Ridwell’s father-son origin story is as compelling as it is adorable. Ryan Metzger, and his then six year-old son Owen, turned a weekend project in 2018 to find a home for used batteries into a fast-growing business with over 75,000 customers who pay around $15/month for the service. Ridwell has recycled or repurposed over 11 million pounds of hard-to-recycle items since then. Their initial efforts were well meaning, but it was Ryan Metzger’s discovery that the recycling industry was in turmoil that was a catalyst for launching a business. Metzger and his co-founders met the moment.
Certain startup stories lend themselves to a narrative built around the question,