A $125,000 check from an angel investor group is a vote of confidence. For GreenSight Technologies, the Cal Poly-born startup that won the AngelCon 2025 competition, it is a bet on a specific, unglamorous choke point in the circular economy: the IT asset disposition, or ITAD, warehouse [Recycling Today, May 2025].
Here, decommissioned servers, laptops, and networking gear arrive by the pallet. The job is to sort, test, erase, grade, and route each piece for resale, parts harvesting, or recycling. It is a manual, data-poor, and margin-sensitive process. GreenSight's founders, Jake Daniels, Diego Curiel, and Mackenzie Kettwig, are betting that a layer of intelligent software can make it faster and more valuable [Recycling Today, May 2025].
The Facility-Level Wedge
GreenSight is not building another generic recommerce marketplace. Its wedge is facility-level automation. The company's mobile app, GreenSight Tech, and its backend systems are designed to integrate directly into the physical workflow of an ITAD operation [Apple App Store]. The goal is to give technicians and managers real-time tools at the point of intake and processing.
Key surfaces include a "Scan-For-Value" tool for device identification and pricing, and an AI-powered "Quote Engine" for generating resale offers [maxineancheta.com, 2025][PRLog]. The differentiation, according to competition coverage, rests on understanding domain-specific steps like data-erasure compliance and component grading,processes a generic warehouse management system would miss [Recycling Today, May 2025]. The promise is increased throughput, better data capture, and standardized decision-making to maximize recovery value from each piece of hardware [Crunchbase].
A Team Forged in the Classroom
The company's origins are academic. It was born from a senior project at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where the three co-founders were students [Mustang News]. The team structure that emerged from that project appears to have carried into the business. Jake Daniels serves as CEO, Diego Curiel as Chief Technology Officer, and Mackenzie Kettwig as Secretary [Cal Poly CIE SBDC, May 2025][Equilar ExecAtlas][bizprofile.net].
| Role | Name | Note |
|---|---|---|
| CEO | Jake Daniels | Co-founder from Palo Alto, CA [Cal Poly CIE SBDC] |
| CTO | Diego Curiel | Co-founder from Santa Barbara, CA [Cal Poly CIE SBDC] |
| Secretary | Mackenzie Kettwig | Co-founder from Colfax, CA [Cal Poly CIE SBDC] |
This clarity on early roles is a positive, if basic, signal. The path from classroom project to funded company is a well-trodden one in the Cal Poly ecosystem, and the AngelCon win provides external validation of the concept and team [Pacific Coast Business Times, May 2025].
Early Traction and the First Customer
For a company founded in 2024, tangible milestones are few but pointed. The $125,000 investment from the AngelCon investor group is the sole disclosed funding round, placing the company firmly in the pre-seed stage [Recycling Today, May 2025]. More concretely, GreenSight has announced its first customer: URT, a national electronics recycling and ITAD firm, is using the company's Quote Engine [Recycling Today, May 2025].
A single pilot customer is not a market. But in the B2B automation space, a named, credible first client is a critical proof point. It suggests GreenSight can navigate a sales cycle and integrate its software into a live operational environment. The company's stated aim is to "redefine how electronics are valued, reused, and recycled" by helping facilities make "smarter, faster routing decisions" [Crunchbase]. URT is the first test of that claim.
The Skeptic's Case
The bet is clear, but the path is narrow. GreenSight is entering a specialized corner of the logistics and recycling industry. The risks are not about the size of the problem,electronic waste is a massive, growing stream,but about execution and adoption.
- Niche competition. The startup positions itself against generic software, but established ITAD operators often use homegrown systems or deeply customized versions of broader warehouse management platforms. Displacing entrenched workflow is a heavy lift.
- Sales complexity. Selling automation software into industrial facilities is a high-touch, long-cycle enterprise sale. The founding team's public record does not yet show prior experience in this specific type of B2B sales leadership.
- Feature depth vs. speed. The domain-specific wedge is an advantage, but it requires building deep functionality for a relatively small total addressable market. The company must move quickly with limited capital to prove its automation delivers a clear ROI on labor and recovery value.
The company's most plausible answer is focus. By not trying to be everything to every warehouse, it can build the precise tools ITAD managers need. The URT partnership is the first chance to demonstrate that focused value.
The Next Twelve Months
The capital from AngelCon is runway. The question is what GreenSight can build with it. The next milestones are predictable: convert the URT pilot into a multi-year contract, sign two to three additional facility customers, and demonstrate measurable improvements in processing speed or asset recovery value. The company will likely need to return to investors within 12-18 months for a seed round to scale beyond early adopters.
GreenSight Technologies' $125,000 pre-seed round, led by the AngelCon investor group, values the company at a number it has not disclosed [Recycling Today, May 2025][Cal Poly CIE SBDC, May 2025]. The real valuation will be set by the next set of facility contracts. Can a classroom project automate the world's ITAD backrooms? The first rack of servers is already on the floor at URT.
Sources
- [Recycling Today, May 2025] GreenSight Technologies wins angel investment competition | https://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/greensight-technologies-wins-angel-investment-competition/
- [Apple App Store] GreenSight Tech app listing | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/greensight-tech/id6751604152
- [maxineancheta.com, 2025] Portfolio case study on GreenSight Technologies | https://maxineancheta.com
- [PRLog] Press release on GreenSight's AI Quote Engine | https://www.prlog.org
- [Crunchbase] GreenSight Technologies company profile | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/greensight-tech
- [Mustang News] Cal Poly startup GreenSight Technologies Wins $125,000 in funding at AngelCon | https://mustangnews.net/cal-poly-startup-wins-angelcon/
- [Cal Poly CIE SBDC, May 2025] Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship announcement | https://cie.calpoly.edu/sbdc
- [Equilar ExecAtlas] Executive profile for Diego Curiel | https://execatlas.equilar.com
- [bizprofile.net] Business profile for GreenSight Technologies | https://bizprofile.net
- [Pacific Coast Business Times, May 2025] GreenSight Technologies takes home $125K at AngelCon | https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2025/05/12/greensight-technologies-takes-home-125k-at-angelcon/