Forbes
January 1, 1970
Meet Trashless, A New Service Delivering Pantry Staples In Sustainable Packaging
Trashless
Sustainable online grocery service
Austin, TX
Consumer Products
E-Commerce
Trashless is a zero-waste, local grocery delivery service that’s making modern, sustainable lifestyles easy and affordable. By eliminating the use of single-use packaging, and focusing on local supply-chains, Trashless is up-ending the traditionally wasteful grocery system.
$154,220
raised
165
Investors
$6M
Valuation Cap
5.0%
Annual Interest Rate
$250.00
Min. Investment
20.0%
Discount Rate
Conv. Note
Offering Type
11/01/22
Maturity Date
8
Days Left
Rewards
Get rewarded for investing more into Trashless:
$250+
Investment
StartEngine Owner’s Bonus
This offering is eligible for the StartEngine Owner’s 10% Bonus program. For details on this program, please see the Offering Summary section below.
$1,000+
Investment
Tier 2 perk
I investor hat + A Flight of 7 specialty Trashless salts
$5,000+
Investment
Tier 3 perk
Investor hat + A Flight of 7 specialty Trashless salts + Tea Tour - A collection of 6 Trashless teas
$10,000+
Investment
Tier 4 perk
Investor hat + A Flight of 7 specialty Trashless salts + Tea Tour - A collection of 6 Trashless teas + Spice World Tour - A collection of 24 custom Trashless spice mixes + 5% interest shares
$25,000+
Investment
Tier 5 perk
Investor hat + A Flight of 7 specialty Trashless salts + Tea Tour - A collection of 6 Trashless teas + Spice World Tour - A collection of 24 custom Trashless spice mixes + 10% bonus interest
$50,000+
Investment
Tier 6 perk
$50,000+ investor hat + A Flight of 7 specialty Trashless salts + Tea Tour - A collection of 6 Trashless teas + Spice World Tour - A collection of 24 custom Trashless spice mixes + 15% bonus interest
Reasons to Invest
Trashless bridges the gap between consumers’ desire for convenient delivery of household staples and being environmentally responsible.
Sustainability focused products are growing 5.6x faster than other products and generating the highest growth in the massive fast moving consumer goods sector.
Trashless has honed its business models to achieve the elusive twin goals of delivering affordable consumer products environmentally sustainably, while establishing strong and scalable financial fundamentals.
Overview
Helping modern consumption become more sustainable
video
We are a zero-waste, local online grocery service delivering everything from meal-kits, ready-to-eat-food, snacks, pantry items, cleaning supplies, beverages, to pet food and more, all with no trash. We are also an evolving platform that provides the tech and infrastructure for brands to adopt a trashless business model.
The Problem
Consumers are fed up with wasteful, environmentally toxic consumption
As the world increasingly sees the effects of man-made climate change - forest fires in the West, hurricanes on the East Coast, rising oceans and more - the majority of people around the country say they support prioritizing climate policy, with more than two-thirds saying the federal government is doing too little.
But in everyday busy modern lives, it seems to us that conscious consumption can be next to impossible. With single-use plastics at every turn, most grocery stores sourcing from massive factory farms, we believe many consumers have few options that are also convenient — even though our assumption is many feel strongly about protecting the environment.
The Solution
Giving consumers a new, realistic option
Trashless is bringing consumers a guilt-free shopping experience for high quality sustainable products, and a hub for environmentally conscious consumption free of single-use packaging.
Our service is reducing our collective carbon footprint, while offering lower prices and healthier, local options for consumers.
The Market
Supermarket sales exceeds $700B in yearly revenue
Our TAM is the U.S. food retail industry, where there are over 38K stores averaging over $17M in revenue each year.
When combined with the wide spectrum of polls showing support for climate friendly products and the recent surge in growth of environmentally sustainable products in the consumer packaged goods market, we are well positioned to capture the market.
Polls show consumers increasingly more focused on protecting the environment with their every day decisions and moving toward a more sustainable life, and our platform provides them with the necessary infrastructure to achieve that goal.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, now more than ever, consumers want things delivered to their door. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a significant increase in packaging waste - boxes within boxes, meal kits delivered from long distances with nonrecyclable insulation, coolant bags, plastic wrapping and more. Consumers want to lower their carbon footprint, without losing the convenience of delivery. We believe these trends put us in a good position to build a strong, fast growth business.
Our Traction
Trashless.com - The platform ready to scale in all dimensions
When we relaunched in October 2019, after a brief pause to operationally restructure and rebrand our company, we had a fully mature digital platform - ready to scale, product line fully streamlined, operationally optimized, and marketing-channels ready for a wider deployment.
Over the last few years, we have perfected the cycle of sourcing sustainably produced local ingredients, delivering them in reusable packaging, collecting it back up, sanitizing it and repeating this process over and over again - affordably. Now we are ready to expand to new markets via a lean model.
We were also featured in Forbes in 2020 as a positive move towards sustainable lifestyles. We’ve filed for trademarks for ‘Trashless’ and ‘The Milkman for Everything’.
What We Do
Making modern sustainable living a possibility
Although we offer many amazing environmentally-friendly options for consumers, we are more than just a sustainable product-focused business: we’re offering a new truly environmentally-focused paradigm - not only for consumers but also for other brands to leverage our infrastructure to create a Trashless society.
Our platform, Trashless.com, enables various entities to buy and sell with each other, driving down the cost of sustainable products and creating a hub for consumers and vendors to congregate.
This testimonial may not be representative of the experience of other customers and is no guarantee of future performance or success.
This testimonial may not be representative of the experience of other customers and is no guarantee of future performance or success.
This testimonial may not be representative of the experience of other customers and is no guarantee of future performance or success.
The Business Model
We believe we will match traditional grocer gross margins, and exceed their net margins
We operate as a traditional B2C ecommerce company, buying and producing in wholesale and selling at retail.
GIF
We are able to take in recurring revenue streams from planned deliveries and subscription plans, which has helped us maintain high recurring revenue per delivery, while bringing down our average cost per delivery (not including cost of goods) to around $3.50.
Since we have no retail location, we are able to keep overhead low by renting out cheap warehouses, which we can use 24/7 to get the most out of our investments.
How We Are Different
Sustainability, plain and simple.
Our competitors are grocers (online and physical stores) and subscription meal services that produce huge amounts of packaging waste and have an environmentally unsustainable supply chain.
For us, sustainability is our whole mission. That’s why in addition to our wide range of everyday products, we also offer unique sustainability services like dead battery pick up, compost, and pet food bag pick up from animal adoption centers, for free or a nominal fee.
The Vision
On track towards profitability and expansion
We are making solid progress to achieve profitability in the Greater Austin area by the end of 2020, while expanding the product line.
Through this raise we plan to use the capital to expand into the Houston, Dallas and San Antonio markets in early 2021, which would significantly increase our TAM and kick in powerful network effects on both the supply and the demand side.
National Expansion Starting Q3'2021
Based on learnings, capital availability and economic conditions, we plan to start expansion beyond Texas in the second half of 2021, with a lean operational model, low customer acquisition costs and increasingly cheaper procurement costs because of higher buying power. We want to continue scaling as large as possible, because we believe in our mission and know that the better we do as a company, the better it will be for consumers and the planet.
Actual plans for where and when we expand will be based on further research, capital availability, economic environment, and partnership opportunities.
OUR LEADERSHIP
Multidisciplinary team, passionate about the environment
We are a team with a diverse set of experiences, ranging from years in tech, operations, culinary arts, content development, analytics, and customer support.
The one thing that brings us all together is a sense of purpose to give back to our communities by providing them with an opportunity to treat the planet better.
We like to say that our best ‘advisors’ are our customers and data. In today’s cutthroat business climate, you don’t get too far without data-backed decisions, so while we are laser-focused on the environment, we understand none of it matters if people aren’t clicking that order button.
Why Invest
The time for sustainable grocers is yesterday
We are already seeing forest fires, rising oceans, volatile weather, and mass extinctions as a result of man-made climate change, and if we don’t do this now we will all pay the price.
In the Press
Offering Summary
Company | : | Trashless, Inc. |
Corporate Address | : | 4701 Red Bluff Road, Suite B, Austin, TX 78702 |
Offering Minimum | : | $10,000.00 |
Offering Maximum | : | $406,890.00 |
Minimum Investment Amount(per investor) | : | $250.00 |
Terms
Offering Type | : | Convertible Promissory Notes |
Type of Equity Converted Into | : | Series Seed-1 Preferred Stock |
Conversion Trigger | : | $3,000,000.00 |
Maturity Date | : | November 01, 2022 |
Valuation Cap | : | $6,000,000.00 |
Discount Rate | : | 20.0% |
Annual Interest Rate | : | 5.0% |
What is a Convertible Note?
A convertible note offers you the right to receive Series Seed-1 Preferred Stock in Trashless, Inc. . The amount of Series Seed-1 Preferred Stock you will receive in the future will be determined at the next equity round in which the Company raises at least $3,000,000.00 in a qualified equity financing. The highest conversion price per security is set based on a $6,000,000.00 Valuation Cap or if less, then you will receive a 20.0% discount on the price the new investors are paying. You also receive 5.0% interest per year added to your investment. When the maturity date is reached, if the note has not converted then you are entitled to receive Series Seed-1 Preferred Stock equal to your investment and interest back at a price per security determined by dividing the Valuation Cap by the aggregate number of outstanding equity securities of the Company as of immediately prior (on a fully diluted basis).
COVID Relief
This offering is being conducted on an expedited basis due to circumstances relating to COVID-19 and pursuant to the SEC’s temporary regulatory COVID-19 relief set out in Regulation Crowdfunding §227.201(z).
Expedited closing sooner than 21 days
Further, in reliance on Regulation Crowdfunding §227.303(g)(2) A funding portal that is an intermediary in a transaction involving the offer or sale of securities initiated between May 4, 2020, and February 28, 2021, in reliance on section 4(a)(6) of the Securities Act (15 U.S.C. 77d(a)(6)) by an issuer that is conducting an offering on an expedited basis due to circumstances relating to COVID-19 shall not be required to comply with the requirement in paragraph (e)(3)(i) of this section that a funding portal shall not direct transmission of funds earlier than 21 days after the date on which the intermediary makes publicly available on its platform the information required to be provided by the issuer under §§227.201 and 227.203(a).
*Annual Interest Rate subject to adjustment of 10% bonus for StartEngine shareholders. See 10% Bonus below
Company Perks*
Early Bird
- Friends and Family - First 72 hours | 15% bonus interest
- Super Early Bird - Next 72 hours | 10% bonus interest
- Early Bird Bonus - Next 7 days | 5% bonus interest
Volume
- Tier 1 perk - ($500+ investor hat)
- Tier 2 perk - ($1000+ investor hat + A Flight of 7 specialty Trashless salts)
- Tier 3 perk - ($5,000+ investor hat + A Flight of 7 specialty Trashless salts + Tea Tour - A collection of 6 Trashless teas)
- Tier 4 perk - ($10,000+ investor hat + A Flight of 7 specialty Trashless salts + Tea Tour - A collection of 6 Trashless teas + Spice World Tour - A collection of 24 custom Trashless spice mixes + 5% interest shares)
- Tier 5 perk - ($25,000+ investor hat + A Flight of 7 specialty Trashless salts + Tea Tour - A collection of 6 Trashless teas + Spice World Tour - A collection of 24 custom Trashless spice mixes + 10% bonus interest)
- Tier 6 perk - ($50,000+ investor hat + A Flight of 7 specialty Trashless salts + Tea Tour - A collection of 6 Trashless teas + Spice World Tour - A collection of 24 custom Trashless spice mixes + 15% bonus interest)
*All perks occur when the offering is completed.
The 10% StartEngine Owners' Bonus
The Company will offer 10% additional bonus shares for all investments that are committed by investors that are eligible for the StartEngine Crowdfunding Inc. OWNer's bonus.
Eligible StartEngine shareholders will receive a 10% increase in the annual interest rate on Convertible Promissory Notes in this Offering. This means your annual interest rate will be 5% instead of 5.5%.
This 10% Bonus is only valid during the investors eligibility period. Investors eligible for this bonus will also have priority if they are on a waitlist to invest and the company surpasses its maximum funding goal. They will have the first opportunity to invest should room in the offering become available if prior investments are cancelled or fail.
Investors will only receive a single bonus, which will be the highest bonus rate they are eligible for.
Irregular Use of Proceeds
Example - The Company might incur Irregular Use of Proceeds that may include but are not limited to the following over $10,000: Vendor payments and salary made to one's self, a friend or relative; Any expense labeled "Administration Expenses" that is not strictly for administrative purposes; Any expense labeled "Travel and Entertainment"; Any expense that is for the purposes of inter-company debt or back payments.
Show More
Most recent fiscal year-end:
Prior fiscal year-end:
Total Assets
$278,370.00
USD
$155,655.00
USD
Cash And Cash Equivalents
$78,668.00
USD
$41,672.00
USD
Accounts Receivable
$751.00
USD
$3,851.00
USD
Short Term Debt
$243,781.00
USD
$65,368.00
USD
Long Term Debt
$163,474.00
USD
$74,200.00
USD
Revenues And Sales
$484,772.00
USD
$568,479.00
USD
Costs Of Goods Sold
$295,853.00
USD
$499,058.00
USD
Taxes Paid
$0.00
USD
$0.00
USD
Net Income
-$288,972.00
USD
-$701,032.00
USD
Risks
A crowdfunding investment involves risk. You should not invest any funds in this offering unless you can afford to lose your entire investment. In making an investment decision, investors must rely on their own examination of the issuer and the terms of the offering, including the merits and risks involved. These securities have not been recommended or approved by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority. Furthermore, these authorities have not passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this document. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not pass upon the merits of any securities offered or the terms of the offering, nor does it pass upon the accuracy or completeness of any offering document or literature. These securities are offered under an exemption from registration; however, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not made an independent determination that these securities are exempt from registration.
Updates
Notice of Funds Disbursement
4 days ago[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello!
As you might know, Trashless has exceeded its minimum funding goal. When a company reaches its minimum on StartEngine, it's about to begin withdrawing funds. If you invested in Trashless be on the lookout for an email that describes more about the disbursement process.
This campaign will continue to accept investments until its indicated closing date.
Thanks for funding the future.
-StartEngine
Notice of Funds Disbursement
22 days ago[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello!
As you might know, Trashless has exceeded its minimum funding goal. When a company reaches its minimum on StartEngine, it's about to begin withdrawing funds. If you invested in Trashless be on the lookout for an email that describes more about the disbursement process.
This campaign will continue to accept investments until its indicated closing date.
Thanks for funding the future.
-StartEngine
Notice of Funds Disbursement
about 2 months ago[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello!
As you might know, Trashless has exceeded its minimum funding goal. When a company reaches its minimum on StartEngine, it's about to begin withdrawing funds. If you invested in Trashless be on the lookout for an email that describes more about the disbursement process.
This campaign will continue to accept investments until its indicated closing date.
Thanks for funding the future.
-StartEngine
Notice of Funds Disbursement
3 months ago[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello!
As you might know, Trashless has exceeded its minimum funding goal. When a company reaches its minimum on StartEngine, it's about to begin withdrawing funds. If you invested in Trashless be on the lookout for an email that describes more about the disbursement process.
This campaign will continue to accept investments until its indicated closing date.
Thanks for funding the future.
-StartEngine
Ice Pack Circularity + $100k Milestone Crossed!
3 months agoHello investors and followers!
Shipments from most food delivery services - you know, the Blue-this, Hello-that and the Fresh-whatnots - come with an incredible amount of packaging waste. During the pandemic, demand for such services has increased tremendously - creating an environmental pandemic of sorts - flooding municipal waste systems with insulation material, plastic wrapping, cardboard boxes, and, ice packs.
Ah, ice packs! Those pesky little things - save them - they pile up; trash them - and you’re guiltily adding to the climate crisis. Despite all the attempts to make them feel like they are environmentally friendly - they just aren’t: Plastic bag, chemicals inside, long distance travel out the wazoo - from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing to final production facilities to your home. Uggh!
Well, we thought, how about we turn this on its head: A FREE service called the Ice Pack Give Back:
Few days in, and we have already picked up hundreds of them!
This is not only wonderfully circular, it also makes business sense:
Environment: We’re helping the environment, one ice pack at a time by reusing them.
Cost Saving: We need them anyway - now we don’t need to buy them (better still, our wasteful competitors are buying them for us :)).
Awareness: Services like this bring us awareness that otherwise costs money - leading to more customers coming on board at a lot lower Customer Acquisition Cost - something that’s already happening in this case.
Thank you Cristina Guerra for the idea!
The Ice Pack Give Back joins our Dead Battery Pick Up service that’s been helping the communities we serve a convenient way to dispose used batteries.
-----
Meanwhile, we just passed $100k in funds raised (thank you Sundeepa for your investment that tipped us over this milestone)! We appreciate all your support and belief in what we’re doing. Onwards towards our larger mission of making everyday household consumption sustainable, local and zero-waste! Perks due for all the investments thus far going out shortly!
Sincerely,
The Trashless Team
Personal Care Goes Waste Free
3 months agoHello investors and followers - we hope your 2021 has started off on a great note!
In 2018, a jaw-dropping 7.9 billion units of rigid plastic were created just for beauty and personal care products (Source). Most of it, not recyclable.
Trashless recently took a serious step to take this on, bringing on over 30 amazing personal care products, each with dozens of options to our growing customer base through a new brand partner, Luxe Refill. Mostly produced locally using premium natural ingredients, beautifully packaged in reusable containers and delivered trashlessly - this product line is off to a great start.
The ecommerce segment of the personal care products is about $35 billion, growing at about 10% year over year (source). When shipping materials are considered, the packaging waste toll goes up further. With Trashless, these products are delivered in 100% zero-waste packaging.
Considering these products are made from natural ingredients, locally sourced when possible, the positive ecological impact goes up even further.
We look forward to promote and grow this new category, in the process attracting a legion of new environmentally conscious consumers - a fast growing segment.
Notice of Funds Disbursement
4 months ago[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello!
As you might know, Trashless has exceeded its minimum funding goal. When a company reaches its minimum on StartEngine, it's about to begin withdrawing funds. If you invested in Trashless be on the lookout for an email that describes more about the disbursement process.
This campaign will continue to accept investments until its indicated closing date.
Thanks for funding the future.
-StartEngine
Trashless’ CO2 for YOU is Here!
4 months agoHey everyone! Happy Holidays!
Just in time for the festive season, our Soda Maker 60L Cylinder Refill Service, CO2 for YOU went into full service!
There is a lot of rightful consternation about the ecological impact of water sold in plastic bottles. When something is almost FREE coming out the faucet and can be easily filtered, and refilled into reusable bottles, why buy plastic bottles? That’s pretty straightforward.
But, when it comes to sparkling water, it’s not so straightforward. How to get CO2 - a gas that is in the air we breathe, into the water so it becomes sparkling - in a zero-waste way that is also easy, affordable and convenient?
This is clearly not so easy, resulting in consumers in the US purchasing $24.5 billion worth of sparkling water each year, growing at an annual rate of 11.8% (Source)! The carbon footprint of this is staggering: The production, transportation, discarding, recycling of all that packaging material, plus the sourcing, packaging and transportation of what is essentially water and available almost everywhere.
Enter home soda makers, such as Soda Stream, Drinkmate and other brands. They work great! But what happens when the CO2 in them runs out? This is where the rub is - ecologically, financially (for the consumer) and in terms of convenience. The choices are to take it to local stores who are usually out (not convenient, and they are usually out). Or put them in a box and ship them long distance, and receive refilled ones the same way - the air we breathe needn’t be transported on planes in heavy tanks!
Enter Trashless’ CO2 for YOU - a local 60L soda maker cylinder refill delivery service - the most convenient, environmentally friendly and cheapest way to make your drinks fizzy.
Here’s why CO2 for YOU is the best way for consumers to add fizz to their drinks:
Cheapest: At $14.99, including free delivery for a refill, and $29.99 for a new cylinder - this is the cheapest way to fizz up your drinks. That’s about 10c per 12 fl.oz of fizz (will vary based on the amount of fizz you add).
Most Environmentally Friendly: Beats plastic bottles (uggh!), aluminum cans (boo!), long distance shipping of refilled cylinders (ridiculous!), refilling at stores (umm, why do that!?).
Most Convenient: No boxes to crush or repack, never run out, fizz up to the amount you want, and more!
Also behold our specially curated collection of locally made Artisanal Syrups that are perfect for refreshing drinks - alcoholic or non-alcoholic. More syrups, including Real Sugar Cola, Root Beer, and even Coca Cola coming soon!
Learn more about CO2 for YOU at www.trashless.com/co2
In terms of our business model, services like these are driving more customers to us, building greater retention and spawning more complimentary local partnerships (in this case, with local gas suppliers, small syrup producers and more), and the margins are great because so many costs (such as delivery) are spread across all our products and services.
Disrupting The Pizza Industrial Complex
5 months agoHey investors and followers!
Thank you for your continued support for our campaign - we appreciate it.
Did you know that 2 billion pizza boxes are used in the US every year. And it takes millions of trees to produce those pizza boxes - most of which are not recyclable because of the grease on them. Wow!
We are on a mission to stop this destruction, while creating the Holy Grail of Pizza.
Magic Pizza Kits (www.trashless.com/pizza) are our newest product line that’s already getting rave reviews. Here’s how this is a disruptive innovation in a mega space ($30B worth of pizzas sold in the US every year, and it is the food category most ordered for delivery) that hasn't seen much innovation in a while.
Healthy, Sustainable Pizza, Thanks to the Highest Possible Quality, Local Ingredients: Hand-tossed crust milled locally from heirloom grains - supporting regenerative agriculture; gourmet cheese blends; and fresh sauces and toppings using produce and meats from local farms. Healthy and Pizza are 2 words that rarely go together. Now they do. It’s pizza you can eat every day.
Fast & Easy: 3 minutes of prep, 15 in the oven: Making customers feel like Italian pizza chefs, while getting comfortable in the kitchen.
Zero-waste: These kits are delivered trashlessly.
Competitively Priced: The price is the best part - at about the same as a typical pizza from a local pizza store, while maintaining healthy margins for us. This is possible because of our business and operational model highlighted above on the campaign page.
Safer: During these pandemic times, the safest food is the food you make yourself.
We look forward to rapidly growing this product line, bringing the Trashless experience to a whole new audience!
Meanwhile, we also:
Received some coverage in the Austin Business Journal in anticipation of our roll out in Dallas.
Fully rolled out our new site - mostly without a hitch.
And made deliveries Free - no minimums, no commitment.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Yogesh and the rest of the Trashless team
Notice of Funds Disbursement
5 months ago[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello!
As you might know, Trashless has exceeded its minimum funding goal. When a company reaches its minimum on StartEngine, it's about to begin withdrawing funds. If you invested in Trashless be on the lookout for an email that describes more about the disbursement process.
This campaign will continue to accept investments until its indicated closing date.
Thanks for funding the future.
-StartEngine
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