Ep. 159: Garry Cooper, Co-Founder & CEO of Rheaply

Today's guest is Garry Cooper, Co-Founder & CEO of Rheaply. Rheaply is empowering companies of all stripes to reduce their CO2e footprints by curbing internal waste. It does this by creating a circular economy of reuse, both within a company and through a marketplace of asset exchange with other companies. While pursuing his Ph.D. in Neural Science at Northwestern, Garry was trying to find a cure for Parkinson's Disease. Working in a lab, he noticed valuable and expensive materials that not every lab had access to. Garry started a materials sharing program at Northwestern. He realized the linear economy didn't just affect labs but affected government agencies, tech companies, and universities as well. In 2015, Garry co-founded Rheaply. Garry has served as a Google Scholar for Google for Entrepreneurs and sits on the board of 1871 and P33 Chicago. He has also been an R&D consultant at EY and Promidian. Garry is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Northwestern. I was excited to bring Garry onto the show and learn more about the work Rheaply is doing. Garry walks me through how he founded the company, what Rheaply does, and who they serve. We dive into the value proposition for customers and what incentivizes them to choose Rheaply. We also discuss why reuse and the circular economy are critical to addressing climate change, what's holding back wider adoption of reuse, and how Rheaply affects change. Garry is a fantastic guest, and this is a great episode for those interested in the circular economy. The MCJ Collective has recently invested in Rheaply. To learn more, check out Our Investment in Rheaply. Enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests. Episode recorded May 17th, 2021