Samantha Dunbar
Davu Keels
Case Western Reserve University - Weatherhead School of Management
Chris Laszlo
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Co-founders of Fish Gods, Hunter Klobucar, and Tyler Waltenbaugh, have made it their mission to produce and sell easily foldable, durable, and sustainable 'Clean Earth Bags' that allows outdoor enthusiasts to maintain the environment they engage with. Their goal is to create a movement that unites outdoor enthusiasts and eco-friendly people around the world to take action and reduce pollution across the globe.
The ‘Clean Earth Bags’ are reusable bags that can be used by any individual, namely outdoor enthusiasts, to pick up any plastic pollution they may come across. The Clean Earth Bag can be used in almost any endeavor an outdoor enthusiast may find themselves in such as, hiking, fishing, climbing or simply walking their dog. The bag is designed to endure any elements that outdoor enthusiasts may encounter. By using a tension buckle system, the bag can collapse and fold or expand when needed; this allows the bag to be flexible and ready to store waste such as plastic, metals, and glass. In addition, the Clean Earth Bag easily attaches to an anchor point you are wearing or that your gear has with a series of loops that are featured on the side of the lid for users to attach their gear and accessories onto the bag.
These bags have been developed in an attempt to reset our impact on the environment by eliminating the need for single-use plastics. With enough capital, Fish Gods can carry on with their sustainability efforts throughout all aspects of production and delivery by using low-impact couriers and practicing sustainable manufacturing methods such as designing their shipping materials out of recycled materials.
The idea for the Clean Earth Bag was conceived in June of 2018 during a research trip across Pennsylvania, centered around brook trout research. Co-founders, Hunter Klobucar and Tyler Waltenbaugh were alarmed to see plastic and garbage polluting even the most remote streams and rivers as they traveled through Pennsylvania. This trip opened their eyes and made them much more aware of the pollution in the waterways they grew up fishing in. Many people view sustainability efforts as risky because they do not bring in a lot of profit and they sometimes skip out on basic incentives to prioritize sustainable materials. However, Hunter and Tyler explained to us that just choosing to go forward with their decision to start making and selling these Clean Earth Bags was a risk. Most consumers will never know the personal sacrifices that these two founders had to make to see their vision grow to new heights. Three years of college experience, time & money, and job opportunities were sacrificed for the greater good of the earth; starting this company isn’t a risk to them, it is necessary and needed to be done. The co-founders stepped up to the plate and became the advocates and the voices for freshwater fisheries seeing that environmental cleanup companies who do remove plastic from waterways were only focused on saltwater. Fish Gods has made it their mission to arm this movement of outdoor enthusiasts such as themselves with a tool that allows them to go out and make a physical and immediate difference in the environment.
In Fish Gods’ attempt to tackle the world’s plastic pollution crisis, they have been able to begin production of the Clean Earth Bag which is the first step in making the difference they wish to see. This company has been able to harness community support to spread awareness of how this problem is evident not only in high focus areas like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch but closer to home in their backyard and local communities. Fish Gods plans to use this visibility to launch Fish Gods Day and other online cleanup challenges to encourage their followers to actively participate in combating the crises being faced across our environments.
In regards to measurable impact as a start-up, Fish Gods is still in the early stages of having reportable metrics. Thus far, all of the reporting they have thus far is focused on their core goals and principles of ending single-use plastics. Tentatively, they have all of their efforts charted on a pro forma with measurable benchmarks they intend to reach over the next three years. With these expectations in mind, every future financial decision is carefully weighed in terms of the sustainability of their production, but their end goal is to have enough capital to have every aspect of their product and production be sustainable as well as profitable. As the company’s capital increases, they have more money to put towards supporting other sustainable efforts as well as maintaining and expanding their own.
To extend their overall reach, Fish Gods have generated collaborations with other organizations that fall into their niche social and environmental issues. Some of these companies include 1 Piece Each and Trout Unlimited. Fish Gods developed these partnerships to increase their visibility to potential customers as well as spreading their mission and vision statements. Also, Fish Gods have begun harnessing the power of social media influencers and organizations through affiliate links. These links to purchasing the Clean Earth Bag allow the environmentalists and influencers to receive a portion of the proceeds as one would with a sponsorship. While collaborations and sponsorships are nothing new to the marketing world for products and companies, Fish Gods have been able to do this while remaining within their original purpose and focus on marine biology, wildlife, and the plastics plaguing their environments.
When the co-founders set out with their initial vision, they were surprised at the rate at which their company has scaled up. The system Fish Gods chose to follow consisted of turning profits on their product and put a portion of that capital towards cleanup efforts. This system allowed them to remain competitive in the market while working towards achieving their mission of environmental cleanup. This for-profit mentality allows them to continually turn profits into feasible solutions to solve the problems the environment is facing daily.
Moving into the future, the company has proposed the Fish Gods’ 5% which implements an immediate five percent of all funds raised through their products on their e-commerce site to go directly to conservation efforts. Through Fish Gods calculations, if every outdoor enthusiast in the United States would pick up one bag of trash per year, collectively, around 292 million pounds of trash could be removed from the environment. The co-founders find Fish Gods and all of the risks encompassed in starting one’s own company to be small personal sacrifices to make the needed changes for the greater good. If anything, they found that the greatest risk would be to not create this company and watch our planet overflow with man-made plastic pollution.
Through Fish Gods calculations, if every outdoor enthusiast in the United States would pick up one bag of trash per year, collectively, around 292 million pounds of trash could be removed from the environment. The co-founders find Fish Gods and all of the risks encompassed in starting one’s own company to be small personal sacrifices to make the needed changes for the greater good. If anything, they found that the greatest risk would be to not create this company and watch our planet overflow with man-made plastic pollution.
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Hunter Klobucar, Co-founder
Tyler Waltenbaugh, Co-founder
Fish Gods is setting out to be the movement that unites the largest recreational group in the world to take action and reduce pollution across the globe. They plan to execute this with a simply designed product that will allow outdoor enthusiasts to remove trash from the environments they engage in.