A Wharton Graduate Chooses Entrepreneurship to ‘Fight the Fire’ of Saving Our Planet
Students who attend the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania as undergraduates are known for pursuing internships and jobs in investment banking and management consulting. They seek prestige, competitive edge, great salaries, and the kind of strategic thinking that advances careers in business.
When Svanika Balasubramanian (pictured above talking about circularity, a sustainability concept where resources and products are kept in use for as long as possible) was a Wharton undergrad in 2015-2018, she too worked as a summer analyst for Deloitte Middle East and Morgan Stanley in New York City.
Then, she caught the entrepreneurship bug. And, a chance partnership with a student assigned to be her peer reviewer changed the direction of her life.
“My now-co-founder Peter Hjemdahl (a past Wharton Global High School Investment Competition client) was writing his thesis at Wharton about the economics of female waste workers in India, in the slums of Mumbai at the Deonar East landfill,” noted Svanika, whose original research project was on the economics of refugee resettlement and immigration in Germany. “He was researching a topic that I deeply cared about…so, we decided to co-write the thesis together. Eventually, we had this 200-page paper, and it just felt wrong to leave it at that, because we had somehow peered behind the curtain at a very not-talked-about topic, and there was so much there. We didn’t have it in our hearts to step away from that and do a different job in New York.”
And thus was born rePurpose Global. The company has grown into one of the world’s leading plastic action platforms that brings together brands, consumers, innovators and policymakers to combat the plastic waste crisis and improve the lives of marginalized waste workers – a startup that won Penn’s prestigious President’s Engagement Prize in 2018.
Seven years later, Svanika, Peter and their other co-founder Aditya Siroya – each at one time destined for corporate finance — are all-in on their entrepreneurship journey. RePurpose Global employs some 70 people globally and partners on projects that they say have recovered more than 23 million kilograms of plastic waste from the environment.
In Conversation with the CEO
Wharton Global Youth invited Svanika to talk about her career and her deep commitment to the circular economy – which she does with great energy and insight. You can watch that full interview on our Youtube channel.
“The circular economy is a newer concept that is starting to pick up steam,” said Svanika, who serves as rePurpose Global’s CEO. “It is the idea that our current model of use-and-throw culture, where we buy a product, use it once, and it goes into a landfill [is not sustainable]. The majority of things in a landfill that are single-use are used for less than 15 minutes before they ended up there. Instead, we all want to be moving toward a circular economy, where we use a product and then we remake it into a different product.”
Svanika (don’t miss how she uses a clever superhero analogy to describe her evolving day-to-day role as an entrepreneur and CEO!) shared her expertise about the plastic crisis facing our planet:
- Plastic consumption is alarmingly high – the average person consumes a credit card’s worth of plastic every week, and more than 60 million pounds of new plastic are generated every hour.
- Plastic production currently generates more carbon emissions than global aviation, making it a significant contributor to climate change that goes beyond traditional environmental concerns.
- Less than 10% of plastic in the United States is recycled, with most being landfilled or shipped to developing countries that are not equipped to handle the waste.
- The plastic waste crisis is deeply interconnected with humanitarian issues, with tens of millions of people in impoverished communities working in exploitative and unregulated waste management sectors, often experiencing reduced life expectancy and serious health problems. Repurpose Global works with approximately 600 brands to create formal employment for waste workers.
- The global plastic waste problem requires a comprehensive approach, involving brands, consumers, innovators, and policymakers, with an estimated $5.2 trillion needed over the next 15 years to transition to a circular economy and effectively address the crisis.
During our Wharton Global Youth interview, Svanika shared deeper revelations about environmental activism, business and career. Be sure to tune into our Youtube channel for a masterclass in entrepreneurship and the triple bottom line of how business must balance its commitment to people, planet and profits.
“Everybody throughout the history of time, from the first human being to where we are today, has always been born into a world in crisis; into a world on fire,” Svanika observed. “The responsibility that each of us holds is not to make sure that the world isn’t on fire, but rather that the fires that our future generations have to care about are different from the ones that we are fighting today.”
Conversation Starters
When Svanika Balasubramanian teamed up with Peter Hjemdahl for their research collaboration, she said, “Eventually, we had this 200-page paper, and it just felt wrong to leave it at that, because we had somehow peered behind the curtain at a very not-talked-about topic, and there was so much there.” Have you ever worked on a project that left you feeling similarly? How did you act on your interest? Share your story in the comment section of this article.
Our YouTube interview with Svanika is rich with insight and career advice, moving from entrepreneurship as a source for change, to breaking cycles of generational poverty through structured economic opportunities. Listen to the interview (linked above) and choose a quote or theme that resonates with you. Discuss with a group or share your thoughts in the comment section of this article.
What do you think about Svanika choosing entrepreneurship over corporate finance? Would you make this choice? Why or why not?
This isn’t just some “save the planet” feel-good story. Svanika ditched the Wall Street dream because she saw how broken the system really is, profit over people, waste over workers. rePurpose Global actually puts money where it counts, tackling plastic pollution and the brutal labor behind it. If more finance folks don’t do this, they’re just fueling the problem. Real impact comes from solving these issues, not chasing the usual corporate grind.
Svanika proves to be an inspiring character as she not only works to make our modern world a healthier environment, but she also strives to make the world a better place for future generations to come. Many start-ups and companies can be blinded by the allure of promises of wealth and becoming household brands, instead of focusing on their own long-term success and even their impact on the global environment, unlike repurpose Global which was founded with a mission and a sustainable objective. Even though it may have been fate that Svanika was just as passionate as Peter was, initially writing his thesis, they took their insight and 200-page paper to the next level by building a global company off of it— seeing their hard work pay off and fighting for their passions. They built themselves opportunities based off of future visions of a better world instead of waiting to stumble across them and for someone else to create these openings for them. Seeking a solution to this serious yet unknown global issue, the co-founders of rePurpose Global redefine entrepreneurship as they are driven by passion and devotion instead of the usual drive of money and success.
When Svanika said, “We had this 200-page paper, and it just felt wrong to leave it at that,” it reminded me of how one of my projects, Bet Blue, grew from a summer party project to a youth-founded sustainable venture.
I was first fascinated with 3D printing in the 2nd grade, during an assignment to design skyscrapers. So, when tasked with designing poker sets for a friend’s party, I saw an opportunity to blend my passion for building and entrepreneurial spirit. As my high school’s 3D printer whirred to life, my entrepreneurial passions dimmed: the plastic filament that I was supposed to use would generate an enormous amount of waste.
According to the IUCN, 20 million tons of plastic waste are leaked into our environment each year, and like Svanika, I was shaken by the irony that I would be contributing to the very pollution that I hoped to fight. Yet, I was so enthralled with the idea of building something entrepreneurial. Inspired by leaders like Svanika and rePurpose, I launched Bet Blue–my capstone project that rescues plastic waste from NYC’s environment and converts it into 3D-printed poker sets. With Bet Blue, I turned plastic into profits and pollution into purpose.
Svanika’s journey with rePurpose shows that the circular economy and sustainable entrepreneurship aren’t just a detour of business; they are its future. It’s not just a niche path of entrepreneurs, but a path that we must take if we are to solve the global problems that we face today. She proves that sustainability doesn’t have to mean sacrifice; it can actually mean adding value, both economic and environmental. That’s the kind of future I want to bet on.
For the longest time, I have avoided the field of finance because I believed that it was a tedious and monotone 9-5 job at a computer all day. I have come a long way since then. Svanika’s journey showcased in this small snippet of text reveals what it means to really be engaged in the world of economics.
Corporate finance and entrepreneurship are two main pathways into finance. Both terms are broad images of immensely intricate occupations. In the corporate world, financial services such as, budgeting, analyzing and buying or selling are provided to clients. Entrepreneurship on the other hand, explores the business side that requires proper risk management and creativity.
A common misconception is that people need to choose one side between the two. The truth is that at least one third of people working in corporate finance transition to entrepreneurship. Svanika was one individual out of this statistic. What is the reason for such a customary switch? The answer is simple: risk. The ones who are willing to make the change are the ones that are willing to take the biggest risk. All of us are capable of having a passion that we would pursue to turn into an entrepreneurial innovation of some sort. However, if it was so easy, all of us would be owning multi-billion companies right now. But it is not.
Svanika chose to take this risk when staring rePurpose. She believed not only in herself but she in her mission and her intent to take on addressing sustainability. There are a multitude of upsides for doing this despite the huge gamble she is taking.
1) She is working on something she genuinely has passion for.
2) She gains more flexibility and learns how to become more independent.
3) She is able to really contribute and give back to society.
These benefits however, do not mean that her previous work in corporate was a waste. Corporate finance teaches many vital skills as well including technicalities, cooperation, and work ethic. Without working in corporate first, it would be extremely difficult to run your own business.
Therefore, I would consider takings similar steps to Svanika in the future. I believe in finding a fire to fight yet I know this can only be possible with corporate background.