The problem
Single-use as defaultEvery festival, stadium and venue in the world hands out a plastic cup and throws it away an hour later. Nobody thought that was good. Everybody thought the alternative was impossible at scale — because it is not a cup problem. It is logistics, hardware, software and behaviour, all at once.
What we built
The systemConnected reusable cups, collection stations on the venue floor, industrial wash and redistribution logistics, and the software layer tracking every unit through the cycle. IoT, SaaS and machine learning across six countries — US, Europe, China, Mexico and Australasia.
The integrationA production integration into Ticketmaster, wiring TURN directly into customers’ ticketing, payments and operations stacks. That is what turned a sustainability initiative into infrastructure a venue could actually run on.
Who backed it
Live NationMade TURN only the second venture investment in the company’s history, then rolled the system across its festival and venue portfolio.
Sound VenturesAshton Kutcher and Guy Oseary.
T. Rowe Price$25M+ raised in total.
Who bought it
Fortune 100I personally closed more than $100M in multi-year platform and API agreements with Starbucks, PepsiCo, Delta, Disney, Chick-fil-A and Nestlé.
StarbucksTheir largest reuse launch ever — every cafe in Napa, California transitioned to reuse, running on TURN.
The outcome
Acquired, 2024I built the commercial function from zero and led a team of 100 across five regions. The business was acquired in 2024.
