Tilthy Rich was a small bike-powered business that collected food scraps once a week. Subscribers paid $20 a month, got a 5-gallon bucket, and a rider came by to empty it every week.
The setup
I was the Sales and Marketing Specialist in Durham, North Carolina, from Nov 2014 to Sep 2015. A business like this only works in the right places, and Durham has dense, receptive pockets of people. When I started, we had just over 30 subscribers spread over a 2-mile radius.
The goal
More subscribers, but not at any cost. Growing our routes beyond our home range would have made things worse. We needed a dense network, not a bigger footprint. The ideal customer is the house next to an existing customer, because it adds no travel time.
What I did
- Yard signs. Tilthy Rich had a fun, hip story, so customers were happy to show it off with a sign featuring the bike and the environmental message.
- Neighbor referrals. I offered 1 to 6 months free to customers who got their neighbors to sign up.
- Waitlist before expanding. The return on a new neighbor comes down to customer density, distance from our routes and dump spots, and availability.
“The best growth added no miles. The next customer lived next door to the last one.”
Around the edges
- Managed a team of 5 compost collectors and their bicycle routes.
- Hired collectors and ran the work in Asana.
- Wrote social media and marketing plans, and gave classroom presentations.
The result
33 to 175 households in under a year. The company was acquired by CompostNow in 2016.
The best growth added no miles. The next customer lived next door to the last one.