At A Glance

Rebecca Williams left her corporate career in Melbourne three years ago to lead Seed & Sprout, a sustainability startup that's grown from one lunchbox to 450 plastic-free products. Operating from the small coastal town of Byron Bay with just 15 team members, Rebecca has built a customer experience philosophy that goes far beyond traditional service—literally hand-delivering products when shipping fails and telling customers to gift wrong orders to friends rather than return them. In this interview, she reveals how democratic innovation drives product development, why attitude trumps skills in hiring, and her ambitious plans to bring Australian-designed sustainable solutions to global markets.

Who is Rebecca Williams?

Meet Rebecca, the CEO of Seed and Sprout!

About Seed and Sprout

Seed and Sprout is a plastic-free, sustainability company; focused on providing high-quality, ethically sourced products, shipped in plastic-free packaging across Kitchen, Lunchware, Personal Care, Composting and Travel. Their mission is simple. To provide consumers with high-quality materials produced through sustainable business practices. 

Rebecca’s Journey

Rebecca Williams made an unexpected career pivot three years ago when she left the corporate world in Melbourne to lead a small sustainability startup in Byron Bay. "My background was in corporate. Quite unexpected for an ex-corporate gal to come across to a little startup that's trying to change the world," she explains. The move from Australia's bustling business hub to a "really small country town" known for "beautiful beaches and whales and indigenous culture" represented more than just a geographic shift—it was a complete reimagining of what leadership could look like. 

What drew Rebecca to Seed & Sprout wasn't just the mission, but the unique challenge of scaling a values-driven business. "It's kind of wild," she says. "We're this young brand, but part of something with a huge legacy." Founded by Sophie Kovic in 2016 with a Kickstarter campaign to solve the simple problem of finding a plastic-free lunchbox for her son, the company had established its mission when Rebecca arrived. But the company was in need of inspiring leadership to produce a turnaround after COVID and devastating floods in the Northern Rivers region.  "It's been a pretty incredible journey over the last three years," she reflects, acknowledging the unique opportunity of stepping into a company where "we we are trying to make the world a better place, every single day."

The Team at Seed and Sprout

Today, Rebecca leads what she describes as a "solid team of about 15 total," though the structure defies traditional corporate models and is growing at scale. "We are hyper-flexible," she explains, with team members across the Byron Bay region, some living "an hour inland on rural properties (including Sophie’s off grid tiny house) to several team members fully remote and interstate." 

The international makeup of her team—with members from Germany, Sweden, Philippines and England — means accommodating family visits has become part of the business model. “By building a high trust, transparent culture - we’ve been able to trial hybrid work from anywhere models with great success"  Rebecca says, explaining how flexibility isn't just a perk but a strategic advantage. With these flexible work arrangements; Seed & Sprout is attracting top talent.  “I’m inspired to be the change I couldn’t see in corporate life; flexibility allows exceptionally talented women to remain engaged in rewarding careers while balancing personal life (often small children or care roles)”.   

Business Growth and Revenue Strategies

Seed & Sprout's revenue strategy centers on solving the fundamental challenge faced by many sustainability brands: how to build a profitable business when your products are designed to last forever. "That is a stumbling block for a lot of sustainability brand," Rebecca acknowledges. "If you're one product and it's brilliant and you buy it once and never again, not a great business model, great for the environment, great for the customer, but not a very good business model (potentially)."

The company's solution was aggressive product expansion. Starting with Sophie Kovic's original lunchbox in 2016, they've grown to over 450 products across multiple categories - responding to the growing awareness and needs of customers looking for plastic free alternatives across their lives.   

This expansion strategy allows customers to discover new solutions across their entire home. "They might start purchasing as a lunchbox customer and then become a Kitchen storage customers and make a third order in our reusable coffee cup range." 

Unlike competitors who are "really wholesalers who are stocking other people's brands," Seed & Sprout maintains complete control over their product development. "We don't sell anybody else's brand. Everything that we have, we've designed, developed, and manufactured all the way through."  This is a significant strategic advantage; ensuring the up most quality and strictest compliance from FDA to LFBG.  

Seed and Sprout’s CX Philosophy 

Seed & Sprout's customer experience philosophy extends far beyond traditional service by inspiring behavioral change while delivering flawless execution. "We obviously want to deliver an incredible customer experience. But I think we also have the added layer and complexity of, because of what we are trying to do as a mission of trying to make the world a better place and trying to rid the world of unnecessary plastic goods and buying once and buying well, we're also trying to impact people's behavior," Rebecca explains.

The approach centers on "inspiration, education, and making sure that people have the permission to make progress and not aim for perfection." Rebecca emphasizes that they avoid making customers feel guilty about their environmental impact. "We don't want it to be a really heavy piece of discovery through that customer experience of, oh, my gosh, the world's in such a difficult place. We really come from a positive place where everybody can make an impact."

Going Above And Beyond

The team's commitment to going above and beyond has created countless memorable moments, including literally hand-delivering products when shipping fails through Australia Post (the national postal provider). When a customer needed her package before traveling but shipping was delayed, their customer care manager didn't hesitate. "She turned around to me in the office and said, well, I'm just going to go and pick it from the warehouse and I'm going to go and take it to her because it'll take me 45 minutes and she'll have what she needs. And that's just what we do. We don't even blink."

Innovation and Adaptability

Innovation at Seed & Sprout stems from a democratic approach where "ideas come from anywhere." Rebecca explains that solutions can emerge from "somebody picking and packing on the warehouse floor" or "somebody composting on the weekend and thinking, huh, we don't have that solution covered." This has generated "a really long Asana board of ideas that we want to chase and prove out concepts." The company's environmental focus provides endless opportunities since "we're in a problem-rich environment, which means that problems are constantly coming at us."

Looking ahead, Rebecca has global expansion plans while preparing major product launches. "Our primary market at the moment is Australia, and whilst that is super exciting for us as an Australian-based brand, we have our sights on the rest of the world." Her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is direct: "My advice is to trust your instincts. Being an entrepreneur, leading a business, running an eCommerce business open 24-7 comes with a whole lot of challenges and endless work.   But I think if you trust yourself, your resilient, make sure that you're looking after yourself and your team around you, and you'll be incredibly successful."