Today’s guest is Paul Tasner, a former senior executive with enormous experience in all the links of the supply chain. At age 66 he founded his first company, Pulpworks, dedicated to alternative packaging. Pulpwork has the aims of reducing the abusive and evitable usage of plastic in the packaging industry.

Facts

⦁ Born in 1945, he's 72 years old as of 2018 and started his entrepreneur career at age 66

⦁ He previously held numerous positions in Fortune 100 companies, including The Clorox Company, California Closet Company, Method Products, Hepagen and others.

⦁ Some of the clients he worked with include Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Clif Bar, and George Lucas' Industrial Light+Magic

⦁ In 2008 Paul founded the San Francisco Bay Area Green Supply Chain Forum. It's a "coalition of 125 participants from more than 70 San Francisco-area companies, NGO's, government agencies, and academic institutions who are committed to reducing their organization's carbon footprint through collaboration and sharing of best green practices in supply chain management."

⦁ In 2011, he and his partner Italian architect Elena Olivari founded Pulpworks Inc. The company creates and promotes compostable and biodegradable, 100% waste-based, molded fiber products that are meant to replace PVC, Styrofoam and other toxic materials.

⦁ Due to his own experience of becoming a highly successful entrepreneur at an unusual age, he also advocates for the appreciation of the segment of entrepreneurs and executives of over 50 years old that struggle to find a place in today's working market

⦁ His TED residency during 2017 and subsequent talk in October made him much more visible to millions and the impact of his message expanded dramatically

⦁ He's an Industrial Engineering graduate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and holds a PhD in Mathematics from Boston University.

Quotes

"I've had ideas about entrepreneurial ventures throughout my life and usually they don't last more than a few days. And you find some reason why (you think) 'nah, that's just not gonna fly'. This one, just wouldn't go away, and I'm talking about where I ended up - using paper and agricultural waste to create compostable packaging for consumer goods."

"We set about trying to raise money for this manufacturing facility, and we tried, and we tried, and we tried, but simply couldn't do it. There were a number of factors, I don't know which ones weighted more heavily than others. But one was - we're here basically in the heart of Silicon Valley. Investors have a lot sexier things to invest in than packaging made out of waste. They've got mobile apps, they've got whatever the next Facebook or Uber or Google is going to be."

"I can remember one (potential investor) right now, very vividly, a very crass individual who said, 'what the heck are you doing? You should be at the golf course, you're too old for this'. Those are those times when you wish you had a really clever response. You only think of this in the car on the way home."

"It was pretty much the journey (of) how I lost my job, created the business, built the business, and then what a struggle it is for someone my age to do that. Particularly as a first-time entrepreneur. We have very few role models, aside from (KFC's) Colonel Sanders"

"I would love to change the dialogue around age and entrepreneurism and new ventures. We are a successful group - 70% is nothing to sneeze at. That's some phenomenal rate of success. I'm really trying to get that message out there as much as I can."

"I've been repeating that message, I will continue to repeat that message. I think it really needs to be heard. Particularly here in Silicon Valey. My gosh! People over 30 are considered relics by some of these tech companies and it's just crazy."

"People that just feel worthless,