Grand Opening: The Front Lines
Preston Bryant
Co-Founder, Executive Chair, & Chief Commercial Officer · Momentum
Preston Bryant is the Co-Founder, Executive Chair, and Chief Commercial Officer of Momentum Technologies, a company specializing in the recycling of lithium-ion batteries and rare earth elements. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a focus on energy from the Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business.
During his college years, Preston developed an oil company in honor of his late father and later expanded his knowledge of the rare earth industry at LPI. In 2016, he founded Momentum Technologies, which has since been recognized in Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Energy class of 2021.
How Momentum Built a $150M Recycling Business by Ignoring Traditional Sales Playbooks
Most B2B founders obsess over sales process optimization. Preston Bryant took the opposite approach: he built Momentum into a market leader by systematically removing friction from every customer interaction, even when it meant losing money on individual deals.
In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Preston Bryant, Founder and CEO of Momentum, shared how his recycling marketplace grew to facilitate over $150 million in transactions by rethinking the fundamentals of B2B commerce in an industry stuck decades in the past.
The Accidental Entry into Recycling
Preston's path into the Momentum and recycling industry wasn't strategic—it was opportunistic. "I started a business in high school power washing driveways and houses," Preston explains. "I had a customer come up to me and ask me if I could power wash some Momentums for him." That single request evolved into a side business buying and selling Momentums, which Preston ran while studying finance at the University of South Carolina.
The real insight came from direct market exposure. "I just learned how antiquated the industry was, how much waste there was, and thought there was a massive opportunity to leverage the internet and some software to disintermediate a lot of the transactions," Preston says.
Building Distribution Before Product
Most tech founders build product first and figure out distribution later. Preston inverted this model entirely. Before writing a single line of code, he spent years building physical infrastructure and market relationships.
"We started a consulting business helping recycling companies get set up on all these different marketplaces," Preston shares. This wasn't a pivot or a distraction—it was strategic groundwork.
By helping recyclers establish their digital presence, Momentum built deep relationships with suppliers while learning exactly what the market needed.
The physical infrastructure came next. "We built out all the logistics infrastructure, all the processing infrastructure. We have locations in like 30 different states across the country," Preston explains. This brick-and-mortar foundation gave Momentum something most marketplaces struggle to achieve: supply-side control and quality assurance.
The Friction Removal Framework
Where most B2B marketplaces focus on transaction volume, Preston obsessed over transaction friction. His approach was methodical: identify every point where customers had to think, decide, or wait—then eliminate it.
"We don't charge for shipping. We just eat all the shipping costs," Preston reveals. For a business moving physical products across the country, this seems financially reckless.
The Inbound Motion That Actually Works
Preston's approach to inbound marketing diverges sharply from conventional SaaS playbooks. There's no lead magnet strategy, no elaborate nurture sequences, no content calendar optimized for search volume.
"We have one person that works on content full time," Preston explains. "He's really focused on anything and everything sustainability and ESG related." The content isn't designed to drive immediate conversions—it's designed to build category authority.
Enterprise Sales Without Enterprise Friction
Most companies moving upmarket add process, gatekeepers, and complexity. Momentum did the opposite. "We really try to make our product easy to use, easy to onboard," Preston emphasizes.
The Contrarian Approach to Market Positioning
Perhaps Preston's most counterintuitive move: positioning Momentum as a recycling company first, marketplace second. "We don't really position ourselves necessarily as a marketplace," Preston says. "We're a recycling company that buys recyclables from corporate America."
What Sophisticated Founders Can Learn
Preston's GTM strategy reveals several principles that transfer across industries:
Operate on shoestring budgets during hard tech development
Preston emphasized the importance of being extremely selective with spending during the early stages.Find the right commercial application through iteration
Momentum spent four years exploring different applications before finding product-market fit in battery recycling.Build strategic partnerships to demonstrate full value chain
Momentum's partnership with Cerbus Solutions and 6K demonstrated a complete supply chain solution from collection to end product.Navigate the transition from technical founder to scaled leadership
As the company grew, Preston transitioned from CEO to Executive Chair and CCO roles.Leverage accelerator programs for credibility
Getting into Halliburton Labs during COVID helped attract investor attention.