Today we’d like to introduce you to Dillon Baxter.
Hi Dillon, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in New Braunfels, TX, a small town in between Austin and San Antonio that is known for its rivers, the Comal and Guadalupe. Growing up I witnessed firsthand the effects of pollution on the environment as tourists would come in the summer and leave the rivers filled with trash. It got bad enough that there were multiple bans on bottles, bags, etc., and it was always a point of conversation in the community. I’m a natural problem-solver, and I knew that one day I wanted to help fix the pollution crisis. I was fortunate to receive a golf scholarship to SMU where I met my co-founder and teammate Maxime, and my senior year we started PlantSwitch to provide real solutions to plastic. Everyone has had a paper straw fall apart in their drink and ruin the experience. We wanted to provide an eco-friendly solution to plastic that felt and functioned like a traditional plastic product, but without the waste and pollution that results from plastic. We also knew that the only way to make a real difference was to achieve scale, which is why we made sure our products were price-competitive with traditional plastic. We began with biodegradable straws and cutlery that are made from the upcycled agave waste from tequila production, and are excited to be introducing many new products to the market in the coming months.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We launched our product a week before the pandemic started and shut down our entire industry, so it was a very difficult introduction to entrepreneurship. During the lockdowns, I was 100% that I would be giving up on PlantSwitch and starting the investment banking job that I had lined up after graduation. When things started opening up again, we agreed to give it another chance and see what happened, and the response was overwhelming, gaining around 100 clients in a two-month span. I had started my investment banking job and was doing both that and PlantSwitch at the same time, which I very quickly realized was not sustainable. I quit my job a month in and have been hyper-focused on scaling PlantSwitch ever since.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
PlantSwitch’s mission is to become the world’s leading provider of sustainable alternatives to plastic products. I am very proud of the work we have done in such a short time, having saved over 150,000 pounds of plastic waste since we started last year. We believe that our products are the best plastic alternative for all stakeholders, as they are high-quality, affordable, and eco-friendly. We offer lots of value-added services to our customers, including an online purchasing portal, dedicated account managers, and ESG reporting, and in the coming months, we will also offer carbon calculation and offsetting services.
Contact Info:
- Email: sales@plantswitch.com
- Website: www.plantswitch.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plant_switch/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plantswitch/
