Ever wonder what happened to tech executive Martin Tobias since he parted ways with Seattle biodiesel company Imperium Renewables?
Turns out he’s the CEO of a new company called Kashless.org.
Tobias isn’t saying much about the company yet, but did say it’s in the ReCommerce space, which he described as “clean tech meets software.”
The Kashless.org website says the company is building a “community and platform enabling person to person product reuse, sharing, lending, trade and other ‘cashless’ transactions.”
It continues: “By increasing reuse, Kashless.org will divert a significant amount of waste from the landfill and extend the useful life of many products.”
It says the company is fully funded for 3 years.
Tobias said he’s been running the company out of his home, but is looking for 1,000-2,000 square feet of office space in the Seattle area for a staff of five to ten people.
“I’m hiring people and I’m fully funded,” Tobias said, declining to provide any more details.
Tobias departed suddenly as chairman and CEO of Imperium Renewables in December 2007.
Shortly after that, Imperium dropped plans for a $345 million IPO, and the company has had a series of well-publicized troubles including layoffs and the loss of a key contract at its Grays Harbor refinery.
– Eric Engleman, eengleman@bizjournals.com
12 responses so far ↓
1 John // Oct 17, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I wish this company’s employees lots of luck.
2 Anonymous // Oct 17, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Why anyone would associate with him at this point is beyond me. Duck and cover.
3 Denis // Oct 17, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Oh, like Freecycle.org? (Claims 6 million members worldwide, non-profit, runs on Yahoo Groups, no payroll.)
Great play for a shaky economy. But where will the kashflow come from?
Perhaps that’s not the objective — maybe it’s really a “kash in, karma out” play. Whatever Tobias wants to do in the way of social entrepreneurship is fine with me. Imperium may have lost some teeth in the fight, but it broke new ground for an industry that needed some pioneers.
4 Martin // Oct 17, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Eric, thanks for the hat tip. Denis, thanks for the encouragement. In every deal I have been in, I have been early and broken new ground. If you want to know what the site is up to, sign up for the Alpha and you will all know soon enough.
5 Danielle Morrill // Oct 17, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I love this idea and I can see myself using it. I’m currently using Book Mooch, which is also a cashless trading system, and I love it. I read a lot of light books (romance novels, bestsellers, etc) and there is an excellent resale market for them. There’s also a great resale market for text books.
This must be something that can be done beyond just books (that phrase sounds like the description of early Amazon.com). I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops.
6 Anonymous // Oct 22, 2008 at 10:25 am
Are you allowed to run a company from jail?
7 Former Imperium CEO Martin Tobias Going Kashless « Earth2Tech // Oct 24, 2008 at 2:46 pm
[...] this morning and he confirmed that he has founded and is running re-commerce company Kashless.org (noted here and here, and in this job [...]
8 Former Imperium CEO Martin Tobias Going Kashless // Oct 24, 2008 at 6:09 pm
[...] this morning and he confirmed that he has founded and is running re-commerce company Kashless.org (noted here and here, and in this job [...]
9 Former Imperium CEO Martin Tobias Going Kashless | Eco Friendly Mag // Oct 24, 2008 at 6:33 pm
[...] this morning and he confirmed that he has founded and is running re-commerce company Kashless.org (noted here and here, and in this job [...]
10 Former Imperium CEO Martin Tobias Going Kashless | Alternative Energy News // Oct 24, 2008 at 8:00 pm
[...] this morning and he confirmed that he has founded and is running re-commerce company Kashless.org (noted here and here, and in this job [...]
11 Anonymous // Mar 3, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Martin is awesome.
12 Unbeliever // Mar 4, 2009 at 5:05 pm
“In every deal I have been in, I have been early and broken new ground.”
I’m not sure what Martin is talking about as both Craigslist and Freecycle have been around forever. A fact which Martin and his twisted crew are well aware of as they are placing ads in Craigslist and Freecycle for free items. When people reply to these postings, Martin and his cronies tell them, “Hey, I’ve got this free thing but I’ve decided instead to post it on Kashless.org. Sign up for a free account there and I may give it to you!”
If every plan this guy comes up with is as morally bankrupt as that, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about the next website he makes after this one tanks.
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