February 20, 2012:
Laid-Off Man Finds Economic Success With Waste
Jackpot! That’s how one Colorado man felt about being laid off from a private equity firm in 2008.
“Losing my job at that point was a blessing in a lot of ways because it gave me the freedom to do what came naturally,” John-Paul Maxfield said.
Instead of seeing obstacles, Maxfield saw an opportunity to pursue his passion: a love of nature.
He had $9,000, a pickup truck, and had cashed out his IRA to start a company called Waste Farmers.
His goal was to make nutrient-rich organic soil to help farmers meet food needs in the future and decrease the effect on the environment.
He started with compost. Maxfield got dozens of local businesses, like Snooze Restaurant, to buy into his idea, paying Maxfield to pick up their food waste.
“Each restaurant wastes or throws away about 10,000 pounds every single month,” said Adam Schlegel, co-owner of Snooze. “We actually end up diverting 92 percent of all of our waste out of a landfill right now.”
Maxfield then mixes that waste with manure that had been turned into soil with worms. Maxfield adds in other organic material, like coconut fiber, and creates his own personal soil to sell to urban farmers.
“We had tomatoes that were growing like, here, and they just took off! It was amazing,” said Candice Orlando, executive director of UrbiCulture Community Farms.
Orlando plans to use Maxfield’s soil to start a community garden at Columbian Elementary School this spring.
Maxfield’s soil is so in demand now, he’s just about outgrown his current office space, an old farm converted into what Maxfield calls his “microbe brewery.”
“We call it a microbe brewery because we’re promoting soil biology,” he said. “We’re promoting all the microbes and all the good things that make nutrients available to plants in your garden or on your farm.”
“John-Paul’s vision is so forward-thinking and so much into the future,” said Aaron Rosenthal, Maxfield’s business partner. “He’s ahead of his time.”
However, for Maxfield, timing was everything.
“Boulder and Denver can really grow to be the Silicon Valley of Ag 2.0 and we want Waste Farmers to grow to be its Apple,” said Maxfield.
Waste Farmers was named the 2010 Green Business of the Year by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and made about $500,000 last year.
Maxfield said Waste Farmers is on track to become a $2 million to $3 million business by 2014.
“It’s fun to finally be here. It’s been a long process,” Maxfield said. “It’s an illusion to think that you can’t do it because people who have no greater skill than you, like me, are doing it.”
Maxfield has since sold his compost collection side of the business to focus more on his soil recipe.
He’s launching his organic potting soils and organic compost on the retail market this year on a pilot scale. Maxfield hopes to be operating full scale in local lawn and garden centers in 2013.
