Tech startup: PrintReleaf

INITIAL LIGHTBULB: After 11 years with Louisville-based LaserCycle, Jordan Darragh pivoted to clean-tech before debuting his innovative printing business. At energy intelligence provider EnerNOC, Darragh became familiar with carbon offsets and sought to apply the principles to corporate printing with PrintReleaf, planting a new tree for each one that was logged for paper.

“There’s been 5 billion acres deforested over the last century – 100 billion trees,” said Darragh. “There’s obviously a need … as we evaluate the global forestry system.”

In a Nutshell: After three years of R&D, Darragh officially got started this March.

“We had to figure out how we were going to reforest on a cost-per-page basis,” said Darragh. Working with SGS International, PrintReleaf developed “an entire standard on what it means to be a PrintReleaf reforesting partner,” and then developed the software, he explained.

PRX, PrintReleaf’s proprietary platform “is the first of its kind,” tracking companies’ paper use and translating that into tree planting, said Darragh,

The wholesale cost per page is about $0.0107, just above the industry standard of $0.01 – a price tag customers seem more than willing to bear.

“That’s an idea we support,” says Daniel Halter, IT manager at Boulder’s St Julien Hotel & Spa. Halter says the hotel prints about 25,000 sheets a month, the equivalent of three trees from PrintReleaf partners.

PrintReleaf’s planting partners work primarily in Asia and South America, “where the planet needs it most,” Darragh said.

The Market:

PrintReleaf markets its services through a network of reseller partners that target a global market of 10,000 print-services dealers. The company attracted 20 customers in the first month after the launch, including its first Fortune 500 account, Western Union.

Financing:

PrintReleaf is not actively pursuing outside capital. The company is angel-funded and Darragh expects financing will cover costs until it is cash-flow positive, at which point a decision will be made about pursuing growth capital.

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