August 14, 2024 • 39 mins
My guest this week is Manali Yavatkar founder and CEO of Palm, a company revolutionizing how we handle food waste at home. We chat about sustainability, Manali's journey from tech engineer to founder and the challenges associated with starting a business, no matter the industry.
"We're not just designing products; we're creating solutions for everyday environmental challenges."
Manali Yavatkar is founder & CEO of Palm Bin committed to delivering solution in reducing the 93,200,000,000 pounds of food waste that are sent to landfills from our homes each year, where it produces 20 billion pounds of methane. Armed with a passion for sustainability and a technical background, Manali has set her sights on solving the unpleasant side effects of home composting. Manali is a graduate of Columbia University with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, but has been a green advocate since youth when she was inspired by the film “An Inconvenient Truth.” Prior to inventing the Palm Bin, Manali served in data scientist and machine learning engineering roles at a Bay Area healthcare startup. She switched her focus, however, when she began to upcycle food waste during the pandemic. Manali bought a countertop bin, but when that began to smell within a day, attracted fruit flies, and required constant cleaning, Manali realized there had to be a better way. Through her research, she found many people keep food scraps in the refrigerator. The lightbulb went off and the end result is Palm Bin, a smart mini-fridge for compost collection.
Palm Bin preps food waste for nutrient rich “Black Gold compost.” It easily prepares the food waste for residential city curbside collections, recycling centers and private community compost groups.
Now available on Kickstarter, Palm Bin is the first offering from Palm, a company building sustainable products that complement your lifestyle and help you waste less. There is such demand for the product it met it’s pre order campaign goal within an hour!
This breakthrough appliance was created to target the 93,200,000,000 pounds of food waste that are sent to landfills from our homes each year, where it produces 20 billion pounds of methane.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meetpalm/palm-bin-compost-your-way-to-a-cleaner-kitchen
https://www.instagram.com/meetpalm/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/manaliyavatkar/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jason Frazell (2) (00:12):
Hey everybody, my guest on the show
today is Manali Yavakkar.
She's the founder and CEO ofPalm.
We're going to talk about that.
And this is a first for theshow.
We're going to talk aboutamongst other things,
composting.
And it's fascinating because Iwas just telling Manali as you
were catching up for the firsttime before pressing record, my
family is a consumer in the, ofconsumer in this space.
(00:35):
We've done this for a few yearsin different things.
And just from hearing from her,I'm going to, we're going to
learn a lot about that.
I'm gonna learn about herjourney.
And all sorts of other things.
She's also a founder and CEO,former corporate.
So Manali, so good to have youhere today.
Manali Yavatkar (00:50):
Thanks for having me, Jason.
I'm so excited to talk aboutcomposting.
Jason Frazell (00:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're like, I never thought Iwould say this earlier in my
career.
You're like, I'm like thinkingback to my childhood is, was
this what I thought I would begetting out a podcast, which
even that was a thing and going,you know, I'm excited to talk
about composting.
We're going to talk about allthat.
And we're going to talk aboutsome maybe misconceptions.
And trends in the space now,trends in the space in the
(01:13):
future.
And I'm just excited about thisconversation as somebody who has
been a consumer of Some productsin this space and somebody who
cares about this is somebody whocares about the planet and why
this matters.
So Manali, first of all, whereare you joining us from today?
Manali Yavatkar (01:28):
I'm in San Francisco.
Jason Frazell (01:30):
Yes, and we're recording this in early May 2024
and it's hot there, hotter thanusual.
Manali Yavatkar (01:36):
Yes, we're, we're having a heat wave right
now.
It's been 80 degrees yesterdayand today.
And I
Jason Frazell (01:42):
believe And I believe heat is good for
composting, if I'm not mistaken.
Manali Yavatkar (01:46):
Heat is good for composting.
Jason Frazell (01:48):
Heat is good for composting.
And actually, if I'm notmistaken, I'm, I believe when
the process kicks off, itgenerates heat, doesn't it?
Manali Yavatkar (01:55):
It does.
If it's generating heat, you'redoing it right.
Jason Frazell (01:58):
Yeah.
Cause I was, I was telling you,we had, we had one of those
roller bins, like a manual whereyou pour in your eggshells and
things, and it would be hotterthan the outside and when you
get snow on it and the snowwould melt.
And I'm like, that's super cool.
Speaker 7 (02:09):
Yeah.
Jason Frazell (02:09):
So let's first talk about.
Let's describe what Palm is.
And then we're going to go backin time and talk about some of
the other things in your pastthat you've done that's led you
to going, Hey, let me be afounder and a CEO, and we're
going to talk about the risksthat that entailed.
So what is Palm?
Manali Yavatkar (02:27):
Yeah.
So at Palm, we're buildingsustainable products that
complement your lifestyle andhelp you waste less.
And we're starting with foodwaste.
Speaker 8 (02:40):
What, how come?
Manali Yavatkar (02:42):
Great question.
So there's two main reasons whywe're starting with food waste.
One is my own personalexperience with composting.
I found collecting my food wastein the kitchen to be extremely
stinky, messy, gross, and timeconsuming.
It's horrible.
And I live in San Franciscowhere we have curbside
composting.
(03:03):
So we have a green bin that ourcity gives us.
We're just supposed to put ourfood waste in there and our city
will compost it for us.
So it sounds super simple, butthe actual collection of the
food scraps in the kitchen issomething that you end up
dreading and it's Not a greatexperience.
And so I wanted to make it amuch better experience.
That was the first reason.
(03:23):
And the second reason isactually why is food waste such
a problem?
We wanted to solve that.
I can sort of start from the topthere.
So, you know, methane is a hugeproblem and actually reducing
methane emissions is the fastestway to slow the growth growth
of, uh, global warming.
Speaker 7 (03:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Manali Yavatkar (03:45):
For me.
And organic waste in landfillsis actually the third largest
driver of methane emissions.
And most of that organic wastecomes from our homes.
So we really need to divert foodwaste from landfills from our
homes in order to reduce methaneemissions.
(04:05):
And that's why composting is soimportant.
I
Jason Frazell (04:09):
said this at the top, we're going to learn a lot.
I've already learned.
Not like right there.
I had no idea.
I will say We have two youngchildren.
The food waste is even worsewhen you have young kids.
It's so gross.
Like to do anything other thaneither throw it in the trash, or
as we talked about, what, whatyou all provide and what we've
(04:32):
used in the past is something onyour counter makes it kind of
easy, easier, but yeah, like,Oh, let me take this and walk it
outside or walk it to a tarp orwalk.
It's like, it's just like, itbecomes a lot when you're doing
everything else.
So before we get into that, youwere sharing with me your
background and how you've made acomplete pivot from what would
maybe seem to be.
(04:54):
Not even a tangential industry,but I think that's probably an
assumption that's probably nottrue.
You probably can take a lot fromyour, your past career and the
things you've been working on,but what was your background and
what, what were you doingpreviously to, to founding the
company?
Manali Yavatkar (05:08):
Yeah.
So I studied biomedicalengineering at Columbia
university.
So I got a lot of hardwareexperience there, prototyping,
um, I did an internship at Intelin their wearable department.
So I did a lot of, you know,hands on product building.
And then after that, I actuallyworked as a data scientist and
(05:28):
then a machine learningengineer.
Um, at a healthcare startup.
So I was fully in the NLP AIworld, and I actually left that
to start palm because I'vealways been passionate about
sustainability.
It's always been a part of mylife.
I started a wholesustainability, um, campaign in
high school and got my schoollead certified.
(05:51):
So it's always been there.
Um, and you know, I'm young andI was kind of at a point in my
career.
Where I could take a risk, Icould actually do something that
I was personally andenvironmentally passionate
about.
Speaker 7 (06:07):
Yeah.
I
Manali Yavatkar (06:08):
wanted to see if I could have an impact by
taking this risk and doingsomething that I'm passionate
about.
Jason Frazell (06:15):
Yeah.
Manali, how did you, what,what's the origin of caring a
lot about this space?
Is that something from how youwere raised?
Is this like, you've obviouslybeen interested if you got your
high school lead certified, whatwhat's the, I always find with
entrepreneurs that are reallypassionate.
And I said this to you to beclear, Ivy, Ivy league educated,
(06:38):
doing work that in a space thatwould probably give you a job
for life in some way, machinelearning AI, and to have you go,
you know what?
Wonderful.
I want to do this because Icare.
Do you know where that carereally has came from?
Manali Yavatkar (06:55):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So I grew up in Portland,Oregon, which is very close to
nature.
So I grew up camping, hiking,just always being outside and
Portland is very green.
It's like yes it is how green itis and having trees everywhere.
So you're very close to nature.
Um, I went to like a Montessorischool as a child where we had a
(07:18):
garden, we would compost andthey really promote just being
out in nature and being in theenvironment.
Um, we had like forests in theback of our school that we would
just go and forage all the time.
So, that's kind of how I grewup.
And, I think my, my interest inclimate change and global
warming really came from when Iwatched An Inconvenient Truth.
Speaker 7 (07:41):
I
Manali Yavatkar (07:42):
think that was the first time where I was like,
Oh my gosh, this is a hugeproblem.
I don't, I don't think I reallyunderstood that until I watched
that documentary.
Um, and I think it's, it's acombination of caring about the
environment, obviously for thefuture generations of people,
but also.
I love animals.
(08:03):
I think animals are beautifuland I love watching them and
seeing them in the wild andbeing able to preserve our
planet for them and making surethat they're not suffering is
super important to me and reallydrives
Speaker 7 (08:19):
me.
Jason Frazell (08:21):
I had to share that my daughter goes to
Montessori school so that makesso much sense.
They have chickens, they have acouple sheep, they have a goat,
they have They're 85 acres in anold farm.
And my, my daughter, I'm just,I'm smiling over here.
My daughter loves animals andloves farm and plants and
flowers.
I think that's just part of the,part of the, the, what you get
(08:41):
with that sort of education.
Amazing.
So I always like to askentrepreneurs.
Who could be doing a whole slewof things, including collecting
nice paychecks with fullbenefits from companies that are
pretty stable,
Speaker 7 (08:55):
right?
Jason Frazell (08:57):
So do you remember, I, I love this
question because I, it's, thestories are fascinating.
Do you remember the moment whereyou go, Oh, I should go do
something in this space.
And you actually, It went fromlike, Oh, I should to I'm going
to.
Manali Yavatkar (09:10):
Yes.
Yes, I do, actually.
Um, so I had, I had actually,I'd done some work with, you
know, starting this, thisjourney.
Basically, I moved to SanFrancisco.
I had curbside composting.
I was collecting my food wasteand it sucked.
And I was like, I need to find abetter solution for my
(09:31):
lifestyle.
So I couldn't find anything onthe market.
And I wanted to create a coolingbin because I've heard that a
lot of people put their foodwaste in the fridge so that it
doesn't smell and the bagdoesn't break down.
But I don't have space in myfridge and I also think it's
weird to keep your food wastenext to your fresh food that
you're going to eat.
Jason Frazell (09:50):
Yeah, right.
Me too.
Manali Yavatkar (09:52):
So I wanted to, I wanted to have a cooling bin.
So I actually built one formyself just to test it out and
see how it would work.
And it worked incredibly well.
I put all types of stinky thingsin there, fish, blue cheese.
Um, onions,
Speaker 7 (10:11):
all
Manali Yavatkar (10:12):
stinky things.
Kept it in there for two weeksand it didn't smell.
It was just such a 180 from myprevious experience collecting
food waste that I was like, thisis such an easy solution, but it
works so well and would solvethis problem for so many people.
And so many people would compostif they had this solution.
(10:35):
And so that, that was kind ofmoment where I was like, I'm
going to, I'm going to pursuethis.
Jason Frazell (10:40):
Yeah.
So this is an example thathappens all the time with people
I talk to and people I know whostart their own businesses.
You had a problem and you said,wait, I have the skill to build
something to solve this problem.
By the way.
So you built your own coolingbin.
I don't even know what thatwould entail, but it sounds
fascinating.
(11:01):
So you built your own coolingbin and you found that it solved
the problem.
And then pretty quickly,especially you're in San
Francisco and you went to schoolin New York.
Where people genuinely careabout these.
A lot of people in those areascare about these things.
You can probably call up ahundred friends and go, Hey, do
you have the same problem?
I do.
They're like, yeah, I do.
And you're like, wait a second.
(11:22):
There's people just like me.
Arguably millions of people justlike me who could use something
just like this.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
So what did,
Jason Frazell (11:31):
so what did you do, what did you do in that
moment or what was the firstthing you did when you went
from, Oh, this works for me to,Oh, there's something here that
I could productize and deliverto the market.
Manali Yavatkar (11:46):
Yeah, I mean, so first I did, you know, you're
right.
I live in San Francisco.
I talked to everybody.
I was talking, I have a dog, Igo to the dog park, I would talk
to everybody at the dog parkabout their composting, how they
compost, the problems they'rerunning into, all of that,
because I wanted to validate myexperience and make sure that
Other people were having thesame problems.
(12:07):
Um, I also took my little proofof concept that I built and I
gave it to friends to test out.
I gave it to other people, otherhouseholds in San Francisco to
test out.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
So I, I did want to validate it,um, before actually, you know,
hiring an industrial designerand getting the actual product
made.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
Hmm.
Jason Frazell (12:29):
That was, as I was getting ready for the
interview, I was, I went on toKickstarter and real and.
Love Kickstarter, and I wasnoticing that you had raised
some funds and you had set agoal and then you Crushed it
like absolutely crushed thegoal.
What are you taking from whatare you taking from that
(12:50):
indication?
Manali Yavatkar (12:52):
Yeah, I mean clearly there's demand for this
product Um, and Kickstarter is agreat community because it's
people who are, who want to beearly adopters and want to try a
new technology and they'rewilling to give you feedback, so
that is super valuable.
Um, but yeah, we crushed ourgoal in two weeks.
(13:13):
We actually hit our, our goalin, I think under an hour.
Um, so yeah, we're, we're superhappy with that.
And.
Yeah, we're just gonna keep,keep going.
Jason Frazell (13:25):
Yeah.
How do you, what do youattribute the blowing past it?
What do you attribute that to?
Is it, is it the, is it the Lotsof people like Manali with the
same problem.
Is it good design?
Like what?
Cause there's a lot of things inKickstarter that don't reach the
goals.
Manali Yavatkar (13:42):
You
Jason Frazell (13:42):
just blew, you just blew right through it
quickly.
Manali Yavatkar (13:45):
Yeah.
So I think part of Kickstarterand running a Kickstarter
campaign is actually also yourpre campaign prior to
Kickstarter.
So you do, you know, you do wantto do some market validation.
You want to be testing ads andalso.
Building out a mailing listprior to your launch so that
when you do launch, you know,that people are interested in
(14:08):
there aren't going to bebackers.
Speaker 7 (14:10):
Yeah,
Manali Yavatkar (14:10):
that's super important.
I think a lot of people don'trealize that.
And I think there was a timewhen you could put up a project
on Kickstarter.
I think it was maybe 10 yearsago, where you could put up a
project on Kickstarter and get abunch of backers.
Nowadays it is, you know, you doneed to, there's so many
projects that you do need tofind your customers, not just on
(14:34):
the Kickstarter website, butthrough other means as well.
Jason Frazell (14:37):
Yeah.
So.
Did you start Side Hustling,Palm, when you still were
working for others, you wereworking as a side project, and
do you, do you remember when yousaid, oh, this is, it's time to
go all in on this?
Manali Yavatkar (14:56):
Yeah, I mean, I was, I was kind of already
looking for another opportunity,and I, I was, I definitely, you
know, I love building things andI always have.
And so I was ready to buildsomething on my own.
Um, so taking the leap wasn'tthat, that, that difficult for
(15:17):
me because I was, I was readyfor that risk.
You're ready.
Speaker 8 (15:21):
Yeah.
Manali Yavatkar (15:22):
But I would say it would, it was after I had
validation from other peoplethat had tested the proof
concept.
Jason Frazell (15:30):
Yeah.
And then.
Is this the first, is this thefirst time you've run your own
thing, founded your own type ofproduct?
Do you remember, do you rememberwhat it was like the first
couple of weeks where you wakeup and you don't have a boss
emailing you or Slack or Teamsmessages of all the things you
have to get done for the weekand big corporate goals and
(15:51):
you're like, wait a second.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
Yeah,
Jason Frazell (15:53):
there ain't nobody that's going to tell me
what to do.
Do you, and I asked for mypersonal experience of starting
my own businesses.
That was challenging for me,spent 20 years working for
others.
And most founders I talked to,they're like, that's a tough
thing to get used to.
And also the idea thatproductivity isn't.
Is no longer bound by when thecompany says you should be
(16:13):
productive.
It's by when you can get doneand, and being an industrial
design and meant and likeengineering company, you can do
a lot of this initial work.
My guess is at any time of theday or any time, like it doesn't
require you to have to, and thenyou don't have to like, don't
have a boss who's asking forlike feedback or check in.
So what was that experience likefor you?
(16:35):
And I call it like that contextshift between it from employee.
to entrepreneur slash founder.
What was that like for you?
Manali Yavatkar (16:42):
Yeah, so I would say, you know, it was
overwhelming at first.
Yeah.
Because you have so many thingsthat you want to do and there is
not enough time in the day andyou have to prioritize, but it's
your first time starting acompany.
You don't know, you want to getfrom point A to point B, but you
(17:04):
aren't entirely sure what willget you there.
You have all these ideas ofthings that you can do to get
you there.
But you don't have time for allof them.
So you do have to prioritizesome of them over others.
And you're not entirely surewhat to prioritize.
So it can be very overwhelming.
And it's tough because you, thatprioritization is super
important.
(17:24):
Because otherwise you're not,you're not going to feel like
you're moving or progressing.
Jason Frazell (17:29):
Yeah, all things, all things you can't really read
about and nobody teaches you andyou're in the education system
either, no matter how much you'dlike to, because it's unique to
each person's personality, thetype of industry they're looking
to go into there.
And also focusing on gettingreally focused on the things
that you're naturally good atand you enjoy.
(17:50):
And then as a founder, there arethings you just have to do that
you don't enjoy at all,probably.
Because you're doing it all.
Manali Yavatkar (17:57):
Exactly.
You're doing it all.
And everything is new,basically.
Everything is new.
I mean, I came from coding allday.
So everything was new.
And I've always prided myself onbeing a good problem solver.
But it is tiring when you areproblem solving everything and
you come from a job where you'recomfortable.
(18:18):
in what you were doing.
And, you know, and now you'redoing all these new things and
everything is new and everythingis something you have to figure
out.
Jason Frazell (18:27):
Yeah, very cool.
Let's talk about more about Palmspecifically, what you're all
doing in this space.
And it is a space that from theoutside looking in, I mentioned
this before, we've been a Myfamily has been a consumer of,
of, of this space in a couple ofdifferent formats.
It's a fairly new space as I seeit.
(18:49):
Like, and this, maybe there's alittle bit of market research
for you.
As I see it, it's a fairly newspace.
The idea that you can do thingswith your food scraps inside of
your home.
And have it be, and have it belike actually useful.
That doesn't include justthrowing it away in the trash
and that it goes out in a trashbag and then the trash company
picks it up or you bring it tothe landfill or bring it to the
(19:09):
dump, whatever you, you manageyour trash.
So let's talk a little bit aboutwhat the space is and then what
Palm might be doing differently.
And I'd love to also hear aspart of this, what are some
common beliefs that people havethat maybe aren't that like
common, Things that peoplebelieve about this space that
aren't maybe true or for avariety of reasons, maybe people
(19:33):
don't know, maybe there's somemarketing FUD out there.
It doesn't matter.
Like, so space and then what aresome common misconceptions about
what y'all are doing?
What's going on in the space?
Manali Yavatkar (19:44):
Yeah.
Um, yeah.
So just to, to introduce PalmBin and what our first product
is, um, basically it's a.
Cooling food waste bin thatmakes compost collection really
clean, easy, and odorless.
So, um, in the composting space,I guess the way we see the world
(20:04):
is, or the future of composting,is that everybody has a curbside
green bin that their cityprovides.
So their city is responsible forcomposting.
And what residents just have todo is collect their food waste,
in their kitchen and then put itin that green bin.
(20:25):
And the reason we believe thatis the future of composting is
because composting is actually alot more complicated and time
intensive than people think.
There are some people who areable to do it in their backyards
with a tumbler like we used tohave or a compost pile, but it
is, it's a process.
(20:47):
So to compost properly, you haveto have nitrogen which is like
food waste.
Food waste is a type ofnitrogen.
You have to have carbon, whichis also called brown matter,
like cardboard or leaves orsomething like that.
And the ratio between nitrogenand carbon is very important.
(21:10):
So you have to measure out, youneed moisture, you need 40 to 60
percent moisture levels, needmicrobes, and you need time.
So it takes at least two weeksfor the composting process to
happen.
Because it's, it basically is aprocess where the microbes are
breaking down your food wasteinto this biologically stable
(21:32):
and nutritious soil.
So
Speaker 7 (21:34):
a
Manali Yavatkar (21:35):
lot of people don't realize that it takes so
much time for it to happen.
Um, and because it's such a, youknow, it's an intensive process,
that's why we believe the futureis having compost facilities
handle that.
And having people in their homeswho are, you know, living their
busy lives.
(21:56):
just have an easy and clean wayto collect their food waste
separately from their trash.
Jason Frazell (22:00):
Yeah.
So have it.
And let's talk about what thepalm bin is now, like what it
actually is.
And you had alluded to thisbefore.
What is it?
And I think you alluded, yousaid this before, it replaces,
my guess, Ziploc bags in yourrefrigerator.
Manali Yavatkar (22:19):
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
So it replaces having acountertop bin.
That sits there and, you know,allows your food to rot in your
kitchen and it replaces using abag, um, in your freezer with
your food, for your feed waste.
Speaker 8 (22:37):
Yeah.
Jason Frazell (22:39):
So I mentioned we were, we were consumers of, uh,
another product in the space.
It was not a cooling bin.
I won't say the name of it, butit, it claimed that it was
giving us compost and it woulddo it in overnight.
Right.
So in 8 hours, you'd put a bunchof stuff in, obviously there's
certain things it doesn't takebut you can do most organic
(23:01):
things, and you know this, likeeggs, eggs, plant based things.
You put it in there, you press abutton and it makes a bunch of
sounds and things happen andthen in the morning you come and
it looks kind of like soil, likea, like a lighter color soil.
From what I'm hearing you say,Nali, that's not actually
compost.
Manali Yavatkar (23:22):
Yes, that's correct.
Yeah, it's not actually compost.
Speaker 8 (23:26):
Okay.
Manali Yavatkar (23:26):
That is an appliance that grinds and
dehydrates your food.
So it's like a blender.
And an air dryer in one.
Speaker 8 (23:36):
Yeah.
Manali Yavatkar (23:39):
So.
Speaker 8 (23:39):
So
Jason Frazell (23:41):
there seems to be a benefit to that, but it seems
that perhaps the education slashmarketing around that is not, if
I'm not mistaken, though, a lotof these products, and there's
nothing wrong with thesecompanies, I don't think, but a
lot of the marketing around thisseems to be like at home
composting on your counter iswhat I see them saying.
Manali Yavatkar (24:02):
Yes.
I think the marketing isproblematic because you are.
Saying that it is composting andproducing something that it is
not.
But I think depending on how youuse these products in your home,
it could be useful for you.
So essentially these appliancesare solving the same problem
(24:23):
that your Palm Bin is, which isthe smell and mess of collecting
food waste on your kitchencountertop.
We're just doing it in a lessenergy intensive way.
Sure.
Maintains your moisture andmicrobes that's in your food.
Jason Frazell (24:40):
Yeah.
And then handing off to thecity, which you're already
paying for via your propertytaxes or your sales tax.
Speaker 7 (24:49):
Exactly.
Jason Frazell (24:49):
And they want these programs.
They set these programs up onpurpose.
You give them, it gives you aneasy way to store things without
taking space in the fridge, butthen you can just hand it to San
Francisco or New York or anyother major city has these
programs now and allows you todo that in a way that's
convenient and easy.
You don't have to walk outsideor anything.
Speaker 8 (25:09):
Interesting.
Jason Frazell (25:11):
So when you say a cooling bin, I'm really curious
about what alternatives might bein terms of what else might I be
able to do.
I always look at any sort ofproduct like, if I'm not doing
this, what am I doing?
And the reality is I'm puttingit in my freezer.
Manali Yavatkar (25:28):
Yes.
Jason Frazell (25:29):
which takes up valuable space and puts food
waste next to my ice cream andmy ice cubes, which is pretty
gross to think about.
Manali Yavatkar (25:40):
Yeah, and actually, after interviewing
people who do use theirfreezers, I've learned that it
also, because it's You have toput your food waste in your
freezer.
It's not a bin that's directlyin front of you.
And so people do end up throwingaway food because they don't
want to have the hassle ofopening their freezer and
(26:03):
putting it in there.
Or they forget because it's notsomething that's directly in
front of them.
Jason Frazell (26:08):
Yeah.
Oh, absolutely.
As a, as a, like a perfectconsumer for this, if I'm doing
the dishes or I'm at the trash,it's so easy to go, Oh, let me
scrape.
The food that I scraped the foodversus, oh wait, so I need to,
and we have a, we have a floor,not a floor free, a freezer
that's on the bottom.
So I got to bend down.
(26:28):
I have to open the thing up.
I need to grab a Ziploc bagversus all like, here it is.
So it's, it's so interestingabout this space overall.
It has to be convenient orpeople aren't going to use it
like the barrier to entry as meas a, as I would say, and
probably for you as well.
And you live in this space, itjust has to be wildly easier.
People aren't going to do it.
Manali Yavatkar (26:49):
Yeah, essentially, like, we are
mirroring the experience of youputting your food waste in the
trash, because that's whatyou're used to.
So, instead of putting it in thetrash, you put it in your palm
bin, you don't have to empty itevery day because it's not
smelling, you only have to emptyit on trash day, just like you
would your trash.
So, we're sort of mirroring thatentire experience.
(27:10):
To make it, you know, to reducefriction.
Speaker 8 (27:13):
Yeah.
What else about,
Jason Frazell (27:17):
and I know this is one of a variety of products
that Palm will be coming with iswhere you're getting your start
from, what else do you thinkpeople listening should know
about this general space aroundhome composting, countertop
composting, that you knowbecause you live in this space
that the average person justisn't going to understand?
Manali Yavatkar (27:39):
Yeah.
Um, I think, I think the mostimportant thing is to, like I
mentioned earlier, reallyunderstand what composting is.
Because using terms likeCountertop composter can be
really detrimental to actualcompost facilities that need tax
(27:59):
dollars to function.
And, you know, need, um, needcommunity support to function.
Um, so I think that is probablythe most important thing.
And then, um, and then, yeah, Imean.
The other, the other thing Iwould say is that the use of
compostable liners, so a lot ofpeople use compostable liners in
(28:23):
their bin.
And Amazon is, you know, filledwith different types of these
liners nowadays.
And the other thing I would sayis some of those liners are not
certified compostable.
Jason Frazell (28:37):
Okay.
So they don't actually break,the city picks them up, they're
in the bag, it doesn't breakdown easily.
Yeah,
Manali Yavatkar (28:45):
exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah, so it's really importantto, to make sure that some of
those are just made, you know,straight up out of plastic.
So it is, you know, you can getlike a BPI certification.
So it is important to look forthat when you're purchasing a
compostable item.
Speaker 8 (29:00):
Yeah.
Nice.
Jason Frazell (29:02):
Curious about the name
Speaker 8 (29:05):
Palm.
Jason Frazell (29:05):
Palm?
Yes.
Palm Love, first of all, the,for the, we'll put a link to all
this.
The branding is beautiful.
Love the colors.
It's very, I'm sure you, eitheryou or you've, you've hired
designers, but it's, it'sbeautiful.
It's curious what.
Where did the name come from?
Manali Yavatkar (29:21):
Yeah, so our slogan is sustainability in your
palm.
Ah, nice.
It's convenient, accessible,fits seamlessly within your
life.
And that's, that's our goal.
Speaker 8 (29:34):
That's where it is.
Jason Frazell (29:35):
Beautiful.
What else?
I think there was something elseI was going to ask you about.
Well, what's next for, for youas the founder and the team
working on all these beautifulproducts?
And where do you see the nextplace of innovation around this?
Not just the composting space,but the things that the way we
(29:56):
currently do things, um,speaking in America, we're both
Americans
Speaker 7 (30:00):
that
Jason Frazell (30:01):
are just ripe for innovation that, that we can
literally, and I love what yousaid Nellie about, Oh, we're
just like replicating what youalready do, which is open up
your trash.
It's that this is just genuinelybetter for the environment.
You're already paying your taxdollars.
Where's some other spaces in thehome and also in business.
Of course, you put this in akitchen in a business, there's a
million places you put this, andthis is not just a home product,
(30:23):
obviously, where are some otherplaces in the home that you
think are ripe for innovationthat we're just, you're just
looking at, I'm not asking forwhat your product roadmap is
here, but more just generallyyou're, where are some things
that we're just doing thingsthat are outdated, that can be
done better and it's better forthe environment and better for
us as people.
Manali Yavatkar (30:41):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So I think the kitchen is like agreat spot to start.
Um, and specifically in terms oflike materials used in the
kitchen.
Um, so another thing we're doingat Tom is we're using
sustainable materials and we'rebuilding circularity into the
product life cycle.
(31:02):
So I think that needs to happenmore with products that we use
within the home.
And I think it's important forthe company who's making those
products to own that productlifecycle.
We cannot expect consumers toknow how to deal with a product
(31:23):
at end of life when they'redone.
We need to have something inplace, a take back program, a
repair program, all of that inplace for consumers so that we
make it really easy for them.
And we ensure that our productsdon't end up in a landfill.
Speaker 7 (31:41):
Yeah.
Manali Yavatkar (31:41):
So I think that is where the innovation will
happen.
And that, that will change theway we live in our homes.
Speaker 8 (31:49):
Yeah.
Very
Jason Frazell (31:50):
cool.
I'd like to, whenever I havefounders on, I like to ask them,
I like to tap your generalknowledge of business and kind
of the way you look at the worldaround some things that I know
are useful for the audiencebecause I get the feedback.
First question I always ask iswhen you're making a
Speaker 8 (32:07):
hire in the startup world, And it's your hire.
What do you look for
Jason Frazell (32:17):
once they've crossed the threshold of,
because early on and you knowthis, that you're, you're
literally hiring for like athing of like, Oh, I need a CTO
or I need a co founder who is anindustrial designer because I'm,
it sounds like in this case youwant, you do know how to do that
work.
But there's something that like,or like I need a chief revenue
officer who all they're doing isgoing out and marketing and
sales.
(32:38):
Once they've fit the bill forthe credentials to do it.
What are the personality traitsthat you personally look for
that would have you be a yes tosomebody in an in an early stage
company?
Manali Yavatkar (32:51):
Um, I would say Definitely work ethic.
Obviously, that's super superimportant at a startup, but then
like having a good Attitude whenthings go wrong because things
go wrong all the time and thingschange all the time So plans
change all the time and so beingflexible and having a good
(33:13):
attitude You When you're, youknow, making changes and
switching between things, thatis super, super important from a
personal personality standstandpoint.
Jason Frazell (33:25):
Yeah.
Manali, how do you, in aninterview process, how do you,
how do you really suss that out?
Manali Yavatkar (33:31):
Yeah.
I mean, if you're doing, I mean,so back at my job as an ML
engineer, I sort of use thesame, same sort of thing.
So, you know, you, you don'thire anyone without doing a
project first or working withthem.
Got
Jason Frazell (33:48):
it.
Okay.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Manali Yavatkar (33:50):
So it's like, you know, it's like partner
coding when you're, when you'rehiring a software engineer.
But in a similar way, you do aproject and, you know, while
you're doing, while they'rewalking you through the project,
you can ask them, okay, like,You know, we're actually going
to go in this direction.
Now what?
(34:10):
So that really helps, um, thathelps, that allows you to figure
out how they respond in thosesituations.
Um, and then also just hearingtheir history, their history,
their career history, um, andasking them questions about that
can give you an idea as well.
Jason Frazell (34:31):
Yeah.
Nice.
guys.
And.
And the last couple of questionshere, what's the, what's the
thing you're most excited aboutin the business right now?
Manali Yavatkar (34:41):
That's a great question.
I am most excited about gettingthe palm bin into people's hands
and having them experience it.
Jason Frazell (34:51):
Yeah, and we won't, I won't say the date, but
it's public.
It's on Kickstarter, what you'reprojecting it.
Yeah, obviously it's, it'sobviously an industrial product.
You need to manufacture it.
There's lead times for that.
And we all, most of us who havehad any experience with that
know that that is never withouttrials and tribulations and
things that don't go exactlyaccording to plan.
(35:11):
For a variety of reasons, butwish you best success with that.
Yeah.
Actually be able to see that onpeople's countertops.
How cool
Speaker 7 (35:18):
at
Jason Frazell (35:18):
scale at scale.
Amazing.
And then what's the thing as afounder that most keep, I don't
like to use the word worry, butmaybe it is a word if worry
resonates for you, that's fine.
But like, what's the thing thatyou most think about that you
go, Ooh, year from now, or threeyears now, like this is the
thing that's.
(35:39):
I'm just concerned about or I'm
Speaker 8 (35:42):
you think a lot about that.
That is more of a stressor foryou.
Manali Yavatkar (35:47):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I would say, I mean, I could,um, I would say that what
worries me is, you know, we'remaking, we're making progress
and we're making strides towardsslowing global warming, um, just
(36:13):
as a community and, and ourthoughts about how we purchase
products.
And all of that.
And I guess I worry that if the,the, if the way people think
shifts, they're not going tocare about it as much.
And that's going to beproblematic, not only for my
(36:33):
business, but also for theplanet as a whole.
Speaker 7 (36:37):
And
Manali Yavatkar (36:38):
there's been a lot of, I think there's enough
driving that to keep people keepit top of mind.
Um, but I do worry that thatmight change in the next two
years.
Jason Frazell (36:53):
Yeah.
Thanks.
I do have one more question.
What are some companies that youreally admire in the
sustainability and space?
Like you think there are othercompanies that can be startups
we never heard of, they can bemassive companies that you think
are doing, doing right by theplanet that are inspirations for
you?
Manali Yavatkar (37:12):
Yeah.
So one that I found recently,actually, I'm super excited by
them, um, they're called It's afurniture company that uses.
Sustainable materials.
And they also have a take backprogram.
So they're ensuring thatfurniture doesn't end up in a
landfill.
And yeah, very modular.
(37:34):
So you can furniture as youexpand your family and, um, and
they're, and they have very goodcustomer service.
Um, so yeah, that's a companythat I'm super excited by.
Jason Frazell (37:47):
That's cool.
Like bamboo, and they don't uselike styrofoam.
Yes,
Manali Yavatkar (37:52):
and no PVA's.
Yeah, it's amazing.
Yes, exactly.
Jason Frazell (37:56):
Yeah, because anybody's ever thrown away a
piece of furniture, I'm justalways like, wow, that's a lot
of stuff that has to gosomewhere.
And if you've ever seen a pieceof normal furniture burn, it
burns black, usually.
A lot of, a lot of petroleumproducts in there.
Manali Yavatkar (38:12):
Right.
Jason Frazell (38:13):
Right.
Yeah.
Well, Manali, I want to thankyou so much for coming on today
for the good work you're doingout there for, for everybody.
I'm sure they'll want to connectand learn more about what you
all are doing over there.
What's the best way for peopleto.
Get in touch and see what you'reall up to.
Manali Yavatkar (38:29):
Yeah.
So you can check out ourKickstarter.
Um, you know, just look up PalmBin and to get in touch with me
directly.
Um, you can hit me up on email.
I'm at Manali at palm labs.
co.
Jason Frazell (38:43):
Cool.
We'll put all that in the shownotes.
Manali, any last parting wordsof wisdom or gifts you'd like to
give the audience from yourwisdom today?
Manali Yavatkar (38:53):
I'd say if you don't already compost, you
should start.
Speaker 7 (38:59):
There
Manali Yavatkar (39:00):
are, if you don't have the curbside bin yet,
there are community compostgroups in most cities now that
will happily pick up your foodwaste for you.
So, um, yeah, definitely startcomposting.
Jason Frazell (39:13):
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
Manali Yavatkar (39:15):
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Jason.
Jason Frazell (39:17):
Thanks.
Speaker 5 (39:19):
Thanks for listening to another episode of Talking to
Cool People with Jason Frizzell.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please tell your friends, follow
us on Instagram and Facebook,and give us a shout out, or take
a moment to leave a review oniTunes.
If something from today'sepisode piqued your interest and
you'd like to connect, email usat podcast at jasonfrizzell.
(39:41):
com.
We love hearing from ourlisteners because you're cool
people too.
Hey everybody, my guest on the show
today is Manali Yavakkar.
She's the founder and CEO ofPalm.
We're going to talk about that.
And this is a first for theshow.
We're going to talk aboutamongst other things,
composting.
And it's fascinating because Iwas just telling Manali as you
were catching up for the firsttime before pressing record, my
family is a consumer in the, ofconsumer in this space.
(00:35):
We've done this for a few yearsin different things.
And just from hearing from her,I'm going to, we're going to
learn a lot about that.
I'm gonna learn about herjourney.
And all sorts of other things.
She's also a founder and CEO,former corporate.
So Manali, so good to have youhere today.
Manali Yavatkar (00:50):
Thanks for having me, Jason.
I'm so excited to talk aboutcomposting.
Jason Frazell (00:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're like, I never thought Iwould say this earlier in my
career.
You're like, I'm like thinkingback to my childhood is, was
this what I thought I would begetting out a podcast, which
even that was a thing and going,you know, I'm excited to talk
about composting.
We're going to talk about allthat.
And we're going to talk aboutsome maybe misconceptions.
And trends in the space now,trends in the space in the
(01:13):
future.
And I'm just excited about thisconversation as somebody who has
been a consumer of Some productsin this space and somebody who
cares about this is somebody whocares about the planet and why
this matters.
So Manali, first of all, whereare you joining us from today?
Manali Yavatkar (01:28):
I'm in San Francisco.
Jason Frazell (01:30):
Yes, and we're recording this in early May 2024
and it's hot there, hotter thanusual.
Manali Yavatkar (01:36):
Yes, we're, we're having a heat wave right
now.
It's been 80 degrees yesterdayand today.
And I
Jason Frazell (01:42):
believe And I believe heat is good for
composting, if I'm not mistaken.
Manali Yavatkar (01:46):
Heat is good for composting.
Jason Frazell (01:48):
Heat is good for composting.
And actually, if I'm notmistaken, I'm, I believe when
the process kicks off, itgenerates heat, doesn't it?
Manali Yavatkar (01:55):
It does.
If it's generating heat, you'redoing it right.
Jason Frazell (01:58):
Yeah.
Cause I was, I was telling you,we had, we had one of those
roller bins, like a manual whereyou pour in your eggshells and
things, and it would be hotterthan the outside and when you
get snow on it and the snowwould melt.
And I'm like, that's super cool.
Speaker 7 (02:09):
Yeah.
Jason Frazell (02:09):
So let's first talk about.
Let's describe what Palm is.
And then we're going to go backin time and talk about some of
the other things in your pastthat you've done that's led you
to going, Hey, let me be afounder and a CEO, and we're
going to talk about the risksthat that entailed.
So what is Palm?
Manali Yavatkar (02:27):
Yeah.
So at Palm, we're buildingsustainable products that
complement your lifestyle andhelp you waste less.
And we're starting with foodwaste.
Speaker 8 (02:40):
What, how come?
Manali Yavatkar (02:42):
Great question.
So there's two main reasons whywe're starting with food waste.
One is my own personalexperience with composting.
I found collecting my food wastein the kitchen to be extremely
stinky, messy, gross, and timeconsuming.
It's horrible.
And I live in San Franciscowhere we have curbside
composting.
(03:03):
So we have a green bin that ourcity gives us.
We're just supposed to put ourfood waste in there and our city
will compost it for us.
So it sounds super simple, butthe actual collection of the
food scraps in the kitchen issomething that you end up
dreading and it's Not a greatexperience.
And so I wanted to make it amuch better experience.
That was the first reason.
(03:23):
And the second reason isactually why is food waste such
a problem?
We wanted to solve that.
I can sort of start from the topthere.
So, you know, methane is a hugeproblem and actually reducing
methane emissions is the fastestway to slow the growth growth
of, uh, global warming.
Speaker 7 (03:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Manali Yavatkar (03:45):
For me.
And organic waste in landfillsis actually the third largest
driver of methane emissions.
And most of that organic wastecomes from our homes.
So we really need to divert foodwaste from landfills from our
homes in order to reduce methaneemissions.
(04:05):
And that's why composting is soimportant.
I
Jason Frazell (04:09):
said this at the top, we're going to learn a lot.
I've already learned.
Not like right there.
I had no idea.
I will say We have two youngchildren.
The food waste is even worsewhen you have young kids.
It's so gross.
Like to do anything other thaneither throw it in the trash, or
as we talked about, what, whatyou all provide and what we've
(04:32):
used in the past is something onyour counter makes it kind of
easy, easier, but yeah, like,Oh, let me take this and walk it
outside or walk it to a tarp orwalk.
It's like, it's just like, itbecomes a lot when you're doing
everything else.
So before we get into that, youwere sharing with me your
background and how you've made acomplete pivot from what would
maybe seem to be.
(04:54):
Not even a tangential industry,but I think that's probably an
assumption that's probably nottrue.
You probably can take a lot fromyour, your past career and the
things you've been working on,but what was your background and
what, what were you doingpreviously to, to founding the
company?
Manali Yavatkar (05:08):
Yeah.
So I studied biomedicalengineering at Columbia
university.
So I got a lot of hardwareexperience there, prototyping,
um, I did an internship at Intelin their wearable department.
So I did a lot of, you know,hands on product building.
And then after that, I actuallyworked as a data scientist and
(05:28):
then a machine learningengineer.
Um, at a healthcare startup.
So I was fully in the NLP AIworld, and I actually left that
to start palm because I'vealways been passionate about
sustainability.
It's always been a part of mylife.
I started a wholesustainability, um, campaign in
high school and got my schoollead certified.
(05:51):
So it's always been there.
Um, and you know, I'm young andI was kind of at a point in my
career.
Where I could take a risk, Icould actually do something that
I was personally andenvironmentally passionate
about.
Speaker 7 (06:07):
Yeah.
I
Manali Yavatkar (06:08):
wanted to see if I could have an impact by
taking this risk and doingsomething that I'm passionate
about.
Jason Frazell (06:15):
Yeah.
Manali, how did you, what,what's the origin of caring a
lot about this space?
Is that something from how youwere raised?
Is this like, you've obviouslybeen interested if you got your
high school lead certified, whatwhat's the, I always find with
entrepreneurs that are reallypassionate.
And I said this to you to beclear, Ivy, Ivy league educated,
(06:38):
doing work that in a space thatwould probably give you a job
for life in some way, machinelearning AI, and to have you go,
you know what?
Wonderful.
I want to do this because Icare.
Do you know where that carereally has came from?
Manali Yavatkar (06:55):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So I grew up in Portland,Oregon, which is very close to
nature.
So I grew up camping, hiking,just always being outside and
Portland is very green.
It's like yes it is how green itis and having trees everywhere.
So you're very close to nature.
Um, I went to like a Montessorischool as a child where we had a
(07:18):
garden, we would compost andthey really promote just being
out in nature and being in theenvironment.
Um, we had like forests in theback of our school that we would
just go and forage all the time.
So, that's kind of how I grewup.
And, I think my, my interest inclimate change and global
warming really came from when Iwatched An Inconvenient Truth.
Speaker 7 (07:41):
I
Manali Yavatkar (07:42):
think that was the first time where I was like,
Oh my gosh, this is a hugeproblem.
I don't, I don't think I reallyunderstood that until I watched
that documentary.
Um, and I think it's, it's acombination of caring about the
environment, obviously for thefuture generations of people,
but also.
I love animals.
(08:03):
I think animals are beautifuland I love watching them and
seeing them in the wild andbeing able to preserve our
planet for them and making surethat they're not suffering is
super important to me and reallydrives
Speaker 7 (08:19):
me.
Jason Frazell (08:21):
I had to share that my daughter goes to
Montessori school so that makesso much sense.
They have chickens, they have acouple sheep, they have a goat,
they have They're 85 acres in anold farm.
And my, my daughter, I'm just,I'm smiling over here.
My daughter loves animals andloves farm and plants and
flowers.
I think that's just part of the,part of the, the, what you get
(08:41):
with that sort of education.
Amazing.
So I always like to askentrepreneurs.
Who could be doing a whole slewof things, including collecting
nice paychecks with fullbenefits from companies that are
pretty stable,
Speaker 7 (08:55):
right?
Jason Frazell (08:57):
So do you remember, I, I love this
question because I, it's, thestories are fascinating.
Do you remember the moment whereyou go, Oh, I should go do
something in this space.
And you actually, It went fromlike, Oh, I should to I'm going
to.
Manali Yavatkar (09:10):
Yes.
Yes, I do, actually.
Um, so I had, I had actually,I'd done some work with, you
know, starting this, thisjourney.
Basically, I moved to SanFrancisco.
I had curbside composting.
I was collecting my food wasteand it sucked.
And I was like, I need to find abetter solution for my
(09:31):
lifestyle.
So I couldn't find anything onthe market.
And I wanted to create a coolingbin because I've heard that a
lot of people put their foodwaste in the fridge so that it
doesn't smell and the bagdoesn't break down.
But I don't have space in myfridge and I also think it's
weird to keep your food wastenext to your fresh food that
you're going to eat.
Jason Frazell (09:50):
Yeah, right.
Me too.
Manali Yavatkar (09:52):
So I wanted to, I wanted to have a cooling bin.
So I actually built one formyself just to test it out and
see how it would work.
And it worked incredibly well.
I put all types of stinky thingsin there, fish, blue cheese.
Um, onions,
Speaker 7 (10:11):
all
Manali Yavatkar (10:12):
stinky things.
Kept it in there for two weeksand it didn't smell.
It was just such a 180 from myprevious experience collecting
food waste that I was like, thisis such an easy solution, but it
works so well and would solvethis problem for so many people.
And so many people would compostif they had this solution.
(10:35):
And so that, that was kind ofmoment where I was like, I'm
going to, I'm going to pursuethis.
Jason Frazell (10:40):
Yeah.
So this is an example thathappens all the time with people
I talk to and people I know whostart their own businesses.
You had a problem and you said,wait, I have the skill to build
something to solve this problem.
By the way.
So you built your own coolingbin.
I don't even know what thatwould entail, but it sounds
fascinating.
(11:01):
So you built your own coolingbin and you found that it solved
the problem.
And then pretty quickly,especially you're in San
Francisco and you went to schoolin New York.
Where people genuinely careabout these.
A lot of people in those areascare about these things.
You can probably call up ahundred friends and go, Hey, do
you have the same problem?
I do.
They're like, yeah, I do.
And you're like, wait a second.
(11:22):
There's people just like me.
Arguably millions of people justlike me who could use something
just like this.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
So what did,
Jason Frazell (11:31):
so what did you do, what did you do in that
moment or what was the firstthing you did when you went
from, Oh, this works for me to,Oh, there's something here that
I could productize and deliverto the market.
Manali Yavatkar (11:46):
Yeah, I mean, so first I did, you know, you're
right.
I live in San Francisco.
I talked to everybody.
I was talking, I have a dog, Igo to the dog park, I would talk
to everybody at the dog parkabout their composting, how they
compost, the problems they'rerunning into, all of that,
because I wanted to validate myexperience and make sure that
Other people were having thesame problems.
(12:07):
Um, I also took my little proofof concept that I built and I
gave it to friends to test out.
I gave it to other people, otherhouseholds in San Francisco to
test out.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
So I, I did want to validate it,um, before actually, you know,
hiring an industrial designerand getting the actual product
made.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
Hmm.
Jason Frazell (12:29):
That was, as I was getting ready for the
interview, I was, I went on toKickstarter and real and.
Love Kickstarter, and I wasnoticing that you had raised
some funds and you had set agoal and then you Crushed it
like absolutely crushed thegoal.
What are you taking from whatare you taking from that
(12:50):
indication?
Manali Yavatkar (12:52):
Yeah, I mean clearly there's demand for this
product Um, and Kickstarter is agreat community because it's
people who are, who want to beearly adopters and want to try a
new technology and they'rewilling to give you feedback, so
that is super valuable.
Um, but yeah, we crushed ourgoal in two weeks.
(13:13):
We actually hit our, our goalin, I think under an hour.
Um, so yeah, we're, we're superhappy with that.
And.
Yeah, we're just gonna keep,keep going.
Jason Frazell (13:25):
Yeah.
How do you, what do youattribute the blowing past it?
What do you attribute that to?
Is it, is it the, is it the Lotsof people like Manali with the
same problem.
Is it good design?
Like what?
Cause there's a lot of things inKickstarter that don't reach the
goals.
Manali Yavatkar (13:42):
You
Jason Frazell (13:42):
just blew, you just blew right through it
quickly.
Manali Yavatkar (13:45):
Yeah.
So I think part of Kickstarterand running a Kickstarter
campaign is actually also yourpre campaign prior to
Kickstarter.
So you do, you know, you do wantto do some market validation.
You want to be testing ads andalso.
Building out a mailing listprior to your launch so that
when you do launch, you know,that people are interested in
(14:08):
there aren't going to bebackers.
Speaker 7 (14:10):
Yeah,
Manali Yavatkar (14:10):
that's super important.
I think a lot of people don'trealize that.
And I think there was a timewhen you could put up a project
on Kickstarter.
I think it was maybe 10 yearsago, where you could put up a
project on Kickstarter and get abunch of backers.
Nowadays it is, you know, you doneed to, there's so many
projects that you do need tofind your customers, not just on
(14:34):
the Kickstarter website, butthrough other means as well.
Jason Frazell (14:37):
Yeah.
So.
Did you start Side Hustling,Palm, when you still were
working for others, you wereworking as a side project, and
do you, do you remember when yousaid, oh, this is, it's time to
go all in on this?
Manali Yavatkar (14:56):
Yeah, I mean, I was, I was kind of already
looking for another opportunity,and I, I was, I definitely, you
know, I love building things andI always have.
And so I was ready to buildsomething on my own.
Um, so taking the leap wasn'tthat, that, that difficult for
(15:17):
me because I was, I was readyfor that risk.
You're ready.
Speaker 8 (15:21):
Yeah.
Manali Yavatkar (15:22):
But I would say it would, it was after I had
validation from other peoplethat had tested the proof
concept.
Jason Frazell (15:30):
Yeah.
And then.
Is this the first, is this thefirst time you've run your own
thing, founded your own type ofproduct?
Do you remember, do you rememberwhat it was like the first
couple of weeks where you wakeup and you don't have a boss
emailing you or Slack or Teamsmessages of all the things you
have to get done for the weekand big corporate goals and
(15:51):
you're like, wait a second.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
Yeah,
Jason Frazell (15:53):
there ain't nobody that's going to tell me
what to do.
Do you, and I asked for mypersonal experience of starting
my own businesses.
That was challenging for me,spent 20 years working for
others.
And most founders I talked to,they're like, that's a tough
thing to get used to.
And also the idea thatproductivity isn't.
Is no longer bound by when thecompany says you should be
(16:13):
productive.
It's by when you can get doneand, and being an industrial
design and meant and likeengineering company, you can do
a lot of this initial work.
My guess is at any time of theday or any time, like it doesn't
require you to have to, and thenyou don't have to like, don't
have a boss who's asking forlike feedback or check in.
So what was that experience likefor you?
(16:35):
And I call it like that contextshift between it from employee.
to entrepreneur slash founder.
What was that like for you?
Manali Yavatkar (16:42):
Yeah, so I would say, you know, it was
overwhelming at first.
Yeah.
Because you have so many thingsthat you want to do and there is
not enough time in the day andyou have to prioritize, but it's
your first time starting acompany.
You don't know, you want to getfrom point A to point B, but you
(17:04):
aren't entirely sure what willget you there.
You have all these ideas ofthings that you can do to get
you there.
But you don't have time for allof them.
So you do have to prioritizesome of them over others.
And you're not entirely surewhat to prioritize.
So it can be very overwhelming.
And it's tough because you, thatprioritization is super
important.
(17:24):
Because otherwise you're not,you're not going to feel like
you're moving or progressing.
Jason Frazell (17:29):
Yeah, all things, all things you can't really read
about and nobody teaches you andyou're in the education system
either, no matter how much you'dlike to, because it's unique to
each person's personality, thetype of industry they're looking
to go into there.
And also focusing on gettingreally focused on the things
that you're naturally good atand you enjoy.
(17:50):
And then as a founder, there arethings you just have to do that
you don't enjoy at all,probably.
Because you're doing it all.
Manali Yavatkar (17:57):
Exactly.
You're doing it all.
And everything is new,basically.
Everything is new.
I mean, I came from coding allday.
So everything was new.
And I've always prided myself onbeing a good problem solver.
But it is tiring when you areproblem solving everything and
you come from a job where you'recomfortable.
(18:18):
in what you were doing.
And, you know, and now you'redoing all these new things and
everything is new and everythingis something you have to figure
out.
Jason Frazell (18:27):
Yeah, very cool.
Let's talk about more about Palmspecifically, what you're all
doing in this space.
And it is a space that from theoutside looking in, I mentioned
this before, we've been a Myfamily has been a consumer of,
of, of this space in a couple ofdifferent formats.
It's a fairly new space as I seeit.
(18:49):
Like, and this, maybe there's alittle bit of market research
for you.
As I see it, it's a fairly newspace.
The idea that you can do thingswith your food scraps inside of
your home.
And have it be, and have it belike actually useful.
That doesn't include justthrowing it away in the trash
and that it goes out in a trashbag and then the trash company
picks it up or you bring it tothe landfill or bring it to the
(19:09):
dump, whatever you, you manageyour trash.
So let's talk a little bit aboutwhat the space is and then what
Palm might be doing differently.
And I'd love to also hear aspart of this, what are some
common beliefs that people havethat maybe aren't that like
common, Things that peoplebelieve about this space that
aren't maybe true or for avariety of reasons, maybe people
(19:33):
don't know, maybe there's somemarketing FUD out there.
It doesn't matter.
Like, so space and then what aresome common misconceptions about
what y'all are doing?
What's going on in the space?
Manali Yavatkar (19:44):
Yeah.
Um, yeah.
So just to, to introduce PalmBin and what our first product
is, um, basically it's a.
Cooling food waste bin thatmakes compost collection really
clean, easy, and odorless.
So, um, in the composting space,I guess the way we see the world
(20:04):
is, or the future of composting,is that everybody has a curbside
green bin that their cityprovides.
So their city is responsible forcomposting.
And what residents just have todo is collect their food waste,
in their kitchen and then put itin that green bin.
(20:25):
And the reason we believe thatis the future of composting is
because composting is actually alot more complicated and time
intensive than people think.
There are some people who areable to do it in their backyards
with a tumbler like we used tohave or a compost pile, but it
is, it's a process.
(20:47):
So to compost properly, you haveto have nitrogen which is like
food waste.
Food waste is a type ofnitrogen.
You have to have carbon, whichis also called brown matter,
like cardboard or leaves orsomething like that.
And the ratio between nitrogenand carbon is very important.
(21:10):
So you have to measure out, youneed moisture, you need 40 to 60
percent moisture levels, needmicrobes, and you need time.
So it takes at least two weeksfor the composting process to
happen.
Because it's, it basically is aprocess where the microbes are
breaking down your food wasteinto this biologically stable
(21:32):
and nutritious soil.
So
Speaker 7 (21:34):
a
Manali Yavatkar (21:35):
lot of people don't realize that it takes so
much time for it to happen.
Um, and because it's such a, youknow, it's an intensive process,
that's why we believe the futureis having compost facilities
handle that.
And having people in their homeswho are, you know, living their
busy lives.
(21:56):
just have an easy and clean wayto collect their food waste
separately from their trash.
Jason Frazell (22:00):
Yeah.
So have it.
And let's talk about what thepalm bin is now, like what it
actually is.
And you had alluded to thisbefore.
What is it?
And I think you alluded, yousaid this before, it replaces,
my guess, Ziploc bags in yourrefrigerator.
Manali Yavatkar (22:19):
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
So it replaces having acountertop bin.
That sits there and, you know,allows your food to rot in your
kitchen and it replaces using abag, um, in your freezer with
your food, for your feed waste.
Speaker 8 (22:37):
Yeah.
Jason Frazell (22:39):
So I mentioned we were, we were consumers of, uh,
another product in the space.
It was not a cooling bin.
I won't say the name of it, butit, it claimed that it was
giving us compost and it woulddo it in overnight.
Right.
So in 8 hours, you'd put a bunchof stuff in, obviously there's
certain things it doesn't takebut you can do most organic
(23:01):
things, and you know this, likeeggs, eggs, plant based things.
You put it in there, you press abutton and it makes a bunch of
sounds and things happen andthen in the morning you come and
it looks kind of like soil, likea, like a lighter color soil.
From what I'm hearing you say,Nali, that's not actually
compost.
Manali Yavatkar (23:22):
Yes, that's correct.
Yeah, it's not actually compost.
Speaker 8 (23:26):
Okay.
Manali Yavatkar (23:26):
That is an appliance that grinds and
dehydrates your food.
So it's like a blender.
And an air dryer in one.
Speaker 8 (23:36):
Yeah.
Manali Yavatkar (23:39):
So.
Speaker 8 (23:39):
So
Jason Frazell (23:41):
there seems to be a benefit to that, but it seems
that perhaps the education slashmarketing around that is not, if
I'm not mistaken, though, a lotof these products, and there's
nothing wrong with thesecompanies, I don't think, but a
lot of the marketing around thisseems to be like at home
composting on your counter iswhat I see them saying.
Manali Yavatkar (24:02):
Yes.
I think the marketing isproblematic because you are.
Saying that it is composting andproducing something that it is
not.
But I think depending on how youuse these products in your home,
it could be useful for you.
So essentially these appliancesare solving the same problem
(24:23):
that your Palm Bin is, which isthe smell and mess of collecting
food waste on your kitchencountertop.
We're just doing it in a lessenergy intensive way.
Sure.
Maintains your moisture andmicrobes that's in your food.
Jason Frazell (24:40):
Yeah.
And then handing off to thecity, which you're already
paying for via your propertytaxes or your sales tax.
Speaker 7 (24:49):
Exactly.
Jason Frazell (24:49):
And they want these programs.
They set these programs up onpurpose.
You give them, it gives you aneasy way to store things without
taking space in the fridge, butthen you can just hand it to San
Francisco or New York or anyother major city has these
programs now and allows you todo that in a way that's
convenient and easy.
You don't have to walk outsideor anything.
Speaker 8 (25:09):
Interesting.
Jason Frazell (25:11):
So when you say a cooling bin, I'm really curious
about what alternatives might bein terms of what else might I be
able to do.
I always look at any sort ofproduct like, if I'm not doing
this, what am I doing?
And the reality is I'm puttingit in my freezer.
Manali Yavatkar (25:28):
Yes.
Jason Frazell (25:29):
which takes up valuable space and puts food
waste next to my ice cream andmy ice cubes, which is pretty
gross to think about.
Manali Yavatkar (25:40):
Yeah, and actually, after interviewing
people who do use theirfreezers, I've learned that it
also, because it's You have toput your food waste in your
freezer.
It's not a bin that's directlyin front of you.
And so people do end up throwingaway food because they don't
want to have the hassle ofopening their freezer and
(26:03):
putting it in there.
Or they forget because it's notsomething that's directly in
front of them.
Jason Frazell (26:08):
Yeah.
Oh, absolutely.
As a, as a, like a perfectconsumer for this, if I'm doing
the dishes or I'm at the trash,it's so easy to go, Oh, let me
scrape.
The food that I scraped the foodversus, oh wait, so I need to,
and we have a, we have a floor,not a floor free, a freezer
that's on the bottom.
So I got to bend down.
(26:28):
I have to open the thing up.
I need to grab a Ziploc bagversus all like, here it is.
So it's, it's so interestingabout this space overall.
It has to be convenient orpeople aren't going to use it
like the barrier to entry as meas a, as I would say, and
probably for you as well.
And you live in this space, itjust has to be wildly easier.
People aren't going to do it.
Manali Yavatkar (26:49):
Yeah, essentially, like, we are
mirroring the experience of youputting your food waste in the
trash, because that's whatyou're used to.
So, instead of putting it in thetrash, you put it in your palm
bin, you don't have to empty itevery day because it's not
smelling, you only have to emptyit on trash day, just like you
would your trash.
So, we're sort of mirroring thatentire experience.
(27:10):
To make it, you know, to reducefriction.
Speaker 8 (27:13):
Yeah.
What else about,
Jason Frazell (27:17):
and I know this is one of a variety of products
that Palm will be coming with iswhere you're getting your start
from, what else do you thinkpeople listening should know
about this general space aroundhome composting, countertop
composting, that you knowbecause you live in this space
that the average person justisn't going to understand?
Manali Yavatkar (27:39):
Yeah.
Um, I think, I think the mostimportant thing is to, like I
mentioned earlier, reallyunderstand what composting is.
Because using terms likeCountertop composter can be
really detrimental to actualcompost facilities that need tax
(27:59):
dollars to function.
And, you know, need, um, needcommunity support to function.
Um, so I think that is probablythe most important thing.
And then, um, and then, yeah, Imean.
The other, the other thing Iwould say is that the use of
compostable liners, so a lot ofpeople use compostable liners in
(28:23):
their bin.
And Amazon is, you know, filledwith different types of these
liners nowadays.
And the other thing I would sayis some of those liners are not
certified compostable.
Jason Frazell (28:37):
Okay.
So they don't actually break,the city picks them up, they're
in the bag, it doesn't breakdown easily.
Yeah,
Manali Yavatkar (28:45):
exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah, so it's really importantto, to make sure that some of
those are just made, you know,straight up out of plastic.
So it is, you know, you can getlike a BPI certification.
So it is important to look forthat when you're purchasing a
compostable item.
Speaker 8 (29:00):
Yeah.
Nice.
Jason Frazell (29:02):
Curious about the name
Speaker 8 (29:05):
Palm.
Jason Frazell (29:05):
Palm?
Yes.
Palm Love, first of all, the,for the, we'll put a link to all
this.
The branding is beautiful.
Love the colors.
It's very, I'm sure you, eitheryou or you've, you've hired
designers, but it's, it'sbeautiful.
It's curious what.
Where did the name come from?
Manali Yavatkar (29:21):
Yeah, so our slogan is sustainability in your
palm.
Ah, nice.
It's convenient, accessible,fits seamlessly within your
life.
And that's, that's our goal.
Speaker 8 (29:34):
That's where it is.
Jason Frazell (29:35):
Beautiful.
What else?
I think there was something elseI was going to ask you about.
Well, what's next for, for youas the founder and the team
working on all these beautifulproducts?
And where do you see the nextplace of innovation around this?
Not just the composting space,but the things that the way we
(29:56):
currently do things, um,speaking in America, we're both
Americans
Speaker 7 (30:00):
that
Jason Frazell (30:01):
are just ripe for innovation that, that we can
literally, and I love what yousaid Nellie about, Oh, we're
just like replicating what youalready do, which is open up
your trash.
It's that this is just genuinelybetter for the environment.
You're already paying your taxdollars.
Where's some other spaces in thehome and also in business.
Of course, you put this in akitchen in a business, there's a
million places you put this, andthis is not just a home product,
(30:23):
obviously, where are some otherplaces in the home that you
think are ripe for innovationthat we're just, you're just
looking at, I'm not asking forwhat your product roadmap is
here, but more just generallyyou're, where are some things
that we're just doing thingsthat are outdated, that can be
done better and it's better forthe environment and better for
us as people.
Manali Yavatkar (30:41):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So I think the kitchen is like agreat spot to start.
Um, and specifically in terms oflike materials used in the
kitchen.
Um, so another thing we're doingat Tom is we're using
sustainable materials and we'rebuilding circularity into the
product life cycle.
(31:02):
So I think that needs to happenmore with products that we use
within the home.
And I think it's important forthe company who's making those
products to own that productlifecycle.
We cannot expect consumers toknow how to deal with a product
(31:23):
at end of life when they'redone.
We need to have something inplace, a take back program, a
repair program, all of that inplace for consumers so that we
make it really easy for them.
And we ensure that our productsdon't end up in a landfill.
Speaker 7 (31:41):
Yeah.
Manali Yavatkar (31:41):
So I think that is where the innovation will
happen.
And that, that will change theway we live in our homes.
Speaker 8 (31:49):
Yeah.
Very
Jason Frazell (31:50):
cool.
I'd like to, whenever I havefounders on, I like to ask them,
I like to tap your generalknowledge of business and kind
of the way you look at the worldaround some things that I know
are useful for the audiencebecause I get the feedback.
First question I always ask iswhen you're making a
Speaker 8 (32:07):
hire in the startup world, And it's your hire.
What do you look for
Jason Frazell (32:17):
once they've crossed the threshold of,
because early on and you knowthis, that you're, you're
literally hiring for like athing of like, Oh, I need a CTO
or I need a co founder who is anindustrial designer because I'm,
it sounds like in this case youwant, you do know how to do that
work.
But there's something that like,or like I need a chief revenue
officer who all they're doing isgoing out and marketing and
sales.
(32:38):
Once they've fit the bill forthe credentials to do it.
What are the personality traitsthat you personally look for
that would have you be a yes tosomebody in an in an early stage
company?
Manali Yavatkar (32:51):
Um, I would say Definitely work ethic.
Obviously, that's super superimportant at a startup, but then
like having a good Attitude whenthings go wrong because things
go wrong all the time and thingschange all the time So plans
change all the time and so beingflexible and having a good
(33:13):
attitude You When you're, youknow, making changes and
switching between things, thatis super, super important from a
personal personality standstandpoint.
Jason Frazell (33:25):
Yeah.
Manali, how do you, in aninterview process, how do you,
how do you really suss that out?
Manali Yavatkar (33:31):
Yeah.
I mean, if you're doing, I mean,so back at my job as an ML
engineer, I sort of use thesame, same sort of thing.
So, you know, you, you don'thire anyone without doing a
project first or working withthem.
Got
Jason Frazell (33:48):
it.
Okay.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Manali Yavatkar (33:50):
So it's like, you know, it's like partner
coding when you're, when you'rehiring a software engineer.
But in a similar way, you do aproject and, you know, while
you're doing, while they'rewalking you through the project,
you can ask them, okay, like,You know, we're actually going
to go in this direction.
Now what?
(34:10):
So that really helps, um, thathelps, that allows you to figure
out how they respond in thosesituations.
Um, and then also just hearingtheir history, their history,
their career history, um, andasking them questions about that
can give you an idea as well.
Jason Frazell (34:31):
Yeah.
Nice.
guys.
And.
And the last couple of questionshere, what's the, what's the
thing you're most excited aboutin the business right now?
Manali Yavatkar (34:41):
That's a great question.
I am most excited about gettingthe palm bin into people's hands
and having them experience it.
Jason Frazell (34:51):
Yeah, and we won't, I won't say the date, but
it's public.
It's on Kickstarter, what you'reprojecting it.
Yeah, obviously it's, it'sobviously an industrial product.
You need to manufacture it.
There's lead times for that.
And we all, most of us who havehad any experience with that
know that that is never withouttrials and tribulations and
things that don't go exactlyaccording to plan.
(35:11):
For a variety of reasons, butwish you best success with that.
Yeah.
Actually be able to see that onpeople's countertops.
How cool
Speaker 7 (35:18):
at
Jason Frazell (35:18):
scale at scale.
Amazing.
And then what's the thing as afounder that most keep, I don't
like to use the word worry, butmaybe it is a word if worry
resonates for you, that's fine.
But like, what's the thing thatyou most think about that you
go, Ooh, year from now, or threeyears now, like this is the
thing that's.
(35:39):
I'm just concerned about or I'm
Speaker 8 (35:42):
you think a lot about that.
That is more of a stressor foryou.
Manali Yavatkar (35:47):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I would say, I mean, I could,um, I would say that what
worries me is, you know, we'remaking, we're making progress
and we're making strides towardsslowing global warming, um, just
(36:13):
as a community and, and ourthoughts about how we purchase
products.
And all of that.
And I guess I worry that if the,the, if the way people think
shifts, they're not going tocare about it as much.
And that's going to beproblematic, not only for my
(36:33):
business, but also for theplanet as a whole.
Speaker 7 (36:37):
And
Manali Yavatkar (36:38):
there's been a lot of, I think there's enough
driving that to keep people keepit top of mind.
Um, but I do worry that thatmight change in the next two
years.
Jason Frazell (36:53):
Yeah.
Thanks.
I do have one more question.
What are some companies that youreally admire in the
sustainability and space?
Like you think there are othercompanies that can be startups
we never heard of, they can bemassive companies that you think
are doing, doing right by theplanet that are inspirations for
you?
Manali Yavatkar (37:12):
Yeah.
So one that I found recently,actually, I'm super excited by
them, um, they're called It's afurniture company that uses.
Sustainable materials.
And they also have a take backprogram.
So they're ensuring thatfurniture doesn't end up in a
landfill.
And yeah, very modular.
(37:34):
So you can furniture as youexpand your family and, um, and
they're, and they have very goodcustomer service.
Um, so yeah, that's a companythat I'm super excited by.
Jason Frazell (37:47):
That's cool.
Like bamboo, and they don't uselike styrofoam.
Yes,
Manali Yavatkar (37:52):
and no PVA's.
Yeah, it's amazing.
Yes, exactly.
Jason Frazell (37:56):
Yeah, because anybody's ever thrown away a
piece of furniture, I'm justalways like, wow, that's a lot
of stuff that has to gosomewhere.
And if you've ever seen a pieceof normal furniture burn, it
burns black, usually.
A lot of, a lot of petroleumproducts in there.
Manali Yavatkar (38:12):
Right.
Jason Frazell (38:13):
Right.
Yeah.
Well, Manali, I want to thankyou so much for coming on today
for the good work you're doingout there for, for everybody.
I'm sure they'll want to connectand learn more about what you
all are doing over there.
What's the best way for peopleto.
Get in touch and see what you'reall up to.
Manali Yavatkar (38:29):
Yeah.
So you can check out ourKickstarter.
Um, you know, just look up PalmBin and to get in touch with me
directly.
Um, you can hit me up on email.
I'm at Manali at palm labs.
co.
Jason Frazell (38:43):
Cool.
We'll put all that in the shownotes.
Manali, any last parting wordsof wisdom or gifts you'd like to
give the audience from yourwisdom today?
Manali Yavatkar (38:53):
I'd say if you don't already compost, you
should start.
Speaker 7 (38:59):
There
Manali Yavatkar (39:00):
are, if you don't have the curbside bin yet,
there are community compostgroups in most cities now that
will happily pick up your foodwaste for you.
So, um, yeah, definitely startcomposting.
Jason Frazell (39:13):
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
Manali Yavatkar (39:15):
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Jason.
Jason Frazell (39:17):
Thanks.
Speaker 5 (39:19):
Thanks for listening to another episode of Talking to
Cool People with Jason Frizzell.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please tell your friends, follow
us on Instagram and Facebook,and give us a shout out, or take
a moment to leave a review oniTunes.
If something from today'sepisode piqued your interest and
you'd like to connect, email usat podcast at jasonfrizzell.
(39:41):
com.
We love hearing from ourlisteners because you're cool
people too.
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