Connecting the Circular Economy with David Watson - Exploring Circular Tech: Technology isn't magic

Why Data Is the Crown Jewel in Luxury Resale with Chris Lucas - Exploring Circular Tech: Technology isn't magic

The same handbag. Thirty different platforms. Hundreds of dollars between listings. And no way to know what it's actually worth. In this episode of HappyPorch Radio, Barry O'Kane speaks with Chris Lucas, founder and CEO of Secondsense, a platform that aggregates luxury resale listings from over 30 vendors, normalises their attributes, and tells consumers what a product is really trading at. Chris describes it as the Google Flights for luxury resale. Chris's background is unusual for the fashion space. Stanford AI, senior machine learning engineer at Instagram, then Harvard Business School. He built a prototype while still a student, a TikToker put it on her channel, the site crashed overnight, and Chris opened a fundraise the next morning. He didn't wait until the product was ready. He didn't wait until he graduated. He just ran. What's most striking about the conversation is Chris's view on where value sits now. He argues the modelling layer, the application layer, and the hardware layer are all effectively democratised. Someone can duplicate a website in minutes using tools like Lovable or Claude Code. The only thing that can't be replicated is years of clean, structured, proprietary data and the domain expertise to know what to do with it. For Secondsense, that means knowing that a caviar leather Chanel sells differently from lambskin, or that champagne hardware changes the price, details a layperson would never spot. ✨ In this episode: * Chris explains why the secondhand luxury market is broken: fragmented supply, opaque pricing, and one-of-one SKU processing that leads to chronic supply-demand mismatch * We hear the story of the TikTok video that crashed his prototype and the snap decision to fundraise before graduating Harvard * Chris shares his framework for thinking about the AI stack (data, models, applications, hardware) and why only one of those layers is defensible * Barry and Chris discuss why domain knowledge matters as much as technical skill, and why hiring people who understand both is a sport * Chris gives an honest account of Secondsense's sustainability story: it's real, but it's not what's driving his customers' purchasing decisions * We explore the vision for scaling beyond luxury handbags into any product category that trades inefficiently on the resale market, from liquor and art to wine, electronics, and even equestrian saddlery 👤 About our guest: Chris Lucas is the founder and CEO of Secondsense, a platform aggregating luxury resale listings from over 30 vendors to bring price transparency and market efficiency to the secondhand luxury market. Before founding Secondsense, Chris studied AI at Stanford, worked as a senior machine learning engineer at Instagram writing content recommendation algorithms, and completed his MBA at Harvard Business School. Chris grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and describes his mission as making the resale market efficient, determining the fair market value of any product in any condition. Find Secondsense at secondsense.co, or reach Chris directly at chris@secondsense.co. 🌍 About HappyPorch HappyPorch is a purpose-driven software engineering consultancy focused on the circular economy. Learn more: https://www.happyporch.com?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://www.happyporch.com [https://www.happyporch.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com] 💌 Subscribe to HappyPorch Circular News HappyPorch Circular News is our monthly newsletter for people working in and around the circular economy and technology. Subscribe at: https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/ [https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/] ▶️ Listen and subscribe Stream this episode on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/happyporch-radio-circular-economy-technology/id1138288705], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/7gptVvOvovOTSWCuSUUpsM], Deezer [https://www.deezer.com/en/show/1627642], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-happyporch-radio-circular-28753135/], Pocket Casts [https://pocketcasts.com/podcasts/8d381850-c4f8-0134-10da-25324e2a541d] — or wherever you get your podcasts.. Visit https://www.happyporchradio.comhttps://www.happyporchradio.com [https://www.happyporchradio.com] to explore more episodes. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

Waste data and the magic away place with Tom Passmore - Exploring Circular Tech: Technology isn't magic

Technology isn't magic. And neither is the bin, even though most of us treat it like one. In this episode of HappyPorch Radio, Barry O'Kane speaks with Tom Passmore, CIO and co-founder of Dsposal, a company that has spent a decade building technology for the UK waste sector. Tom has a vivid way of describing the core problem: the moment someone decides they don't want something, it's dead to them. All the nostalgia, all the value, gone. It goes to the magic away place. But what actually happens in that magic away place matters enormously, and the UK has something most countries don't: roughly 10 years of structured public waste data. Dsposal's work is about joining that data together, building tools on top of it, and helping organisations move from simply complying with waste regulations to genuinely understanding what's happening with their waste and why. Tom is unusually candid about the pace of change. A customer portal his team built sat untouched for eight years before usage suddenly accelerated post-COVID. The data didn't change. The questions did. And that shift, from asking what and where to asking why, is where Tom sees real change beginning. The conversation also gets into the UK government's new Digital Waste Tracking programme, where Tom plays the role of critical friend, broadly supportive of the direction but direct about the gaps, particularly around who gets to see the data and whether phase two will track waste or just the vehicles carrying it. ✨ In this episode: * Tom explains why the "magic away place" mindset is the root problem in waste management * We explore the three public datasets that underpin Dsposal's products and what they reveal when connected * Tom describes the shift from compliance-driven questions to "why" questions, and what triggered it * Barry and Tom discuss Digital Waste Tracking: what's working, what's missing, and why the technology is the easy part * Tom shares what 10 years of building waste tech has taught him about naivety, humility, and behaviour change * We hear Tom's vision for using data to map every take-back scheme in the country, and his honest assessment of AI readiness in the waste sector 👤 About our guest: Tom Passmore is the CIO and co-founder of Dsposal, a web platform that has spent 10 years making waste management easier, more transparent, and more compliant for organisations across the UK. Dsposal works with universities, NHS trusts, science parks, local authorities, and small to medium waste management companies, connecting public waste data with tools that help users find legal waste outlets, track compliance, and increasingly drill into the why behind their waste patterns. Tom is an active voice in the UK waste data community, serves as a critical friend to DEFRA's Digital Waste Tracking programme, and is passionate about the untapped potential in the UK's public waste datasets. 🌍 About HappyPorch HappyPorch is a purpose-driven software engineering consultancy focused on the circular economy. Learn more: https://www.happyporch.com?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://www.happyporch.com [https://www.happyporch.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com] 💌 Subscribe to HappyPorch Circular News HappyPorch Circular News is our monthly newsletter for people working in and around the circular economy and technology. Subscribe at: https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/ [https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/] ▶️ Listen and subscribe Stream this episode on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/happyporch-radio-circular-economy-technology/id1138288705], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/7gptVvOvovOTSWCuSUUpsM], Deezer [https://www.deezer.com/en/show/1627642], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-happyporch-radio-circular-28753135/], Pocket Casts [https://pocketcasts.com/podcasts/8d381850-c4f8-0134-10da-25324e2a541d] — or wherever you get your podcasts.. Visit https://www.happyporchradio.comhttps://www.happyporchradio.com [https://www.happyporchradio.com] to explore more episodes. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

Curiosity Before Technology: Building Kolekt with Thierry Sanders - Exploring Circular Tech: Technology isn't magic

Technology isn't magic. But sometimes dropping your spoon in a bowl of soup during a pandemic leads you somewhere extraordinary. In this episode of HappyPorch Radio, Barry O'Kane speaks with Thierry Sanders, founder of Kolekt, a platform connecting waste collectors, buy-back centres, and recyclers across the Global South. Thierry's background spans fintech, microfinance, and living in developing countries from Ecuador to Pakistan to Indonesia, and Kolekt grew directly out of two weeks spent riding around Bali on a motorbike with informal waste collectors, learning how their world actually works. What makes Kolekt's story unusual is the order of operations. Thierry didn't arrive with a product looking for a market. He started with cigarettes, lunch, and genuine curiosity, and the technology followed the problems he discovered: collectors wasting half their time searching for materials that weren't there, workers without phones or bank accounts locked out of digital systems, and facial recognition tools that didn't work for the people who needed them most. The conversation is direct about the harder edges of this work: the fossil fuel industry flooding markets with cheap virgin plastic, governments demanding surveillance data on immigrant workers, and the gap between EPR policy and what actually reaches the people doing the collecting. ✨ In this episode: * Thierry tells the origin story of Kolekt, from a pandemic soup bowl in Jakarta to 14,000+ waste collector profiles across six countries * We explore the practical technology challenges of serving users who have no phone, no bank account, and no reliable connectivity * Thierry explains how Kolekt discovered and worked around racist bias in open-source facial recognition * Barry and Thierry discuss the economics of informal waste collection and why recycled materials cost more than virgin plastic * Thierry shares his work advising South Asian governments on EPR legislation and the $100 billion opportunity it represents * We hear how Kolekt chose to lose contracts rather than hand over user data to governments targeting immigrant collectors 👤 About our guest: Thierry Sanders is the founder of Kolekt (kolekt.com), a platform that connects waste collectors, buy-back centres, and recyclers across the Global South. With a background in fintech and microfinance across developing countries including Ecuador, Pakistan, and Indonesia, Thierry built Kolekt after spending two weeks with informal waste collectors in Bali during the pandemic, learning how the waste economy works from the ground up. Kolekt now operates in Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, Mozambique, Kenya, and Ghana, with around 14,000 active waste collector profiles and close to 100,000 transactions processed. Thierry also advises governments across South Asia on Extended Producer Responsibility legislation and has developed Kolekt's EPR compliance platform for Mozambique. 🌍 About HappyPorch HappyPorch is a purpose-driven software engineering consultancy focused on the circular economy. Learn more: https://www.happyporch.com?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://www.happyporch.com [https://www.happyporch.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com] 💌 Subscribe to HappyPorch Circular News HappyPorch Circular News is our monthly newsletter for people working in and around the circular economy and technology. Subscribe at: https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/ [https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/] ▶️ Listen and subscribe Stream this episode on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/happyporch-radio-circular-economy-technology/id1138288705], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/7gptVvOvovOTSWCuSUUpsM], Deezer [https://www.deezer.com/en/show/1627642], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-happyporch-radio-circular-28753135/], Pocket Casts [https://pocketcasts.com/podcasts/8d381850-c4f8-0134-10da-25324e2a541d] — or wherever you get your podcasts.. Visit https://www.happyporchradio.comhttps://www.happyporchradio.com [https://www.happyporchradio.com] to explore more episodes. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

Logic and Magic: The Human Side of Circular Transformation with Amelia Woodley and Vin Sharma - Exploring Circular Tech: Technology isn't magic

Technology isn't magic. And neither, it turns out, is circular strategy. In this episode of HappyPorch Radio, Barry O'Kane speaks with Amelia Woodley, a sustainability leader with 25 years of cross-sector experience, and Vin Sharma, a researcher whose doctoral work examined why the social dimension of circular economy so often gets left behind. Amelia introduces her "logic versus magic" framework: the logic side covers strategy, systems, KPIs, and measurement; the magic side covers the storytelling, brand identity, training, and people-led change that make sustainability mean something inside an organisation. Her argument is that most organisations over-invest in the logic and underinvest in the magic, and that is exactly where circular transformations stall. Vin's research adds depth to this picture. Across companies at different stages of their circular journey, he found that social value tends to be bolted on rather than built in, and that the organisations making genuine progress were the ones who treated crises as learning events rather than problems to recover from. The conversation is unusually direct on the financial dimension. Both guests push back on the idea that circular solutions come with a green premium: with good data and whole-life cost thinking, the commercial case can be made. The challenge is building the analytical and organisational muscle to make it properly. ✨ In this episode: * Vin explains the social blind spot in circular economy thinking and why it is structural * Amelia introduces the logic-versus-magic framework for sustainable change * We explore the three stages of circular maturity and what moves organisations between them * Barry, Amelia, and Vin discuss the role of finance in circular business cases * We explore how technology and data need to mature together, not in sequence * Vin and Amelia share what makes them genuinely hopeful about where circularity is heading 👤 About our guests: Amelia Woodley is a sustainability leader with nearly 25 years of experience designing and embedding sustainability strategies across sectors including construction, rail, infrastructure, nuclear, and retail. She has led major circular economy and net zero transformation programmes and is a strong advocate for making circular thinking accessible and commercially credible inside organisations. Vin Sharma is a researcher whose doctoral work examined how organisations integrate social value into circular economy transitions. His research identified consistent patterns across companies at different stages of circular maturity, and proposed frameworks for understanding how reactive responses to crises can build long-term capability. 🌍 About HappyPorch HappyPorch is a purpose-driven software engineering consultancy focused on the circular economy. Learn more: https://www.happyporch.com?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://www.happyporch.com [https://www.happyporch.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com] 💌 Subscribe to HappyPorch Circular News HappyPorch Circular News is our monthly newsletter for people working in and around the circular economy and technology. Subscribe at: https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/ [https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/] ▶️ Listen and subscribe Stream this episode on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/happyporch-radio-circular-economy-technology/id1138288705], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/7gptVvOvovOTSWCuSUUpsM], Deezer [https://www.deezer.com/en/show/1627642], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-happyporch-radio-circular-28753135/], Pocket Casts [https://pocketcasts.com/podcasts/8d381850-c4f8-0134-10da-25324e2a541d] — or wherever you get your podcasts.. Visit https://www.happyporchradio.comhttps://www.happyporchradio.com [https://www.happyporchradio.com] to explore more episodes. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

Circular Marketplace for Medical Equipment with Lieke van Kerkhoven - Exploring Circular Tech: Technology isn't magic

Technology isn’t magic. And neither is circularity. In this episode of HappyPorch Radio, Barry O’Kane speaks with Lieke van Kerkhoven, co-founder of Green Pulse. Lieke explains how Green Pulse is helping hospitals extend the life of medical equipment by connecting them with a global network of buyers. The platform combines logistics, marketplace dynamics, and technology to make reuse viable in a complex and highly regulated environment, an example of what we mean by Exploring circular tech: technology isn’t magic, where technology plays a role, but only as part of a much bigger operational and human system. They discuss the practical realities of building a circular business, from managing operations and growth to creating trust between buyers and sellers. The conversation also explores a broader idea: how businesses can move beyond treating sustainability as an add-on and instead integrate it into their core commercial model. The episode highlights Lieke’s concept of “integrative business”, the role of AI in reshaping work, and the importance of aligning incentives across the value chain. ✨ In this episode: * Lieke explains how Green Pulse started and how it works * We explore the challenges of running a circular marketplace * Lieke shares insights into the global demand for reused medical equipment * We discuss why donation is not always the best solution * Barry and Lieke explore the realities of scaling a startup * Lieke explains how AI supports operational efficiency * We discuss aligning commercial and circular incentives * We explore the gap between personal and professional values * Lieke shares her vision for the future of Green Pulse 👤 About our guest: Lieke van Kerkhoven is the co-founder of Green Pulse, a platform focused on the reuse of medical equipment. She has a background in medicine and has spent years working at the intersection of healthcare, sustainability, and the circular economy. Through Green Pulse, she is helping hospitals recover value from unused equipment while making it accessible to buyers around the world. Lieke is particularly interested in what she calls “integrative business”, bringing together commercial and sustainability thinking into a single, aligned model. Her work focuses on reducing friction, building trust, and creating systems where circularity becomes a natural outcome of doing business. 🌍 About HappyPorch HappyPorch is a purpose-driven software engineering consultancy focused on the circular economy. Learn more: https://www.happyporch.com?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://www.happyporch.com [https://www.happyporch.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com] 💌 Subscribe to HappyPorch Circular News HappyPorch Circular News is our monthly newsletter for people working in and around the circular economy and technology. Subscribe at: https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/ [https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/] ▶️ Listen and subscribe Stream this episode on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/happyporch-radio-circular-economy-technology/id1138288705], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/7gptVvOvovOTSWCuSUUpsM], Deezer [https://www.deezer.com/en/show/1627642], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-happyporch-radio-circular-28753135/], Pocket Casts [https://pocketcasts.com/podcasts/8d381850-c4f8-0134-10da-25324e2a541d] — or wherever you get your podcasts.. Visit https://www.happyporchradio.comhttps://www.happyporchradio.com [https://www.happyporchradio.com] to explore more episodes. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy