$200M for Turning Organic Waste into Profitable Compost — Joseph McMillin, CEO of Atlas Organics

My guest today is Joseph McMillin, Cofounder and CEO of Atlas Organics.

Atlas Organics is a national leader in organic waste recycling. Their key partner is Generate Capital, a multi-billion-dollar sustainable infrastructure investor.

Joseph is also a member of the Climate Mastermind peer groups we run at Entrepreneurs for Impact with three dozen growth-stage CEOs and investors tackling climate change.

In this episode, we talked about the following:

• His purchase of an old school bus, which he renovated and drove across the country during Covid, with his wife, young son, and four dogs (woah!)
• The importance of his earliest investors – such as Closed Loop and Gratitude Railroad – having confidence that he and his partner would land on the right business model to scale organic waste recycling
• Their evolution from collecting food waste in a truck to doing public-private partnerships to handle cities’ waste and buying existing organic waste processing facilities across the country
• How his projects earn revenue, and which revenue sources are contracted versus the spot market
• The role of city and state mandates and voluntary targets in driving greater organic waste recycling
• How their talent and operational processes have been influenced by books, such as Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm, as well as the interview practices described in topgrading
• His ideal morning routine of exercise, journaling, meditation, and reflection – if he’s able to get up at 4:45 am
• And lots more

Hope you enjoy.

And give Joseph a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.

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Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate innovators grow faster with new investment capital, share best practices among peers, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.

Our two offerings include:

1. Climate CEO Mastermind Peer Groups — Our invite-only cohorts of 12 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Today’s highly curated Mastermind members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management.
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Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.