December 18, 2025 • 19 mins
Paul Corvino sits down with Lauren Gropper, CEO of Repurpose, the leader in compostable household goods. An eco-entrepreneur and green architecture pioneer, Lauren began her career in sustainable design. Her early success led to a surprising career in Hollywood, working as a consultant to the industry with customers like Discovery Networks. Confronted with the waste generated by craft services, Lauren had an aha moment on-set. She founded Repurpose to extend the disposable lifespan of single-use products and reduce waste.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is CEOs you should know with division president of iHeartMedia,
Paul Corvino.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Today, I'm here with Lauren Groper, the CEO and founder
of Repurpose, which is a compostable household goods brand on
a mission to make the earth a better place, one cup,
one plate, and one fork at a time.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Welcome, Thanks for having me. Paul.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey, before we get going into the interview, what I'd
like to do is a quick, rapid fire Q and
a where you got to answer real quick gets the
brain working and the mouth moving. Are you ready?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm ready?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Okay, ski your beach vacation, Ski vacation. Beatles are stones,
that's hard, gotta go quick stones Tom Brady or Michael Jordan,
Michael Jordan, Sean Connery or Daniel Craig, Sean Connery Star
Wars with Godfather, Godfather, Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter for.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
My daughter, Sabrina Carpenter.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Okay, well you ready now? Yes? Okay, So tell me
you eventually got to the point where became CEO and
founder of Repurpose. Yes, a successful company that that makes
I guess, sustainable household goods.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes, we make alternatives to everyday plastics. So what we're
trying to do is just get rid of all the
plastic you would use in your home with safer, non toxic,
better for the earth alternatives.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So tell me where they're all start. Whe'd you grow up?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I grew up in Vancouver, Canada.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Vancouver, Canada. Yes, I'm up there, credited. My sister lives
in Whistler, No kidding, in Whistler. Beautiful country, up, beautiful country.
So what brought you down to Los Angeles?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It's a long story, but hopefully we have the time.
I went to college in Montreal And.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Where'd you go in Montreal? I went to McGill Miguel,
the Harvard of Canada.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
So they say, I'll take it. And after college decided
I wanted to travel see the world. That was very
much like.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Would you study in college?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I did environmental studies, geography and vironmental studies.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Okay, so you are actually something similar to most people
that we interview here that what they studied in college
usually has nothing to do with where they eventually became.
You're actually you actually did something that's related.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah. I've always had this passion for sustainability, so I
ended up actually had an internship with the United Nations
Environment Program, which exposed me to We were in office
in Montreal, but there were people from all over the
world working there, and it just made me think the
world is a big place. I don't want to be
second in office. I'm meeting all these cool people from
around the world. I really want to do something, you know,
(02:35):
out in the world. So I ended up doing kind
of a Canadian Peace Corps type program.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So you graduated McGill, I graduate again into the Canadian
Peace Corps. What's it called.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, it was called Netcore. It was like it was
kind of a Y two K, help help solve y
two K around the world kind of thing. And that
was in Costa Rica. I did it. So I was
in Costa Rica for about six months.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I was before Costa Rica became the hip.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I think it was a few years later it was.
But I mean just being there that country is so incredible.
I mean it was so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Jungle and beach.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Oh yeah, jungle and beach. We were sort of in
between the jungle and beach, so we didn't get exactly either.
Where I was living. I lived with a family, which
is a very cool experience, but just gave me kind
of that desire to do more and travel more and
see more parts of the world.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You actually were working there, that's really I was working there.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yes, the offices were there, I was working there.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And what was the job? What did you do?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I helped ecotourism companies, like local ecotourism companies, set up
websites and kind of market themselves because that area was
still very much kind of underdeveloped where we were in
the southern part of Costa Rica, and we wanted to
give the local operators an opportunity to thrive versus you know,
international players coming in first. So it was a way
(03:50):
to kind of develop the local economy.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
And would you learn in that early job?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
What did I learn in that early job? Kind of
more of what I wanted to do, I guess, and
that I actually, you know, I could do something interesting
that was not in the typical kind of like doctor, lawyer,
professional career. There was other options out there that would
kind of opened my eyes.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So, okay, and what was the next step from that job?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
After that, I did quite a bit of global travel.
I had been thinking about I'm going to have to
probably go back to school to do something that I
want to do. I don't know yet. I did traveling
to Southeast Asia and India, Nepal, and then I got
in a pretty significant moped accident in Thailand where I
broke my jaw, I lost all my teeth. These are
(04:34):
all fake and that kind of just shifted my worldview
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
But you were traveling, Were you working when you were
travel No.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
This was a I was volunteering a little bit, but
just traveling your wonder Last year I was doing the backpacky. Yeah,
I knew I would have to go. It was kind
of like my gap year, I guess. I knew I
was probably going to go back to school, but didn't
exactly know what. And this was kind of my like, Okay,
let's go explore the world before I gets your and
then decided, well, I was going. I just really fell
(05:03):
in love with architecture, but still was so passionate about sustainability,
and at that time was just trying to figure out
are the programs where you can do kind of sustainable architecture,
like does that? I had read about it and learned
about it, but I didn't know if you could study
that as a profession. So lo and behold, I did
find a program in New York at Pratt where you
could study sustainable design. And that's what I did.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
And so you lived in New York during those years.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I lived in New York during those years.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I was how long did you do that for?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
School? Was two years? And then I worked after that.
I was there for a total almost five years, just
over four What was the job. The job was working
with big real estate developers who were building sort of
basically skyscrapers, office towers, residential towers and making them sustainable,
so constructing them in a different way that was eco friendly.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That it's pretty pretty exciting. It was fun, and it's
along the lines of what you were doing. Yeah, and
then what eventually led you to LA and then starting
this new company.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
So when I was in New York, I was volunteering
for a group called green Home, and I see where
people could kind of call in or write in and say, Hey, I'm,
you know, want to make my home renovation more green,
or I want to make my apartment, you know, more sustainable.
How do I do it? A young man wrote in saying, Hey,
I'm building a house, can you help me make it
more green? He turned out to be kind of a
(06:24):
big celeb at the time. Adrian Grenier is his name.
He was on the show Entourage. They were filming in
LA at the time, and he was like, you know,
the sets, there's just so much waste on set. It
would be great and the way they're run is so
not sustainable. What if you could come out and talk
to the producers and some of the studio folks and
you know, help them use what you're doing in the
building side, bring it to Hollywood sets. So that was
(06:46):
how I came out to LA to just see if
there was an opportunity to do.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
This for that's interesting. So that was a big opportunity
connecting with Adrian.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, and it was rare, completely ran yeah, yeah, and
he's a great guy and super were super into environmental
issues and he really lives that life, very altruistic, really
lives and breathes and walks his talk and he's just
a genuine guy. So he wanted to sort of he
felt like on that side of his life, on the
acting and kind of production side, that there could be
(07:15):
a lot to be done. And this was sort of
like early days of Now there's actually sustainability guidelines for sets,
but at the time there really wasn't anything going on,
so came to LA to work on Entourage. Specifically, he
was also doing a show for Discovery that I ended
up consulting on, where they were like showing people how
to live more green lives that he was a part of.
(07:36):
So it was end of the time too. In between that,
I had hosted a show in Toronto on HGTV about
living green and it was called green Force. Anyway, ended
up coming to LA to see what could happen here,
and I just thought, you know, I'll come do this thing.
Maybe it's six.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
You quit your other job, you came to LA. You're
not working, you support yourself.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
While this was going on, I was consulting for a
really big architectural firm, a global firm, and they were
looking for someone to help on the sustainability side. So
I did that a few days a week and that
paid the bills.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Okay, so now you're out here and you've got this idea,
you're working Entourage, how do you start this new company?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
I think I was just totally altruistic, naive, like young.
I had no idea what I was getting into, but
just felt like there was a really cool opportunity to
change the way that what we were using on set
every day could be made of. So we were building
these green sets or looking at all the ways we
could actually make it a more sustainable set, and then
(08:41):
eating for lunch off of you know, plastic plates, plastic bowls,
plastic forks. You still see this today, but plastic water bowls,
et cetera. And coming from a design background, you're always
thinking about materials and you know, how is a product made,
how is it designed? How is it disposed of? So
(09:02):
I was just immediately went to well, this is these
products are just it's a design challenge. It's a design flaw.
Why are they made from petroleum, which is a product
that is designed a material that is designed to last
forever for a product that you throw away in five minutes,
that's just a complete mismatch. So what if we could
use better materials, then disposables don't have to be bad?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
How did you go back to this? You got to
go out and find people that are making these.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, it was just a lot of I mean, this
is sort of what you do in school. It was
kind of like a school project at first, like a
you know, post school kind of like, wow, let me
do some research. This is what I would do if
I were in school and came across a group actually
in Taiwan that was making products that looked like plastic
and felt like plastic, but they were made from plants,
(09:47):
so it wasn't like the actual physical plant. It was
plant chemistry, so it was all It was all done
through these large chemical companies. But what they would do
is kind of they would extract the starches from some
very starchy plants like corn cassavas one, which is a
root veterable. It is, yes, it is. But they would
(10:09):
basically make these pellets that looked exactly like a plastic
pellet that you could then melt down and make into
anything you want. But the differences they're non toxic, so
there's no nasty chemicals and they break down in ninety
days in a compost environment. They won't fall apart on
the table or anything like that. But so to me
seemed like, oh my gosh, this is this is this
(10:31):
is going to be everywhere. Why can't the whole world
use it? The issue was, like you said, the price
at the time, it was like at least three to
four x more expensive to use these materials, So it
felt like a non starter, and I just this group
in Taiwan. I was kind of like, listen, this is
a great idea, but the price has to be closer
to what people are used to paying before we can
even entertain doing anything in the US. So they were
(10:53):
very keen to do something and they were like, we
we can get you know, to X price if you
can get US customers.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And that was kind of the like, so now you
found the product, you found the company that's willing to
work with you, and you had the customers, and the
customers were it was Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah, basically it was Hollywood sets to begin with. And
initially also we I always wanted to create a consumer brand,
Like I was really interested in creating products that people
love to use at home. I obviously the market for
you know, disposable products is huge when you're thinking about
university campuses or you know, corporate cafeterias or whatever. But
(11:32):
I wanted to create something that you know, was not
just a commodity product and that could have a brand
around it, so that we could start with one kind
of family your products and go beyond. And that's kind
of what we've been able to do because the brand
Repurpose was started to represent kind of these better for
the planet, better for you alternatives.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
You know. So now you're at a point where you've
got the company that could manufacture, that could do it
at the right price. You've got a certain amount of customer.
There was certainly not enough customers to build a big
business at this time. But your first customers are Hollywood
set designers.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
That was initial, but we very quickly after that we
were quite set on going into retail stores. That was
sort of our first and this was pre pre kind
of e commerce Internet.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Era, and this became repurpose.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
This became repurpose. Yes, So we thought, how can we
get one of these products on the shelf at a
store in LA That was the goal. So we did.
We did that.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
What was the story you targeted?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
We targeted Gelson's, Okay, and we got into Gelson's and
soon after Gelson's, Glson's was a little success. I mean,
there were so many hiccups along the way. Our first
shipment came in with the and.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Before you went to Gelstons. Now you have to manufacture
and have enough to go there. Did you have to
raise money?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
At this point we had raised a little bit of money.
I bootstrap quite a bit with savings I had. I
had a couple family friends and family members come in,
so the friends and family with small amounts of money,
but we were all kind of I was still consulting,
so I was still paying my bills through consulting, and
this was all just felt like kind of an after
school project in a way.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Was it one store or several stores we got into.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I think it was like ten twelve stores, Yeah, that was.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
They were all in I think they were all probably
in good markets. They were all in West Hollywood, Pasadena.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yes, great market.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
It's where people are concerned about sustainability absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Environment yes, but to your point, you know, being intense
stores is not enough to support business. So that was
just okay, we actually can do the group of concepts
sort of, I mean still, there were so many naysayers
and it was very hard to kind of get to
the next step. But we knew we needed to raise money,
we knew we needed to bring on more people, we
(13:49):
knew we needed more products, and we had to go
national to make this a thing. So that was the goal.
The next goal was, okay, can we just get something
on a national shelf and there's so many.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Like, are you profitable at this point?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
No, definitely not, definitely not so.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So now you've got a proof of concept, you've got
a track work to show and be able. I guess
you can build a spreadsheet and a performer.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yes, we had a spreadsheet of performer. We were going
to make a billion dollars in two years. And that
is what we basically took to angel investors and more
friends and more family, and I think people just love
the idea, the concept, what we were doing. That was
actually this was twenty eleven. Twenty eleven, okay, so we
(14:37):
were a little bit actually ahead, not a little bit,
quite a bit ahead of the market or the desire
for these products, Like people didn't even know what they
were right. We had to convince retailers that they should
even have this on the shelf because most buyers, who
buyers are at the retail level, they buy your product
and put on the shelf, so they're the ones that
(14:57):
control what goes on the shelf. And they were like,
we don't really see a need for this.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So now you did a ten store test with Gelson's. Yeah,
you showed them what could be done, what trend could
be done, you were able to put together a pro former,
you raise some money, what's the next step.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
The next step is, let's get some bigger team, people
that maybe have done this before, to knock on some
of the doors of the bigger.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
What were the core products at this point, We had cups.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
We had kind of like coffee cups that were meant
to replace what you'd use in kind of a foam cup.
So it felt like foam, yeah, kind of like the
one I'm drinking from. But many times when you're using
a paper cup for a hot drink, it's actually lined
with polyethylene. So that lining, that waxy lining, is something
called polyethylene. It's a petroleum derivative and it actually has
(15:44):
microplastics in it, and it leaches into your hot drink
and then you're drinking those all the time. So what
we used was a corn based lining that does not
contain microplastics, does not have any of those toxins, and
so it also allows the cup to be compostable. When
you put a lining on in a paper cup like this,
it can't be recycled either, because recyclers can't separate the
(16:07):
lining from the actual paper, so it all goes to landfill.
So we wanted to find something that wouldn't go to landfill,
that wasn't toxic, that you could use and that I mean,
that was an interesting proposition for buyers. And it also
felt kind of foamy, It felt like strophoam, so it
felt good, it looked good, It had these great kind
of environmental and health attributes, and the price was right.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So we were and we had the first product that
took off.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
That was the one that took off. We got press
on it. I mean, it was just it was unique.
So that was what.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Really how many stores are you in today now fifteen.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Years later, about twenty thousand.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Twenty thousand stores? Right? Yes, wow, how many employees do
you have?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Twenty four?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Twenty four employees but you're manufacturing.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Twenty four in the sort of corporate office. But yeah,
we have manufacturing partners in Taiwan, we have brokers that
represent us to the retailers, we have merchandise. I mean,
there's tons of other folks.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
But the full time is from the success story started out,
you know, traveling around the world a little a bicycle accident,
go to New York working, you know, working and coming
to LA working as a consultant to keep you go
through come up with this great idea. You find a
company that can manufacture a product. You got them to
(17:22):
manufacturer at the right price. You were able to get
into your first store, Gelson, Which is that probably the
hardest sale you had to, most difficult sale. You showed
proof of concept, put together a performer, raise some money
to go on a scale, and now you're in twenty
thousand locations. Yes, that's a great success story.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Thank you, Thank.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
You so much for being on once again. We're talking
to Lauren Groper, the CEO and founder of Repurpose, which
is a company that makes household goods with the mission
to make the earth a better place. One cup plate
and fork out a time. Now I understand that better
that after our commerce station, How do people that want
to find your product? Where do they go? How can
they do it?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Thank you? Go to our website repurpose dot com. They
can find us on Amazon, or they can go to
most local store. We're in Kroger nationally, Alberton's nationally target nationally,
we're in some costcos on the West Coast. We're in
most of the regional retailers. A lot of the small
natural stores Gilson. We're pretty much at most stores that
(18:28):
you would shop at nationwide.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Thank you so much. Once again, we've been speaking to
Lauren Groper, the CEO and founder of Repurpose. Really appreciate
you coming on and enjoy the conversation.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Thank you so much. Paul.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
This is Paul Corvino, Division president at iHeartMedia saying thank
you for listening to another episode of CEOs you Should Know.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Listen to CEOs you Should Know on the iHeartRadio app.
This is CEOs you should know with division president of iHeartMedia,
Paul Corvino.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Today, I'm here with Lauren Groper, the CEO and founder
of Repurpose, which is a compostable household goods brand on
a mission to make the earth a better place, one cup,
one plate, and one fork at a time.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Welcome, Thanks for having me. Paul.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey, before we get going into the interview, what I'd
like to do is a quick, rapid fire Q and
a where you got to answer real quick gets the
brain working and the mouth moving. Are you ready?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm ready?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Okay, ski your beach vacation, Ski vacation. Beatles are stones,
that's hard, gotta go quick stones Tom Brady or Michael Jordan,
Michael Jordan, Sean Connery or Daniel Craig, Sean Connery Star
Wars with Godfather, Godfather, Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter for.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
My daughter, Sabrina Carpenter.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Okay, well you ready now? Yes? Okay, So tell me
you eventually got to the point where became CEO and
founder of Repurpose. Yes, a successful company that that makes
I guess, sustainable household goods.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes, we make alternatives to everyday plastics. So what we're
trying to do is just get rid of all the
plastic you would use in your home with safer, non toxic,
better for the earth alternatives.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So tell me where they're all start. Whe'd you grow up?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I grew up in Vancouver, Canada.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Vancouver, Canada. Yes, I'm up there, credited. My sister lives
in Whistler, No kidding, in Whistler. Beautiful country, up, beautiful country.
So what brought you down to Los Angeles?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It's a long story, but hopefully we have the time.
I went to college in Montreal And.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Where'd you go in Montreal? I went to McGill Miguel,
the Harvard of Canada.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
So they say, I'll take it. And after college decided
I wanted to travel see the world. That was very
much like.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Would you study in college?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I did environmental studies, geography and vironmental studies.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Okay, so you are actually something similar to most people
that we interview here that what they studied in college
usually has nothing to do with where they eventually became.
You're actually you actually did something that's related.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah. I've always had this passion for sustainability, so I
ended up actually had an internship with the United Nations
Environment Program, which exposed me to We were in office
in Montreal, but there were people from all over the
world working there, and it just made me think the
world is a big place. I don't want to be
second in office. I'm meeting all these cool people from
around the world. I really want to do something, you know,
(02:35):
out in the world. So I ended up doing kind
of a Canadian Peace Corps type program.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So you graduated McGill, I graduate again into the Canadian
Peace Corps. What's it called.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, it was called Netcore. It was like it was
kind of a Y two K, help help solve y
two K around the world kind of thing. And that
was in Costa Rica. I did it. So I was
in Costa Rica for about six months.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I was before Costa Rica became the hip.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I think it was a few years later it was.
But I mean just being there that country is so incredible.
I mean it was so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Jungle and beach.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Oh yeah, jungle and beach. We were sort of in
between the jungle and beach, so we didn't get exactly either.
Where I was living. I lived with a family, which
is a very cool experience, but just gave me kind
of that desire to do more and travel more and
see more parts of the world.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You actually were working there, that's really I was working there.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yes, the offices were there, I was working there.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And what was the job? What did you do?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I helped ecotourism companies, like local ecotourism companies, set up
websites and kind of market themselves because that area was
still very much kind of underdeveloped where we were in
the southern part of Costa Rica, and we wanted to
give the local operators an opportunity to thrive versus you know,
international players coming in first. So it was a way
(03:50):
to kind of develop the local economy.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
And would you learn in that early job?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
What did I learn in that early job? Kind of
more of what I wanted to do, I guess, and
that I actually, you know, I could do something interesting
that was not in the typical kind of like doctor, lawyer,
professional career. There was other options out there that would
kind of opened my eyes.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So, okay, and what was the next step from that job?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
After that, I did quite a bit of global travel.
I had been thinking about I'm going to have to
probably go back to school to do something that I
want to do. I don't know yet. I did traveling
to Southeast Asia and India, Nepal, and then I got
in a pretty significant moped accident in Thailand where I
broke my jaw, I lost all my teeth. These are
(04:34):
all fake and that kind of just shifted my worldview
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
But you were traveling, Were you working when you were
travel No.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
This was a I was volunteering a little bit, but
just traveling your wonder Last year I was doing the backpacky. Yeah,
I knew I would have to go. It was kind
of like my gap year, I guess. I knew I
was probably going to go back to school, but didn't
exactly know what. And this was kind of my like, Okay,
let's go explore the world before I gets your and
then decided, well, I was going. I just really fell
(05:03):
in love with architecture, but still was so passionate about sustainability,
and at that time was just trying to figure out
are the programs where you can do kind of sustainable architecture,
like does that? I had read about it and learned
about it, but I didn't know if you could study
that as a profession. So lo and behold, I did
find a program in New York at Pratt where you
could study sustainable design. And that's what I did.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
And so you lived in New York during those years.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I lived in New York during those years.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I was how long did you do that for?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
School? Was two years? And then I worked after that.
I was there for a total almost five years, just
over four What was the job. The job was working
with big real estate developers who were building sort of
basically skyscrapers, office towers, residential towers and making them sustainable,
so constructing them in a different way that was eco friendly.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That it's pretty pretty exciting. It was fun, and it's
along the lines of what you were doing. Yeah, and
then what eventually led you to LA and then starting
this new company.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
So when I was in New York, I was volunteering
for a group called green Home, and I see where
people could kind of call in or write in and say, Hey, I'm,
you know, want to make my home renovation more green,
or I want to make my apartment, you know, more sustainable.
How do I do it? A young man wrote in saying, Hey,
I'm building a house, can you help me make it
more green? He turned out to be kind of a
(06:24):
big celeb at the time. Adrian Grenier is his name.
He was on the show Entourage. They were filming in
LA at the time, and he was like, you know,
the sets, there's just so much waste on set. It
would be great and the way they're run is so
not sustainable. What if you could come out and talk
to the producers and some of the studio folks and
you know, help them use what you're doing in the
building side, bring it to Hollywood sets. So that was
(06:46):
how I came out to LA to just see if
there was an opportunity to do.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
This for that's interesting. So that was a big opportunity
connecting with Adrian.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, and it was rare, completely ran yeah, yeah, and
he's a great guy and super were super into environmental
issues and he really lives that life, very altruistic, really
lives and breathes and walks his talk and he's just
a genuine guy. So he wanted to sort of he
felt like on that side of his life, on the
acting and kind of production side, that there could be
(07:15):
a lot to be done. And this was sort of
like early days of Now there's actually sustainability guidelines for sets,
but at the time there really wasn't anything going on,
so came to LA to work on Entourage. Specifically, he
was also doing a show for Discovery that I ended
up consulting on, where they were like showing people how
to live more green lives that he was a part of.
(07:36):
So it was end of the time too. In between that,
I had hosted a show in Toronto on HGTV about
living green and it was called green Force. Anyway, ended
up coming to LA to see what could happen here,
and I just thought, you know, I'll come do this thing.
Maybe it's six.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
You quit your other job, you came to LA. You're
not working, you support yourself.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
While this was going on, I was consulting for a
really big architectural firm, a global firm, and they were
looking for someone to help on the sustainability side. So
I did that a few days a week and that
paid the bills.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Okay, so now you're out here and you've got this idea,
you're working Entourage, how do you start this new company?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
I think I was just totally altruistic, naive, like young.
I had no idea what I was getting into, but
just felt like there was a really cool opportunity to
change the way that what we were using on set
every day could be made of. So we were building
these green sets or looking at all the ways we
could actually make it a more sustainable set, and then
(08:41):
eating for lunch off of you know, plastic plates, plastic bowls,
plastic forks. You still see this today, but plastic water bowls,
et cetera. And coming from a design background, you're always
thinking about materials and you know, how is a product made,
how is it designed? How is it disposed of? So
(09:02):
I was just immediately went to well, this is these
products are just it's a design challenge. It's a design flaw.
Why are they made from petroleum, which is a product
that is designed a material that is designed to last
forever for a product that you throw away in five minutes,
that's just a complete mismatch. So what if we could
use better materials, then disposables don't have to be bad?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
How did you go back to this? You got to
go out and find people that are making these.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, it was just a lot of I mean, this
is sort of what you do in school. It was
kind of like a school project at first, like a
you know, post school kind of like, wow, let me
do some research. This is what I would do if
I were in school and came across a group actually
in Taiwan that was making products that looked like plastic
and felt like plastic, but they were made from plants,
(09:47):
so it wasn't like the actual physical plant. It was
plant chemistry, so it was all It was all done
through these large chemical companies. But what they would do
is kind of they would extract the starches from some
very starchy plants like corn cassavas one, which is a
root veterable. It is, yes, it is. But they would
(10:09):
basically make these pellets that looked exactly like a plastic
pellet that you could then melt down and make into
anything you want. But the differences they're non toxic, so
there's no nasty chemicals and they break down in ninety
days in a compost environment. They won't fall apart on
the table or anything like that. But so to me
seemed like, oh my gosh, this is this is this
(10:31):
is going to be everywhere. Why can't the whole world
use it? The issue was, like you said, the price
at the time, it was like at least three to
four x more expensive to use these materials, So it
felt like a non starter, and I just this group
in Taiwan. I was kind of like, listen, this is
a great idea, but the price has to be closer
to what people are used to paying before we can
even entertain doing anything in the US. So they were
(10:53):
very keen to do something and they were like, we
we can get you know, to X price if you
can get US customers.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And that was kind of the like, so now you
found the product, you found the company that's willing to
work with you, and you had the customers, and the
customers were it was Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah, basically it was Hollywood sets to begin with. And
initially also we I always wanted to create a consumer brand,
Like I was really interested in creating products that people
love to use at home. I obviously the market for
you know, disposable products is huge when you're thinking about
university campuses or you know, corporate cafeterias or whatever. But
(11:32):
I wanted to create something that you know, was not
just a commodity product and that could have a brand
around it, so that we could start with one kind
of family your products and go beyond. And that's kind
of what we've been able to do because the brand
Repurpose was started to represent kind of these better for
the planet, better for you alternatives.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
You know. So now you're at a point where you've
got the company that could manufacture, that could do it
at the right price. You've got a certain amount of customer.
There was certainly not enough customers to build a big
business at this time. But your first customers are Hollywood
set designers.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
That was initial, but we very quickly after that we
were quite set on going into retail stores. That was
sort of our first and this was pre pre kind
of e commerce Internet.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Era, and this became repurpose.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
This became repurpose. Yes, So we thought, how can we
get one of these products on the shelf at a
store in LA That was the goal. So we did.
We did that.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
What was the story you targeted?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
We targeted Gelson's, Okay, and we got into Gelson's and
soon after Gelson's, Glson's was a little success. I mean,
there were so many hiccups along the way. Our first
shipment came in with the and.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Before you went to Gelstons. Now you have to manufacture
and have enough to go there. Did you have to
raise money?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
At this point we had raised a little bit of money.
I bootstrap quite a bit with savings I had. I
had a couple family friends and family members come in,
so the friends and family with small amounts of money,
but we were all kind of I was still consulting,
so I was still paying my bills through consulting, and
this was all just felt like kind of an after
school project in a way.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Was it one store or several stores we got into.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I think it was like ten twelve stores, Yeah, that was.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
They were all in I think they were all probably
in good markets. They were all in West Hollywood, Pasadena.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yes, great market.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
It's where people are concerned about sustainability absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Environment yes, but to your point, you know, being intense
stores is not enough to support business. So that was
just okay, we actually can do the group of concepts
sort of, I mean still, there were so many naysayers
and it was very hard to kind of get to
the next step. But we knew we needed to raise money,
we knew we needed to bring on more people, we
(13:49):
knew we needed more products, and we had to go
national to make this a thing. So that was the goal.
The next goal was, okay, can we just get something
on a national shelf and there's so many.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Like, are you profitable at this point?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
No, definitely not, definitely not so.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So now you've got a proof of concept, you've got
a track work to show and be able. I guess
you can build a spreadsheet and a performer.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yes, we had a spreadsheet of performer. We were going
to make a billion dollars in two years. And that
is what we basically took to angel investors and more
friends and more family, and I think people just love
the idea, the concept, what we were doing. That was
actually this was twenty eleven. Twenty eleven, okay, so we
(14:37):
were a little bit actually ahead, not a little bit,
quite a bit ahead of the market or the desire
for these products, Like people didn't even know what they
were right. We had to convince retailers that they should
even have this on the shelf because most buyers, who
buyers are at the retail level, they buy your product
and put on the shelf, so they're the ones that
(14:57):
control what goes on the shelf. And they were like,
we don't really see a need for this.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So now you did a ten store test with Gelson's. Yeah,
you showed them what could be done, what trend could
be done, you were able to put together a pro former,
you raise some money, what's the next step.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
The next step is, let's get some bigger team, people
that maybe have done this before, to knock on some
of the doors of the bigger.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
What were the core products at this point, We had cups.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
We had kind of like coffee cups that were meant
to replace what you'd use in kind of a foam cup.
So it felt like foam, yeah, kind of like the
one I'm drinking from. But many times when you're using
a paper cup for a hot drink, it's actually lined
with polyethylene. So that lining, that waxy lining, is something
called polyethylene. It's a petroleum derivative and it actually has
(15:44):
microplastics in it, and it leaches into your hot drink
and then you're drinking those all the time. So what
we used was a corn based lining that does not
contain microplastics, does not have any of those toxins, and
so it also allows the cup to be compostable. When
you put a lining on in a paper cup like this,
it can't be recycled either, because recyclers can't separate the
(16:07):
lining from the actual paper, so it all goes to landfill.
So we wanted to find something that wouldn't go to landfill,
that wasn't toxic, that you could use and that I mean,
that was an interesting proposition for buyers. And it also
felt kind of foamy, It felt like strophoam, so it
felt good, it looked good, It had these great kind
of environmental and health attributes, and the price was right.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So we were and we had the first product that
took off.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
That was the one that took off. We got press
on it. I mean, it was just it was unique.
So that was what.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Really how many stores are you in today now fifteen.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Years later, about twenty thousand.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Twenty thousand stores? Right? Yes, wow, how many employees do
you have?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Twenty four?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Twenty four employees but you're manufacturing.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Twenty four in the sort of corporate office. But yeah,
we have manufacturing partners in Taiwan, we have brokers that
represent us to the retailers, we have merchandise. I mean,
there's tons of other folks.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
But the full time is from the success story started out,
you know, traveling around the world a little a bicycle accident,
go to New York working, you know, working and coming
to LA working as a consultant to keep you go
through come up with this great idea. You find a
company that can manufacture a product. You got them to
(17:22):
manufacturer at the right price. You were able to get
into your first store, Gelson, Which is that probably the
hardest sale you had to, most difficult sale. You showed
proof of concept, put together a performer, raise some money
to go on a scale, and now you're in twenty
thousand locations. Yes, that's a great success story.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Thank you, Thank.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
You so much for being on once again. We're talking
to Lauren Groper, the CEO and founder of Repurpose, which
is a company that makes household goods with the mission
to make the earth a better place. One cup plate
and fork out a time. Now I understand that better
that after our commerce station, How do people that want
to find your product? Where do they go? How can
they do it?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Thank you? Go to our website repurpose dot com. They
can find us on Amazon, or they can go to
most local store. We're in Kroger nationally, Alberton's nationally target nationally,
we're in some costcos on the West Coast. We're in
most of the regional retailers. A lot of the small
natural stores Gilson. We're pretty much at most stores that
(18:28):
you would shop at nationwide.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Thank you so much. Once again, we've been speaking to
Lauren Groper, the CEO and founder of Repurpose. Really appreciate
you coming on and enjoy the conversation.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Thank you so much. Paul.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
This is Paul Corvino, Division president at iHeartMedia saying thank
you for listening to another episode of CEOs you Should Know.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Listen to CEOs you Should Know on the iHeartRadio app.
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