Young Guns Reloaded: Revisiting Worm Gold

When you hear “worm poop made him millions” you are left thinking two things. The first is, “Wow!” The second is, “Yeah, it’s simple, but I probably never would of thought of using worm castings as a natural fertilizer….” But Tom Szaky, in a tale of true entrepreneurialism, did. And in 2001, he dropped out of Princeton to build this eco-friendly business he named Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.com/> . When we spoke to Szaky three years ago in our first Young Guns segment he was already making more than $6 million in revenue annually. True to the company’s recyclable premise, the product was sold in used soda bottles, and it made its way onto shelves at big-name stores like Lowe’s (LOW <http://quote.foxbusiness.com/symbol/LOW/snapshot> : 19.18, -0.74, -3.71%) and Home Depot <http://www.foxbusiness.com/topics/business/companies/home-depot.htm>  (HD <http://quote.foxbusiness.com/symbol/HD/snapshot> : 33.84, -0.97, -2.79%). Terracycle was also just starting to branch out into creating other products from waste, from backpacks made from chip bags to totes made from Capri Sun juice pouches.