Portfolio Highlight: Re-Nuble
For 15 years, VertueLab has provided funding and holistic support to startups at every stage of their journey in our shared fight against climate change. We’ve had the honor of helping accelerate countless climate technologies from ideation to community deployment through our funds while connecting directly with the entrepreneurs behind the magic. Join us as we take a deeper dive into VertueLab’s portfolio, speaking directly with our supported startups to hear more about their stories and awe-inspiring technologies.
In this installment of our Portfolio Highlight series, we take a closer look at Climate Impact Fund portfolio company, Re-Nuble, an agricultural technology company that uses organic cycling science™ technology to transform unrecoverable vegetative food byproducts into a platform of sustainable technologies for indoor farms. Keep reading below to find out more about our chat with Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Tinia Pina.
About Re-Nuble
Re-Nuble is on a mission to help global agricultural communities safely reuse localized food waste via indoor growing while accelerating environmentally-friendly practices. At the core of their work is Organic Cycling Science™, a proprietary method developed by their team that efficiently takes unrecoverable vegetative waste and crop residue from the food supply chain and transforms it into a platform of sustainable inputs for agriculture. Through their technology and systems, Re-Nuble envisions a closed loop food future of accessible, affordable, and sustainable produce for all.
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VERTUELAB: What first inspired you to start Re-Nuble? What specific problems does Re-Nuble solve for?
PINA: While volunteering as an SAT-prep teacher in 2012 in New York City, I saw firsthand how limited health food options impacted her students' productivity, affecting their future. Gravitating towards the mission of boosting local food production, I founded Re-Nuble. Today, we are committed to helping all growers make healthy, clean food more affordable and readily available - especially to those who normally couldn't afford it.
What were some unique challenges Re-Nuble faced?
Having enough time for our team to ensure that we're introducing a differentiated, high-quality product that would be capable of selling itself without a lot of education was honestly the hardest part. Managing expectations from investors who wanted something to be released yesterday, running trials at our farm lab, and speaking with customers who will and/or paying for what you're building but ensuring that we're meeting their expectations, all in parallel was challenging.
Tinia Pina, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Re-Nuble
What allowed us to swiftly iterate, ship samples quickly, and develop momentum was leading with over-communication, morning priorities check-in's, and transparency as every second and dollar greatly matters because errors would lead to expensive mistakes.
“If I had to use two words for what [Re-Nuble] is anticipating, it’s velocity and intelligence.”
How has partnering with VertueLab changed things for Re-Nuble?
VertueLab helped us calibrate all of our environmental (both internal and external) metrics. This helped us gain more confidence when reporting our metrics with investors and other partnerships. We take this very seriously as it makes up the entire reason why I started Re-Nuble, and it was affirming to realize that our approach to these calculations was not far off from how others would approach the same.
ReNu Terra Mats
What is ahead for Re-Nuble?
There is much! We've only commercialized three of six form factors for our ReNu Terra Grow Media Line and we've only just begun for our nutrient product line. If I had to use two words for what we're anticipating, it’s velocity and intelligence :)
What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are interested in pursuing a similar path?
Solve for globally relevant, hard problems that have an opportunity that continue to grow due to demand and larger macroeconomic trends that support it. Despite how long our journey has been, I've always known that we were focused on the right thing and our patience remained intact because we constantly grew our customer discovery and had several intake forms that helped us prioritize and segment.
Thanks for joining us for this edition of Portfolio Highlights! You can find out more about Re-Nuble and their closed loop system here. Stay tuned for our next installment!
