Many times in conversation, while sharing how Tyga-Box Systems, Inc. was started - the listener would exclaim - Oh! That's such a great story - you should write a book!! So, here's how our eco-journey started.
The company was born, frankly, out of an ecological rant. Its founders, Nadine Cino and Marty Spindel were in the fashion industry and legal field respectively, and had no intention of going into business together. That was...until they moved in 1991.
Their belongings were held hostage by an unscrupulous mover, who justified the demand for "ransom" as being due to supplying extra corrugated boxes for their move.
Cino, half Cuban, half Italian (therefore all Latin, and, as well - a small business owner) was outraged by the incident, particularly as there was no recycling program in place at that time...and she saw no alternative other than to shove corrugated boxes down the incinerator.
As she did - in the blink of an eye - she saw trees - and not just trees - but trees burning.
She experienced the pain of what - as a living entity - it must have felt like to the tree as it was felled, transported downstream, chopped into chips, mashed with scalding water and chemicals, rolled into corrugated, shipped across the country - to hold a few items, and then be exposed to such high heat through incineration that its state of matter was transformed from solid to particulate ash...all for a single use!!
She felt such visceral outrage by the waste of a tree's life - she decided to found a company with Spindel which would provide reusable plastic moving boxes as an ecological alternative to corrugated. Believing that reuse was the most efficient form of environmental behavior, they became "thought leaders" 15 years ago - long before "green" became the "new black."
"Eco-Move," their first company, had as its slogan "Economically Sensible - Ecologically Essential." It rented standalone plastic boxes to the residential community and, although demand was quite high, so was the cost of delivery and pickup. Quickly...they were engulfed in red ink.
They then targeted companies moving, reasoning that as order size would increase, so would profits. They promoted their company's ecological purpose with great passion and persistence - no business plan - and no intention of becoming inventors.
However, while observing corporate moves they were dumbfounded by what they saw - people lifting filled, heavy boxes between 4-6 times before being placed on dolly at origin - a tedious process which wasted time and exposed companies to risk of injury claims.
Being from outside the industry, Spindel and Cino wondered....why not just put the box on the dolly in the first place?!
Their insight was to have the dolly on hand at time of packing, putting the move on wheels from the onset.
When they asked movers - why not deliver dollies in advance - movers expressed concern that if their standard platform dollies were delivered in advance of the move - they would likely be stolen in large quantities. That objection became the opportunity.
Spindel and Cino reasoned that a bottomless dolly would not be stolen, and to make the dolly bottomless, they rethought the manner in which weight is supported and transported, changing it from a horizontal to a vertical plane. The patented Tyga-Dolly vertically "suspends" the weight of the boxes above it, and is akin to 4 small bridges connected by exterior wheel wells, making it the safest and only Non-Tip dolly in the marketplace.
Years were spent going through the rigors of R&D with engineers - they almost went bankrupt twice - and ultimately succeeded in developing the Tyga-Box System. Broke yet undeterred, confidence in their product coupled with their capitalistic belief that "efficiency compels markets" inspired them to keep going - despite the fact they had not a single customer, and didn't really know how the market would respond to their product.
Desperately in need of customers, they traveled throughout the country on cold-calling road trips - like "Fuller Brush salesmen" - to get the Tyga-Box System placed with moving companies. Most movers, historically not known for being "early adopters" - responded negatively. Sometimes Spindel and Cino were politely shown the door - sometimes not. Ultimately though, they succeeded in landing a few accounts.
They felt they were on their way - almost! By that time their good credit history had turned....downright ugly, and they could only get financing through a "story lender" with onerous terms and rates fractionally below usury. Nonetheless, they seized the opportunity to capitalize their company and proceeded to develop a national footprint with distributors, providing rental Tyga-Boxes to companies moving throughout America.
Fast forward to 2006 - awareness in "sustainability issues" reaches operational levels in facilities and project management, and many companies want to achieve "double green" results by deriving economical benefits from the use of ecological products.
The Tyga-Box System was recognized as a major advance beyond standalone corrugated boxes, generating benefits so great as to be worthy of being called an "industry transformation:" 40-50% fewer stacks to be moved; 40-50% more efficient truck and elevator utilization; 35% reduction in employee downtime, and an approximate 2,000% reduction in carbon footprint compared to the footprint of purchasing corrugated boxes over a 10 year period (which represents the minimum life expectancy of a Tyga-Box).
Consequently, the company was awarded multi-year contracts with Fortune 500 companies to provide rental Tyga-Boxes to locations throughout North America. Tyga-Box provides expertise enabling companies to establish metrics for evaluating their "double green" savings and to standardize "Best Practices" based on their individual corporate cultures.
Intent on expanding mutual business opportunity, Spindel and Cino formed a partnership with David King AIA, CFM, inventor of The Samson Cart, and former vice president of real estate and facilities for GE Commercial Finance. A leading force behind GE's EcoImagination initiatives, King adds tremendous value having done considerable research on the subject of establishing metrics and standardizing procedures for GE.
The company has added "Best in Class" green moving products to its line including: the Samson Cart, the PicturePaker, the Tyga-IT-Crate, and has expanded its services to include pre-move purge and shredding, as well as paper and electronic recycling. The company is WMBE pending.
Cino was recently honored when asked to serve IFMAGNY as chair of their sustainability committee, and her two main initiatives are to create (i) a global information portal and (ii) a cultural exchange of ideas between facilities and real estate professionals from the U.S. and Dubai.
She has been co-chair of programs for the previous 5 years, helping grow the organization, for which she received "Associate Member of the Year Award" in 2007. Her commitment and hard work was acknowledged in 2004 by winning IFMAGNY's most prestigious "Tony Cornaccia Award."
She served on the steering committee for "Bridging the Gap," a full day sustainability and energy efficiency seminar sponsored by ASHRAE, AEE BOMA, CMAA, IFMAGNY, USGBC New York Chapter, GSA, NYSERDA and ULI.
Spindel and Cino have been granted several other patents since they became "accidental inventors" of the Tyga-Box System over a decade ago. They look forward to introducing new products and services based on their inventions in the near term, and are excited to see how well they fare. To them - there's nothing like the thrill of seeing a product thrive in an indifferent marketplace.
Spindel, aka "tygaman," is a passionate and sensitive writer and poet who, in his leisure time, likes to relax in the simplicity of a walk along the Hudson, a steam after a good work-out or just "hang" with family and friends.
Cino, aka "the tyga lady," thrives on traveling, working out, wine tasting, laughing loudly and often, and all things "sustainability." She loves the color and conundrum of the chaos of the universe! She and her son Chris, plan to develop, on a long range basis, their upstate family farm of 115 acres into a sustainable, second-home community.
She's hard pressed to find anyone more lucky than she, as you can see - Cino and Spindel are living their ecological dream and saving trees - one corporate move at a time! Tags: