Goal No. 1: REspect yourself

How many old DVD players, stereos, telephones and/or computers does your workplace have? Imagine if you could get some cash for them? REfficient is an online marketplace that allows businesses to go shopping in other companies’ surplus inventory. Like an eBay dedicated to business equipment, REfficient’s reuse marketplace hides the buyer and seller information to reduce risk, and ships product directly to customers’ doors. Companies can also recycle equipment through REfficient and get statistics for their sustainability report (www.refficient.com).

This business was not something CEO Stephanie McLarty thought she would do. After taking a couple years off after her undergrad degree at McMaster to travel and work abroad, McLarty was broke and she had just started her Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Transformation. To put herself through school, she took a contract job with a major telecom company, which required her to go to network sites, pull out the old equipment and figure out what to do with it.

Once her contract job ended, McLarty returned to school. Seeing that many telecom companies struggling with their old equipment, she and a friend started advising them as consultants. After a few years, McLarty saw how a technology-based solution was needed for companies to manage the process, so she launched REfficient in 2010.

McLarty moved the company to Hamilton from Mississauga in 2011 to take advantage of the lower costs and proximity to major customers. She also cites the proximity to the GTA and the U.S. border as additional factors, since it now exports almost half of its product sales to the U.S.

After two years, REfficient has acquired customers in seven countries and diverted more than a million pounds from landfill. McLarty is especially proud of its solution because it has a higher purpose, helping businesses save money and keep product in use and out of landfill.

McLarty has realized that there is a correlation between her own personal growth, and overcoming her fears, and the growth of the company. Early on, she was insecure about being called president and CEO. “Here I was a 30 year-old female CEO wondering why would anyone listen to me? Then I realized that I knew my domain and business better than anyone and other people did not have issues with respecting me as CEO. It was only me holding myself back.” McLarty got over her insecurity which was an important step to think bigger and articulate the vision to others.

REfficient has big initiatives planned in the coming months. The company has a series of launches starting soon that will see new tools and services available for customers, stemming from new technology behind the scenes. Customers will have more equipment to buy from, more resale opportunities and ultimately more waste diversion.

McLarty says staff realized the company’s platform and process can handle any type of equipment and while it’s currently focused on telecom and AV equipment, the company will move into handling other types of equipment over time and expand its geographical reach.

REfficient has a “big hairy audacious goal”, as the business classic Built to Last calls it, for the future as a result. “We have realized that the potential of what we are doing is huge and if we can realize even a fraction of that potential, the positive impact could be massive in so many ways. So we are playing big. We have announced our goal to achieve REbillion, or one billion pounds diverted from landfill.”