This content was created by Max Brun. This content was uploaded by Max Brun. This is a YouTube discussion titled "Marketplace Opportunities In The Circular Economy" (published 2022-11-01). The excerpt is a short interview-style exchange between two speakers (labelled SPEAKER A and SPEAKER B). SPEAKER A prompts discussion of a recent blog post on the circular economy and marketplace trends; SPEAKER B describes research and observations from time spent in Toronto and Palo Alto (including a single-use plastics ban), explains how marketplaces enable circular transactions (resale and rental), contrasts peer-to-peer versus more managed marketplace models, and highlights an emerging category—repurposing—with an example of reusing EV car batteries for energy storage. SPEAKER B also notes personal motivation (new parent) for interest in sustainability. The content is in English and focused on marketplace opportunities, infrastructure needs, and new use-cases within the circular economy.
Chapters
actually a great kind of segue in, you know, mentioning, I would say, kind of like trends and, you know, emerging opportunities within marketplaces, about the recent blog post that you just wrote, which was really great. You know, that was about the circular economy and the role that marketplaces play with it. So could you maybe walk us through that kind of post and, you know, maybe the new opportunities that you mentioned in it, you know, beyond resale?
Yeah, so we— so I've been spending a lot of time in this category. And it was, it actually came through, you know, being in, I think I was in Toronto for a little bit through in the summer. And then here in Palo Alto, there's like this ban on single-use plastics. And, and so, you know, people are saying, okay, we gotta, we now we're only gonna have reusable plastics. And I was just like, oh, what is the infrastructure that is required to be built in order for this to happen? And I started digging into this and then I started seeing learning more about the circular economy and how people are effectively building marketplaces on top of this, right? And then I took a step back and thought, oh, you know, the whole idea of the circular economy, whether it's like reset— like the whole idea behind the circular economy is just reusing stuff, right? So whether it's like reselling something that you've already used or renting something. And I thought, what's behind the entire circular economy when these 2 transactions are at the core? I was like, oh, it's marketplaces, funny enough. And so I just started to dig into understanding a little bit more what are the best ways to facilitate these transactions in the circular economy, whether it's resale and rent. And of course, we've seen— this is all not new, right? You guys all know about this. It's like we've seen the kind of like peer-to-peer stuff where there's— where you're effectively a pure marketplace. you don't take inventory or anything and you're just facilitating a connection like Craigslist, Airbnb, etc. And then of course there are marketplaces that are more managed where you take on more of the risk to ensure quality. And I actually see more of that probably on the rent side, whether it's like Rent the Runway, etc. But as you can imagine, when you're comparing the two, one is way more capital intensive. than the other. And so I started to think a little bit about like, well, what are the characteristics for this, like maybe reusable plastics or other things in the future in the circular economy? Like how does that fit into the marketplace world? And right now my thesis is, um, well, probably needs to be more managed, especially if we're talking about plastics or any kind of new, um, and kind of new thing that we're sharing because as we've seen with other categories, there is critical infrastructure that's required to being built. Then I also thought about, in addition to like reselling and renting, we've also stumbled across kind of a new category called repurposing. And so the idea here is instead of like taking an object that has a specific use, right, and using it for something in a completely different way. So obviously when you resell and you rent something, you are kind of using the same object in the same way that it is intended to be used. But for repurpose, it is kind of like the, oh, well, I use this— it is like— I don't know why I just pictured this, but it is like the crab on the beach that found a can and then decided this is this new shell, right? Like someone found a new use for this this can. We used it to drink something. This crab is now using it as a shell. So that's what repurposing looks like. And so that's actually one category that I'm really, really excited about in the circular economy. It's like also repurposing things. And the example that I gave was one of our portfolio companies, which is also— you can imagine this being a marketplace where they take EV batteries from the cars and piece them together like different EV batteries and build energy storage or generators for a different purpose. Because these batteries, when the cars are actually retired, still have a life— like, have a lifetime of about 80%. And it would just be a shame to recycle the materials when there's just so much capacity left in these batteries that we can take advantage of. So that's one example of repurpose, but that's a lot about the circular economy. I think I'm just like super passionate about this right now, not just because like, oh yeah, climate change, etc., but having had a kid almost a year ago, it just gives me this sense of like, oh my God, like, what are we doing to this earth? How do we make sure we're not wasteful? And a part of it is also like me trying to find ways to, to change the way we all live, we all operate, behave, etc.
