Trash to treasure: Serial entrepreneurs raise $56,000 (and counting) for “beautiful” rubbish bin

A Melbourne-based startup has raised more than $56,000 in a Kickstarter campaign for what it is calling the “world’s most beautiful and function” trash can, and according to co-founder Michael Carne, this is just the first step in the company’s bid to bring style and function to overlooked household objects. 

On Wednesday, Carden hit go on its Kickstarter campaign for ‘The Twin’, a sleek, dual-bucket kitchen bin that features a hidden section for a dustpan and broom at the back. 

Designed by renowned industrial designer Jon Liow, the bin is the first product from Carden and is expected to be available to purchase from July this year. 

Carden set an initial goal of crowdfunding $30,000 to bring the product to life, and that target was reached within hours on Wednesday morning. 

At the time of publication, the campaign has raised more than $56,000 from 186 backers, with 27 days still to go. 

From software to trash cans

Carne is one of three serial entrepreneurs behind Carden and the idea to create a good-looking bin quite literally came about in early 2022 when he went to purchase a kitchen bin for his new home upon moving back to Australia from the US.

Carne had moved stateside after founding mobile workforce management platform Lighthouse with Carden co-founders Ben Howden and Patrick Carne

The trio sold Lighthouse to Team Software in mid-2019 and had every intention of starting another software startup, Carne told SmartCompany on Friday. 

They had spent two years kicking the tyres on four different ideas, none of which seemed viable, and Carne says the founders, to some extent, had “fell out of love” with making software. 

Cue a visit to a retail store and Carne began to see an opportunity to give the humble kitchen bin a serious makeover. 

“There were stainless steel, sterile trash cans for $300 a pop, or more, and I was like, ‘this can’t be right’,” he explains.

“So I did some more research and there were just these gaps.

“I wanted my house to look beautiful; we invested in the couch, we invested in the rug, we invested in all these things. And it was like, surely there is something that has some beauty in it?”

The founding team “rallied” around the concept of bringing more beauty and function to overlooked household items, and they were on their way, he says. 

Working with the best in the business 

While the trio had runs on the board as startup founders, they were new to the whole process of designing, manufacturing and marketing physical products.

So they made a conscious effort to find founders and experts who could help them on this journey, including Athan Didaskalou and Richard Li from the fast-growing luggage brand July. 

While Howden has been working closely with Didaskalou, someone who he shares a strong marketing background with and has known for many years, Carne has been working with Li on the operations side of the business. 

“Richard and Athan from July really helped us understand the process, understand how to engage different kinds of factories and go through the prototyping process,” says Carne.

“So we’ve definitely got a lot of support along the journey.”

The “July model” is one that Carden hopes to emulate, says Carne. With the luggage brand continuing to delight its customers both in Australia and globally – and even winning the 2022 Smart50 Awards – it’s easy to see why. 

This means Carden will start out with its “marquee” product (The Twin) before developing into a homewares brand that has beauty and utility as its key pillars.

“We don’t want to be a brand that just looks great, but isn’t a joy to use, or is a little impractical. That’s not the end game; it has to kind of mix utility with beauty,” he says. 

“So that will inform probably some of the products that we will choose to make.

“If you’re going to make something beautiful, it needs to be in public view, or it should be in public view rather than maybe tucked away in a cupboard.”

Asking for help

Surrounding themselves with expert advice has also extended to Carden founders’ decision to venture down the Kickstarter path, says Carne. 

In this instance, they got in touch with fellow Melbourne brand Orbitkey, which has undertaken seven Kickstarter campaigns to date, to find out what they have learnt from the process and how to do it successfully. 

The crowdfunding process itself also provides invaluable feedback and engagement from the brand’s early customers, says Carne. 

“It’s a really great way to get some market validation, or some market feedback, especially before you make some big determinations on the product,” he says. 

While Carne reflects that the founders probably wouldn’t have sought out help from other entrepreneurs as early when founding their first startup, now they will “take all we can”, he laughs. 

“You don’t have to pretend to be an expert in everything, you just have to listen to folks who are,” he says.