Matt Rogers is the Founder and CEO of Mill, a startup that helps customers turn their food scraps into farm feed. As a former engineer at Apple and cofounder of Nest, Matt understands how to create products that drive lasting change. He believes technology, coupled with deep empathy for the user experience, has the opportunity to solve a problem like food waste in a way that is impactful for both people and the planet. On this episode of “Food Lab Talk,” Michiel speaks with Matt to hear what inspired him to found Mill, how Mill is making food waste reduction at home more convenient, and his advice for other entrepreneurs passionate about transforming the future of food. 

Matt Rogers: “Oh, man, if I could dare to dream, I would love to say that we could stop sending things to landfill. Now, obviously we're starting with food and food waste is a huge issue, but what if we could end waste? No one likes waste, but we've kinda accepted that it has to exist. And what if it didn't? That would be the dream one day.” 

01:01 Intro to Matt 

04:23 Inspiration for Mill and advice for starting a company 

07:40 Addressing  a systemic problem through behavior change 

09:13 Mill’s new food waste reduction system 

11:30 Designing hardware to inspire adoption 

12:27 The “toothbrush test” for scalable consumer solutions 

13:30 Articulating personal benefits to win over skeptics 

14:31 Aligning your economic model with your company ethos 

15:54 Business considerations for scaling a consumer goods company 

18:24 Balancing opportunity cost, team structure, and other considerations when starting a business 

20:57 Incentivizing customer engagement 

22:38 Raising awareness and changing habits through storytelling 

24:40 Navigating the ups and downs of entrepreneurship 

26:17 Using individual action to catalyze systems change 

28:18 Learning from other companies, countries, and stakeholders 

Links 

• Learn more about Mill 
• Reserve your Mill bin 
• Tech Crunch: Nest co-founder Matt Rogers’ new startup is trash 
• Fast Company: Nest’s cofounder just designed the world’s fanciest bin for food scraps 

Subscribe, rate, review the show at foodlabtalk.com 

*The views expressed by the guests in this podcast don't necessarily represent the host’s views, nor those of his employer.