At TerraCycle, while we’re trying to keep stuff out of landfills and change the way people think about waste, the ultimate goal is to make money. Over the years, I have been challenged again and again to find ways to build our revenue and refine our business model to make us profitable and to maintain aggressive growth. Along the way, we have changed our model numerous times. The original plan for TerraCycle was to develop an eco-friendly waste management company. People would pay us to take organic waste and instead of dumping it in landfills we would feed it to worms. But at the roughly $50 per ton we were paid to cart the waste, we couldn’t come close to making money (or getting a date!). By the end of one summer, our plan had evolved. We would still take organic waste and feed it to worms, but we would create most of our value and revenue by selling worm waste as premium fertilizer.