Sarah Paiji Yoo: Co-Founder & CEO of Blueland

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be I want to be, you just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked down knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control. Hi, everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi, everyone. And welcome back to the Kara Goldin show where we spotlight the trailblazers who are making a significant impact in their industries. And today, I’m super excited to welcome Sarah Paiji Yoo, the visionary co founder and CEO of Blue Land. And if you have not heard of Blue Land, you’re going to be so excited to learn about this, this incredible brand. And this incredible founder, Sarah and her team at Blue Land are on a mission to reimagine the way we think about home cleaning and personal care products by innovating products that eliminate the need for single use plastic packaging. So Blue Land is changing the charge and the environmental revolution ensuring that a clean home doesn’t come at the expense of a clean planet. And she’s really defining what can be done. You may have also seen her on Shark Tank. But I’m super excited to dive in and learn more about Sarah’s journey, the inspiration and the build of Blue Land and how she is changing the world one refillable product at a time. So let’s get started. Welcome, Sarah.

Sarah Paiji Yoo 1:55
Thank you, Kara. Hi, everyone’s so excited to be here. Super

Kara Goldin 1:59
excited to have you on the show. So very, very excited. So tell me a bit about you and what you were doing before deciding to co found Blue Land.

Sarah Paiji Yoo 2:10
Yeah, so I had just become a new mom. And so when people asked me how long I’ve been working on Blue Land, it’s easy to remember, because it’s exactly the age of my oldest son, Noah, I had just become a new mom. Additional context actually had decided to step away from work during this period of time, I think previous to this period, I’d been a serial entrepreneur for about 10 years. And they were all venture backed companies, I exited a company in that process as well. And I was just very much so 24/7 365 Go go go. And, you know, honestly, I had actually been open my whole life to my relationship with work potentially changing on the other side of motherhood and becoming a parent. And I was very open to that. And I think I’d also reached a point in my career where the excitement of the energy that I got from, like, purely the challenge of bringing something to market that had never existed before, just wasn’t that part of it wasn’t enough for me. And I just, there’s a part of me that wanted a bit more meaning to the work that I was doing, recognizing, you know, having lived the entrepreneurial life for a bit of time that it just like, so many of my waking hours would be spent working and you know, now that I had a child, you know, I wanted to really be able to like, step back and see how I felt and you know, and reestablish a relationship with work from there. So I was new mom at an infinite home was very actively trying to not work. But I certainly had these type A tendencies editor instead. You know, threw myself into, you know, motherhood and being a new mom. So I was doing all of the research on everything, including, you know, I became very curious as breastfeeding, and at the same time transitioning him to formula and I was curious about not just formula brands, but the quality of water that I’d be using to mix with my son’s formula. I actually was wondering is is tap water cleaner or than bottled water or vice versa. And in that research, I was horrified to learn about microplastics that are drinking water here in the US regardless of if you’re drinking tap water, or bottled water contains hundreds of pieces of microplastics per liter. And it was unfortunate because up until that point in time, I hadn’t connected the dots between like all the single use plastic we’re consuming as a society, how it’s ending up in our oceans and waterways and breaking down to these tiny pieces of plastic that are now showing up and are so pervasive in the food we eat their water we drink and you know the formula that I was making my, my infant son. And so that actually catapulted me into a whole other journey of once I learned that, you know, I just decided, like, wow, I need to at least do my part and my family’s part. And so decided to cut out initially all single use plastic from our family’s home life, and then actually ended up taking it to another level of cutting out all waste. And this was a period of time where the zero waste movement online and on social media was starting to bubble up. And I was very inspired by ID and the concept of like being the change that you want to see in the world. And so, you know, I was a new mom. And you know, here I was switching to like cloth diapers, like I went the whole, truly Wow, nine yards. But, you know, it was an eye opening experience. Because as well intentioned as I was, as a consumer, I realized I had just had no choice, right? Like you walk into a grocery store, or any of these retailers and like, everything, you know, not just cleaning products, but medication, vitamins, ketchup, body lotion, it all seemed to come packaged in single use plastic. And so I started to develop this nagging, you know, feeling that I could have a greater impact beyond my family’s tiny personal consumption, if I could find a way given my entrepreneurial background to give other people more and better choices.

Kara Goldin 6:30
So you hadn’t worked in the cleaning industry. And obviously, you talked just now about how you, you know, really started in your own house and kind of thinking about how you create change in your own house, and you wanted to take this to other people. But that’s a big jump from an idea of you wanting to create change to actually just going and doing it and creating a product like Blue Lands. So what was the moment when you said, I’ve just got to go to this? I’ve got an idea, I’ve got to figure it out? What was the moment when you said, I can go do this?

Sarah Paiji Yoo 7:07
You know, again, it was it was a buildup, I, you know, my head was then around single use plastic packaging. And I did pause and ask like, is this important, like how big of a problem is this to be tackling. And when I looked into it, I realized that single use plastic packaging is both the largest category of new plastic production, as well as plastic waste. And so it did feel like a really impactful place to be focusing on. And then at that point, there was still quite a bit of time before I landed on cleaning products. You know, I actually, you know, for me, the mission was, how do we eliminate single use plastic and single use plastic packaging, and there’s a lot of ways to do it, you know, whether it’s developing a plastic alternative, whether it’s, you know, another idea of explored was whether retailers, whatever, you know, install, like vats of shampoo and body wash and encourage people to bring their own glass bottles and refill them to, you know, if we were going to start a consumer products brand, like, you know, you can start in, you know, no shortage of categories. And so there was a period of about eight months of exploring just a range of ideas. You know, for example, the first consumer product that I became really passionate about was toothpaste tablets. And that was just from my own personal experience where I was making my own toothpaste at home because I couldn’t find toothpaste that wasn’t packaged in plastic. You know, if I was the, you know, if all consumers and customers were like me, I was like, this is an amazing idea. Like, why wouldn’t everyone if we could make it as efficacious as conventional toothpaste? Like why wouldn’t everyone do this for the planet. And so, I made these two piece tablets at home, I had 40 friends and family, try them. I was so optimistic going into it, but I knew I needed sort of like outside feedback. And, you know, two weeks later, you know, my threshold was I would need at least 50% of people to say they would be open to making the switch. Two weeks later, over 80% of people said they would absolutely not make the switch. And I think that was a really important moment for me because I started to realize that there were certain categories that are easier to change people’s behaviors, and convince people to try a new brand or a new format. And then there were other categories, namely things that go like in your mouth, touch your face, you know, touch your hair that are harder to change behavior around. And so that was some of the buildup and you know, then one day I was just cleaning up around the house. Cleaning down my son’s highchair with our multi surface cleaner. And you know, I just looked at it and I was like, Wait, this is mostly water. In fact, you know, these have this group spray cleaners are often over 90% water, and they come in a plastic bottle every time, which makes no sense because you know, plastic was such an incredible innovation because of its durability for its ability to last for, you know, close to forever. And, yeah, that’s when I started, you know, asking the question of like, what if we just sold people the part that they needed? Because everyone has water at home? So like a tablet? And if it was dry, could we not package it and paper a better material like paper instead of plastic? And yeah, that’s kind of what the initial aha moment was around the idea idea for Blue Land. And I think what really got me going was, you know, I started talking to, you know, given my entrepreneurial background, typically, when you have an idea, there’s usually contract manufacturers that you can go to that can help you bring that idea to life. So the natural thing for me was like when to go visit, you know, close to a dozen cleaning products manufacturers to share the idea and asking if this was something that they could help me create. And they looked at me, like I had three heads. And you know, honestly, many were quite condescending in explaining to me that they don’t know the first thing about making dried tablets, everything they make is liquid, they don’t own tableting machinery. And in fact, most ingredients are actually coming to them as liquid. So if I wanted to do this, I would need to create the formula, and that this was something that they could not help me with. And I think the more people told me no, and there were so many reasons why I was told this was going to be impossible to make, and even harder to get people to change behavior. I think the more I became convinced that no, that this this, this is absolutely possible. This, this has to be possible.

Kara Goldin 12:13
You seem like you’re a puzzle builder, I always say that entrepreneurs are you know, it’s it’s just, you know, you might have to walk away for a moment from those hard are condescending conversations. But if you really believe enough, you’re just going to find a way. And you hear that consistently throughout this podcast from so many different entrepreneurs in different industries. So ultimately, did you find co Packer that was in a different industry to be able to help you produce what you want it? Yes,

Sarah Paiji Yoo 12:47
so who’s ultimately what ended up happening is we ended up going to co packers, we completely shifted directions and started talking to like candy manufacturers, probiotic manufacturers, and really like manufacturers outside of the cleaning space really just had to think outside that box and not be constrained by, you know, how it had been done, historically, in the cleaning industry. And that was a really big unlock for us, as well as going out and finding a chemist, and an incredible. He’s our Chief Innovation Officer today. And again, people you know, at that point, not only was I not a chemist, I didn’t even have friends that were chemists, I had, like I had zero chemists in my network. But again, you know, there’s no playbook for these things, you know, the next natural place to go and look for a chemist is LinkedIn, and just started creating a spreadsheet with like, hundreds of names based on different backgrounds and just started, you know, prioritizing that list and reaching out. And, you know, we found our incredible scientists, because we were looking specifically for a background in both cleaning products with deep experience formulating cleaning products, but also experience with nutritional supplements or dry tablets, because we knew that those were two different things that we needed. And that’s exactly what SIADH our chief innovation officer has. And so it’s funny because I look back and we still have that spreadsheet of like, hundreds of names like he was our top he was the unicorn, he was our top choice. And I think it took like, it took nearly four months to get through to him. Like yeah, I still have the multiple cold LinkedIn messages that I sent him as well as like the emails where we were just trying to get his email address because I was like, maybe he doesn’t check like LinkedIn. Oh,

Kara Goldin 14:43
that’s so funny. Yeah, I love thinking back on this great early stories for sure. So how did you decide to name the company Blue Land?

Sarah Paiji Yoo 14:52
Yeah. So you know, with with Blue Land, we we wanted something that you know, really came back up to our mission, and you know what to land. And we wanted, you know, for tactical purposes, things that were like easy to pronounce things that you could say on a podcast and people would know how to spell, you know, name that we could own the URL. And so certainly there was a practical aspect to it as well. But you know, more broadly, what Blue Land represents is like blue is kind of the oceans are the ideal state of the oceans, which have been, you know, impacted by plastic and plastic pollution. And we love the juxtaposition of blue oceans and land, which is kind of our perceived home and thinking about it in conjunction of like, our like, sort of holistic home that, you know, home doesn’t start stop at our doorstep or even lands edge. But it really is this entire planet. Because, you know, we’re really trying to light this perception that trash and waste and these problems are, you know, out of sight out of mind. It’s not in my home. I don’t see it in the landfill. I don’t see it in the ocean. And you know, really help people adopt this notion that you know, home home is this is our planet home, or home Earth.

Kara Goldin 16:11
Is there one of the products that is kind of the runaway best seller so far that you feel like it’s really kind of the leader. Yeah,

Sarah Paiji Yoo 16:22
it’s, it’s interesting, because it certainly has shifted a bit, I would say, you know, hence so was Ito in our first launch assortment and was our leading SKU for for many years. And hence we had always recognized was an easy category, an easier category for people to make a switch into people also usually have multiple sinks, like usually kitchens, sometimes multiple bathrooms. And so an easy area where people can rationalize making the switch and it does doesn’t feel too personal. Hansel also had a huge run up with we launched in 2019. And then as we all know, COVID, hit in 2020. And it went from being a low interest category to all of a sudden, the government was encouraging us to sing like 22nd songs about hand flushing. And so people became very focused on hand washing, and were washing their hands more than ever. And so I think that was all very helpful. And there was an innovation to you know, our hand soap and spray cleaners, where you drop in the tablet, it’s just, you know, just add water never buy or, you know, never buy or throw away another bottle again, it all was very intuitive to consumers, like, you know, this the story around the original refill tablets. We often heard from people like why hasn’t this always existed, which I love and agree with. Our second wave of products have been tablets that you use directly, so you don’t mix with tap water. So for example, our laundry detergent, tablet, or dishwasher, detergent tablet, and our toilet tablets, like our laundry and dishwasher detergent tablet, if you can imagine, you use just like you would a pod, which is a very common format in both those categories, you just put it directly into the machine, laundry machine, or dishwasher machine. And the big innovation there. You know, I think initially, people assume that we’re just getting rid of the plastic jug, or the plastic tub that is associated with these categories. What most people still don’t realize is that thin film that wraps individually wrapped a pod that is actually plastic. It’s something that we didn’t realize, either when we were starting this journey, and there’s a whole, you know, additional, you know, story and journey that’s related to that. But we were really, truly the first to come to market with these naked tablets that provided the single dose convenience. But without that single use plastic wrapping. And you know, those products have had just runaway success. We’ve launched them. Yeah, yeah. That’s

Kara Goldin 19:00
incredible. So you started out as a direct to consumer company, and you ventured broader than that. But obviously, in your innovation, but also, can you talk a little bit about that and how you thought about where else you would be showing up? Yeah,

Sarah Paiji Yoo 19:18
so that’s right, we were pretty much exclusively direct to consumer, for most of our history, and certainly for our first three and a half years. And we were very committed to that, you know, we actually had, you know, Dream retailers approached us in our first few years, asking if we’d be willing to come in store. But from the very beginning, we were very committed to staying direct to consumer, because, you know, we went into this realizing that we were changing behavior, this is a new format, there was a can be a lot of education involved. And most all, the only thing we knew for sure or was that we were wrong? Like whatever we were putting out there was not 100%. Right? Like, how could it be? And that it was incredibly valuable to have that direct relationship with the end customer. So we can directly be receiving feedback on things like what are they liking? What are they not liking? And we’re, you know, how we can improve and to test, different messaging assortment, you know, even pricing to really learn, like, how do we get close to having this product? Be, you know, 100% the right one, and, you know, there was there’s so much work to be done, just there. And as much as DTC is a much smaller opportunity than traditional brick and mortar retail, for a category. You know, we’re just getting started, no one knows us, like, DTC is a big enough opportunity. Yeah, it’s such a great learning environment, you know, we really want to get all of those things right. Before we started, you know, producing our products to be in 1000s of doors, where we’ll then have no idea if someone walked by our product, or picked it up and put it back down. Like why that was the case where even if someone returns a product was sore, like why they returned it typically that those those types of information aren’t shared back with with us.

Kara Goldin 21:20
And so you’re not doing the larger retailers quite yet.

Sarah Paiji Yoo 21:24
So now we are actually so you know, the, or what we were very clear with our team from day one is that we think that we need to be direct to consumer, and focus on that next two to three years. You know, in year four, we really felt like we were ready, we really felt like we intimately understood the customer, and the hierarchy, the value proposition that resonated with them, what the right assortment was was, was for the customer. So we had a lot of confidence that we could enter retail, and be successful. And so last year, we started leaning into retail in a much larger way. And today, we’re in retailers like Costco, Whole Foods target, Meijer Container Store. Erawan. That’s

Kara Goldin 22:14
amazing. So that’s, that’s terrific. So obviously, you guys are really focused on the sustainability aspect of the product. But I think where you get measured is on the inside, right? The products have to work, right, they have to clean and the consumer will definitely be repurchasing when they know that it does. So how do you ensure that your message about sustainability and innovation really continues to resonate with with the consumer? And how do you continue to kind of balance that, I guess, is, is always such a big challenge. Because, you know, while you, obviously I really care about the packaging, and I have an incredible message that you’re getting out there, it’s you’re not a packaging company, right there, you’re creating a brand and a product that is doing super great things. So how do you balance that? Because it’s, it’s, it’s hard?

Sarah Paiji Yoo 23:22
Yeah, no, it is, it is hard. There’s there’s certainly a lot to balance. Like, to your point, though, I think it’s been really important, though, from the beginning to be really anchored on what matters most to the consumer, and sort of in what order. And so from that perspective, as much as we are, you know, you know, a sustainable, eco friendly company, we’ve also been very clear internally, that in the cleaning category, efficacy is the most important aspect to consumer for cleaning products like and we’ve really have never lost sight of that. And we are reminded of that, you know, twice a year when we do run consumer insights. And, you know, we see the bars of like how important efficacy is and how important sustainability is, even to a consumer who has dark green or highly sustainable, which makes sense, like, they’re not going to just buy a sustainable cleaning product, if it absolutely doesn’t work, because there is a job that they’re still trying to do. And I think it’s been built into our mission, though, from day one that, you know, ultimately, if we want to make it easy for everyone to make sustainable choices, we have to flip all those traditional notions of ego on its head that you know, ego doesn’t work, right, that ego is more work. And that ego is more expensive. And so, you know, it took us close to two years from beginning of formulation to get to market because those balls we set very high bars internally before we were willing To launch around, especially efficacy, price point, but also experience. So like on the experience side, we were like that cleaning spray tablet needs to dissolve under two minutes, right, like original prototypes of those dissolving tablets like would take, I mean some of our first ones for like two days to solve. And obviously that is not an easy experience. For a price point perspective as well, like, we could have launched much sooner if we were able to go to market with a $5 Refill tablet. But again, $5 for a tiny refill tablet like that just was going to play into again, the traditional notions that Ico was for a very specific type of audience. And that’s not how we were going to maximize our environmental impact. Or we were going to do that by making it accessible to every household in America. And so internally, and they still have that chart, it’s like the bar was $2 a tablet, like we need to get to $2 a tablet that so that for many consumers, they feel like, okay, I see why refilling also saves me money versus buying a new plastic bottle filled with water. And the same goes for efficacy. I mean, we’ve the number of times we run third party tests against conventional and natural brands. And that really is a gating process, and US launching a product. Because I think we do a disservice to, you know, the categories, sustainable products, generally, we launch products that that don’t actually work. And I think it will make it even harder for us and others in the future. So, you know, it’s a lot of those things of that we feel like, we have to communicate, and that’s kind of internally what we think about what’s like points of parity, like we have to give a nod, like we have to give a strong, you know, nod to our efficacy and clean ingredients. But at the same time, you know, lean into our point of differentiation, which really is around plastic and you know, 100% like no single use plastic in any of our products

Kara Goldin 26:57
of what you’re doing. So interesting. So you were on Shark Tank. And you and I talked a little bit about you were raising money, obviously through shark take, but you also got a shark. So can you talk a little bit about that experience? And what happened? Yeah.

Sarah Paiji Yoo 27:20
I mean, that was, you know, 10 out of 10, you know, one of the most terrifying experience I’ve ever endured, you know, I prepped so much for Shark Tank. Knowing that, you know, we were in a unique situation where we didn’t have the ability, or we didn’t want to give away too much equity. And so we went in knowing that we were only willing to give up to 3% away for $270,000, which equated to an extremely high valuation for a company, we were only a month old at the time. So we had only $200,000 of revenue to our name. And you know, my opening offer was 2%. So I could only move from 2% to 3%. And I knew that that didn’t set us up very well. And so I remember like, the seven days leading up to Shark Tank, like all I did was live breathe and eat shark tank, like my mind was just like I was just so zoomed in on this pitch and this opportunity. And it actually worked out for us, you know, we went in, we got to deal with Mr. Wonderful. You know, we had mapped out in our minds, exactly the steps we would take and like a ray, like literally in a range of probably like 20 different situations. And we were able to offer him a royalty and bring him up from just bring us up just from two to 3%. And we got a deal done, but it’s still was, yeah, one of the craziest experiences I’ve ever been through.

Kara Goldin 29:03
So for those who aren’t familiar with royalties, can you explain a little bit about that? Yeah,

Sarah Paiji Yoo 29:09
so with royalties, it’s giving the investor and it’s Kevin O’Leary in our case, we offered to give him 50 cents per kit sale until he makes his money back. And there were a lot of nuances to that too, like a kid was a very specific permutation of our products. That was a high value. And so we felt come if it was 50% 50 cents on every order or 50 cents on every customer purchase. I think that would have been a lot harder. But again, we had prepared to know like what we’d be willing to offer what would sound potentially attractive. You know, I think it worked out for Kevin where we did see, you know, actually more successful than we could have ever imagined that first year so we did he didn’t make his money back within that first Fear. But we had made a lot of calculations and and prepped pretty extensively before heading into those negotiations.

Kara Goldin 30:10
I mean, did you know that you were going to offer a royalty we always see, obviously, it’s been edited and condensed down a little bit. But I’ve interviewed so many people who have been on Shark Tank, and I think the ability to kind of think, you know, what could happen? Is it and what kind of questions is obviously so key, but sometimes that negotiation, the creativity, you just have to, you know, come up with something at at that point that was, was gonna stick Did you fit? So did you know, when you were showing up that day that you would be offering that royalty?

Sarah Paiji Yoo 30:50
No, so that we didn’t know, honestly, like, we thought the chances of this devolving into a royalty were very slim. But we knew that the only person that that could be a particular, like a particular interest, too, was Kevin. But most all of the scenarios that we had played out did not involve a royalty, which is why it’s so interesting that it played out in that way. That’s

Kara Goldin 31:18
so so interesting. So looking to the future, what what do you hope for, for Blue Land beyond your mission, and maybe some new products that you can talk about that you’re super excited about?

Sarah Paiji Yoo 31:34
Yeah, I mean, I think you know, the sky is really the limit on on this one. And, you know, I think previous to blue, and like I mentioned, I was a serial entrepreneur. And now I can’t imagine myself working on another business because I truly believe that there’s so much work that we can do, and good work that we can do with with Blue Land, and this platform, I think if I were to talk about Blue and more narrowly, you know, I think there’s the opportunity to one day and this is like farther out in the future, you know, be a leading CPG company of our generation, a global company with products, you know, across not just cleaning, but you know, you’ve seen we’ve entered personal care in a small way. You know, beauty is another area where there’s so much plastic packaging, you know, and possibly even zero world packaged food beverages. And I can see, you know, a Blue Land home that’s filled with these like beautiful reusable containers that can be easily and affordably refilled, like all plastic free packaging, of course. But I think more broadly than that, like outside of products specifically, and what gets me so excited, is, you know, the opportunity really set a new standard for businesses to rethink how they produce and package their products. And at the same time, empower people around the globe to be more thoughtful about how and what they consume have been so proud and excited to see you know, every major CPG company out there that has a cleaning brand has launched their response to Blue Land, which has been fascinating and again, exciting to see. And so, you know, windex Lysol, dial, soft soap, scrubbing bubbles, like the list goes on of, uh, you know, just add water refill this bottle. And, you know, I think that people ask if that’s if that’s annoying. I think it’s incredibly, it might be mildly annoying, but it’s more, you know, more exciting that in the impact that we can have reaches far beyond, you know, the small number of products that we directly make and sell. And, you know, I think if I were to think even bigger than that, you know, I really hope that blue lens legacy will be a world where single use plastic and single use culture will be a thing of the past. I really, I think this is the optimist in me, but I really do believe that in as little as 20 years, we’ll look back at how wasteful we once were and recognize. And we’ll be in a world where consumers will actively be avoiding a wide range of single use plastics, that the stigma around plastic bags, and straws are really just the beginning. And I you know, I believe that with more consumers and businesses on board, there’s gonna be more government policy and legislation also banning single use plastic, you know, we’re already seeing really extensive bands across a wide range of single use plastic and like Canada across the EU, UK, Australia, Taiwan, Thailand, the list goes on. And so I really do believe that all of this is just the tip of the iceberg and Blue Link can play a really meaningful role getting us in the world to the other side.

Unknown Speaker 34:58
Yeah, and I think it’s just is creating alternatives that are truly not equally as bad. Because I think that there’s always trade offs. And I’ve learned quite a bit about packaging throughout my journey. And, and I think, unfortunately, the consumer loses because they often will go into trade trading off for some other type of packaging, thinking, Okay, this is better. But it’s not always better. And I found that the regulations around, you know, if somebody is, for example, cans are created in environments, often outside of the US, and there are a lot of people and that are impacted by that in China, for example, where the air quality is some of the worst in the world. And then, you know, we’re shipping it over to the US for people to consume. And I think most people think that cans are a better alternative, and they’re not. And it’s an and so I think that unfortunately, it seems a little bit like whack a ball where people are, you know, saying, Okay, now I’m gonna go over here and the consumer is marketed to around these different options, even the pods for laundry pods. I mean, I knew that there’s plastic around a lot of these pods. And, you know, is that better than actually having the liquid inside of a large plastic bottle? As long as we’re actually recycling those things? I think that that’s a whole other topic that I worked on that if you could get the states to actually recycle and be responsible. I

Sarah Paiji Yoo 36:49
agree completely. It’s so hard, you’re totally right, where it’s not obvious, and it could certainly be very misleading. And even things like, I think I recently read something about the bag bans in California have been a failure, because now people are just, you know, these retailers are just giving out thicker, you know, quote unquote, reusable bags, that’s actually generating more plastic. So you’re right, it has to be, you know, this trend transition needs to be, you know, very nuanced and thoughtful, and probably, to some extent, regulated in some way. I think public policy, you know, plays a key role in all of this, as well, as, like you mentioned, innovation is also so important. I don’t believe that we have the tools today to drive the change as fast as we all want to drive the change. And yeah, I think, you know, I think clean between our transition to clean energy, as well as electrification of vehicles are two good examples of you know, there was a lot of innovation technology there. But also laws and policies that have helped, you know, really transform both both spaces.

Unknown Speaker 37:58
Yeah, well, I love that you’re taking that extra step. So I’ve, it’s, it’s definitely something that I think about a lot, as, you know, just from all the different packaging alternatives, and unfortunately, I just wish that there was a lot more research on this and, and solutions, because I think that it’s confusing. It’s really, it’s confusing for a lot of consumers at the end of the day, so Well, thank you, Sarah Paiji Yoo, co founder and CEO of Blue Land, I really, really, really am excited about what you’re doing. And we’ll have all the info in the show notes. But thank you again for sharing your journey and all about Blue Land and everyone needs to try it for sure. So thanks again.

Sarah Paiji Yoo 38:45
Thank you so much for having me.

Kara Goldin 38:47
Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would, please give us a review. And feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit and of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin. I would love to hear from you too, so feel free to DM me. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book undaunted, where I share more about my journey including founding and building hint. We are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now.