MINNESOTA, USA — John Costello has always had the heart of an entrepreneur. Growing up on a hobby farm, he would sell firewood, zucchini bread and eggs at the local farmers market as a fourth grader.
As a teenager, Costello turned to office equipment. He started West Metro Solutions at 16 years old.
"I was selling office phones, internet routers, servers... kind of whatever I could get my hands on. When COVID hit, all of a sudden the entire office was being liquidated. So I saw an opportunity in the furniture," Costello said.
Costello had no idea how to take apart an office cubicle. But then came the opportunity to acquire 10 cubes for free if he could provide the labor to remove them.
"We brought every kind of a tool you could imagine because we were like, 'We don't how to get it out, but we're going to get it out by the end of the day. One way or another, we're going to figure it out," Costello recalled.
Those cubicles were stored in Costello's garage before they sold a month later. For awhile, Costello was acquiring furniture, holding it, and then reselling it.
"I've pivoted my model and now I focus a lot more on refurbished and remanufactured office furniture. And what I really like about these products is that we have the same selection as a company purchasing new furniture but at a fraction of the cost," Costello said.
Costello is now a junior at Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas. As a Schulze Innovation scholar, he is double majoring in entrepreneurship and finance.
"It's quite surprising, isn't it? He has that drive to do something... that strong drive. I think that's something that most of us never had at his age," said Jim Wade, owner of Office Systems and Design.
West Metro Solutions works with a number of companies across the country, including Office Systems and Design in White Bear Lake.
"He was a young man that had a lot of ambition. So we kind of helped him along and he buys products from us and we help him with some of his projects," Wade said.
As companies have downsized their offices, with more employees working remote or hybrid, Costello acquires much of his furniture from offices in downtown Minneapolis.
But Costello said there is still a market for the work he does.
"We wind up selling back to the companies that you'd see alongside I-94, 394, 694. Those kind of businesses are who we provide back to," Costello said. "We've done over $1 million in sales since we've started and now we're pacing at about half a million in annual sales."
West Metro Solutions has the ability to customize and transform the used office furniture it acquires.
Pointing to a cubicle, Costello said, "This station, new, was a few $1,000. And it would have been slated for the landfill if we didn't bring it here, touch it up, showcase it to be resold."
Since the start, Costello said his business has reclaimed over 500,000 pounds of furniture.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates up to 17 billion pounds of office furniture end up in landfills each year.
"I think a lot of times people look at sustainable practices as kind of a generosity thing," Costello said. "I want sustainability to be the most economical way to do business. I see that as the only way we can make a true difference in the world. Generosity is great, but I don't think it'll get us there. I think we need to make a real paradigm shift in business."
You can learn more about West Metro Solutions, here.
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