Talking to Cool People w/ Jason Frazell

Manali Yavatkar - Founder and CEO of Palm Labs

• Jason Frazell • Episode 208

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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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Jason Frazell (2):

Hey everybody, my guest on the show today is Manali Yavakkar. She's the founder and CEO of Palm. We're going to talk about that. And this is a first for the show. We're going to talk about amongst other things, composting. And it's fascinating because I was just telling Manali as you were catching up for the first time before pressing record, my family is a consumer in the, of consumer in this space. We've done this for a few years in 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 her journey. And all sorts of other things. She's also a founder and CEO, former corporate. So Manali, so good to have you here today.

Manali Yavatkar:

Thanks for having me, Jason. I'm so excited to talk about composting.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. Yeah. You're like, I never thought I would say this earlier in my career. You're like, I'm like thinking back to my childhood is, was this what I thought I would be getting 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 all that. And we're going to talk about some maybe misconceptions. And trends in the space now, trends in the space in the future. And I'm just excited about this conversation as somebody who has been a consumer of Some products in this space and somebody who cares about this is somebody who cares about the planet and why this matters. So Manali, first of all, where are you joining us from today?

Manali Yavatkar:

I'm in San Francisco.

Jason Frazell:

Yes, and we're recording this in early May 2024 and it's hot there, hotter than usual.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yes, we're, we're having a heat wave right now. It's been 80 degrees yesterday and today. And I

Jason Frazell:

believe And I believe heat is good for composting, if I'm not mistaken.

Manali Yavatkar:

Heat is good for composting.

Jason Frazell:

Heat is good for composting. And actually, if I'm not mistaken, I'm, I believe when the process kicks off, it generates heat, doesn't it?

Manali Yavatkar:

It does. If it's generating heat, you're doing it right.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. Cause I was, I was telling you, we had, we had one of those roller bins, like a manual where you pour in your eggshells and things, and it would be hotter than the outside and when you get snow on it and the snow would melt. And I'm like, that's super cool.

Speaker 7:

Yeah.

Jason Frazell:

So let's first talk about. Let's describe what Palm is. And then we're going to go back in time and talk about some of the other things in your past that you've done that's led you to going, Hey, let me be a founder and a CEO, and we're going to talk about the risks that that entailed. So what is Palm?

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah. So at Palm, we're building sustainable products that complement your lifestyle and help you waste less. And we're starting with food waste.

Speaker 8:

What, how come?

Manali Yavatkar:

Great question. So there's two main reasons why we're starting with food waste. One is my own personal experience with composting. I found collecting my food waste in the kitchen to be extremely stinky, messy, gross, and time consuming. It's horrible. And I live in San Francisco where we have curbside composting. So we have a green bin that our city gives us. We're just supposed to put our food waste in there and our city will compost it for us. So it sounds super simple, but the actual collection of the food scraps in the kitchen is something that you end up dreading and it's Not a great experience. And so I wanted to make it a much better experience. That was the first reason. And the second reason is actually why is food waste such a problem? We wanted to solve that. I can sort of start from the top there. So, you know, methane is a huge problem and actually reducing methane emissions is the fastest way to slow the growth growth of, uh, global warming.

Speaker 7:

Yeah. Yeah.

Manali Yavatkar:

For me. And organic waste in landfills is actually the third largest driver of methane emissions. And most of that organic waste comes from our homes. So we really need to divert food waste from landfills from our homes in order to reduce methane emissions. And that's why composting is so important. I

Jason Frazell:

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 young children. The food waste is even worse when you have young kids. It's so gross. Like to do anything other than either throw it in the trash, or as we talked about, what, what you all provide and what we've used in the past is something on your 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 or walk. It's like, it's just like, it becomes a lot when you're doing everything else. So before we get into that, you were sharing with me your background and how you've made a complete pivot from what would maybe seem to be. Not even a tangential industry, but I think that's probably an assumption that's probably not true. You probably can take a lot from your, your past career and the things you've been working on, but what was your background and what, what were you doing previously to, to founding the company?

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah. So I studied biomedical engineering at Columbia university. So I got a lot of hardware experience there, prototyping, um, I did an internship at Intel in their wearable department. So I did a lot of, you know, hands on product building. And then after that, I actually worked as a data scientist and then a machine learning engineer. Um, at a healthcare startup. So I was fully in the NLP AI world, and I actually left that to start palm because I've always been passionate about sustainability. It's always been a part of my life. I started a whole sustainability, um, campaign in high school and got my school lead certified. So it's always been there. Um, and you know, I'm young and I was kind of at a point in my career. Where I could take a risk, I could actually do something that I was personally and environmentally passionate about.

Speaker 7:

Yeah. I

Manali Yavatkar:

wanted to see if I could have an impact by taking this risk and doing something that I'm passionate about.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. Manali, how did you, what, what's the origin of caring a lot about this space? Is that something from how you were raised? Is this like, you've obviously been interested if you got your high school lead certified, what what's the, I always find with entrepreneurs that are really passionate. And I said this to you to be clear, Ivy, Ivy league educated, doing work that in a space that would probably give you a job for life in some way, machine learning AI, and to have you go, you know what? Wonderful. I want to do this because I care. Do you know where that care really has came from?

Manali Yavatkar:

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 it is and having trees everywhere. So you're very close to nature. Um, I went to like a Montessori school as a child where we had a garden, we would compost and they really promote just being out in nature and being in the environment. Um, we had like forests in the back of our school that we would just go and forage all the time. So, that's kind of how I grew up. And, I think my, my interest in climate change and global warming really came from when I watched An Inconvenient Truth.

Speaker 7:

I

Manali Yavatkar:

think that was the first time where I was like, Oh my gosh, this is a huge problem. I don't, I don't think I really understood that until I watched that documentary. Um, and I think it's, it's a combination of caring about the environment, obviously for the future generations of people, but also. I love animals. I think animals are beautiful and I love watching them and seeing them in the wild and being able to preserve our planet for them and making sure that they're not suffering is super important to me and really drives

Speaker 7:

me.

Jason Frazell:

I had to share that my daughter goes to Montessori school so that makes so much sense. They have chickens, they have a couple sheep, they have a goat, they have They're 85 acres in an old farm. And my, my daughter, I'm just, I'm smiling over here. My daughter loves animals and loves farm and plants and flowers. I think that's just part of the, part of the, the, what you get with that sort of education. Amazing. So I always like to ask entrepreneurs. Who could be doing a whole slew of things, including collecting nice paychecks with full benefits from companies that are pretty stable,

Speaker 7:

right?

Jason Frazell:

So do you remember, I, I love this question because I, it's, the stories are fascinating. Do you remember the moment where you go, Oh, I should go do something in this space. And you actually, It went from like, Oh, I should to I'm going to.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yes. Yes, I do, actually. Um, so I had, I had actually, I'd done some work with, you know, starting this, this journey. Basically, I moved to San Francisco. I had curbside composting. I was collecting my food waste and it sucked. And I was like, I need to find a better solution for my lifestyle. So I couldn't find anything on the market. And I wanted to create a cooling bin because I've heard that a lot of people put their food waste in the fridge so that it doesn't smell and the bag doesn't break down. But I don't have space in my fridge and I also think it's weird to keep your food waste next to your fresh food that you're going to eat.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah, right. Me too.

Manali Yavatkar:

So I wanted to, I wanted to have a cooling bin. So I actually built one for myself just to test it out and see how it would work. And it worked incredibly well. I put all types of stinky things in there, fish, blue cheese. Um, onions,

Speaker 7:

all

Manali Yavatkar:

stinky things. Kept it in there for two weeks and it didn't smell. It was just such a 180 from my previous experience collecting food waste that I was like, this is such an easy solution, but it works so well and would solve this problem for so many people. And so many people would compost if they had this solution. And so that, that was kind of moment where I was like, I'm going to, I'm going to pursue this.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. So this is an example that happens all the time with people I talk to and people I know who start 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 cooling bin. I don't even know what that would entail, but it sounds fascinating. So you built your own cooling bin and you found that it solved the problem. And then pretty quickly, especially you're in San Francisco and you went to school in New York. Where people genuinely care about these. A lot of people in those areas care about these things. You can probably call up a hundred 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. There's people just like me. Arguably millions of people just like me who could use something just like this.

Speaker 8:

So what did,

Jason Frazell:

so what did you do, what did you do in that moment or what was the first thing you did when you went from, Oh, this works for me to, Oh, there's something here that I could productize and deliver to the market.

Manali Yavatkar:

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, I go to the dog park, I would talk to everybody at the dog park about their composting, how they compost, the problems they're running into, all of that, because I wanted to validate my experience and make sure that Other people were having the same problems. Um, I also took my little proof of concept that I built and I gave it to friends to test out. I gave it to other people, other households 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 designer and getting the actual product made.

Speaker 7:

Hmm.

Jason Frazell:

That was, as I was getting ready for the interview, I was, I went on to Kickstarter and real and. Love Kickstarter, and I was noticing that you had raised some funds and you had set a goal and then you Crushed it like absolutely crushed the goal. What are you taking from what are you taking from that indication?

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah, I mean clearly there's demand for this product Um, and Kickstarter is a great community because it's people who are, who want to be early adopters and want to try a new technology and they're willing to give you feedback, so that is super valuable. Um, but yeah, we crushed our goal in two weeks. We actually hit our, our goal in, I think under an hour. Um, so yeah, we're, we're super happy with that. And. Yeah, we're just gonna keep, keep going.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. How do you, what do you attribute the blowing past it? What do you attribute that to? Is it, is it the, is it the Lots of people like Manali with the same problem. Is it good design? Like what? Cause there's a lot of things in Kickstarter that don't reach the goals.

Manali Yavatkar:

You

Jason Frazell:

just blew, you just blew right through it quickly.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah. So I think part of Kickstarter and running a Kickstarter campaign is actually also your pre campaign prior to Kickstarter. So you do, you know, you do want to do some market validation. You want to be testing ads and also. Building out a mailing list prior to your launch so that when you do launch, you know, that people are interested in there aren't going to be backers.

Speaker 7:

Yeah,

Manali Yavatkar:

that's super important. I think a lot of people don't realize that. And I think there was a time when you could put up a project on Kickstarter. I think it was maybe 10 years ago, where you could put up a project on Kickstarter and get a bunch of backers. Nowadays it is, you know, you do need to, there's so many projects that you do need to find your customers, not just on the Kickstarter website, but through other means as well.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. So. Did you start Side Hustling, Palm, when you still were working for others, you were working as a side project, and do you, do you remember when you said, oh, this is, it's time to go all in on this?

Manali Yavatkar:

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 and I always have. And so I was ready to build something on my own. Um, so taking the leap wasn't that, that, that difficult for me because I was, I was ready for that risk. You're ready.

Speaker 8:

Yeah.

Manali Yavatkar:

But I would say it would, it was after I had validation from other people that had tested the proof concept.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. And then. Is this the first, is this the first time you've run your own thing, founded your own type of product? Do you remember, do you remember what it was like the first couple of weeks where you wake up and you don't have a boss emailing you or Slack or Teams messages of all the things you have to get done for the week and big corporate goals and you're like, wait a second.

Speaker 7:

Yeah,

Jason Frazell:

there ain't nobody that's going to tell me what to do. Do you, and I asked for my personal 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 that productivity isn't. Is no longer bound by when the company says you should be productive. It's by when you can get done and, and being an industrial design and meant and like engineering company, you can do a lot of this initial work. My guess is at any time of the day or any time, like it doesn't require you to have to, and then you don't have to like, don't have a boss who's asking for like feedback or check in. So what was that experience like for you? And I call it like that context shift between it from employee. to entrepreneur slash founder. What was that like for you?

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah, so I would say, you know, it was overwhelming at first. Yeah. Because you have so many things that you want to do and there is not enough time in the day and you have to prioritize, but it's your first time starting a company. You don't know, you want to get from point A to point B, but you aren't entirely sure what will get you there. You have all these ideas of things that you can do to get you there. But you don't have time for all of them. So you do have to prioritize some of them over others. And you're not entirely sure what to prioritize. So it can be very overwhelming. And it's tough because you, that prioritization is super important. Because otherwise you're not, you're not going to feel like you're moving or progressing.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah, all things, all things you can't really read about and nobody teaches you and you're in the education system either, no matter how much you'd like to, because it's unique to each person's personality, the type of industry they're looking to go into there. And also focusing on getting really focused on the things that you're naturally good at and you enjoy. And then as a founder, there are things you just have to do that you don't enjoy at all, probably. Because you're doing it all.

Manali Yavatkar:

Exactly. You're doing it all. And everything is new, basically. Everything is new. I mean, I came from coding all day. So everything was new. And I've always prided myself on being a good problem solver. But it is tiring when you are problem solving everything and you come from a job where you're comfortable. in what you were doing. And, you know, and now you're doing all these new things and everything is new and everything is something you have to figure out.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah, very cool. Let's talk about more about Palm specifically, what you're all doing in this space. And it is a space that from the outside looking in, I mentioned this before, we've been a My family has been a consumer of, of, of this space in a couple of different formats. It's a fairly new space as I see it. Like, and this, maybe there's a little bit of market research for you. As I see it, it's a fairly new space. The idea that you can do things with your food scraps inside of your home. And have it be, and have it be like actually useful. That doesn't include just throwing it away in the trash and that it goes out in a trash bag and then the trash company picks it up or you bring it to the landfill or bring it to the dump, whatever you, you manage your trash. So let's talk a little bit about what the space is and then what Palm might be doing differently. And I'd love to also hear as part of this, what are some common beliefs that people have that maybe aren't that like common, Things that people believe about this space that aren't maybe true or for a variety of reasons, maybe people don't know, maybe there's some marketing FUD out there. It doesn't matter. Like, so space and then what are some common misconceptions about what y'all are doing? What's going on in the space?

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah. Um, yeah. So just to, to introduce Palm Bin and what our first product is, um, basically it's a. Cooling food waste bin that makes compost collection really clean, easy, and odorless. So, um, in the composting space, I guess the way we see the world is, or the future of composting, is that everybody has a curbside green bin that their city provides. So their city is responsible for composting. And what residents just have to do is collect their food waste, in their kitchen and then put it in that green bin. And the reason we believe that is the future of composting is because composting is actually a lot more complicated and time intensive than people think. There are some people who are able to do it in their backyards with a tumbler like we used to have or a compost pile, but it is, it's a process. So to compost properly, you have to have nitrogen which is like food waste. Food waste is a type of nitrogen. You have to have carbon, which is also called brown matter, like cardboard or leaves or something like that. And the ratio between nitrogen and carbon is very important. So you have to measure out, you need moisture, you need 40 to 60 percent moisture levels, need microbes, and you need time. So it takes at least two weeks for the composting process to happen. Because it's, it basically is a process where the microbes are breaking down your food waste into this biologically stable and nutritious soil. So

Speaker 7:

a

Manali Yavatkar:

lot of people don't realize that it takes so much time for it to happen. Um, and because it's such a, you know, it's an intensive process, that's why we believe the future is having compost facilities handle that. And having people in their homes who are, you know, living their busy lives. just have an easy and clean way to collect their food waste separately from their trash.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. So have it. And let's talk about what the palm bin is now, like what it actually is. And you had alluded to this before. What is it? And I think you alluded, you said this before, it replaces, my guess, Ziploc bags in your refrigerator.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yes. Yes, exactly. So it replaces having a countertop bin. That sits there and, you know, allows your food to rot in your kitchen and it replaces using a bag, um, in your freezer with your food, for your feed waste.

Speaker 8:

Yeah.

Jason Frazell:

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, but it, it claimed that it was giving us compost and it would do it in overnight. Right. So in 8 hours, you'd put a bunch of stuff in, obviously there's certain things it doesn't take but you can do most organic things, and you know this, like eggs, eggs, plant based things. You put it in there, you press a button and it makes a bunch of sounds and things happen and then in the morning you come and it looks kind of like soil, like a, like a lighter color soil. From what I'm hearing you say, Nali, that's not actually compost.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yes, that's correct. Yeah, it's not actually compost.

Speaker 8:

Okay.

Manali Yavatkar:

That is an appliance that grinds and dehydrates your food. So it's like a blender. And an air dryer in one.

Speaker 8:

Yeah.

Manali Yavatkar:

So.

Speaker 8:

So

Jason Frazell:

there seems to be a benefit to that, but it seems that perhaps the education slash marketing around that is not, if I'm not mistaken, though, a lot of these products, and there's nothing wrong with these companies, I don't think, but a lot of the marketing around this seems to be like at home composting on your counter is what I see them saying.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yes. I think the marketing is problematic because you are. Saying that it is composting and producing something that it is not. But I think depending on how you use these products in your home, it could be useful for you. So essentially these appliances are solving the same problem that your Palm Bin is, which is the smell and mess of collecting food waste on your kitchen countertop. We're just doing it in a less energy intensive way. Sure. Maintains your moisture and microbes that's in your food.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. And then handing off to the city, which you're already paying for via your property taxes or your sales tax.

Speaker 7:

Exactly.

Jason Frazell:

And they want these programs. They set these programs up on purpose. You give them, it gives you an easy way to store things without taking space in the fridge, but then you can just hand it to San Francisco or New York or any other major city has these programs now and allows you to do that in a way that's convenient and easy. You don't have to walk outside or anything.

Speaker 8:

Interesting.

Jason Frazell:

So when you say a cooling bin, I'm really curious about what alternatives might be in terms of what else might I be able to do. I always look at any sort of product like, if I'm not doing this, what am I doing? And the reality is I'm putting it in my freezer.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yes.

Jason Frazell:

which takes up valuable space and puts food waste next to my ice cream and my ice cubes, which is pretty gross to think about.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah, and actually, after interviewing people who do use their freezers, I've learned that it also, because it's You have to put your food waste in your freezer. It's not a bin that's directly in front of you. And so people do end up throwing away food because they don't want to have the hassle of opening their freezer and putting it in there. Or they forget because it's not something that's directly in front of them.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. As a, as a, like a perfect consumer 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 food versus, 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. I have to open the thing up. I need to grab a Ziploc bag versus all like, here it is. So it's, it's so interesting about this space overall. It has to be convenient or people aren't going to use it like the barrier to entry as me as a, as I would say, and probably for you as well. And you live in this space, it just has to be wildly easier. People aren't going to do it.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah, essentially, like, we are mirroring the experience of you putting your food waste in the trash, because that's what you're used to. So, instead of putting it in the trash, you put it in your palm bin, you don't have to empty it every day because it's not smelling, you only have to empty it on trash day, just like you would your trash. So, we're sort of mirroring that entire experience. To make it, you know, to reduce friction.

Speaker 8:

Yeah. What else about,

Jason Frazell:

and I know this is one of a variety of products that Palm will be coming with is where you're getting your start from, what else do you think people listening should know about this general space around home composting, countertop composting, that you know because you live in this space that the average person just isn't going to understand?

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah. Um, I think, I think the most important thing is to, like I mentioned earlier, really understand what composting is. Because using terms like Countertop composter can be really detrimental to actual compost facilities that need tax dollars to function. And, you know, need, um, need community support to function. Um, so I think that is probably the most important thing. And then, um, and then, yeah, I mean. The other, the other thing I would say is that the use of compostable liners, so a lot of people use compostable liners in their bin. And Amazon is, you know, filled with different types of these liners nowadays. And the other thing I would say is some of those liners are not certified compostable.

Jason Frazell:

Okay. So they don't actually break, the city picks them up, they're in the bag, it doesn't break down easily. Yeah,

Manali Yavatkar:

exactly. Exactly. Yeah, so it's really important to, to make sure that some of those are just made, you know, straight up out of plastic. So it is, you know, you can get like a BPI certification. So it is important to look for that when you're purchasing a compostable item.

Speaker 8:

Yeah. Nice.

Jason Frazell:

Curious about the name

Speaker 8:

Palm.

Jason Frazell:

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, either you or you've, you've hired designers, but it's, it's beautiful. It's curious what. Where did the name come from?

Manali Yavatkar:

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:

That's where it is.

Jason Frazell:

Beautiful. What else? I think there was something else I was going to ask you about. Well, what's next for, for you as the founder and the team working on all these beautiful products? And where do you see the next place of innovation around this? Not just the composting space, but the things that the way we currently do things, um, speaking in America, we're both Americans

Speaker 7:

that

Jason Frazell:

are just ripe for innovation that, that we can literally, and I love what you said Nellie about, Oh, we're just like replicating what you already do, which is open up your trash. It's that this is just genuinely better for the environment. You're already paying your tax dollars. Where's some other spaces in the home and also in business. Of course, you put this in a kitchen in a business, there's a million places you put this, and this is not just a home product, obviously, where are some other places in the home that you think are ripe for innovation that we're just, you're just looking at, I'm not asking for what your product roadmap is here, but more just generally you're, where are some things that we're just doing things that are outdated, that can be done better and it's better for the environment and better for us as people.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah, that's a great question. So I think the kitchen is like a great spot to start. Um, and specifically in terms of like materials used in the kitchen. Um, so another thing we're doing at Tom is we're using sustainable materials and we're building circularity into the product life cycle. So I think that needs to happen more with products that we use within the home. And I think it's important for the company who's making those products to own that product lifecycle. We cannot expect consumers to know how to deal with a product at end of life when they're done. We need to have something in place, a take back program, a repair program, all of that in place for consumers so that we make it really easy for them. And we ensure that our products don't end up in a landfill.

Speaker 7:

Yeah.

Manali Yavatkar:

So I think that is where the innovation will happen. And that, that will change the way we live in our homes.

Speaker 8:

Yeah. Very

Jason Frazell:

cool. I'd like to, whenever I have founders on, I like to ask them, I like to tap your general knowledge of business and kind of the way you look at the world around some things that I know are useful for the audience because I get the feedback. First question I always ask is when you're making a

Speaker 8:

hire in the startup world, And it's your hire. What do you look for

Jason Frazell:

once they've crossed the threshold of, because early on and you know this, that you're, you're literally hiring for like a thing of like, Oh, I need a CTO or I need a co founder who is an industrial designer because I'm, it sounds like in this case you want, 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 is going out and marketing and sales. Once they've fit the bill for the credentials to do it. What are the personality traits that you personally look for that would have you be a yes to somebody in an in an early stage company?

Manali Yavatkar:

Um, I would say Definitely work ethic. Obviously, that's super super important at a startup, but then like having a good Attitude when things go wrong because things go wrong all the time and things change all the time So plans change all the time and so being flexible and having a good attitude You When you're, you know, making changes and switching between things, that is super, super important from a personal personality stand standpoint.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. Manali, how do you, in an interview process, how do you, how do you really suss that out?

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah. I mean, if you're doing, I mean, so back at my job as an ML engineer, I sort of use the same, same sort of thing. So, you know, you, you don't hire anyone without doing a project first or working with them. Got

Jason Frazell:

it. Okay. Interesting. Yeah.

Manali Yavatkar:

So it's like, you know, it's like partner coding when you're, when you're hiring a software engineer. But in a similar way, you do a project and, you know, while you're doing, while they're walking you through the project, you can ask them, okay, like, You know, we're actually going to go in this direction. Now what? So that really helps, um, that helps, that allows you to figure out how they respond in those situations. Um, and then also just hearing their history, their history, their career history, um, and asking them questions about that can give you an idea as well.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. Nice. guys. And. And the last couple of questions here, what's the, what's the thing you're most excited about in the business right now?

Manali Yavatkar:

That's a great question. I am most excited about getting the palm bin into people's hands and having them experience it.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah, and we won't, I won't say the date, but it's public. It's on Kickstarter, what you're projecting it. Yeah, obviously it's, it's obviously an industrial product. You need to manufacture it. There's lead times for that. And we all, most of us who have had any experience with that know that that is never without trials and tribulations and things that don't go exactly according to plan. For a variety of reasons, but wish you best success with that. Yeah. Actually be able to see that on people's countertops. How cool

Speaker 7:

at

Jason Frazell:

scale at scale. Amazing. And then what's the thing as a founder that most keep, I don't like to use the word worry, but maybe it is a word if worry resonates for you, that's fine. But like, what's the thing that you most think about that you go, Ooh, year from now, or three years now, like this is the thing that's. I'm just concerned about or I'm

Speaker 8:

you think a lot about that. That is more of a stressor for you.

Manali Yavatkar:

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're making, we're making progress and we're making strides towards slowing global warming, um, just as a community and, and our thoughts 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 to care about it as much. And that's going to be problematic, not only for my business, but also for the planet as a whole.

Speaker 7:

And

Manali Yavatkar:

there's been a lot of, I think there's enough driving that to keep people keep it top of mind. Um, but I do worry that that might change in the next two years.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah. Thanks. I do have one more question. What are some companies that you really admire in the sustainability and space? Like you think there are other companies that can be startups we never heard of, they can be massive companies that you think are doing, doing right by the planet that are inspirations for you?

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah. So one that I found recently, actually, I'm super excited by them, um, they're called It's a furniture company that uses. Sustainable materials. And they also have a take back program. So they're ensuring that furniture doesn't end up in a landfill. And yeah, very modular. So you can furniture as you expand your family and, um, and they're, and they have very good customer service. Um, so yeah, that's a company that I'm super excited by.

Jason Frazell:

That's cool. Like bamboo, and they don't use like styrofoam. Yes,

Manali Yavatkar:

and no PVA's. Yeah, it's amazing. Yes, exactly.

Jason Frazell:

Yeah, because anybody's ever thrown away a piece of furniture, I'm just always like, wow, that's a lot of stuff that has to go somewhere. And if you've ever seen a piece of normal furniture burn, it burns black, usually. A lot of, a lot of petroleum products in there.

Manali Yavatkar:

Right.

Jason Frazell:

Right. Yeah. Well, Manali, I want to thank you so much for coming on today for the good work you're doing out there for, for everybody. I'm sure they'll want to connect and learn more about what you all are doing over there. What's the best way for people to. Get in touch and see what you're all up to.

Manali Yavatkar:

Yeah. So you can check out our Kickstarter. Um, you know, just look up Palm Bin 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:

Cool. We'll put all that in the show notes. Manali, any last parting words of wisdom or gifts you'd like to give the audience from your wisdom today?

Manali Yavatkar:

I'd say if you don't already compost, you should start.

Speaker 7:

There

Manali Yavatkar:

are, if you don't have the curbside bin yet, there are community compost groups in most cities now that will happily pick up your food waste for you. So, um, yeah, definitely start composting.

Jason Frazell:

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Manali Yavatkar:

Awesome. Thank you so much, Jason.

Jason Frazell:

Thanks.

Speaker 5:

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 on iTunes. If something from today's episode piqued your interest and you'd like to connect, email us at podcast at jasonfrizzell. com. We love hearing from our listeners because you're cool people too.

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