Founder Spotlight: Tinia Pina (Re-Nuble)
Meet Tinia Pina
Company:
Re-Nuble
Re-Nuble is an agricultural technology company that uses organic cycling science™ technology to transform unrecoverable vegetative food byproducts into a platform of sustainable technologies for soilless farming.
Startup Stage:
Seed
Location:
New York, New York, USA
When did you launch the business?
2015
What led you to where you are today?
While volunteering as an SAT-prep teacher in 2012 in New York City, Re-Nuble founder Tinia Pina saw firsthand how limited healthy food options impacted her own students' productivity, affecting their future. Pulled towards the mission of improving local food production, she created the company, Re-Nuble. Tinia felt there was a unique opportunity to use the waste stream to catalyze more sustainable growing near urban areas, especially as people continue to become more interested in evaluating food sources for sustainability. Tinia began to spend a lot of time thinking, why is this? Why is it that there’s more affordable chemically-laden and processed food available than chemical-free and healthier options? After doing extensive research, Tinia realized that it’s because our food system is incredibly inefficient. A pound of organic-certified tomatoes is often sold at a price that’s 43% higher than chemically produced (conventionally grown) tomatoes because it’s easier and cheaper for growers to produce. With the alarming adversities our society is facing with food and water scarcity and with 70% of the global population estimated to live in and near cities by 2050, she knew that we had to be more smart and efficient with our natural resources and overall production of healthy, good food.
What do you wish you knew before embarking on your entrepreneurial journey?
When you are creating a new category, despite the demand for the market solution that you are building, more education than ever anticipated is needed for investors before they realize the potential. Show as much proof (in all forms) as possible when educating (e.g. emails indicating customer validation, product reviews of existing incumbent solutions, market trends, macroeconomic drivers to support).
What is the most difficult decision you've had to make regarding your business so far?
Allowing more time for R&D despite a tremendous amount of pressure to sell something. In agriculture, unlike software, you don't have room to ship MVP's - farming is people's livelihoods and we wouldn't ever want to jeopardize that.
What can you help the VEGPRENEUR community with?
Happy to set up and spend a 1-hour Ask Me Anything online video session where I can assist others with tough questions they've had with their business models.
How can the VEGPRENEUR community help you?
By increasing the awareness of what we're doing and our impact on the world. Word of mouth and shares go a long way! Please consider following us on social media :)
Fun fact about you:
I can read your mind :)
Anything else you would like to share?
A quick tidbit of our positive impact on climate: Every gallon of our product represents 18 lb of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. Our clients offset many metric tons of carbon each year just by using this product.
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