Launching a Kiwi startup in the US

In this video interview, Caffeine founder James Hurman talks to Compostic founder Jon Reed about how he’s launched and grown his New Zealand-founded startup in the US.

Compostic started in 2020, when they created the world’s first home-compostible clingfilm.

Their latest investor update catalogued a remarkable last 12 months of growth in the US. Some highlights include:

• Compostic is now one of the fastest-growing CPG brands in America.
• They’ve found themselves ahead of even their most optimistic expectations at this point in time.

• They finished the year 10% ahead of target, with 175% YoY growth.

• Their last quarter was their first $1M quarter, and the first month of their new financial year has been their first $500k month.

• They tripled their margins and have a clear path to consistent profitability in the coming six months.

• They’ve gone from 21 Wholefoods stores and 3 SKUs, to 521 stores with 5 SKUs.

• Their sell-through off the shelf is outpacing all competitors.

• They’ve doubled monthly sales on Amazon.

• And they’ve just been ranged in Target.

The interview is a goldmine of advice for New Zealand CPG founders expanding into the US.

Jon and James cover where to begin in the US, how to build a high-performance fractional team, how US retailers are much more open to innovative new products than New Zealand retailers, how to think about pricing and margin engineering, and what’s next for Compostic.

At the end of the interview, James asks Jon how our Caffeine community could help. If you can help Jon with advice or contacts in the US, please contact him at jon@compostic.co.nz