Katie: Welcome back to segment two of The BusinessMakers Overtime Show. Esther and I are here in the studio with Brenden Macaluso, the founder and CEO of Recompute. Brenden, welcome to the show.

Brenden: Hello.

Esther: Hi! Hi. It's good to have you here.

Katie: So you're perched here on your seat in the studio and sitting right next to you is this lovely machine that's not like any other that I've seen before. (Laughter)

Brenden: Probably not.

Katie: Tell us a little bit about what you've created because what you've done is truly inspiring. It's completely sustainable, correct?

Brenden: It is more sustainable than anything that's been done in its type.

Esther: Tell our listeners what it is, exactly.

Brenden: In a nutshell, I tell people it's a sustainable computer made of cardboard and then it's a – it's a cardboard computer and they say, "Yeah."

Katie: (Laughter)

Brenden: And –

Esther: And we can vouch for that. It is.

Katie: It is.

Brenden: - and then they think about it for a minute and they go, "That makes no sense."

Esther: Right.

Brenden: And I go, "Trust me, when you see it, it totally makes sense." And they're like, "Okay." And then like you guys see it and then all of a sudden, you see that –

Esther: It makes sense.

Brenden: It makes perfect sense, yeah.

Katie: It totally, it totally makes sense.

Brenden: You got to see it to believe it.

Esther: How in the world did you come up with this idea?

Katie: Yeah, cardboard? I mean were you bored at like the box store or something and like –

Brenden: Box store.

Katie: (Laughter)

Brenden: Uh, no actually Recompute is a product out of my thesis project at University of Houston. I was studying industrial design.

Katie: Oh.

Brenden: And I was studying product design and sustainability. I was tryin' to understand what the – what does this mean and kinda came up with a methodology about how to re-approach the things we use and build and throw away and then I said, "What's an object that has kind of an issue, a problem in our world?" And then I saw all these dead computers stacked up at a recycling center. So there's a good problematic object. Lemme plug it into my methodology and see what comes out and the end result was Recompute.

Katie: Ta da! (Laughter)

Brenden: Yep.

Esther: That's really cool.

Katie: And so maybe what causes some people some confusion is that it's not like the entire, entire PC is made from cardboard. What, I mean what are we lookin' at? Like, of course, all that I can see, besides like the outlets and the plugins, -

Brenden: Uh huh.

Katie: - you know, is cardboard but how do you build this?

Brenden: Well, a couple things that people tend to forget – when we say cardboard –

Katie: Okay.

Brenden: And the first thing we think of is a box.

Katie: Yes.

Brenden: Right? But cardboard and box are two different things. Cardboard's a material and a box is a form. They just happen to be very highly correlated with each other almost every time.

Esther: Okay.

Brenden: But and I said, "Okay I'm gonna divide those two up. I'm gonna use cardboard. I want people to know this thing is made out of cardboard, but it's not a box.

Katie: Okay.

Esther: Right. And it's not shaped like a box. I mean it's shaped like a computer. It def-

Brenden: Pretty much. Yeah. Like a tower.

Esther: I mean for the most part. It's a tower. It looks like something that would fit underneath your desk –

Brenden: Uh huh.

Esther: - or you know, wherever you would put it. So what's its capability? Is it fast like a regular PC? It works exactly the same?

Brenden: Exactly the same. This thing is on par with anything you buy off the shelf from a major computer manufacturer.

Esther: Well how did you take your idea and turn it into a viable business? Because that's what you're doing now?

Brenden: Yes.

Esther: This is becoming your business. You're gonna sell these computers.

Brenden: Uh huh.

Esther: How did you do that?

Brenden: As a industrial designer, we're trained to think about how we, we make things for the world. We're the guys – we think of all the inventions that are in the world. The people who think of all this stuff is industrial designers. Like architects think of buildings and – so someone has to invent iPods. So we're thinkin' about how do you manufacture things and how people use them in our – in their lives. From the business end of this, what I wanted to do was minimize the amount of efforts and energy and materials and machinery and labor it takes to actually manufacture something. I like to use this example. Imagine you had picked up this hungry homeless guy. You're like I wanna give this guy a meal, right? And you ask, "Well what do you wanna eat?" and he says to you, "I want one of two things. The first thing he says, "I want a five-course meal. I want the salad, I want the baked potato. I want the filet mignon. I want the dessert. I want everything, right?" Well what's the other thing you wanna eat? "Well I could definitely go for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

Esther: (Laughter)

Brenden: And you say, "All right, I can make you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

Esther: Uh huh.

Brenden: Right.

Katie: (Laughter)

Brenden: But think about all the – the reason you might say peanut butter jelly sandwich is it's a lot less effort to make this thing for this guy. The energy, the amount of time it takes to make this versus a five course meal. So I saw that same kinda parallel with manufactured goods, especially with the computer. A lotta energy and effort was being put in to make something that just the huge factories and tooling out just crazy – that didn't need to be there. It was unnecessary. So I just simplified it down to a smaller equation and said, "All right, I can make this thing out of corrugated cardboard with minimum tooling and infrastructure and manufacturing and come together real quick.

Esther: And who's buying it.

Brenden: It's had a lotta PR on the product and right now I have a waiting list of people.

Esther: Wow.

Brenden: Waiting to buy.

Katie: Excellent. Congrats.

Brenden: Yeah. I've been contacted by high schools about buying it in a kit form.

Katie: Oh.

Brenden: For high school students to actually buy, like get the bits and pieces. They assemble it so they learn about design. They learn about manufacturing, assembly, get to customize the outside of the case of it and they get to choose their own internal components they want and their own operating systems and software. So it's truly a bits and parts put together project for them. It's already in a couple of museums internationally right now. On display at different –

Katie: Wow.

Brenden: Well I mean it's on so many design exhibits. I have one in France. I have one on the way to Sweden right now. It's been on display at University of Houston for a while now. So just people find out about it and they go on my website –

Esther: Well it definitely has PR value.

Brenden: Yeah.

Katie: It does. It does.

Esther: That's for sure.

Brenden: Outlets. I have some other associates who are also designers that have some online businesses, so the online marketplace is its retail outlet and there is a couple um, I guess physical retail locations that are interested in having it on their shelves that focus on a green products and green objects and things like that.

Katie: Absolutely. So now that you've conquered the PC tower –

Brenden: Uh huh.

Katie: - I mean are you lookin' at goin' crazy and attacking monitors and keyboards and like are we gonna have corrugated cardboard mouses – mice? Mouses?

Brenden: You know, it's –

Katie: (Laughter) Meece?

Brenden: A lot of people have asked that – what's the next thing made out of corrugated cardboard and actually my answer is it prob'ly won't be made out of cardboard and now here's the thing. And I – I'm like take a step back. You see this and people say, "Oh this thing is, is cardboard, that's what makes it green." Hmm, not totally. I look at the material – cardboard is like a topping on a pizza. Regardless of the toppings that are on the pizza, it's still a pizza. To me the material is just a pizza topping because I could have said, "Hey, I wanna make this thing outta HDPE plastic. High density polyethylene which is a white milk jug plastic, right? And the methodologies I put the whole project through would still end up being a sustainable product, so cardboard was just a material that I happened to pick. I could've made it out of a number of materials and still had the same kind of sustainable results in the end. I just happened to pick cardboard.

Katie: So then you're saying, basically, that the sustainability really comes in from, I mean the actual creation. I mean it's, it's eliminating a lot of those steps and in the plant process?

Brenden: There's a lotta talk on green, green this or sustainable that. I like the word sustainable. And I like to interchange that word with the word maintainable. So that kinda puts a different spin on it 'cause no one has really gone out there and defined, "This is what green is," or "This is what sustainable is." There's a lot of good intentions but we're not quite sure what those have –

Esther: It's like, it's like the word "natural."

Brenden: Yeah, it's like what does that really mean?

Katie: (Laughter)

Brenden: If that came first -

Esther: No one's really sure what that means.

Katie: Yeah, just sounds good.

Brenden: But it would – yeah. So I –

Esther: Sounds healthy.

Brenden: - I personally don't like to use the word green. I like to use the word sustainable.

Katie: Okay.

Brenden: Is and I interchange it with the word maintainable and that makes you think about, "Okay, maintenance. Thinking about how do you keep something up, going? So the sustainable aspect comes from three tiers. One is that manufacturing side. So how much effort does it take to build something? The number two aspect is how do you integrate this thing into your life? And I had noticed on the computer side maybe a small part would fail on the computer and they'd toss the whole thing. And I said that's kind of weird. You could use that over again or you buy your computer and it comes with a new monitor and the speakers and everything and you say, "Well, I don't need the old stuff anymore." Out the door.

Esther: Right.

Brenden: Trash and you're like –

Katie: Right.

Brenden: So all get a – we start having this waste problem.

Katie: Right.

Brenden: Happening over and over and over again. And I said, "Okay, well lemme give the, the user kinda some customization on how they wanna use it." I also realized that we're living in this kinda called the USB world. Where we live by plug, USB ports in and whatever it is, we want to use. So I said, "Lemme just minimize the computer down to its bare components that are operational side and then let the user plug in whatever they want." You know, that way if you got USB port or we're at the point now with monitors where we're getting' these flat screen monitors and some people are using televisions and –

Esther: Right.

Brenden: - so it's like hey, you have the computer as it's part and then the rest of the peripherals you add and subtract as you need them. When you need them, how you need them. So, everybody can configure it a little bit differently. Think of it like outlets in a house. No one tells you what you're gonna plug in outlet in the house. You can plug a lamp or a fan or, or microwave. So that was kinda the model I was thinking about how do you give people flexibility in what they wanna use. The third side what do you do with it when it's dead and a lot of designers don't think about that. Once it's kind of in the user's hands, or once the sale is made at the store, the thinking stops from the designer side. We know that we throw things away. Things wear out and they break and now we have this issue with garbage and waste and landfill and all that stuff and so I said, "Okay, I have to think through the entire life of this thing." there will be a point where this is a no longer a usable product. So how do I address that once it's not being a useable product? I said, "Lemme make it really easy to dismantle and then recycle." The reason it's not being done now is because it's really difficult. So things get –

Esther: Take that thing apart. It's like a – take a hammer to it, pretty much.

Katie: Yeah, seriously. Yeah.

Brenden: Yeah, well if you – I don't know if you – how familiar you guys are with e-waste issue. A lotta this stuff is being shipped overseas to China or Africa because they don't wanna dismantle it here in the US 'cause there's no incentive and it's a lotta work. So they ship it over there and then those guys will just rip it apart and they'll burn it and whole other slew of like problems with –

Katie: Oh geeze.

Brenden: - pollution and –

Katie: Exactly.

Brenden: - toxic chemicals and things like that, yeah.

Katie: So how, how much of the PC that we're looking at right now is recyclable?

Brenden: Actually pretty much everything in a computer is recyclable.

Katie: Is it? Okay.

Brenden: Yeah. That's what people don't realize. Is that it really is but again, to order to recycle it properly, you have to separate all the pieces apart and in Recompute's case the casing itself is just corrugated cardboard so that can go into –

Esther: Paper.

Brenden: - any kinda paper recycling, yeah.

Katie: Okay.

Brenden: That's just it. The circuitry can be recycled once it's separated from the casing and there are special companies. There's a handful of them here in the U.S. That will take them and they actually take these electronic circuit boards and stuff and they grind 'em into dust and then they can separate out the metals that are in the board. The gold, the silver, the copper and then they can use those in other places.

Esther: Wow.

Brenden: So they can actually salvage that resource.

Esther: Cool. And what would you say is the best advice you can get after going from – through the whole process of designing this thing to now making this a business. What would you say to someone else, maybe another young designer who has an idea and wants to make this his life?

Brenden: First off you have to kinda know as a designer and that's only through practice and education and kind of working in the field what ends up being good design and what's not such good design. The other advice is to get involved in some competitions. That's how this sort of really got a lot of press. I put this in a handful of different design competitions and so it starts getting awards and starts getting some press. I started getting really positive feedback but also I got a lotta negative feedback, which people at first might say that's not good but I say, "No actually that's great. Because things that people really like are also the same things other people really hate.

Katie: Okay. Sure.

Brenden: And that means it's rocking the boat. And people are kind of paying attention and saying, "Huh! Maybe there's something going on here," and that even – the light bulb clicked in my head that said, "Maybe I got something more here than I thought." If something isn't very good, it doesn't' get much, you're like, "Eh. All right."

Katie: It's there.

Brenden: It's there. Move on kinda thing. So the fact that I'm getting kind of a love-hate type feedback from people tells me that I'm onto something and it's making some people uncomfortable and that's okay though, 'cause you know, that's where you get to do to for change.

Esther: That's great advice for somebody who's trying to start a business and I think that goes for any business. It's not just design. Before you start a business, you've gotta ask yourself does the world need this?

Brenden: Uh huh.

Esther: And if the answer is no, then you should think of something –

Brenden: Exactly.

Katie: Move on. (Laughter)

Esther: - something else to do.

Katie: Now if our listeners wanted to connect with Recompute, where could they find you online?

Brenden: Right now Recompute is on its own little website at sustainable-computer.com and for those – it just has some photos on there, a little bit of information about it and there's also waiting list.

Esther: Well great. This is great. Thank you so much for being here. I can't wait to see what happens with this in the future. It's gonna be really interesting to watch the journey.

Brenden: Hopefully here very, very soon.

Esther: Yeah.

Brenden: I keep talking to the people but it's every day I keep inching closer and closer and closer to production.

Esther: Awesome.

Katie: Excellent. Congratulations.

Brenden: Well thank you.

Esther: Thank you so much. And you've been listening to Brenden Macaluso, President and CEO of Recompute. Now stay tuned for another business survival tip with Carl Kleimann of Odyssey Once Source.

Carl: Hello business owners this is Carl Kleimann with another Business Survival Tip from Odyssey One Source. Tis the season for company Christmas parties. And in this day and age, there is more to worry about than just the food and entertainment. We have all heard the horror story about the company that was sued after an employee drank too much at a company event then caused an accident. And while the practical reaction is to exclude alcohol altogether, that may not lend itself to the festive environment that your employees expect.

So, what steps can you take to protect your employees and your company? There are several. Start by making sure that your commercial general liability policy covers Host Liquor Liability, because even the best laid plans can fail. This coverage is standard in most commercial policies so chances are, you already have it. Then, use generous doses of common sense.

For example, never make drinking, or eating for that matter, the main focus of any event. Always incorporate entertainment, speeches, presentations, or activities as these will remove the emphasis on drinking.

Always serve food, such as appetizers, right from the start of the party so employees are never drinking on an empty stomach. Offer a variety of interesting, non alcoholic beverages, as alternatives to alcohol. Consider serving just beer and wine and avoid serving drinks such as punch that make it difficult for employees to gauge how much alcohol they are consuming. Consider limiting the number of drinks by using drink tickets or limit the number of hours that the bar is open. Consider closing the bar during dinner and well in advance of the party’s end.

Always hire professional bartenders that are trained to detect over-consumption. Never allow an employee to tend bar. Recruit your managers to keep their eyes open for employees who may be over-indulging and empower them to pay for a cab or offer the employee a ride home. And finally, never ever allow them to get behind the wheel.

I am Carl Kleimann and this has been another Business Survival Tip by Odyssey One Source, ranked as the number one Professional Employer Organization three years running by the Black Book of Outsourcing. For more information on this and other issues affecting employers, please visit www.odysseyonesource.com.

Esther: You've been listening to The BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. We will be back with segment three, special features.