Lean Orb wins BizUp grant and acknowledgment from the Miami-Dade County

On September 26th, 2022 Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and County Commissioner Jean Monestime recently announced the seven recipients of small business grants totaling $400,000 through the Business Innovation Start-Up “BizUp” Grant.

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Check Out Lean Orb On NBC News!

Miami-Based Company Produces Biodegradable Tableware To Better The Environment

(September 2019)

Media Coverage

NBC 6 South Florida

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The Miami Herald

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BusinessWire

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BusinessWire

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2021

About Lean Orb's Founder

In 2017, Anastasia Mikhalochkina founded Lean Orb, a compostable food packaging company that services 105 businesses in the U.S. and the Bahamas.

Casual Mexican Fare and Natural Wine Are on the Menu at This Coconut Grove Newcomer

Modern Mexican cuisine that pays homage to its roots is the star at the forthcoming Los Felix restaurant, which is set to debut in Coconut Grove in early September. Keeping with the sustainable ethos, Los Felix will partner with Compost for Life Miami and Lean Orb to provide compostable to-go packaging including its corn bags that are made using entirely of eco-friendly material and can be worn as tote bags.

Congratulations to Lean Orb for winning the Stella Labs Fast Pitch Competition for the Southeast Region.

This pitch competition features five female founders from different regions in the United States each week. These founders will pitch in front of investors and members of the startup community. The winner of each region will advance to the national Woman's Fast Pitch Finals.

Congratulations to Lean Orb for winning 2nd place at Endeavor Miami's Pitch Competition powered by Dell Technologies.

The pitch competition featured ten early-stage, industry-agnostic, and South Florida-based companies.

THE FELLOWS PROGRAM

A 1-year virtual fellowship, $5,000 business education grant, and access to a network of peer founders for women-owned businesses in the U.S.

Entrepreneurship – A Sustainable Career in More Ways Than One

Anastasia Mikalockina is on a mission to change the way the food industry thinks about packaging. She founded Lean Orb, a compostable food packaging company on a mission to eliminate all single-use plastic waste and offer safe, plant-based packaging.

2020

Culture Matters: How Great Startups Will Thrive In 2020

To thrive in the new decade, entrepreneurs and founders will need to know how to effectively define and cultivate their own startup culture.

Why & How Female-Founded Lean Orb Is Helping To Reduce Plastics

Pace yourself. Building a company is a marathon, not a sprint. Burnout won’t help you be at your best and most creative. I had a few overworked years and can admit that it did not help me build a better product.

Get To Know Lean Orb

Anastasia and Lean Orb – with their goal of helping Miami become a zero-waste city – were featured on an early episode of the Innovation City podcast created by SLAM! Agency in partnership with Venture Café Miami & Venture Café St. Louis. Since then, Lean Orb has gained clients from hotels to local schools, coworking spaces to non-profits, and more. Lean Orb recently won first place at the HI-HERImpact Miami Virtual Pitch Competition hosted by Ford Motor Company Fund and 1863 Ventures.

Lean Orb Wins Hi HerImpact Miami Pitch Competition funded by Ford Fund and 1863 Ventures

Ford Motor Company Fund, the philanthropic arm of the company, and 1863 Ventures have announced the winners of the Oct. 15 HI-HERImpact Miami Pitch Competition. Five women social entrepreneurs from South Florida competed in the ‘Shark Tank’-style virtual event before a live panel of judges for $50,000 in cash prizes and in-kind support. Since 2018, Ford Fund has awarded more than $300,000 in total funding to help women-led social enterprises scale and grow in Detroit, Washington, D.C. and Miami.

Transforming the Disposable Food Packaging Culture in the Hospitality Sector and Beyond

Lean Orb is a Miami-based compostable foodservice packaging company that is transforming the disposable food packaging culture in the hospitality sector and beyond. Their team designs and distributes alternatives to single-use plastic tableware and catering supplies. They offer solutions to restaurants, hotels, corporate headquarters, music festivals, schools, and other venues where disposable items are used. The company is committed to producing responsible packaging which will take us a step closer to a society where financial, ecological and social innovation co-exists without compromising the resources of future generations. Team’s core mission is providing immediate quantifiable solutions to the problem of plastic waste.

 Endeavor Miami Launches “EndeavorLAB” To Support Women-Owned Businesses in the City of Miami

Today, Endeavor Miami – the first U.S. affiliate of the global organization supporting entrepreneurship – announced that it has partnered with the City of Miami to launch the first cohort of its accelerated growth program, EndeavorLAB. With the joint-objective of supporting female-entrepreneurship and equipping female founders with the right tools and skills to scale their ventures, thus fostering local economic wealth.

11 Diverse Startups Win At The 2020 SoGal Global Pitch Competition Finals

We are thrilled to announce that eleven women-founded startups won investment prizes at the 2020 SoGal Global Pitch Finals on February 29.

2019

Babson ePitch: Second Century Challenge Semi-Finalists Announced

Babson College's biggest pitch competition to date - the Babson ePitch: Second Century Challenge - is just over a month away, and 12 semifinalists, who have just been named, are vying for a spot on stage.

Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce Partners with Lean Orb Co.

This year Chamber of Commerce Miami Beach set an ambitious goal to eliminate any single-use plastic disposables and tableware from its operations. We partnered with a local forward-thinking company, Lean Orb, that is building plastic alternatives to single-use tableware and catering supplies. The company is currently working with clients such as Four Seasons, The W Hotel, Cambridge Innovation Center and other restaurant groups who are taking the environmental initiative to phase out plastic disposables.

2018

Meet Anastasia Mikhalochkina of Lean Orb in Wynwood

Anastasia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.

Everyone needs to stand for something bigger than themselves and aim to create a net-positive effect in the world. At some point of my reflection on life, I realized that by protecting the environment, we are standing for the well-being of every living thing.

Building A Zero Waste Business

Today’s guest is Anastasia Mikhalochkina, Founder at Lean Orb. Anastasia is an advocate for sustainability in South Florida. Lean Orb offers food service packaging made from plant-based materials, with a goal of ultimately replacing plastic and styrofoam with greener, more sustainable options. Anastasia joins Innovation City to talk about building better single-use products, educating consumers about sustainability, and her goal of helping Miami become a zero-waste city.

The Hype Around Paper Straws Explained

Paper straws are suddenly everywhere. From celebrity-driven campaigns like #StopSucking to glossy fashion magazines – everyone is talking about straw bans and sustainable alternatives to plastic straws.

The Unbearable Scarcity of The World

At this point we all know that we are on the verge of, or perhaps beyond the verge of, ecological catastrophe. And it’s not just people we are hurting, it’s every being that lives here. A full-scale global commitment to sharply reduced waste and many other sacrifices will be required.

2017

Four Ways Miami Startups Are Trying To Save The Planet

Imagine building a company that has already saved 1.1 billion gallons of water. Or a system that significantly lowers the cost and increases the yield of fish farms — and fertilizes the organic crops around it. If the massive hospitality industry used only eco-friendly products, imagine what a dent it would make in carbon emissions. And what about a company focused on getting Miami’s homes and businesses — as well as those in other cities — truly ready for climate change?