550: He Went From $0 to $50M Selling THIS Product | Mike Smith [VIDEO]

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Mike Smith, founder of Zero Co, shares how a backpacking trip around the world turned into a mission to solve the plastic waste crisis. Mike walks us through the early days of bootstrapping the business with his last $100K, moving back in with his parents, and how he raised over $750K through Australia's most successful Kickstarter campaign. He dives deep into the challenges of supply chain innovation, the power of radical transparency, and the tough decision to completely overhaul Zero Co’s business model after discovering flaws in its sustainability approach. Entrepreneurs will learn firsthand how to balance purpose with profitability, navigate manufacturing setbacks, and use community-driven marketing to build a loyal customer base. Listen to Nathan and Mike discuss: - The journey from an 18-month backpacking trip to launching Zero Co - Bootstrapping with $100K and leveraging crowdfunding to raise $750K - The importance of radical transparency in customer communication - Scaling a product-based business while staying sustainable - The challenges of manufacturing sustainable packaging and evolving the business model - How Zero Co is expanding internationally and into retail - And much more business and personal growth advice… Click here to start your business for $1. You’ll get all-access foundr+, where you’ll find more in-depth, proven strategies from founders like our guest today and support and advice from our global community of 30,000 founders. If you loved this conversation and learned something new, rate and review this episode. Stay in touch with us, follow foundr on your favorite platform: Foundr.com Instagram YouTube Facebook X LinkedIn Magazine

Transcript

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0:00.0	We trekked for a month along the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
0:03.2	Literally in middle of nowhere, there'd be a beautiful turquoise lake at the head of the valley,
0:06.9	and it'd be covered in rubbish.
0:08.0	And that's when I was like, this problem's actually way bigger than anyone realizes.
0:11.1	I said to myself, I'm going to make this my life's mission now to try and solve this global waste problem.
0:16.0	To solve this big complex problem, we need to just break it down into really bite-sized chunks. And really all we have to do is two things. To be honest with you, it nearly killed me. Two AM calls with factories in
0:26.8	China, 10pm call in France, getting the car and drive to the Central Coast. It was one of the most
0:31.5	stressful moments in my life. There's been multiple times in this business where I've been
0:35.1	walked away, a lot of pressure, a lot of stress and no clear path. But this project has just taught me to like get punched in the guts, take
0:42.4	five minutes on the ground and then get up and dust yourself off and go again.
0:48.9	Hear the stories. Learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship.
0:56.5	Welcome to the founder podcast with Nathan Chan.
1:02.5	All right.
1:03.6	Well, Mike, thank you so much for coming down to our studio doing this, as I was saying offline.
1:09.5	It's always awesome to do interviews in person.
1:13.5	So talk us about this amazing business. You've built Zero Co. How did you get started? You embarked
1:20.4	on like an 18-month journey around the world before you, I kind of figured out this is the problem
1:26.7	you want to solve about zero
1:27.9	car. So talk us through. Yeah, yeah, totally. Well, first of all, we make personal care and home
1:32.2	cleaning products. So stuff you use every day at home like hand wash and body wash and deodorant
1:36.8	and champion and conditioner. And we deliver it to you in the world's first paper-based refill.
1:41.1	It's got 97% less plastic than anything you can buy at the shops or online.
	...

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