Schulich School of Business
Tom Szaky: Eco-Capitalist, CEO, and WormBoy
By: Priyanka Parshad, Staff Writer
Meet Toronto native Tom Szaky who at the age of 23 is already the co-founder and
CEO of his own company TerraCycle. The idea is ingenious; a product made from
and manufactured in waste. More specifically, organic plant food made from worm
poop and packaged in used plastic pop bottles.
On October 21, 2005, I had the pleasure of sitting in on Professor Mei Ling Wei's
BFND 4100 class to hear Tom's intriguing story first hand. Professor Wei was
thrilled since when she last invited Tom, "the students loved him!" This year
was no exception; the charismatic young CEO was able to immediately engage his
audience -- a considerable task on a Friday afternoon!
In freshman year at Princeton University Tom and a few friends won a major
business plan competition in New York City. The prize was an offer of one
million dollars in funding from a venture capital firm. However, the firm would
ask Tom to restructure TerraCycle in a fashion that would rid it of its core.
How did Tom respond? He turned the money down and eventually dropped out
Princeton to invest all his time in the company. His decisions paid off due hard
work and a keenly interesting paradigm.
In today's market, organic products struggle to compete since they are costlier
to manufacture. However, as Tom described, waste is something people are willing
to pay to get rid of, thus manufacturing from waste means negative costs! This
allowed TerraCycle to price its product cheaper than competitors. Furthermore,
through minimal costs, providing jobs, and being eco-friendly, TerraCycle was
able to achieve the triple bottom line: succeeding in economic, societal and
environmental contexts.
Media outlets have been fascinated with Tom's success despite his young age; CBC's
Venture featured his story in an episode suitably titled 'WormBoy'. However, it
is no surprise that Tom has been able to overcome the age barrier. During his
lecture he offered valuable advice as if he were a seasoned pro. For Tom,
success relies on a leap of faith, since he admits that you will probably
'massively fail'. He believes successful ideas must be simple and unique so that
they are communicable and set you apart from others. He shared his views on
leadership, stating that as CEO his job is to 'make people believe' and to
surround himself with a team that shares his drive and willingness to sacrifice.
As his presentation wound down, Tom opened up the floor to questions. This
question period however did not ceremoniously degenerate into 'Quiet Period'.
Instead the audience flooded Tom with a range of questions, some comical such as
'Is it safe to drink the plant food?' to which Tom responded with 'Yes, you
could drink it'; however he doesn't recommend that you do. Tom generously gave
his time answering all questions in a thoughtful manner, even staying after
class to chat with eager students. We were all glad we attended since we came
away with a wealth of knowledge. The free plant food samples didn't hurt either.
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