When Danish entrepreneur Michael Stausholm learned about a Kickstarter-funded campaign by MIT students, he sharpened his pencil to gain the distributions rights. That’s how sprout grew from a seed.
Stausholm was involved in sustainability products for most of his career. He started his career at Maersk the shipping giant but always had an interest in what he describes as green tech. When he left the shipping world, he went to work for an Italian clothing company. He could see the growing interest in sustainability from the way textiles are manufactured, how they ship as well as the wasted packaging.
What got Michael engaged?
A pencil that when you finish using it, you can plant it because it has seeds in the end. Today he has sold ten million Spout pencils.
Three Pillars
Stausholm believes that there are three pillars to ever sustainable venture – social, economic and financial. The challenge for any sustainability venture is to be successful at all three touchpoints. From the happiness of employees, the environmental soundness of packaging the financial strength of the enterprise.
There are two locations for production, one in Minnesota for the U.S. market and one in Poland for Europe. He uses certified wood in these pencils and meets the highest standards for environmentally friendly material. He made a profit last year demonstrating his financial sustainability too.
Since more than 50 billion pens get thrown into landfills each year, that is another idea he has written down for his innovation team to work on in the future. I’m sure he won’t have a hard time finding seed money to help grow that business too.
Putting a Point on The Marketing Lesson
- Sprout has a distinct “only we” statement that is simple to understand.
- He lives the tri-sustainability message he preaches. Social, economic and financial sustainability matters.
- Promotion opportunities. Sprout is building relationships with large companies like Coke and Toyota with joint promotion packaging. Working with larger corporations is a smart approach to sampling and gaining awareness through their reach.
Sprout reminds me of Oat Baby Shoe company. Seed-impregnated into a baby’s first shoes that you plant after they grow out of them.
Sprout, the company Michael Stausholm started sounds like a sharp business focused on making an important point. Write this down.
Looking for advice to differentiate your product or service?
Maybe you should pencil in some time to talk to me. You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free and we can explore if working together makes sense. Try my new chat feature on my site if you have a quick question.
Photos courtesy of Sprout
