The New American Dream
Role:
Creator
Producer

Pangea Organics - Pilot 3
Joshua Onysko
Colorado, USA
written by Kristin King-Ries

After hearing about Joshua Onysko’s life, you might think the guy was in his late
nineties. He’s held jobs as a baker, an actor, a soap-maker, a model, a micro-
financier, a watch salesman, and the CEO of a thriving body products business, among
others. It turns out he’s only thirty. He’s worked since he was six years old. “I
like to try new things,” he explains.

As a kid, Joshua Onysko was most mothers’ nightmare. He left school at nine to become
a professional actor with a local theater group. Yes he had a tutor, and he did
attend school during the off-season. But still. At the age of 11 he got burned out on
acting and returned to school, determined to drop out for good as soon as he legally
could. He hated math and science classes and he hated the way everyone, without
accounting for different personalities, was forced to study the same subjects in the
same way. Fortunately for him, his own mother was very supportive. To this day when
he goes home she buys tickets for them to see the theater group he was in.

He’s the youngest of three boys. According to Joshua, his older brothers were
overachievers and their successful academic careers gave him the freedom to be
different. ‘The way I remember it is my parents said, well, we have two straight A
students, two out of three’s not bad.’ He followed through on his decision to leave
school at sixteen and for several years lived out of his backpack, working odd jobs
and travelling around the world on his slim earnings. At twenty-three he was still
drifting, for a time he even sold watches in Japan for the yakuza (mafia), and his
parents became officially worried. To his mother’s frequent question, ‘how long are
you going to live hand to mouth?’ he replied, ‘as long as I have a hand and a mouth.’
No one, not even his parents, would have guessed that he would become the founder and
director of Pangea Organics, a successful bath and body products company.

Almost by accident, Joshua discovered he had a talent for making soap. He went home to
see his parents before his first trip to India and there on the coffee table was a
book on soap making. The idea appealed to him as a nice activity to do with his
parents, a way to bond on the eve of this big journey. They followed the recipe, mixing
oatmeal with rosemary and it worked. The next morning they woke to find a large bar of
soap. Over the next couple of years he made and sold soap to finance his travels. Soap
making hadn’t become his calling yet, it was a way to pay for trips around the world. Travelling, he became aware of how interconnected we all are. In 1997, Josh didn’t know
much about the internet. He didn’t have an email address. By 1999, villagers in the
poorest towns in India were hooked up to the internet. He became concerned that
corporations whose only concern was money were inheriting the earth, and destroying it
in the process. Then he had a revelation. He could use his soap-making skills to start
a company that would have a positive impact.

He moved to Boulder, Colorado in 2001, got a job as a baker for Whole Foods, and made
soap in his
garage at night. The more he studied the properties of plants and how to
combine them to make great products, the more things clicked. ‘I realized I’m an
alchemist… almost everything I made worked. It was like electricity running through
my body.’ He couldn’t understand why most body products were petroleum-based when
there are so many amazing ingredients available. After six months he outgrew his
garage and moved the business to a 600 square foot studio, eight months later moved to
a 5000 square foot warehouse, and so on. People told him it was a mistake to pay
employee healthcare that cost more than the rent, and a mistake to pay a living
wage before the company could afford it. But he was committed to his vision, and it
seems to have worked well. Currently Pangea has a six year lease on a 9000 square foot facility that Joshua predicts they’ll outgrow in two years. Pangea products are
available on dozens of websites, from green sites to places like Amazon and
drugstore.com. Though the company uses all organic ingredients, Joshua says “I don’t
want to use our green practices to sell product. I want our product to sell product.”

The Pangea business model is designed to work like a prairie. A prairie is a self-
sustaining ecosystem. Over 200 species within a 100 square feet and each helps the
other to exist. As the company grows, their growth is feeding the earth. One example
is the seeded packaging. They’re made out of old newspaper, water and seeds. After the
product is gone, the packages can be soaked in water and planted in the ground. The
soap boxes grow fennel plants and the facial products packages grow sweet basil.

One of the things he is proud of is being able to support the 37 people who work for
Pangea. They have one of the lowest turnover rates in the world. He hopes his business
model of taking good care of the workers spreads to other companies. His personal goal
is by 2012 to have at least 20% of the ingredients Pangea uses come from small, women-
owned farms, and he’s taken some of Pangea’s profits to start an institute to foster
these businesses. “Women grow 89% of the world’s crops and own less than 1% of the land.
It’s a staggering statistic.” Joshua is doing his part to help change that. This year the Pangea institute is micro-financing a solar powered distillery in Zambia for a
cooperative of women widowed by HIV. The plan is for Pangea and a group of other American
companies who use these ingredients to buy its organic rosemary, geranium and lemongrass
oils from this facility.