New Earth Ventures Launch with Matt Saunders and Wes Carter

In this episode, Cory Connors welcomes Atlantic Packaging President  Wes Carter  and New Earth Ventures Managing Partner Matt Saunders for an exciting announcement: the official launch of New Earth Ventures (NEV), a venture capital firm launching in partnership with Atlantic Packaging. Wes shares how Atlantic's decades-long commitment to packaging innovation and sustainability laid the foundation for NEV, while Matt discusses his background in venture capital and how his partnership with Wes came together. Together, they outline how NEV will support entrepreneurs, startups, and customers working to build a more circular, sustainable packaging future.

Key Topics Discussed:

• The 30-year history of Atlantic Packaging's innovation philosophy and how it evolved into New Earth Ventures
• The role of the Packaging Solution Center in Charlotte as a hub for packaging science and technology
• How NEV differs from traditional corporate venture capital by pairing deep packaging expertise with a scalable fund model
• The MUST stretch film optimization program as a model for how technology and packaging can intersect to drive massive ROI
• Current NEV portfolio highlights including Specright and investments in material and AI technology companies

Resources Mentioned:

New Earth Ventures:

• Website
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Specright 
• Sway 
• Forest

Guests:

• Wes Carter: LinkedIn
• Matt Saunders: LinkedIn

Contact:

Innovators, founders, and brands interested in partnering or learning more can reach out via the NEV website or social channels.

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⁃https://www.specright.com/

-https://www.forest-pkg.com/

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/

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This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

Transcript

0:06

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors presented by Atlantic Packaging. I'm your host, Cory Connors. In today's episode, I connected with the president of Atlantic Packaging, Wes Carter, and the managing partner of New Earth Ventures, Matt Saunders. I'm so excited to get to finally reveal this to the packaging community that this venture capital firm is launching in partnership with Atlantic Packaging. There truly are some amazing things happening because of this launch. I'd also like to thank our sponsors, 3M, and specright couldn't do this show without them. Welcome to sustainable packaging. I'm so excited to have back Mr. Wes Carter and Matt Saunders. This is an epic announcement we're about to make and I'm really excited to talk about this new program, this new venture, if you will. And uh I think Matt and Wes have a lot to talk about with this industry, what's going on. But Mr. Carter, if you don't mind starting off. Thank you again for being on the show. Can you tell us about New Earth Ventures and what it is and how it came to be? Sure, absolutely. Well, Atlantic, for the last 30 years really, ever since the mid 90s under my father's leadership, Rusty Carter, we've dedicated ourselves to helping drive packaging efficiency for our customers through technology. for the last three decades, we've developed a value proposition around high performance materials. uh high-performance automation and really programmatic selling to reduce waste in the supply chain, to reduce damage in the supply chain. And for most of our history, we call that packaging optimization. And as that matured and developed over a lot of years, we opened the Packaging Solutions Center in Charlotte about 10 years ago. And that facility was really meant to articulate that value proposition to customers where they could really come and see the science of packaging and the technology of packaging firsthand and how it can apply to all of their challenges. And so that really innovative spirit and Atlantic being a technical resource for our customers has been a cornerstone. for most of the last several decades of Atlantic. And so as we really began to embrace sustainability as a fundamental pillar of our organization and as it's pretty well known, we launched the New Earth Project and really believe that embracing sustainable innovations and new technologies to continue to support a healthier, more resilient, more circular supply chain is really imperative. And we believe that the packaging industry in collaboration with the consumer products companies and retail brands, we all need to work together to help bring these innovations to market. And so we have this packaging solution center in Charlotte. We have this real passion for innovation and bringing new solutions to our customers. so over the last six or eight years, that really evolved into identifying a lot of emerging technology and packaging that was in a lot of cases coming from smaller organizations and coming from young entrepreneurs that were really passionate about helping solve the waste crisis. And we really felt like we were in a good position to do diligence a lot of that technology, incubate a lot of that technology within Atlantic and ultimately help it scale and deliver it to customers where it could enter the marketplace in a good way. so initially we just called that activating the innovators. um But it really evolved into the into new earth ventures, where we decided, you know, not only do we want to help get these new technologies to market, but we want to have a more comprehensive and defined strategy to support these organizations and these technologies. And so it's broad today. We certainly think, you know, materials and new materials are important, but there's also a lot of emerging technology. in packaging optimization and sophistication that we think can also be a big part of driving sustainability. So using less material, more circular materials, closed loop systems, all those things are fundamental pillars of Atlantic and New Earth and certainly New Earth Ventures. Truly exciting. Can't wait to learn more about New Earth Ventures and what its plans are for the future. But again, I commend you on your leadership in the sustainable packaging space. Atlantic Packaging has been the leader in that space and it's an honor to be a part of it. Matt, tell us uh how you got to know Wes and you've got an impressive background in VC and more. How did this come to be? Absolutely. Well, Wes and I got to know each other on a deal we were on both sides of before, which is Cruise Foam, a company that Atlantic knows well and I know well on a previous role. And uh I saw Wes's vision for building out a platform that utilized the resources and know-how that Atlantic has paired with my background in building VC firms and going out and investing and finding the right founders and helping them get to scale. It was a super, super good fit for us as compliments. So we talked about launching NEV and decided to do that after many months of deliberation. Look, we have a great relationship and investing and bring a lot to the table, but it also helps that we share the same music taste, which is always fun. Top priority, music. I'm so impressed with all of your music tastes and how we've, as a company, have made that such a priority to enjoy and celebrate life through music and it touches the soul for sure. So Wes, let's talk about what kind of uh problems you could solve for a founder of a startup using this uh new venture. Yeah, well, just to reiterate Matt's point there, I mean, think a lot of this is about really embracing creativity and really thinking outside of the box and setting a vision for uh a supply chain and a future that's healthier for people and planet and evolution's slow and these things take time. We are committed to that vision. We're committed to that vision. So, you know, for how we can help these founders, I mean, in many cases, there's, you know, the things that they need are the technical reflections, like where can our materials effectively enter the marketplace? You know, we've got this really cool material. It's a nature-based material, but like what applications is it best suited for? And that's one of the areas that we can help a lot. There's also in many cases, materials that need, it's a coding material that needs to be applied to a substrate, um things like that where we have a lot of internal capabilities that we can help actually create viable products that the market needs. We also have, we're such a diversified organization and our customer base is so diversified. that we work sort of across the value chain, whether it's food, beverage, building products, e-commerce, medical device. And so we have a good insight into a lot of different areas of the marketplace to help identify where these products and technologies can be most effective. it's a lot of market knowledge and then it's a lot of relationships too. mean, it's identifying the companies and the brands that really want to embrace sustainability as a fundamental part of how they go to market as part of their brand image and working collaboratively. If there's one thing we've learned over the last four five years is in order to really drive a lot of these significant changes, it takes a level of collaboration. because of Atlantic's 80 year history, oh and our relationships with suppliers and customers alike, we can bring those relationships to the forefront for our portfolio companies, which is super additive for a lot of these small organizations that are looking to find those early stage partners who want to work collaboratively to get these technologies to market. Look, I would add two things. The first is it's really, really hard to build a business and then get in the hands of customers. And having someone like us who's done the hard work to do the diligence or get to scale before we ever bring it to our customers puts a level of sign off on it that makes our customers want it more. But I'll tell you, it also has to be the right fit for the market. It has to be the right price. and has to provide a crazy value opportunity. And our ability to diligence that, I think in the packaging and supply chain space is bar none. And I think one of the most helpful thing we'll offer to most founders is saying no. ah But saying no and saying why we're a pass. There are so many ways to take businesses and evolve them these days. It's a matter of hours. to pivot with all of the new technology that's out there for so many companies. And getting businesses that understand how Atlantic builds businesses and goes to market, who our customers are and what they need, that's really, really important. So I think we'll be really great at picking the right partners to work with. And one other thing I'll add to what we've also determined, in many cases, these new technologies do carry a price premium because they're not scaled. But if we can utilize our historic packaging optimization philosophy and be able to look at these packaging challenges holistically, oftentimes we can offset the cost of some of the premiums by um by optimizing other areas of that whole packaging ecosystem. That can be through right sizing packaging, but it can also be through utilizing technology. And that's one of the areas that we're really focused on as well. Like how do we drive efficiency with the next generation of emerging technology with artificial intelligence? It's exponentiating. And so, We actually think that the intersection of that type of technology with materials is likely the best lane for these products to enter the market in good way. Exactly. And Matt, what else makes us different? What makes New Earth Ventures a uh different mindset, a different way of looking at things? If I was a startup in the packaging space, why would it be so valuable for me to come to you and to us at our team? I don't think many firms out there are pairing what is traditionally thought of as CVC, corporate venture capital, with a model that's built like a fund and that can scale businesses pretty broadly. There are a lot of platforms out there designed to help startups grow. Not a lot of them have the deep, deep resources and niche-y knowledge that we do. know, packaging is such a, it's a huge space. It's a trillion dollar industry, but it's a narrow vertical. And there aren't that many people who are absolute experts in it, and we are. And so not only can we unlock knowledge and access to assets, and we can unlock scale and the potential to talk to our customers. And I think that's pretty major. I also think that the way that we look at this world right now, is ever changing. AI has created a unique opportunity for all industrial businesses. But I don't think a lot of folks are looking at packaging AI and supply chain AI while there are opportunities to invest in big LMs that people think can do everything. uh I'm really excited because I think the way that Atlantic has utilized technology over its history is as Wes started the podcast by discussing. I think it gives us a calling card to understand how this world will evolve and how to pair new technology with our existing assets. And I think our calling card for doing this fun at Atlantic, we probably have many, but one major one is our must program. uh We have a hundred million dollar plus program around stretch film optimization that uses sensors to make sure that every single palette that we wrap is fully optimized. It's crazy how many hundreds of millions of dollars that saved our customers over the past 10 years. And so if you look at a program like that, how can we take new entrepreneurs with new ideas like that integrated to our and our customers' businesses and really go grab ROI? All of that's only going to be accelerated by AI. Exactly. Wes, how do you expect New Earth Ventures and Atlantic Packaging to influence the future of packaging in the next 10, 20 years? Like I've said before, it will be through radical collaboration. The way that we're all successful is working together. think where we stand today, we have a North Star, not just at Atlantic, but I think ultimately most of us are awakening to the fact that we have limited resources and in order for us to create a resilient supply chain for decades and generations into the future, in order to create a supply chain that values life and acknowledges that healthy ecosystems and healthy watersheds and all of the things that are required. um to create abundant life for humans and all other forms of life. It's critical that we take a deep look at how we function as a supply chain and all be committed to continuing to evolve our strategies and how we bring materials and technologies to market. I think we all understand that this will take time and there's not gonna be a silver bullet. And I think that's one of the things that we... certainly acknowledge with our venture strategy is we're not out there looking for that silver bullet. I think we understand that to solve a lot of these challenges that we face, it's going to take radical collaboration, but also the understanding that we are going to need a myriad of solutions. We are going to need lots of new materials. We're going to need lots of new technology. But hopefully we are all beginning to harmonize around the need to really evolve the materials and economy in the direction of health and in the direction of life. That really feels like it is taking root. And it gives me great hope for the future. Yeah, me too. I'm so excited. There's a lot of people that have kind of negative outlooks for packaging and society in general, and I'm not one of those. I think we've got great things in the works. And I think maybe Matt, you could talk about a couple of the people we've already partnered with for this venture. Yep, so we're really excited to have partnered with Specright, who is also a sponsor of this pod. We love it. But it's an example of a really cool technology that is bridging the physical world with the digital world. And that's what everything is about right now. How can you take what we know is packaging that we can feel in our hands and digitize it so it's data in the cloud? Only then can you take advantage of all the tools that are out there. And what's great about SpecRight is that they've built a business that is to Wes's point, radically collaborative, integrates with a ton of other software providers and allows you to take advantage of this. But whether it be the AI push, whether it be the regulatory push, which by the way, feels more like a data problem than a regulatory problem, there is a crazy high bar for auditability of data when reporting to certain regulators, both. in the EU and in the United States. The wave of new technologies that need to be there to track what we're doing in packaging matters a lot. So we're excited about that. We've invested in some material companies and we're looking at some AI tech. We're also thinking about how robotics and automation is going to really change how we think about packaging. Will there ever be a one size fits all packaging? You know, no. But there's a lot of technology that's on demand, making a package right where the source is being boxed. There are ideas around how to use AI to invent the next generation of plastics. I think AI is going to be far better than the human brain on that. And if I'm wrong, I'll probably be right that at least AI has sped up how quickly humans can develop those new ideas. So there's so much out there. We're crazy excited about our pipeline. But I'll tell you, Getting back to how we do it differently, I think the fact that Atlantic has established itself as the most innovative and sustainable packaging company out there, everyone's already coming to us. I can't wait to see uh how the floodgates open once we get this podcast out and launch New Earth Ventures as a business, because I think we're going to be collaborating with the best entrepreneurs working in this vertical. Yeah, and to Matt's point there, mean, one of the exciting things too is, you know, with our venture strategy, we also have the historic infrastructure and value proposition that Atlantix developed over all these many decades. And so when we engage with customers on new technologies and new materials, we also have a significant value proposition that we can deliver that's mature and ready to help. drive things like packaging efficiency and circularity. So the comprehensive nature of our organization, when you integrate a venture strategy, I think it's very unique. I don't see a lot of other organizations that have the diversity of offering and the diversity of uh value that we have that's really been developed over many years by a lot of people dedicated. to supporting customer needs. so, sustainability is really the buzzword of the day, but we've always been focused on reducing waste, being more efficient. How can we be more efficient? How can we reduce waste? How can we reduce damage? So in some ways, this is just the next evolution of a value proposition that every customer we have desires. Everyone wants to run a more efficient, more profitable business and a healthier business. so all these things today, I believe, integrate really, really well. And as Matt said, we're super bullish on this strategy and are really excited about the reflections that we're getting from the marketplace on how needed it is for packaging companies to help accelerate the adoption of new technology. So exciting. I can't wait to see what's going to happen in the next six months to a year of this innovation kind of sequence that we're working through here. So if I'm listening, I've started a new packaging material or I've got an innovation that I'm really excited about. How do I get in touch with you, Matt? How do I reach out? Who should reach out to you? What kinds of companies? What kinds of innovators? It's a great question, Cory. Well, anyone who wants to find us can go to nev.vc and fill out a form to tell us more about what you're up to. Who should be reaching out? I think it's three types of folks. The first are entrepreneurs, startups who want to collaborate in scaling the next generation of packaging. We've hit that a lot this podcast, but I think it varies from people who have an idea to people who have a very established business. We can collaborate with a lot of folks. Number two are our customers. Folks at Atlantic, excuse me, folks who work with Atlantic who want to learn more about our innovations, or maybe people who don't, who want an opportunity to integrate something brand new into their value proposition. whether that be in physical packaging you can see or everything else that we do in technology. And third are uh people who want to help us do more. The largest institutions in the world who care about what we're doing, whether that be reducing plastic waste or putting bets down on the future of uh where packaging will head. So we're really excited to have great partners in all of those realms now, and we think that'll only increase. Well, seems like we should have a New Earth Venture Day at the Solutions Center and have like 50 entrepreneurs come and pitch ideas to y'all. That sounds cool. Ooh, there you go. I'd love to see that. Wes, anything else you'd like to tell us about before we close the show? Well, just thanks, Cory. It's a very exciting time in our industry. There's a lot of changes. There's a lot of things that are accelerating these changes. And there's a lot of challenges that we face in the world, but we firmly believe that the waste crisis can be solved and it can be solved in our lifetime with companies working together with that common North Star. And we believe that this integrated approach around technology, waste reduction, new materials, circularity, this comprehensive strategy that recognizes that we are going to need to integrate solutions from a lot of different areas of our world. That to me is an exciting place to be. If you like innovation, it's a fun time to be in our industry. And we believe that NEV is gonna be a great catalyst to continue the innovative spirit that has always resided within Atlantic Packaging. I agree. Well said. Thank you both. Matt, any final words or? Good. Thanks for having us, Cory, and we're excited to meet everyone who wants to talk to us. My honor. Thank you all.