Dumbo startup looks to battle household waste through logistics

Tech powers The Rounds’ automated subscription for household essentials delivered in reusable containers

BY CARA EISENPRESS

Dumbo, Brooklyn startup e Rounds has a technology solution for a very quotidian problem: running out of toilet paper.

“ is is a textbook example where technology is better than a human,” said e Rounds co-founder Alex Torrey. “You have no idea how much toilet paper you really use. A computer is really good at it—it tracks patterns and household size and other factors.” e rm, founded in 2019, o ers a plan that restocks cabinets and shelves with coffee, paper towels, olive oil, soap and other essentials as you need them. e hardest part of the push is reusable plastic, the market share of which actually fell from 1.5% in 2019 to 1.2% in 2021, according to Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment 2022 progress report. Most laundry detergent bottles, for example, are thrown in the trash.

But the technology to manage customers’ household inventories e ciently is just one piece of e Rounds’ play. Torrey and co-founder Byungwoo Ko have a bigger picture: managing household waste.

For years leading consumer goods companies like Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever and Mondelez have tried to work toward sustainable packaging. A consortium of such companies announced late last year that a 2025 goal to have all plastic packaging be reusable, recyclable or compostable was actually going in the wrong direction, with an increase in new plastic.

By contrast, when subscribers buy their detergent from e Rounds, they send the container right back. Subscribing costs $10 per month. en, e Rounds hits each subscriber’s residence weekly, dropping o needed re lls from their essentials list and picking up any empties. Back at its hubs in the four cities it serves–Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Miami; and Atlanta– e Rounds sanitizes containers and either re lls them or hands them back to suppliers—for example, a local co ee roaster—when they drop o lled goods. e list of items includes dog food, almonds, soda, diapers, chocolate-covered pretzels, granola bars, dish and hand soap, name-brand M&Ms, coconut milk, lentils, toothpaste, pasta and salt. Customers manage their accounts via text message. Last year, when the assortment of products was smaller, an analysis showed that the average member saved 50 pounds of packaging waste a year.

Dealing in actual goods makes the entire system a complicated endeavor for a tech rm.

“We’re operating a logistics business on the ground,” Torrey said. “It’s route optimization and inventory management.” A handful of super-speedy grocery delivery companies have struggled in recent months, because speed is expensive, as Torrey put it. E ciency can cancel out the need for speed. You don’t need an avocado in 15 minutes if you’ve put your avocado order on repeat, he explained.

So far e Rounds serves more than 10,000 customers and has raised over $41 million from venture capital rms including Redpoint Ventures, First Round Capital and Andreesesen Horowitz. Between revenue from sales and capital raised last fall, Torrey said, the company has plenty of runway.

More to learn

Torrey moved the company to Brooklyn in 2021 because he felt that New York was the best city for building an ambitious, scalable business and for nding the right employees.

“We need the best talent to do the best work of our careers,” Torrey said. He made the bet that he would nd it in New York.

e Rounds will launch in New York eventually, though local employees do have secret access to the service.

“We know we will do extremely well in New York,” he said. “ e e ciency part of our model only compounds here.”

For the moment, there is more to learn elsewhere. “Our view is that operating in New York doesn’t teach you how to operate anywhere else,” he said. “Whereas operating in Atlanta is like being in Houston or L.A.”

New sign ups swell each time e Rounds expands its route to a new high-rise building, Torrey said. e rm partners with building owners and managers for marketing; they nd value in the service because it saves them time and space both on receiving copious e-commerce packages and disposing of the boxes and bags they came in.

“ e building managers are inundated,” he said. “UPS comes three times a day, and the

Focal Points

COMPANY The Rounds FOUNDED 2019 MANAGEMENT Co-founders Alex Torrey and Byungwoo Ko FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES Over 100, including both corporate and delivery staff

CUSTOMERS Over 10,000 PRODUCT MIX 250 household and pantry goods, including toilet paper GROWTH STRATEGY The Rounds wants to increase subscribers and delivery routes in its current four cities before expanding to more places. All employees work in the of ce.

“We are an on-the-ground business,” he said. “Those rounders”—as the company calls delivery people—“are my teammates, and they can’t work from home.”

WEBSITE therounds.co building has to break down and palletize boxes, plus they get charged for waste management.” Fewer things arriving means fewer things to dispose of later.

On the supplier side, e Rounds seeks out smaller local vendors who can sell co ee, pastries and granola. Such purveyors can simply put a Rounds logistics hub on their delivery route, same as they would a new coffee shop.

As the company grows, Torrey nds scaling doubly satisfying. e more people who sign up as subscribers, the less packaging waste there is. “ e social impact is attached to the growth engine of the business,” he said. “As we launch more buildings, revenue increases, our member base grows, and we have even more packaging waste reduction.” ■