Working Towards a More Sustainable Way of Living with Lizzie Horvitz

foreign [Music] welcome to Super entrepreneurs podcast today we have with us Lizzy horvitz how are you Lizzy I'm good thank you so much for having me my pleasure thank you for taking the time to come on our show yeah it's a great experience yeah so thank you um can you kind of introduce yourself in your own words just so the audience knows about you and then we'll get right into it sure I am the founder and CEO of Finch which decodes products environmental impacts we rate products based on their environmental footprint to help consumers make better purchasing decisions and then help companies make better manufacturing decisions uh I've been in the sustainability space for my entire career passionate really about how we can fix climate change in the private sector and after working at Unilever for three years I decided to become an entrepreneur hmm oh wow that's a big jump how do you like it so far I absolutely love it I thought in grad school I went to school for a master's of Environmental Management and an MBA and thought that I for the rest of my life would work in a big company like Unilever and so that was really the goal and then when I got there and realized it really wasn't everything I thought it was going to be I sort of went back to the drawing board and figured out you know what are the other options and an opportunity arose to go work for a startup based in Southeast Asia and I just completely fell in love with entrepreneurship taking a company from inception to scale Etc and it was a great sort of testing ground before I went off and and started my own company and then realized uh that I I just wanted to dedicate my life and my own business to this um and I heard that the sustainability these type of products have gained more popularity since covet is that true I think covid provided an opportunity for people to see how detrimental we were on the planet right you know nobody was flying anymore there wasn't smog um you know the the Waters of Venice weren't polluted so people sort of got this taste of what happens when Commerce stops which obviously wasn't a good thing but was kind of a nice way for people to understand their impact on climate change and so yeah I think that's absolutely correct since coven people have been much more concerned with their own footprint um after seeing you know what this world could look like um so true and so important you know like it's it's surprising that it wasn't a um a primary requirement for any business to look at this because you know we have to take care of our of our home right our Earth um and this definitely and I'm so grateful that that you took this leap from employee to entrepreneurship and you know we're happy to have you and what are you seeing the trends for the next five years in this niche thank you so much so much not a requirement for companies but it's actually worse than that company is are able to say whatever they want about products right they're able to say this is eco-friendly this has sustainable packaging it's chemical free they make these claims and contribute to green washing in a way that's really detrimental because people think that they're buying things that are good for the planet um but actually it ends up not being not being very good in many cases and so part of the trends that I see in the future are demanding more transparency and more sort of uniformity of how we talk about this across the board because five years ago gen Z wasn't really old enough to be shopping for themselves right and now they are a huge you know population who cares more about sustainability than any other issue facing this planet and so when we think about that and their buying power they're really encouraging companies to make changes and to be a lot more transparent and so I think we'll see um a lot more pressure we'll see companies not being able to get away with claims they used to be able to make and generally you know everybody being more educated for it so pressure from who is there like actual government agencies that are looking at this in the United States we're actually a little bit behind in Europe there are many governmental agencies um who are are taking control of this they're always about five or ten years ahead of us um in the United States I don't know if we'll ever get there to be honest where the government will be taking such a strong stance but I think in the non-profit world and just through social media um that's really where companies are feeling the pressure and what I'm excited about with Finch is we will be able to really part of the hard part with companies right now is it makes they have a difficult time making a business case for um for sustainability right they don't know how much money they're leaving on the table how much money they're losing Etc and we're able to take these numbers take these behavioral insights from the way that our extension works and say you know 20 of the market looked at your product but ended up going with a different product because that was more sustainable and so I'm excited for companies to be able to really have that business case for making the right decisions foreign so does sustainability create other than you know actually taking care of our environment other than that does it help the business I kind of got a a glimpse of it that consumers if gen Z for example if they're seeing two similar products one is sustainable you know they will pick that so is there any data behind that right now at the current date um about knowing if there's a difference in their sales or growth by becoming sustainable scale uh numbers on that question but I do know anecdotally at Unilever we had 38 brands in North America and the brands where we invested in sustainability grew almost twice as fast as the brands where we did not invest in sustainability so that's just one data point from one company but I do think that those truth too um you know prioritizing long-term gain over over short you know quarterly earnings I think beyond that when you invest in sustainability as a company you're also hedging against a lot of risk right when you're being irresponsible about the amount of water that your product is using you're not protecting yourself against future um droughts or wildfires or other things that climate change comes with and so I think all around it's a really smart decision from a financial standpoint you know on top of being Obviously good for the planet yeah like there's motivators behind it exactly yep and do you think a small business you know not someone not not like a a bigger Corporation but a smaller business can introduce uh sustainability yeah it's a really good question because often what happens is the larger companies are really the only ones that have The Upfront uh The Upfront money to to pay for a lot of these changes you know one example is like post-consumer recycled materials or something that every company wants to get their hands on and if you are a Procter Gamble or a Unilever you have an easier time doing that than you know a regular startup um I think on top of that startups don't have a chief sustainability officer or a head of sustainability or a scientist right um and so it I think it's more of an uphill battle for smaller companies um but what we're seeing in the in the space is exciting you know pre-competitive collaboration where a lot of small companies will come together who would otherwise be competitors and say you know we're all looking for the same materials let's let's combine our forces and and pay for more right um there's a lot of those types of things happening um that makes it really a lot easier for for smaller companies to play in the game it sounds like there's multiple future niches that people can jump on like couple that came to mind right now just listening to it maybe they're out there I'm not sure I'm just thinking out loud that you know the one is is companies providing funding to go sustainable right or some other kind of brokerage a brokering that kind of a deal to bring a group of small businesses together with the same type of brand and create a sustainable uh product so what do you what do you think about that those kind of niches are are our ability for entrepreneurs to get into right I think absolutely yeah that's a really good point I think also it's worth noting that investing in sustainability doesn't always mean that your product is going to be more expensive I think when you're comparing Apples to Apples one product versus another in a store you can easily come to that conclusion but what actually happens sometimes is um you know two similar products one that's more sustainable might be more expensive but it lasts longer right you won't have to use it as much because of the ingredients or um it's made with better materials so you can reuse it more all these different factors and so unless we think about sort of all of these potential negative externalities and other um other factors you know yes there's there's opportunities a lot for funding of startups Etc but yeah moreover um it ends up being a more economical choice for a lot of reasons um when you're when you're making a sustainable decision and do you feel that in the future those claims that these Brands were making they will start becoming more truthful about those claims and my next part is that how could they get away with making those kind of claims especially North American companies [Music] My Hope Is that through companies like Finch you're absolutely right you know to answer your second question the reason they can get away with these Clans is that they don't mean anything right so you know we love saying we love using chemical free as an example our world is made of chemicals right lemon juice is a chemical baking soda is a chemical and so saying something's chemical free it's not only incorrect it just doesn't mean anything another word would be eco-friendly right there's nothing stopping a company from making an eco-friendly claim because there's nothing they have to prove to say that there's no definition that's sort of universally known and so my hope for Fringe is that we can start normalizing this across companies across Brands so that you're really just looking at one set of data and companies have to sort of meet those standards it's not a different definition depending on what brand you're from so I I hope yeah that's that's sort of my Pie in the Sky overarching Go for Finch awesome and do you see Finch working with government agencies in the future or are you are you currently working with any government agencies we're not and that's a good question I don't see us in the short term working with government agencies quite yet I don't know if they're you know I think to solve climate change you definitely need input from private sector ngos and governments no question um but I'm more excited you know Europe has been successful but in North America I'm more excited about the potential for companies like Finch and other companies to sort of take this on as opposed to governments getting involved so if the U.S government decides to take this on we're excited to chat with them about it but um I don't think they necessarily have to at this moment in time well that's great how'd you come up with this name Finch good question I had a newsletter before I started this company that was along similar lines and it was called the green lizard my name is Lizzy my nickname is lizard and so I thought that was a really clever oh nice um and yeah that's clever when I started thank you and when I started this company I wanted to call it green lizard and when I hired my marketing team they said if you really care about this we will we will make this good but you're making our jobs a lot harder with the name green lizard it's just not sophisticated it's hard to have people take it seriously and so we did sort of like a two two day naming Workshop where we came up with a lot of different ideas and names Finch stood out because it's the most adaptable species on the planet it was studied by Darwin and we like to think of our community as you know living in urban and rural areas and all over the world and being able to sort of like be adaptable wherever um and so we really liked that connection um and that's how we we kept the name no it's cool so it has a meaning behind it I just wanted to know you know sometimes I hear oh is my grandfather's name or something right so this this is falling right in the lines of what you do so it's perfect and also from my side I must say green lizard is catchy you know like as an entrepreneur like when I hear that I was like green lizard what is this crazy environment yeah like environment blizzard like this is you know it's cool like if I heard it I'll remember it right so that's the whole point of a name is you wanna you want it to be catchy and I don't know I don't want to take you backwards I love Finch as well just sharing my my view on it no I I agree the one of the reasons also we loved changing it from lizard is because my newsletter was just me right I was the the center of it it was all about Lizzie as green lizard and Finch is so beyond who I am you know yes I'm the founder yes I'm the CEO but we have an incredible team of people who are working with whose name is Lizzy and nickname isn't blizzard and so yeah I love it yes yes I agree that's good so my next question is Lizzy will you consider franchising this in in what way would you see that happen that happened so curious like yeah just thinking so you know creating a a brand where you start franchising this to independent owners following your procedures in cities all over the world great products we rate products in the public domain you know any product that's on Amazon in the category that we rate okay so okay already rate that and so we don't need to sort of partner with companies to let them get rated um we hope throw you know we'll expand by category and by geography but otherwise um there's no need self-finched yeah exactly yeah so tell me what's the difference between when you were working in a job and now that you're an entrepreneur how does your morning look like when you first wake up what did you used to do and what do you do now [Music] um no it's it's one of my I love talking about this because I think there's such a difference um I felt like in a big job at a large company um or not a big job but a job at a large company um it felt a little bit like Groundhog Day you'd wake up and you'd have the same things to accomplish every single day right you'd have to you know check your system you'd have it was like a hamster wheel where you know on an off day you might get a unique question from a brand that you could really use your brain for but otherwise it was a lot of the same work and and certainly not only every day but certainly every year you know we're on the same time of year there would be the same thing that you could expect um it was a lot of monotony to be honest and as a startup I had not had two days that have been the same um in the past two and a half years so to your question you know it's 8 A.M for me right now I'm I'm interviewing with a podcast tomorrow I'll be um prepping for some investor calls I would say every three months for me my job completely changes and so that sort of keeps me on my toes I'm able to learn about so many different things that's probably my favorite part honestly is that when I was at Unilever I was using my background as a sustainability expert which was fantastic that's what I went to school for but now you know I'm thinking about hiring practices and internal operations and fundraising and all these different aspects that that a founder and leadership team has to constantly be keeping in mind as they're running a company and so I just feel like I'm using a lot of different parts of my brain um makes complete sense you know in in the corporate world uh you're also kind of assigned specific duties and and tasks and you don't really go out of that Realm so it can over time just feel like it's just repetition repetition so I'm so glad that you're experiencing that because it's all about that growth too the internal growth when you're learning things and you're taking those steps in business it's exciting you know what I mean like especially when you love your brand you love your business you want that you want to have that on your plate you know it's different right like you just you want to be around new challenges new experiences so uh definitely I'm I'm happy for you I think that's a really good point and it brings up another uh another aspect which is in large corporations there's almost this sort of race to get promoted there are only so many spots on the level above you and so people are really territorial right and you don't want to get in someone else's face sometimes your boss will give you a hard time about working on something that you're interested in but isn't part of your core duties and I think you know partly it's the way that I really wanted to run Finch I don't know if this is true to all startups but at our company our Mantra is you know if you're getting your own work done that you're responsible for there's nothing within Finch that that's out of your realm right so I have my data scientist coming to me with Tick Tock ideas or my social media person coming to me with reading ideas and and everything in between and so I really like to Foster that environment where my colleagues and employees are able to really use different parts of their brains as well [Music] um Lizzy have you ever considered starting your podcast on this topic because you sound like you you're well versed right like you're obviously a well-versed in this uh industry have you ever thought about spreading that message via podcasting to get this to more and more people I love being a guest on podcasts um it's been really fun for me to be on shows like yours uh thank you I think you know you know better than I do it's hard work to be a host it's a full-time job for a lot of people and so um yeah I think at some point I haven't found a podcast that is specifically focused on what finch does and so I think there's a good Market it's a good opportunity for us but yeah yeah exactly um but I think right now I'm happy to just be on other people's podcasts and take advantage of Their audience and Network yeah it says step by step right I just wanted to drop that there because um you have great communication skills right um you know this information right like the back of your hand when when podcasters do podcasting the good ones they're actually doing it purely out of the the people like they're just they're just so passionate about bringing more and more like information and message and value to people right so they're coming from an elevated Consciousness right so they're going into it from that feeling and it honestly like for me it doesn't like it doesn't feel like hard work at all right just like your business it doesn't feel like that at all like you feel very comfortable you love it every morning you love meeting right doing your stuff same with with me as I love meeting people I love being around uh these these ideas and and the motivation behind it the mindset behind it and then bring that value to the people what happens is uh when you bring that awareness out there um is not just lifts your business right it will do that as default but it also educates the people and the only reason why I said that is because you have though you have that Talent like you you'll be a good host but that's something that you should look into um when you're expanding your business because it will expand like like amazing with a with your own podcast thank you so much I really appreciate that and it's something we'll think about for sure yeah definitely and we'd like to ask our guests what their innermost superpower is that got them to this point oh shoot I wish I had prepared for this better so no no there's no preparation here two friends were just very organic we just Chit Chat take your time think about it I always allow the guests to kind of con take that in there's no rush or pressure this is your space you know just take your time something will flow just look deep and there's something within because the business is not the business that that creates like the business on its own without human beings is just nothing right just breaks and some signage and website right by the people behind it so you going into this Venture making it successful and seeing Finch go places you know you got to this point because there is something within you deep within you that is a superpower that got you to this point right so just just feel that and see what comes out I think oh I love it for me to yeah I think it's really easy for me to Envision a world that doesn't exist um and imagine what what's possible as maybe cheesy or cliche as that sounds and so um sometimes that can be a detriment right not not always being real and seeing the maybe downsides of people or businesses but um I think being able to Envision this world that runs perfectly has been really great for me as I've as I've started Finch that's beautiful I love what you said you know like this is an incredible superpower and and is going to take places um but the optimism is super important and never feel like oh I'm being over optimistic because you know what if I'm outside of reality or something but if you're not thinking big if you're not feeling that what you can accomplish you know is very difficult to take those big steps if there's no belief and there's no optimism right so keep that fire burning keep it up high because that is is what is going to elevate Finch you right so uh it's a great superpower thank you you're welcome well I want to say thank you so much Lizzy uh for coming on our show it was a great chat learn a lot um you know I have my wishes my best wishes are for you and your company and all the employees you know I hope you guys grow uh really big and and change the way people do business and make it more sustainable for the future generations and and you're doing a great job there's great leadership there's great mindset behind it keep going and uh I hope in the future when you get to a place where you need to share something else just send us an email we'll love to have you back thank you so much for having me this was great no problem an audience love you guys thank you so much for engaged engaging onto social media uh visit my website Shahid durani.com uh also uh Lizzy's uh information will be in a show notes get in touch with her if you have any questions [Music] um and you know just want you guys to know really genuinely uh appreciate you guys for being there I hope this these episodes bring value to your life but I always say taking the information in listening to this or watching this is just one part it's just information we need to do something with that information so take action get out there you know make your dreams a reality thank you so much thank you Lizzy bye-bye [Music] thank you