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Some months back, a video popped up on LinkedIn showing two seemingly identical wood boards side by side. Next came two identical sledgehammers crashing down in unison. One board was immediately smashed into shards while the other absorbed the blow, bounced ever so slightly, and then returned to its original state.
I just thought, what’s Josh up to now? Is he really planning to reinvent something as fundamental as a wood board or 2x4?
Less than a year later, having just secured $10 million in Series A funding for his latest venture, Plantd, I sat down with CEO and co-founder Josh Dorfman to discuss this exciting new company, his latest effort to design a better product on behalf of industry, consumer, and climate.
Aron Kressner: Congratulations on closing your Series A. Can you tell me what investors find most appealing about Plantd?
Josh Dorfman: Investors see Plantd as aligned with where the world is headed. We can quickly and profitably remove carbon from the atmosphere and lock it away without relying on carbon credits to underwrite our business model. This works because we turn carbon, in the form of rapidly growing perennial grass, into drop-in replacement materials for homebuilders that are cost-competitive, stronger, more moisture-resistant, and require no alternative installation techniques. Our technical and operations teams are led by former SpaceX engineers, which instills confidence in our ability to execute.
Aron: How did the Plantd team come together?
Josh: Nathan Silvernail, COO, and Huade Tan, CTO, worked together for years at SpaceX, designing and building systems and components to keep astronauts alive on the Dragon spacecraft. When you spend so much time solving the chemical equation to keep astronauts alive in space, it’s a logical leap to think about solving the chemical equation to keep 8 billion humans alive on earth. That requires rebalancing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
When we met, I was onto my second sustainable furniture company and contending with declining quality, rising costs, and an unreliable supply chain for the FSC-certified wood materials used in our production. That frustration led to my interest in launching a materials company using alternative biomass to trees. We combined these concepts and hit upon Plantd.
Aron: Where does an idea like this come from? There are not a lot of people walking down the lumber aisle at Home Depot thinking… 2x4s, I can do it better, I can disrupt that.
Josh: We start by asking what industry needs to fundamentally change to decarbonize our civilization. The answer is construction materials. The global economy produces and transports 4.1 gigatons of concrete, 1.9 gigatons of steel, and 0.8 gigatons of timber products every year.
Many startups and companies are focused on making these industries less bad. We’re focused on eliminating them. Structural panels and engineered 2x4s are a fantastic starting point because these markets are massive, well-established, and ripe for innovative products that solve real problems for builders around durability, affordability, and sustainability.
Aron: Your prototypes made a noticeable splash on LinkedIn. I can still see a sledgehammer bouncing off a piece of Plantd board and smashing through the industry standard product. How long did it take you to go from prototype to, now, a properly funded company?
Josh: Investors have seen us rapidly build our own machines to go from small, 6x6 inch samples to full-size 4x8 feet panel prototypes, which is where we are today. Since founding Plantd in Spring 2021, our ethos has been anchored in being scrappy and building only what’s necessary to drive innovation - and nothing more - at the lowest cost. Our latest funding round allows us to continue operating this playbook as we rapidly scale up operations.
Aron: Do you have data that explains why this product is better than the conventional 2x4 or panel board?
Josh: Both internal data and third-party lab testing verify that our products are stronger and more moisture-resistant than typical structural panels used today. How we achieve this is our secret sauce.
Aron: What would a savvy contractor ask you about Plantd products?
Josh: A key benefit Plantd will offer contractors is the ability to construct homes using fewer 2x4s. That’s because our panels are strong enough to maintain more of the structural integrity of a home compared to the conventional wood-based panels used today. Instead of using two 2x4s per panel when constructing a wall, a builder will only have to use one 2x4. This leads to clear cost savings, and the savvy contractor will also recognize that fewer 2x4s means fewer thermal gaps in a building’s envelope where air can escape. Builders seeking to comply with more stringent energy efficiency standards or obtain tax credits for building Energy Star-rated homes will gravitate toward our products.
Aron: You’ve stated that, “Plantd will use this round of funding to establish their agriculture supply chain and build the first-of-its-kind, modular automated continuous press for engineered building materials.” What does your supply chain look like?
Josh: We’re partnering with local farmers, who are eager to transition away from tobacco, to grow our perennial grass. This allows us to locate farming and manufacturing operations directly within a region where residential construction is booming. And by localizing the supply chain, we effectively remove cost and carbon emissions from transportation.
Aron: Where are you establishing your home base for Plantd and how did you decide on this location?
Josh: Our operations are centered in the Raleigh-Durham area, known as the Research Triangle. The region meets all our key criteria: access to a massive housing and construction market surrounded by millions of acres of farmland combined with world-class universities offering an extensive pipeline of engineering and agriculture talent, and all located within a vicinity offering an affordable and high-quality of life, especially compared to other tech hubs around the U.S.
Aron: After 12 straight months of decline, homebuilder sentiment finally ticked back up again in January 2023. What was the climate like during your raise?
Josh: Certainly challenging, but it was and remains incumbent on us to show investors we have the right strategies and can be nimble in the short term while scaling the business to fundamentally change the economics of the industry over the long term.
Aron: What would the ideal macroeconomic climate look like for Plantd when you’re scaled up and ready to go to market?
Josh: Our value proposition is about affordability, durability, and sustainability. From talking with industry leaders, we know these are the attributes prospective new homebuyers are seeking. 2023-24 is going to be an exciting time for us to come to market. As long as we are executing effectively, we are confident there will be strong reception for our products.
Aron: What should people know about Plantd that nobody ever asks you?
Josh: Most people think that to solve climate change we need a scarcity mentality. We believe the opposite is true. We believe the future is going to be abundant. With Plantd, the way to solve climate change is to build more, not less, because every new home and building is an opportunity to lock away atmospheric carbon. This kind of change at the civilizational scale will require commitment over generations.
There are no quick fixes or shortcuts to solving climate change. We are dedicating ourselves to this mission and are optimistic that we will have the patience and perseverance to see it through.
Aron: If you, working as the Lazy Environmentalist, brought you, the CEO of Plantd, onto your old radio or television show, what would you want to ask yourself?
Josh: I would want to know whether it was going to be more expensive or even in the slightest way inconvenient for builders to adopt Plantd building products. And I would be delighted to discover that Plantd has designed its products from the ground up to be easy, affordable, and delightful for builders because that is what drives mass adoption.
