Meet Lonny Kirby | Product Developer and CEO of EcoJarz, Inc

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lonny Kirby and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lonny, do you have some perspective or insight you can share with us on the question of when someone should give up versus when they should keep going?
So many people in business think that if you’re making money, then you shouldn’t give up. No, no, no. It’s about how much time you’re putting in. Just because you have to cut an idea doesn’t mean you’re done with all ideas. I’ve had to cut out so many ideas because it was sucking my life, and then I came up with Ecojarz. When you have a new idea and you think you’re like 90% of the way there to the end, you’re really half of the way there. If you’re telling yourself “I’m doing 100% of what I can do”, you’re really going to have to do another 50% more work. So if you’re willing to do THAT, and you still want to do it, then you keep going.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
EcoJarz was started by a group of friends in Freeville, NY who just so happened to have a lot of mason jars at home. I had a lot of ideas, I was always developing products to make my life easier. It’s almost impossible for me to NOT develop products. I can’t turn it off. Almost never do I see a product that I would want to go out and find and buy. If you were to look at my shopping receipts, it’s all parts to build other stuff! How often do I actually buy a finished product?! Before EcoJarz started, I was designing heated fuel systems for vegetable oil powered cars. Before that, I had design for a snowboard bag, but I couldn’t get into stores. So when I had this idea for a stainless steel drinking lid for a mason jar, I called a meeting to show off my invention to my friends. Everyone chipped in what they could to help for a percentage of the profits and EcoJarz was born! I have a lot of contacts in Vietnam, small family-run factories, who able to take my designs and turn them into a reality. From the get-go we had to get super creative. We had an order of lids come in from our manufacturer that were way too sharp around the edges. Desperate to save them, we spent a week figuring out a process to deburr them. At one point, we had the lids tumbling in a cement mixer with stainless steel bolts and $200 of nickels as media to smooth them out. People loved our first lids, but many folks asked if we could make a lid whose drinking hole could be plugged up to seal. Others pointed out that the Ball jar bands that come standard with mason jars tend to rust over time. So, we worked on a new drinking jar lid that was 100% spill proof, and eventually came up with our resealable EcoJarz PopTop. Making rust proof jar bands was a much bigger problem, and it seemed impossible to launch a stainless steel version. After two years of development, several failed prototypes, and tens of thousands of dollars we finally developed the first stainless steel jar band on the market. Thicker than the standard low grade steel Ball bands, these bands are designed to last a lifetime of use. We now carry fermenter kits, stainless steel straws, stainless steel storage lids, grater lids, our ToGoJar connector, and a sprouting lid! We worked hard and took our products on the road, we set up booths in trade shows and farmer’s markets. And news of us spread by word of mouth.

I would say our core values are a big factor in EcoJarz’ success. We don’t deviate from those. At EcoJarz, we make products that are eco friendly, by combating single-use items. There are a lot of trendy, quickly made “eco-friendly” products in the world, but they’re made of plastic, which warps, stains, or breaks and you throw it away. Our products are Guaranteed for Life. We really try to emphasize quality. Anything that touches your food is made from stainless steel or silicone. Chemical leaching is a really important thing to us. I know I’m more sensitive to this than other people, but I hate drinking coffee out of plastic mugs. I can taste the plastic in it.
Our products are compatible with glass mason jars. Mason jars are open source. Nobody can own them. Glass is one of the most renewable materials on earth, it’s 100% fully recyclable, a jar can be recycled forever, it’s not a downgrade like plastic. Another core value that people get behind is our no packaging option. When people are trying to shop responsibly, they might not even buy something because of the plastic packaging. Then they see our stuff which is either packaged in recyclable brown paper, or no packaging at all, that last barrier to buying is gone! You can get our products without packaging and it comes in a shipping box that’s reusable. Some other mason jar companies will just order large quantities of cheap products out of China, and just throw it on their website because it’s a mason jar thing, or they’ll copy other people’s stuff. But those companies won’t be around for very long. There are two different ways you can view a business. You can just have a business to sell things which means you have to advertise your products. Or, you could create a lifestyle and a community that people are engaged in and if they like it, then they buy your stuff. Yeah, we’re a business, but for us, the product isn’t the end goal, it’s the fact that we’re making a difference. A lot of people will say that’s a huge mistake, that a business should be on Amazon just pushing products out the door. From a business standpoint we may not necessarily be doing things the “right” way. Even when people buy our stuff and repurpose our products for other uses…we love that, and sometimes it can lead to whole new products! That’s what I love about Instagram, is when people share how they’re using our products. That’s the open source aspect to mason jars. We can’t own the ideas. I think mason jars will always be around, people like glass better than plastic. We have tons and tons of competitors and then they’ll slowly fade out and go away, but we’ll be here to stay.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Our office is in Globeville and I really enjoy the riverwalk downtown. I’ll often take my electric scooter or skateboard for a couple mile ride on the Riverwalk.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to thank all the original EcoJarz supporters who gave time and money to get this idea up and running!

Joe, Danila, Tom, Ahu, Chelsea, Katherine, Tammie, and Justin.

Thanks guys!

Website: https://ecojarz.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecojarz/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoJarz

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Ecojarz/featured