LASALLE’s Programme for LASALLE Creative Entrepreneurs (PLACE) is a creative entrepreneurship programme by the Faculty of Design. It mentors fresh graduates or students to develop their ideas into ventures that can inspire, help and serve their communities.
One project, Ferticlay, is a new sustainable clay material made of food waste such as ground-up eggshells and nut husks. Ferticlay is founded by BA(Hons) Interior Design graduate Jodie Monteiro, together with NUS student Ong Kok Chung.
Jodie shares that founding Ferticlay was a brand new experience. After developing the first batch of Ferticlay, her lecturers at LASALLE encouraged her to develop it into a business model in the future, which spurred Jodie to sign up for PLACE. The mentorship and guidance she has received on PLACE has led her to greater opportunities, including wins in several startup competitions.
"It can be daunting to embark on the journey of an entrepreneur. I had almost no business experience, so I had to do a lot of research and experiments to develop a business plan and products. Since we are a company that recycles eggshells, newspapers, coffee grounds, etc., we need to contact many suppliers and properly store these materials. We are working on R&D to screen clay deposits from soil, mix different materials together and test their tensile strength, until we get the desired results. It is exciting to see ideas and visions come to fruition and rewarding to experience the joy of creating and exploring,” says Jodie.
