As one of MCI”™s earliest employees, Jeff Marshall witnessed the start of the investment stampede into telecommunications and later the Internet.
Using Oklahoma-produced beef tallow ”“ and Pennsylvania grains ”“ Marshall hopes to spark a stampede himself into auto-supply stores for environmentally benign motor oil and cleansers.
After hiring Marshall as chief executive officer, Green Earth Technologies Inc. in early February labeled Stamford its new headquarters, having previously been based in Menlo Park, Calif.
Founded by inventor Mat Zuckerman, who remains chairman and chief technology officer, Green Earth Technologies (GET) uses heat and catalysts to make natural byproducts suitable for use as lubricants or detergents.
The company”™s “G” engine oil is rendered from beef tallow, and last November was recognized by Popular Science magazine as one of the most innovative automotive products of 2007.
With ingredients derived from corn, grains, potatoes and soybeans, the company”™s carwashes and cleansers similarly do not contain toxic substances ”“ such that Marshall says you can take a swig of the stuff without registering so much as a bellyache.
“People change their oil and pour it down the drain,” Marshall said. “They clean their cars and the chemicals run off and poison the environment.”
Marshall previously was a financier with CRT Private Equity and VantagePoint Venture Partners; and before that worked on technology strategies at Bear Stearns & Co.
Besides $1 million invested by Zuckerman, in the past two months GET has rounded up $5.5 million in funding, including $3 million from Inventek Colloidal Cleaners L.L.C. The Philadelphia-based ICC is developing likewise biological-based formulas for carwash fluids and windshield rain repellent.
Marshall said he hopes to complete a $10 million funding round by April. He said he expects the company to have from 20 to 30 employees at its Stamford headquarters, with the company”™s marketing arm to be based at Celebration, Fla., a Walt Disney Co. development that expounds an environmental ethic. Zuckerman remains in Silicon Valley.
For the first time last week, Green Earth Technologies began shipping its cleansers via a distribution agreement with Steel City Products, an automotive aftermarket distributor based in McKeesport, Pa. outside Pittsburgh. GET is selling its products at prices from $4 to $6 a bottle, competitive with motor oils and carwashes.
GET revved up its marketing efforts at the Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo in Las Vegas last November. The company is also planning to undertake a “guerrilla” marketing campaign ”“ such as donating its products to high schools where students organize weekend carwashes as fundraisers, on the bet it will convert those teens into paying customers down the road.
The company is also developing lubricants for two-stroke engines such as lawnmowers, part of a broader product set for benign lawn and landscaping products. Longer term, Marshall sees opportunities for marine engines and for aircraft cleaning products.
In many ways, the marketing environment for “green” products could not be better ”“ companies developing so-called clean technologies received $2.2 billion in venture capital in 2007, according to Stamford-based Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association. That was up from $1.5 billion in 2006; and perhaps incredibly, matched the venture capital flowing into Marshall”™s old stomping grounds in the telecommunications sector.
