingmaterials out of landfill, Like so
much had to get done there thatI was ready to latch my hook to
that and commit my life to it. Do you remember your aha moment?
Like totally. I was actually ata building in the city of Pittsburgh.
I was on the dock. USwaste people hang out at the docks of
(08:09):
buildings, and I was trying tofigure out how to haul recyclables because typically
when you go to an industry provider, it's it's it's somewhat of a hard
conversation to get that done. Anda truck backed up and offloaded whatever they
were delivering for the building. Offlet's say, a pallet of paper,
but was completely empty other than thatpalette. And that was when I thought.
(08:33):
This was at the time of Airbnband Uber sort of exploding, and
every headline read read those two companies, I thought, oh my gosh,
there's all of this excess capacity oftrucking and cities. I just have to
attempt to connect the dots here.So connect this building with that truck who's
driving away empty, who would absolutelyhaul clean recyclables. And you know,
(08:56):
that's really been the story of Roadrunnersince that time. So are you in
the waste management recycling business? Areyou in the logistics business? Well,
it's a little bit of both.I think waste management and recycling is inevitably
logistics. These are this is aindustrial heavy asset industry that there are trucks,
there are steel containers, and theyare going to facilities, and so
(09:18):
naturally our technology has sort of hadto morph both the category waste and recycling,
but also logistics. I mean,we have our own optimization engine that
builds routes every day throughout the country, so we've really had to scale with
technology over the years. Well,congratulations, Graham, you just made waste
management interesting fascinating. So, asCEO, what has been your focus?
(09:45):
Growth? Our focus sit because wefelt the opportunity was there early on that
cities were a lot alike. Thissame opportunity that was in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
and in DC then let's say intwenty seventeen is true of most US cities.
So we had the opportunity to takeadvantage of that. Let's go from
three to ten to thirty. Sowe're still on that growth campaign. Number
(10:11):
one and then number two. Itbecame important for us as a business to
become profitable because we didn't just withthis mentality of growth at all expense.
We wanted to to be a businessthat survives from our own lifeblood, you
know that we create. And sothat's been more of the recent focused i
would say, starting last year.And what kind of growth have you seen
(10:31):
in Roadrunner We over the years?You know, we've probably grown on average
seventy five eighty percent every year sinceinception. And you know, as you
get bigger and bigger, it getsharder to do, but we've been able
to accomplish that and your profitability.We're I'm not you know, putting it
out there, but we've had agreat twenty twenty three years, so I
(10:52):
would say that we've accomplished our goals. Do you see us see Roadrunner expanding
around the country and maybe getting backin New York and kind of attacking some
of those things that those things thatyou had difficulty overcoming before. Yeah,
I think of a time horizon.You know. The way I think about
the future of Roadrunner is the opportunityis so great in this industry to grow
(11:13):
but also to change it for thebetter that I think in decades, you
know, like from that perspective,So for sure, I think it's inevitable
that we will be back where westarted in New York at some point on
that path, including you know,every major US metro. So tell us
about the name road Runner, Wheredid that come from? Totally? Yeah.
(11:35):
You know, you can picture mewalking around Manhattan dreaming, right,
I'm probably twenty five or twenty sixdreaming of what this company's going to be.
And the reality when you walk onthe sidewalk of Manhattan is waste is
on every sidewalk, piled up,So it was recycling. And my vision
then was we were going to besuper dense with tons of customers in Manhattan
(11:58):
and we would have these recycling truckszipping throughout the streets grabbing all the loose
bags of recycling on the side ofthe sidewalk. But it wouldn't be sitting
there like normal pedestrians in New Yorkare used to. So it would be
like literally the cartoon Roadrunners running allthroughout manhabit Manhattan grabbing the recycling. That's
(12:22):
what came to me, That's whatstuck. So do you remember watching the
Roadrunner cartoon? Oh? Of course, yeah. I mean what's funny is
like all our internal technology over theyears, we've we've named similarly, Like
our main piece of technology is calledcoyote. So yeah, we've we've gotten
We've had some fun with it overthere about it? Oh, I think
(12:43):
you have to. Yeah, youhave to. Well, building a business
is not easy. You gotta yougotta have fun, you gotta smile,
all right, on a daily basis. What is your biggest challenge? Then
it's a good question. I'd saystaying focused. Yeah. If I contribute
one thing to wins we've had overthe years, it's been the ability to
(13:07):
focus when let's say the noise ordistraction is high. So that's something that
I wrestle with all the time,staying focused. All right, stay in
focus. How do you grow thatbusiness? How do you how do you
make in roads with your customers?Well, first and foremus we have a
big sales team, so we've probablyover two hundred salespeople all throughout the country
(13:31):
who are having conversations with customers abouthow we can help them. That'd be
number one. I think number twois having happy customers, providing them the
benefits that they signed on for,which is to save money and recycle more.
And the more often we do that, the more they'll tell their friends
and we'll get some word of mouththat way. Tell me a little bit
more about Graham the person. Yeah, I am born and raised in Pittsburgh.
(13:54):
I went to Central Catholic here.I had a great experience, played
football there, actually into Cornell andalso played football and Upstate New York and
left there wanting to make an impact. So pretty much got right into my
entrepreneurial journey the minute I stepped outof Cornell. Well, what was funny
is when I did some research onyou, the first item when you look
(14:18):
up your name online on Google isyour your football history. Was there any
expectation or any aspirations to turn proat all. Nah, I wouldn't say
I was that good. I wasI was. I would say, well,
I would say I got to theheight of my own athletic ability,
but that was capped. There's noway I was going to be a professional
(14:39):
football player. Yeah, it wasn'tgood enough. So a professional entrepreneur?
When did you get When did youget that bug? Right away? Yeah?
I just could not see myself workingfor a company. And you know,
I did an internship at one ofthe largest companies in the world,
(15:00):
and that's when I knew that Iyou know, I at least had the
gut to go work for a smallerbusiness that had some potential. But ultimately
that didn't last long either. Itwas time for me to go at it
on my own. And what wasthat like when you were out on your
own? What made you pull thetrigger? I think it was two things.
(15:20):
I think it was obsession, soit got to a point where I
couldn't stop thinking about one other thingthan doing it. And then I think
it was courage. Like I can'ttell you how early on in my career,
how many folks said, I mean, Graham, you went to an
Ivyleague School, and you know you'rein waste. You know, like,
(15:41):
well why are you doing that?I mean I probably got that more than
anything else I've ever gotten in mycareer. So it's like those some of
those nights where you're you start toquestion yourself. That's the time where you
have to have the gut belief,you have to have the courage just to
just to go your own way becauseit's not going to sound right for many
early on. But you gotta makeit what you what you believe you can
(16:03):
make it. But you're just notin the waste management recycling business. I
mean, that's ultimately what you do. But you you found a a you
found a niche when it comes tothat, correct Yeah, yeah, you
know. I I believe where whatgets me excited all day every day is
the fact that every time we bringon a new customer, we take material
(16:25):
out of landfill. And if Ican say that, you know, fifteen
twenty, twenty five thousand times aswe grow, that feels good. That
that's that's motivation. So what's yourwhat's your opinion of recycling? And you
know the amount of waste that weprovide, you know, each and every
day you know, or is thatsomething that you're concerned about. Is that
(16:48):
something that you're looking as your company, This is a problem that you're able
to tackle? Yeah, I think. I think recycling itself is totally tackling
tackleable, if that's a word.I think this is now Yeah, right,
I think it's uh. I thinkit just takes an acknowledgement of that
there's a little bit of a problemthat we throw most of everything to landfill
(17:10):
out of convenience, and you know, fast forward ten twenty fifty years.
We don't want to leave our worldin a place where the next generation inherits
some issues. And so with reallysimple tweaks, you can make a change.
And I think that's really the messagethat I want to get out there.
And how was your business evolved?Are you seeing companies kind of seeing
(17:32):
what you're doing and maybe trying todo what you do or do you think
you're still ahead of the curve?No. I think starting in twenty twenty,
there's been a big uptick in theawareness of recycling. And that's really
from the largest companies in the world, Amazon, all the Walmart. These
(17:53):
companies require their entire supply chains tohave zero waste goals, and so you
seeing that permeate many industries. Soit's safe to say that the largest companies
in the world all have zero wastegoals and that's that could be twenty thirty
or twenty forty, but they're quicklyadvancing towards throwing nothing to landfill and so
(18:15):
it's just a matter of time forthat to trickle throughout all businesses in the
US. All right, So whenit comes to the future of your business,
do you still have an eye on, you know, evolving more technology,
being being more resourceful and being ableto pivot and wherever you need to
(18:37):
do. And do you see achange in your future? Do you see
the advancement of where you're going togo? No, I actually see it.
As you know, our mission sortof playing out technology is a required
bridge for zero waste to be possible. Without technology, we won't get there.
And so if we continue to honein on and invest in the right
(19:02):
din build the right technologies that getus there, we stand to benefit from
that. All right. So tellus a little bit about your community involvement.
Aren't you involved with any kind ofcharities or things like that. Yeah,
One thing we do at road Runneris we volunteer our time with the
local parks or the local trails orthe local city areas to pick up waste,
(19:25):
pick up litter. We just hadour our annual road Runner Day,
I think two or three weeks ago, and we moved our headquarters from downtown
Pittsburgh to Lawrenceville. And so thefirst thing we did was went out to
the streets of Lawrenceville and picked uplitter the entire morning. And so we're
gonna continue to have a volunteer programwhich does that. It's sort of in
line with what we're trying to doas a whole. And I know that
(19:48):
our employees get really excited about that. All right, So you moved your
headquarters to Pittsburgh. As the companygrows and evolves, do you still see
a home here in Pittsburgh? Yeah, for sure. Pittsburgh is a great
platform. Pittsburgh is provides a highquality of life for our employees, which
(20:10):
is key. I want. Youknow, I've always been excited about employees
building careers at Roadrunner. And youknow, we've moved people in from out
of town when we were in NewYork that have nothing to do with Pittsburgh.
And it turns out They love ithere. How is your employment situation?
What do you mean by that?Well, I mean are you having
you are you expanding? Do youare you looking to hire more people?
(20:32):
Is? And if that, whatare the challenges with that, especially in
this economy. Yeah, I'd saywe are. We are hiring people right
now. Most of the hires wehave are in our business development team.
I think the challenge the economy presentsas there's just some uncertainty. So it's
hard to have a ton of convictionright now and growing more rapidly than we're
(20:55):
growing without seeing how everything plays outhere. So I would say we're you
know, we're hiring slower than wehave historically, but keeping an eye on
where we think things are going.I love the fact that Pittsburgh has a
rich history of technology and advancement.You know, it goes back to Tesla
and George Westinghouse and we've been aforefront of for you know, the Internet
(21:19):
and e commerce and logistics, andthis is part of the tradition. You
want to be proud this is asa Pittsburgh or you should be proud of
what you're able to accomplish. Well, I appreciate that it may be a
strength it maybe a week just ofmine, but I haven't. I'm not
there yet. I'm not I'm notready to pat myself on the back.
(21:41):
Let's say yeah, I think whenthe when the problem or opportunity out there
exists, is so large and wehave large aspirations, what's the way to
say it? You know, wewant to stay hungry, all right,
So tell us about your team then, yeah, we have you know,
five hundred employees. We focus alot on culture because it's it's absolutely the
(22:03):
most important aspect to any workplace.It's not just words on a wall.
This is important to us. Ithink probably one of our core values that
is the most important, as carepersonally about each other. We're always chiming
that because the human experience undoubtedly interactswith the professional experience. So we just
want to be aware of that andadvance it. It's been fun. Graham
(22:29):
Rhyne of Roadrunner Waste and Recycling anda CEO you Should Know. Graham,
Thank you so much, Thank you, thanks so much. This has been
the CEO you Should Know podcast showcasingbusinesses that are driving our regional economy.
Part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communitieswe serve Johnny hartwell, thank you so
much for listening. Okay,
Hey, and welcome in. Thisis the CEOs You Should Know podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Hartwell,let's say a look to Graham Ryan,
Roadrunner Waste and Recycling. Thank youfor joining me. Thanks for having me,
Johnny. All right, so tellus everything we need to know about
your company. Yeah, so weare a Roadrunner. We work with businesses
to help them save money on theirwaste and recycling, and our goal is
(00:29):
always to increase their recycling rate.There was a big buzz about Roadrunner.
You guys, when did you guysstart up? We actually started in Manhattan
in New York City in twenty fourteen, so a little over nine years now.
But then we moved the headquarters toPittsburgh in twenty seventeen. All Right,
(00:49):
so I know nothing about waste management, So what is it I need
to know? What makes you differentthan other waste management companies? I think
the main difference I think it's fairto say that we live in a world
dominated by waste. So, yeah, the US is most of our materials
go into landfill. With Roadrunner,it's different. We align our incentives with
(01:12):
the customers and so what we meanby that is we can help them recycle.
But also advance our own profitability thatway. All right, So what
does that mean? Where does thisgo? Then? Well, you know,
when we started Roadrunner, it wasit was a small company. We
started in you know, three cities, and we really wanted to see what
the opportunity was. But now atthis point where nationwide, and so I
(01:34):
think the opportunity is to make ahuge impact on this country's recycling rate.
That that opportunity exists, and we'recertainly running at making that happen. All
right, I'm going to play somethingfrom your website that I was very curious
about, and I'll listen to it. I've got some questions, all right.
This is from the website Roadrunner WMdot com castle free, affordable and
(01:57):
sustainable waste and recycling men management.Every business knows they need it, but
constantly dealing with unreliable service, unexpectedfees and unpredictable rate hikes, that's a
mess you don't need. And that'sexactly why Roadrunner has become the new standard
in waste and recycling. We providefully managed waste and recycling services enhanced by
(02:19):
cutting edge technology. First, we'llconsolidate management of your waste operations, whether
it's in one location or cross yourentire portfolio, and we'll leverage our trust
and network of over three thousand dollarsand vendors to deliver dependable services nationwide.
Next, we'll leverage our proprietary technologysuite to monitor, collect accurate data,
(02:39):
and analyze every aspect of your wasteoperations. The result better service, simplified,
flexible dilling and landfill diversion opportunities thatmake sense for your business. And
we'll do all this and more forless than you're paying for waste management and
recycling services today. Let us accelerateyour road toward affordable and sustainable waste and
(03:00):
recycling Roadrunner Modern waste and recycling.All right, you use some terms like
new standard. The standard is thestandard, Thank you, Mike Tomlin.
Cutting edge technology, proprietary technology whenit comes to waste management. I don't
know if it was like this islike high tech field, but tell us
(03:24):
tell us things that we should knowabout waste management. I think that's probably
what makes the industry itself so interestingfor us, is that data, availability
of information, even just how nobodyknows anything about waste. That's why I
got excited about the industry early onand so if we can take all that
(03:47):
data and find patterns of it init, you can get insights that can
that can really change the way ofbusiness is operating and that that means saving
money. So it's seems like overlycomplicated, but when you have all of
the data, it makes it alot easier. We'll give us an example.
You don't have to name names,but kind of as an example,
(04:09):
how you helped a company save moneyand you know, kind of solve some
of their problems. Yeah, everycompany, like take your typical let's say
office building. Okay, okay,we will analyze what they're currently doing.
Ninety percent of their material maybe goingto landfill, and they may be spending
X dollars a month, let's justsay one thousand dollars a month. After
(04:31):
we analyze that, we run machinelearning that tells us all right, in
their way stream, it's actually fiftypercent recyclables. So we have a high
degree of confidence that half of whatthey're generating can be recycled right now,
it's going to landfill. So weput programs in place what help them take
advantage of that opportunity and then begiven what they're spending, we can just
(04:51):
say Hey, we can guarantee youten fifteen percent savings and doing this so
for the business, it's not aheadache anymore. They're spending fifteen percent less
and they just three x their recyclingrate. All right, So this started
in New York. What what madeyou bring Now? You're a Pittsburgh guy,
aren't you. I'm a Pittsburgh guy, all right? So what made
(05:12):
you bring it to Pittsburgh? Ithink this was in twenty seventeen, So
twenty seventeen. There are certain thingsabout New York which allowed us not to
excel there. We weren't actively gettingcustomers in New York, but we already
had operations in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,and in DC. We had just raised
(05:34):
sixteen million dollars and it was timeto grow. We made the decision to
pick a city that was where thequality of life could be high for our
employees. So we did an evaluationand we ultimately chose Pittsburgh. Obviously I
had a little bit of a biasthere because I'm from here, but no,
(05:54):
it's been a it's been a greatplatform. And we came. At
that time we had twenty five employeesand now we have five hundred. So
it's it's been a heck of arid since twenty seventeen, all right.
So when you analyze somebody's waste practices, basically you can pinpoint where they can
save and when when you say save, what does it mean when you are
(06:15):
you recycling some of those things?And there's so many misnomers about recycling.
Can you clearly error about some ofthat? Sure? Yeah, I think
recycling has certainly had its challenges.I think if all of us take our
what we do at home as theproxy for recycling, that's a that's a
challenging stream. Very little of that, not all of that gets recycled,
(06:39):
I would say with confidence. Andwe just wanted to simplify it for businesses.
We wanted to shepherd them through thatprocess and say, let's take the
complexity out. We're the expert,as roadrunner. We can make this easy
for any business to implement and allthe while save money doing this. So
we felt that that was something thata lot of businesses would get interested in.
(07:00):
How did you become interested in wastemanagement and recycling? You know,
I've always been interested in data.That's just been something that that's when I
start to really understand things we'll say. So back really dating to since I
graduated from college, I'd just beenlooking at big industries and what made me
really excited about waste was how bigit was. It's a massive industry.
(07:23):
Not a lot of people know that, but not only is it big,
but it is incredibly behind the times. And you know, this was probably
twenty ten, twenty eleven time frame. I couldn't believe how much opportunity there
was in this industry to still enhancethe technology aspect of it for the better.
(07:46):
And the better for me was gettingmaterials out of landfill, Like so
much had to get done there thatI was ready to latch my hook to
that and commit my life to it. Do you remember your aha moment?
Like totally. I was actually ata building in the city of Pittsburgh.
I was on the dock. USwaste people hang out at the docks of
(08:09):
buildings, and I was trying tofigure out how to haul recyclables because typically
when you go to an industry provider, it's it's it's somewhat of a hard
conversation to get that done. Anda truck backed up and offloaded whatever they
were delivering for the building. Offlet's say, a pallet of paper,
but was completely empty other than thatpalette. And that was when I thought.
(08:33):
This was at the time of Airbnband Uber sort of exploding, and
every headline read read those two companies, I thought, oh my gosh,
there's all of this excess capacity oftrucking and cities. I just have to
attempt to connect the dots here.So connect this building with that truck who's
driving away empty, who would absolutelyhaul clean recyclables. And you know,
(08:56):
that's really been the story of Roadrunnersince that time. So are you in
the waste management recycling business? Areyou in the logistics business? Well,
it's a little bit of both.I think waste management and recycling is inevitably
logistics. These are this is aindustrial heavy asset industry that there are trucks,
there are steel containers, and theyare going to facilities, and so
(09:18):
naturally our technology has sort of hadto morph both the category waste and recycling,
but also logistics. I mean,we have our own optimization engine that
builds routes every day throughout the country, so we've really had to scale with
technology over the years. Well,congratulations, Graham, you just made waste
management interesting fascinating. So, asCEO, what has been your focus?
(09:45):
Growth? Our focus sit because wefelt the opportunity was there early on that
cities were a lot alike. Thissame opportunity that was in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
and in DC then let's say intwenty seventeen is true of most US cities.
So we had the opportunity to takeadvantage of that. Let's go from
three to ten to thirty. Sowe're still on that growth campaign. Number
(10:11):
one and then number two. Itbecame important for us as a business to
become profitable because we didn't just withthis mentality of growth at all expense.
We wanted to to be a businessthat survives from our own lifeblood, you
know that we create. And sothat's been more of the recent focused i
would say, starting last year.And what kind of growth have you seen
(10:31):
in Roadrunner We over the years?You know, we've probably grown on average
seventy five eighty percent every year sinceinception. And you know, as you
get bigger and bigger, it getsharder to do, but we've been able
to accomplish that and your profitability.We're I'm not you know, putting it
out there, but we've had agreat twenty twenty three years, so I
(10:52):
would say that we've accomplished our goals. Do you see us see Roadrunner expanding
around the country and maybe getting backin New York and kind of attacking some
of those things that those things thatyou had difficulty overcoming before. Yeah,
I think of a time horizon.You know. The way I think about
the future of Roadrunner is the opportunityis so great in this industry to grow
(11:13):
but also to change it for thebetter that I think in decades, you
know, like from that perspective,So for sure, I think it's inevitable
that we will be back where westarted in New York at some point on
that path, including you know,every major US metro. So tell us
about the name road Runner, Wheredid that come from? Totally? Yeah.
(11:35):
You know, you can picture mewalking around Manhattan dreaming, right,
I'm probably twenty five or twenty sixdreaming of what this company's going to be.
And the reality when you walk onthe sidewalk of Manhattan is waste is
on every sidewalk, piled up,So it was recycling. And my vision
then was we were going to besuper dense with tons of customers in Manhattan
(11:58):
and we would have these recycling truckszipping throughout the streets grabbing all the loose
bags of recycling on the side ofthe sidewalk. But it wouldn't be sitting
there like normal pedestrians in New Yorkare used to. So it would be
like literally the cartoon Roadrunners running allthroughout manhabit Manhattan grabbing the recycling. That's
(12:22):
what came to me, That's whatstuck. So do you remember watching the
Roadrunner cartoon? Oh? Of course, yeah. I mean what's funny is
like all our internal technology over theyears, we've we've named similarly, Like
our main piece of technology is calledcoyote. So yeah, we've we've gotten
We've had some fun with it overthere about it? Oh, I think
(12:43):
you have to. Yeah, youhave to. Well, building a business
is not easy. You gotta yougotta have fun, you gotta smile,
all right, on a daily basis. What is your biggest challenge? Then
it's a good question. I'd saystaying focused. Yeah. If I contribute
one thing to wins we've had overthe years, it's been the ability to
(13:07):
focus when let's say the noise ordistraction is high. So that's something that
I wrestle with all the time,staying focused. All right, stay in
focus. How do you grow thatbusiness? How do you how do you
make in roads with your customers?Well, first and foremus we have a
big sales team, so we've probablyover two hundred salespeople all throughout the country
(13:31):
who are having conversations with customers abouthow we can help them. That'd be
number one. I think number twois having happy customers, providing them the
benefits that they signed on for,which is to save money and recycle more.
And the more often we do that, the more they'll tell their friends
and we'll get some word of mouththat way. Tell me a little bit
more about Graham the person. Yeah, I am born and raised in Pittsburgh.
(13:54):
I went to Central Catholic here.I had a great experience, played
football there, actually into Cornell andalso played football and Upstate New York and
left there wanting to make an impact. So pretty much got right into my
entrepreneurial journey the minute I stepped outof Cornell. Well, what was funny
is when I did some research onyou, the first item when you look
(14:18):
up your name online on Google isyour your football history. Was there any
expectation or any aspirations to turn proat all. Nah, I wouldn't say
I was that good. I wasI was. I would say, well,
I would say I got to theheight of my own athletic ability,
but that was capped. There's noway I was going to be a professional
(14:39):
football player. Yeah, it wasn'tgood enough. So a professional entrepreneur?
When did you get When did youget that bug? Right away? Yeah?
I just could not see myself workingfor a company. And you know,
I did an internship at one ofthe largest companies in the world,
(15:00):
and that's when I knew that Iyou know, I at least had the
gut to go work for a smallerbusiness that had some potential. But ultimately
that didn't last long either. Itwas time for me to go at it
on my own. And what wasthat like when you were out on your
own? What made you pull thetrigger? I think it was two things.
(15:20):
I think it was obsession, soit got to a point where I
couldn't stop thinking about one other thingthan doing it. And then I think
it was courage. Like I can'ttell you how early on in my career,
how many folks said, I mean, Graham, you went to an
Ivyleague School, and you know you'rein waste. You know, like,
(15:41):
well why are you doing that?I mean I probably got that more than
anything else I've ever gotten in mycareer. So it's like those some of
those nights where you're you start toquestion yourself. That's the time where you
have to have the gut belief,you have to have the courage just to
just to go your own way becauseit's not going to sound right for many
early on. But you gotta makeit what you what you believe you can
(16:03):
make it. But you're just notin the waste management recycling business. I
mean, that's ultimately what you do. But you you found a a you
found a niche when it comes tothat, correct Yeah, yeah, you
know. I I believe where whatgets me excited all day every day is
the fact that every time we bringon a new customer, we take material
(16:25):
out of landfill. And if Ican say that, you know, fifteen
twenty, twenty five thousand times aswe grow, that feels good. That
that's that's motivation. So what's yourwhat's your opinion of recycling? And you
know the amount of waste that weprovide, you know, each and every
day you know, or is thatsomething that you're concerned about. Is that
(16:48):
something that you're looking as your company, This is a problem that you're able
to tackle? Yeah, I think. I think recycling itself is totally tackling
tackleable, if that's a word.I think this is now Yeah, right,
I think it's uh. I thinkit just takes an acknowledgement of that
there's a little bit of a problemthat we throw most of everything to landfill
(17:10):
out of convenience, and you know, fast forward ten twenty fifty years.
We don't want to leave our worldin a place where the next generation inherits
some issues. And so with reallysimple tweaks, you can make a change.
And I think that's really the messagethat I want to get out there.
And how was your business evolved?Are you seeing companies kind of seeing
(17:32):
what you're doing and maybe trying todo what you do or do you think
you're still ahead of the curve?No. I think starting in twenty twenty,
there's been a big uptick in theawareness of recycling. And that's really
from the largest companies in the world, Amazon, all the Walmart. These
(17:53):
companies require their entire supply chains tohave zero waste goals, and so you
seeing that permeate many industries. Soit's safe to say that the largest companies
in the world all have zero wastegoals and that's that could be twenty thirty
or twenty forty, but they're quicklyadvancing towards throwing nothing to landfill and so
(18:15):
it's just a matter of time forthat to trickle throughout all businesses in the
US. All right, So whenit comes to the future of your business,
do you still have an eye on, you know, evolving more technology,
being being more resourceful and being ableto pivot and wherever you need to
(18:37):
do. And do you see achange in your future? Do you see
the advancement of where you're going togo? No, I actually see it.
As you know, our mission sortof playing out technology is a required
bridge for zero waste to be possible. Without technology, we won't get there.
And so if we continue to honein on and invest in the right
(19:02):
din build the right technologies that getus there, we stand to benefit from
that. All right. So tellus a little bit about your community involvement.
Aren't you involved with any kind ofcharities or things like that. Yeah,
One thing we do at road Runneris we volunteer our time with the
local parks or the local trails orthe local city areas to pick up waste,
(19:25):
pick up litter. We just hadour our annual road Runner Day,
I think two or three weeks ago, and we moved our headquarters from downtown
Pittsburgh to Lawrenceville. And so thefirst thing we did was went out to
the streets of Lawrenceville and picked uplitter the entire morning. And so we're
gonna continue to have a volunteer programwhich does that. It's sort of in
line with what we're trying to doas a whole. And I know that
(19:48):
our employees get really excited about that. All right, So you moved your
headquarters to Pittsburgh. As the companygrows and evolves, do you still see
a home here in Pittsburgh? Yeah, for sure. Pittsburgh is a great
platform. Pittsburgh is provides a highquality of life for our employees, which
(20:10):
is key. I want. Youknow, I've always been excited about employees
building careers at Roadrunner. And youknow, we've moved people in from out
of town when we were in NewYork that have nothing to do with Pittsburgh.
And it turns out They love ithere. How is your employment situation?
What do you mean by that?Well, I mean are you having
you are you expanding? Do youare you looking to hire more people?
(20:32):
Is? And if that, whatare the challenges with that, especially in
this economy. Yeah, I'd saywe are. We are hiring people right
now. Most of the hires wehave are in our business development team.
I think the challenge the economy presentsas there's just some uncertainty. So it's
hard to have a ton of convictionright now and growing more rapidly than we're
(20:55):
growing without seeing how everything plays outhere. So I would say we're you
know, we're hiring slower than wehave historically, but keeping an eye on
where we think things are going.I love the fact that Pittsburgh has a
rich history of technology and advancement.You know, it goes back to Tesla
and George Westinghouse and we've been aforefront of for you know, the Internet
(21:19):
and e commerce and logistics, andthis is part of the tradition. You
want to be proud this is asa Pittsburgh or you should be proud of
what you're able to accomplish. Well, I appreciate that it may be a
strength it maybe a week just ofmine, but I haven't. I'm not
there yet. I'm not I'm notready to pat myself on the back.
(21:41):
Let's say yeah, I think whenthe when the problem or opportunity out there
exists, is so large and wehave large aspirations, what's the way to
say it? You know, wewant to stay hungry, all right,
So tell us about your team then, yeah, we have you know,
five hundred employees. We focus alot on culture because it's it's absolutely the
(22:03):
most important aspect to any workplace.It's not just words on a wall.
This is important to us. Ithink probably one of our core values that
is the most important, as carepersonally about each other. We're always chiming
that because the human experience undoubtedly interactswith the professional experience. So we just
want to be aware of that andadvance it. It's been fun. Graham
(22:29):
Rhyne of Roadrunner Waste and Recycling anda CEO you Should Know. Graham,
Thank you so much, Thank you, thanks so much. This has been
the CEO you Should Know podcast showcasingbusinesses that are driving our regional economy.
Part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communitieswe serve Johnny hartwell, thank you so
much for listening. Okay,
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