Can circular economy business models fuel start-up innovation?

There are start-ups which very quickly understand that being “circular” can represent a significant competitive advantage, and a very strong market positioning, especially if the core principles of circularity are embedded into their business models and become intrinsic to their operations.

Today, many of us are committed to use less raw resources, to reuse and recycle as much as we can and, where possible, repurpose various items that belong to either the mainstream or the specialist consumption trends.

Whichever business model you choose to follow as a start-up, if sustainability is at the core of what you do, knowing which circular economy business models your start-up can best apply is likely to make all the difference between success and failure:

  1. Exchange – is there anything that you have/create that can be exchanged with/for something someone else already has?
  2. Share – can you share your production/operation/office facilities with another start-up that operates in a different space?
  3. Optimise – is there anything that can make your processes, services, or products better/faster/more sustainable/more profitable?
  4. Loop – can you create a perfect product loop, one where your product is sold and part of it becomes recoverable, then reintroduced in the production process?
  5. Regenerate – can you give new life to old/disused/discarded items?
  6. Virtualise – can you provide a total virtual experience in lieu of a “real life” one?

Is your start-up ready to make the best use of these circular economy business models? Which one would suit your business best?

Would you be able to combine some – or all of these models – so that your start-up fully optimises its services/products/operations?

Which of the models above would, for instance, offer you the fastest or the highest return on investment? Which of them would make you more appealing to your customers/users, and which would secure you additional investment?

Conversely, which of these circular business models would pose a risk to your business and why? Would that risk justify the reward though?

How would you bring your customers on board and, apart from providing them with a product/service (irrespective of the same’s circularity or sustainability), and also strive to drive a behaviour change across your markets/marketplaces?

If you want to do good as a circular/sustainable start-up, you cannot stop at the features of your product/service. You must go beyond that because you must position yourself as a leader in your category: if you want to effect a circular lasting change, you need to create a market demand, and a market movement towards “cleaner”, “better” and “eco-friendly”.

Circklo’s Business Configurator is solely dedicated to sustainable start-ups. We help you configure your start-up for both profit and purpose and, after 12 modules of intensive business coaching, mentoring, dry-pitching, and networking with industry experts, angel investors, venture capitalists and other start-ups in the community, you will see the enormous difference we make to your business: we optimise your business to be investment-ready.

Join our Business Configurator to scale-up your product, and be confident about what it can deliver to your customer base. Apply now