Forbes
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.
$202,710
raised
205
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
0
Days Left
This offering ended on April 22, 2021 and is no longer accepting investments.
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
Last Few Hours!
over 1 year agoThis campaign is sadly coming to close in just a few hours! We have some exciting news to share with you - famous professional basketball player Cory Joseph (Detroit Pistons, and captain of the Canadian basketball team) has invested in Trashless (outside of this campaign). He has also joined our newly formed Zero-Waste Advisory Board, alongside Dr. Michael Dorsey, Dianna Cohen and others.
Read more here:
Thank you again for all your support! We look forward to continuing to engage with our larger community beyond this campaign as we march toward our goal of eliminating plastic packaging waste from everyday household consumption - while making grocery shopping more convenient, modern and affordable.
Happy Earth Day everyone!
The Trashless Team
Last Few Days Left!
over 1 year agoHello investors and followers!
Time flies, and now this campaign is about to end - we regret not having posted any updates here for a while. In the last few months we have come a long way as a company, building on the momentum we had in 2020. Here are some highlights:
Solid Growth
We have been growing fast (double digit % month over month), and continuing to accelerate further. We believe environmental consciousness in the mainstream is finally moving from denial (“What, really?”), to awareness (“I’m worried about this”), to taking action (“I’m ready to change my lifestyle to be more environmentally responsible”). And Trashless is perfectly poised to not only bring access to a zero-waste lifestyle, but also making it more modern, convenient, healthier, local, and affordable as well.
Milk, Finally
The ‘Milkman for Everything’ now finally delivers milk! Our partnership with Volleman’s Dairy - producers of arguably the best dairy milk at least in Texas - has been growing amazingly well. We are already their largest retailer, eclipsing all the retail stores in Austin combined!
Exciting Product Pipeline
A whole bunch of new items are rolling onto the launch pad, including: A complete range of dairy products, fresh new selection of nut milks, amazing specialty granolas, incredible vegan cheeses, CBD products, fresh pet food, chicken feed, a line of name brand candy items . . . and Meal in a Jar is coming back - better than ever before with a new name too. All 100% trashless!
New Facility
We moved into a new facility recently - a significant improvement on our operational template that is more efficient, while delivering zero-waste products faster, better and cheaper. We expect that this, of course with further tweaks, will be the heart of our operational blueprint as we look to expand beyond Austin after achieving profitability over the next few quarters.
Chief Sustainability Officer
Earlier this year we welcomed John Gorman to the Trashless team as its Chief Sustainability Officer (more on him in the team section on this page). He has been tirelessly working to bring a slew of new products, partnerships, team members and prominent new investors to the company. We are adding more seasoned executives to the management team soon.
Technology
New content publishing system, new CRM, operations management systems, zero-waste container tracking SaaS platform, redesigned mobile apps, a consumer carbon footprint tracking system - these are some of the new developments our software engineering team has been working on - all rolling out through the rest of the year.
Financial Model
All of the above is helping us make steady progress towards achieving profitability - an important step for us before we truly step on the gas, raising significantly higher amounts of capital for wider roll outs.
We are not extending this campaign at this time. We will continue to raise capital privately at a higher valuation, and may also do another equity crowdfunding campaign sometime in the future.
So, for now, this is the last chance for a while and at this valuation for you to invest in a life without plastic packaging waste, and a world with a lot less trash. And if all goes well, just like we intend for it to, get a great return on your investment too!
Thank you for all your support, the comments, the sharing and investing in us!
The Trashless team
Notice of Funds Disbursement
over 1 year 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
over 1 year 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
over 1 year 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
over 1 year 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!
over 1 year 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
almost 2 years 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
almost 2 years 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!
almost 2 years 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.
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