Critical Misunderstood Podcast Episode 5 - Ben Redwood

Описание: What if you could build a business that saved 1,600 tonnes of waste… but it nearly broke you?

Every founder knows the grind. The long nights. The moments where you ask yourself: why am I even doing this?

In this episode of Misunderstood – The Podcast for Designers Who See the World Differently, I sat down with Ben Redwood.

Ben is the founder and CEO of Mutu, a Kiwi start-up helping construction companies reuse and redistribute surplus materials.

Here’s what we talked about:

Growing up in Tokoroa and watching his parents hustle to give their kids a better life

How his grandfather helped build the Karapiro dams, and why that sparked his engineering journey

The 80 job rejections after finishing a PhD that nearly made him give up

What he learned scaling a Dutch start-up to a $500M acquisition

Why he made 100+ cold calls a week to turn Mutu around

And how purpose, not money, keeps him going through the hard years

Under Ben’s leadership, Mutu has:

Redirected 1,600 tonnes of materials back into use

Prevented over 300 tonnes of CO₂ emissions

Saved clients $2M+ in procurement costs

This isn’t just a story about business.
It’s about resilience.
It’s about backing yourself when nobody else does.
And it’s about creating systems that make waste a thing of the past.

If you’re building something bigger than yourself — and wondering if it’s worth it — this one’s for you.

The clips and full version are available on YouTube, TikTok, and Spotify.
Jump on criticaldesign.nz for more.

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