Critical.
One day, I was mulling over the companies that existed in New Zealand that would actually solve a climate problem, and I landed on Rui Peng’s plastic recycling business. They made architectural panelling products from milk bottles and other recycled plastics like used fishing nets. I had known Rui for years. I though, that is a great business, great impact, good founder.
Then…”I hope its OK after that tornado, and now this second Covid lockdown...” Enter a feeling of dread. I’d better check in with Rui. If a company like this doesn’t make it, no one will.
And they weren’t in a great position after the tornado. I volunteered for a couple of months, all the while encouraging the team, and helping them with strategy and funding applications. Thankfully, things started to take off after they got into the Startmate accelerator.
Two years of acting as a Tech lead / CTO encompassed everything from capital raising to fork lift driving, patent writing to grinding steel.
But probably the most impactful was supporting the business and founder through a challenging time, and backing them with technical strategy support during a capital raise of 1.5 million dollars.
Not only did we hire and train a great team of technicians and engineers, setup production equipment and implementation for shredding, moulding, cooling, and finishing, and invent new equipment, we also implemented numerous business functionalities in operations, sourcing, quality, H&S, risk management, and R&D that continue to improve with time.
All to enable the manufacture of beautiful panels from hard-to-recycle plastics.
And thankfully today, Critical. is continuing on with more resources and opportunities than ever.
