HVADC CLIENT: Bootstrap Compost

In the cafeteria of an elementary school in Hudson, a group of children crowded around a tray of dark, crumbly compost. Just months earlier, that same material had been food scraps — banana peels, sandwich crusts, apple cores — collected from homes and businesses across the Hudson Valley. Now they were poking at it, marveling at the transformation.

For Bootstrap Compost founder Andy Brooks, the moment felt bigger than a science lesson.

“By Wednesday, they were eager to put the organics in [the bucket],” Brooks recalled of the Earth Week program he led at his daughter’s school this past April. “They just couldn’t believe this was something that used to be food.”

That sense of possibility has fueled Brooks since 2011, when he launched Bootstrap Compost in Boston with little more than flyers, buckets, a bike, and a lot of hustle. Fifteen years later, the company picks up food scraps from homes, schools, cafes, and businesses across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the Hudson Valley and is now based here. Along the way, HVADC helped Brooks navigate one of the company’s rockiest stretches.

From Sports Reporter to Compost Entrepreneur

Before hauling food scraps, Brooks spent a decade as a journalist and sports reporter at Harvard University. But he got restless.

“I wanted to have my own business,” he said. “I liked the immediacy of giving people buckets and just getting on with it.”

Inspired by community composting initiatives in Vermont, he started collecting scraps around his Boston neighborhood. Within weeks, he had 40 customers, more than he expected.

“It became clear that the volume of food scraps [I was collecting] was more than I could process on site,” Brooks explained. “I was lucky that I had a friend who had a farm, not far from where I was, a place called Allendale Farm. I just started bringing them organics, and it just grew.”

The arrangement became a model that Bootstrap still uses today. The company collects scraps locally, works with nearby farms to process them, then gives compost back to customers — about 60 pounds per household each year.

For customers, the process is simple. Bootstrap drops off a clean bucket with a fresh liner. Households fill it, leave it outside, and the company handles pickup and processing.

“That’s very alluring for households,” Brooks noted.

Bootstrap now serves about 2,800 residential customers, 245 commercial accounts, and about 200 schools, primarily in New England. Schools have become an important part of the business, especially in Rhode Island, where composting laws have helped create demand. Commercial clients, such as offices and cafes, are important too because routes are steadier and accounts are more financially sustainable.

A Difficult Financial Reality

By 2023, Bootstrap was under serious pressure. The company had paid cash for a large hauling truck rather than financing it and was spending an exorbitant amount each month on a Boston warehouse. Growing competition from municipally subsidized composting programs didn’t help.

“We were considering filing for bankruptcy,” Brooks acknowledged. “We made some bad decisions.”

They didn’t file. Instead, Bootstrap took a hard look in the mirror. It renegotiated loans with lenders, downsized its warehouse, tightened routing, and raised commercial prices. It worked. But it took help from multiple directions to get there.

That included HVADC. Brooks spotted the organization’s office on Warren Street and reached out. Through HVADC’s Incubator Without Walls Business Technical Assistance program, he worked with consultant Brian Zweig to analyze Bootstrap’s finances and map a path forward.

“Brian’s a very astute financial person,” Brooks noted. “Getting [perspectives] from multiple people helped us create a solution that takes strength from each one of these specialists.”

“Andy has built a very impressive operation,” Zweig added. “We were able to look at some options for significantly reducing the cost of servicing some debt that would improve cash flow in the long run.”

Building a Hudson Valley Future

After relocating his family to Hudson four years ago, Brooks began building Bootstrap’s local customer base town by town. The company now serves parts of Hudson, Catskill, Germantown, and Kinderhook.

Brooks said weddings and events have become an unexpectedly promising part of the business. Bootstrap now composts for Hudson Valley venues including Gather Greene, Hudson Harmonic, and The Caboose.

“[The couples] didn’t want to have a big, wasteful wedding,” he said. “They see it as an opportunity to celebrate sustainability.”

“I love serving these types of venues,” Brooks added, “because they bring a rotating group of people and parties into something meaningful from a sustainability perspective.”

And then there are the kids — the ones crowded around the cafeteria tray, hands in the compost, eyes wide.

“I think there’s a ton of value in starting at this age,” Brooks reflected, “They totally get it.”

HVADC supports agribusinesses at every stage through the Incubator Without Walls program, offering one-on-one consulting services to accelerate their growth and increase their chances of long-term success. Learn more at https://www.hvadc.org/incubator-without-walls.