#138 Reverse Vending Machines, Regulation & Demand, Demonstrating Traction, & More w/ Paweł Ciesielski (Maas Loop)

🌎 Welcome back to the CleanTechies PodLetter, founder edition. Today, we are talking to Pawel Ciesielski of Maas Loop.In this episode, you will find:* How Pawel makes reverse vending machines to help reduce the cost of collecting recycling bottles* Understanding regulation’s correlation with future demand and why their technology is seeing solid adoption* The importance of traction and paying customers to run a successful fundraising process📺 Watch on YouTube🍎 Apple Podcasts 🎧 Spotify🗣️ Join the Slack ChannelThe Guest: Paweł Ciesielski* Paweł started his career in a branding agency in Poland.* In this role, he spent most of his time predicting trends and demonstrating what the world could look like in 20 years, with a special focus on climate. Eventually, he started his own branding agency doing the same thing.* Having this interest in climate led him and his two long-time friends to start a business that would help with recycling glass bottles as their initial offering but with a broader goal to help create a blueprint for people to set up their own recycling plants. The Company: Maas LoopCircular Economy, Waste Management, Hardware One-liner: Helping divert waste from landfills & helping small businesses reduce the costs of and manage their bottle deposit return schemes while retaining customers.MaaS Loop builds reverse vending machines that identify the input through computer vision, accept, crush, and pay the depositor. These reverse vending machines help small businesses collect recyclables and retain customers. In Europe, there is a deposit charge on each bottle to encourage consumers to return them. The problem for business that want to use them is they either need a large and expensive piece of equipment or you need to hire extra staff to handle collection. MaaS Loop’s machines help solve all of this by offering a small footprint machine and offering a hardware-as-a-service model to reduce upfront CapEx.Enjoying the CleanTechies PodLetter? Please show your support by subscribing! 📝 Show Notes:💭 Topics* 3:20 Intro to Paweł & MaaS Loop* 4:20 What part of the waste supply chain they are working in * 5:30 What reverse vending machines do* 7:15 Founding MaaS Loop* 10:00 How they differentiate from the rest of the circular economy * 13:40 Explaining the cost savings* 18:40 How the technology works* 19:35 Creating their MVP* 23:50 Defining traction* 26:45 How they determined PMF* 30:00 Advice on raising $$$* 32:35 Overcoming the production scaling up challenge 🔗 Links* GUEST: Paweł Ciesielski* COMPANY: maasloop.com* Connect with Somil | Connect with Silas* For all your Climate, Renewables, and Sustainability recruitment needs, check out our sponsor NextWave Partners.* This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.🗓️ Upcoming EventsReminder 🔔 that we have another CleanTechies in-person networking event on December 14th!! Reach out to Somil or Silas on LinkedIn to be included and receive details on the location.🚨🚨🚨 Attention Hiring Managers!!! Are you struggling to find qualified candidates? Maybe getting candidates but can’t bring them across the line consistently? Or not getting sufficient applicants? — Reach out to our sponsors NextWave Partners today to help solve that for you.NextWave Partners is a leading Global Renewables, Climate, & Sustainability recruitment consultancy solely focused on these impact areas. They are also B-Corp Certified.Reach out to them today to help you solve your hiring challenges and get you one step closer to making an impact.🙏🏽 Thanks for tuning in and see you all next episode! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cleantechies.substack.com/subscribe