GreenBack

GreenBack pays shoppers cash back when they buy groceries with a recognized sustainability certification, such as USDA Organic. The brand funds the reward, and the shopper proves the purchase by snapping a receipt.

We are 1 of 9 finalists in the Innovation Day Collegiate Pitch Showcase and pitch at Innovation Day, part of the 18th Annual Southeast Florida Climate Leadership Summit, on November 4, 2026, with a $150,000 pre-seed ask. GreenBack has not launched yet. Everything below is research, not customer results.

I lead operations, customer research and the product build. The pitch and the poster are team work with my two co-founders. Some background research memos were written with AI assistance.

In the US, products marketed as sustainable cost an average of 28% more, while shoppers say they would pay up to 13% more (Bain & Company, 2025, citing NYU Stern data). The gap stops most people at the shelf. Labels do not help much either: in our survey, 41% could not pick out the USDA Organic label.

• Surveyed 120 shoppers between August and October 2026.
• Started with a bank-card-linked design. 8 in 10 shoppers were wary of linking a bank account, and card data shows the store and the amount but not the products. We moved to receipts.
• Set the model: the brand pays $2.00 per verified sale, split $1 to the shopper and $1 to GreenBack.
• Built the final summit poster and the pitch.

Survey answers describe what shoppers say they would do. They are not purchases.

Test how people want to prove a purchase before building it. Our first design depended on bank linking; the survey showed most shoppers did not want that, so receipts became the core of the product.