Mission First - Entrepreneurs for future: Recent Episodes
Mission First - Entrepreneurs for future
DONT MISS OUR BEST OF SEASON 1: 10 audio episodes shorter than 10 minutes with the best entrepreneurship advice of the first season! Visit GTImpact.com (https://gtimpact.com/podcast-for-entrepreneurs/) to download or listen to this best of series. Welcome to Mission First, the podcast to learn from successful entrepreneurs who are building a sustainable future for our planet and its people! Growing a company that aims at having a sustainable impact is not easy! That’s why I created Mission First. In each episode, I interview one entrepreneur with a company mission related to the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Our guests are entrepreneurs who have recently gone through these difficult first years successfully. Together we discuss their challenges and what they have learned on the way. We go into detail, with a specific focus on company culture, leadership, financing, growth and business strategy. That way you learn hands-on tips on how to build a better future and a successful company too.
In this Best of episode from the Mission First Podcast, Kimberly Breuer, co-CEO and co-founder of Likeminded, shared her experience about pivoting from B2C to B2B.
Learn how potential customers can validate your product, the challenges and joys of pivoting, and the hard lessons learned along the way. Kimberly shares her experience of rebuilding a product from scratch, the significance of finding product-market fit, and the complexities of transitioning from founder-led sales to a scalable sales machine.
Listen to the full episode to learn💡 How to build a successful mental health company based on data and machine learning 💡
In the episode:
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How the idea of Likeminded was born?
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How they decided to have 4 people co-founding the company
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What helped them make the decision to pivot from B2C to B2B after a year into the business?
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What’s it like to pitch a non-existent product
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When do you know you found a product market
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The benefits of being data-based
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How to choose your set of data you collect
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The hardest part about machine learning setup in a company
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OKRs and how they help to keep you focused
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From founders sales to global sales
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Short vs long-term benefits when launching a business
Listen to the full episode - HERE
Resources:
Kimberly’s Linkedin
Likeminded website
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Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
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YouTube - follow us on YouTube
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In this Best of episode, Timothée Parrique, PhD in economics specializing in degrowth and post-growth theories, shares his view on the impact of wealth on political decisions and environmental policies, strategies for building democratic pressure to enforce corporate responsibility on environmental issues and the importance of equitable resource distribution during environmental and economic transitions.
Listen to the full episode to learn whether economic growth is necessary to overcome inequality, the differences between degrowth and recession, and how entrepreneurship can align with environmental goals.
Listen to the full episode here - https://smartlink.ausha.co/mission-first/36-why-green-growth-is-a-myth-and-how-does-degrowth-apply-to-green-entrepreneurship-and-to-our-future
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26I8i8bRWro
Resources:
Timothée Parrique LinkedIn
Timothée’s website
Timothée’s book Ralentir ou péri
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
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YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
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How do you build a hardware company that not only generates immediate revenue but also creates a lasting, positive impact?
How do you bring investors on board?
How do you build an international team of A-players in Research & Development, Data, Marketing, and Sales?
The answers in this episode.
Morfo restores large-scale forest ecosystems, with the help of drones and an innovative method.
With a single drone, they can process up to 50 hectares of forest imagery per day and plant 180 seed pods every minute, even across steep and difficult-to-access lands like rainforests.
But it is not just about planting trees. They make sure to have local participation in their projects, so far, they’ve involved more than 1,000 people. Morfo is building sustainable livelihoods for the most vulnerable communities of this world.
🌳💪 In just a year, their first project went from a vegetation cover of 0.3% to 42%, by planting 15 different species, all native to the region! 600 Hectares of forests in restoration in 3 different places.
Their mission is to restore, by 2030, 1M hectares of rainforest, which means planting 1.2 Billion trees, with their innovative solution.
To achieve that goal they:
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raised 4M of seed round in November
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have built a team of 31 people across 2 continents
Pascal Asselin, co-founder and CEO of Morfo shared his insights on:
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How to find financial models that make investors interested in the company
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Short-term revenues with long-term forests: Working two time horizons at the same time
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Projecting into markets with gigantic potential: low risk, high reward
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How to build credibility with science as a foundation
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How to build a solid, experienced and trustful leadership team
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The “sharing is caring” concept and how this helps to better understand your company’s mission
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How OKRs help to define a clear common vision
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How to optimize people management, when you have operations in several locations
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How to make sure you have both sustainable and social impact and involve local communities
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/hkfZTSKM2gA
Resources:
Pascal’s LinkedIn
Morfo website
Books:
How to Save Our Planet: The Facts by Mark Maslin
Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux, Ken Wilber (Foreword)
Podcast - Génération Do It Yourself (in French)
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Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
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Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
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YouTube - follow us on YouTube
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In this Best of episode, Tessa Clarke, co-founder & CEO of Olio, shares her experience fundraising as a female co-founder. Learn from Tessa's experience about the challenges that female founders face and how she managed to overcome them.
Listen to the full episode with Tessa to learn also: How to define a new business model and grow a food sharing app
Listen to the full episode here - https://smartlink.ausha.co/mission-first/40-150-million-meals-saved-how-to-grow-a-food-sharing-app-with-tessa-clarke-olio
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/R9KRy2eTyWc
Resources:
Tessa’s LinkedIn
Olio website
Book recommendation:
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Only 15% of old phones get recycled.
And that’s not the biggest problem.
When you get your new phone in your hand, most of the harm has already been done. 70 - 80 % of the phone’s footprint is in the making, not in the usage.
If we use our phones longer, less resources are needed for their production. And there will be less electronics waste.
But how do you design a phone for circularity and longevity?
Fairphone managed to create and grow a phone company with a circular and fair model:
- A phone easy to repair
- 100% electronic waste neutral
- Made in fair factories
- Repairable, sustainable, ethically sourced
It all started with a campaign back in 2011.
Bas van Abel, founder of Fairphone, was raising awareness around conflict minerals and mining practices in the electronics industry.
They came up with the idea of a made-up, non-existing Fairphone.
People loved the concept so much: they got 30,000 people on the pre-order list.
That first year Fairphone made a turnover of 16M euro. They became the fastest-growing technology start-up in Europe.
Fairphone was officially launched in 2013 and today they have:
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40M euro turnover
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sold 500,000 Fairphones
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released 5 phone versions
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150 employees across the world
Listen to the episode with Bas van Abel, founder, board member, and ex-CEO of Fairphone, to learn How to balance a sustainable mission with a profitable business model, while taking care of your health as a founder
In this episode you will learn:
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How to operate a circular business model and make it fair
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How Fairphone found their product-market fit through campaigning
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What conflict minerals are and the complexity of the supply chain needed to make a phone
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How to make the supply chain as fair as possible
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How they managed to set up the Fair Cobalt Alliance
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What makes Fairphone fair?
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How to create a business model that supports a longevity mission and is profitable at the
same time
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How to move from an old to a new reality through the theory of change and set impact milestones
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How steward-ownership can help to have a healthier relationship with your stakeholders
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When is the right time to raise VC
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How to hire a management team
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How Bas went into a big burn-out and how to take care of your personal health as a founder
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/FwXlWn-PJ8A
Resources:
Bas van Abel LinkedIn
Fairphone website
Books recommendation:
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
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Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
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Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
In this Best of episode, Philippe Birker, co-founder of Climate Farmers, debunks two of the biggest myths around regenerative agriculture: you cannot feed the world with it and scaling regenerative culture cannot be done. Listen to the episode to learn what are the challenges regenerative agriculture farmers face and how Climate Farmers is helping them transition.
Sounds interesting? Then go and listen to the full episode with Philippe about What is regenerative agriculture? How do you put impact first with an economic model focused on growth? And how to choose and prepare best for an accelerator program?
Listen to the full episode here - https://smartlink.ausha.co/mission-first/38-feeding-the-world-with-regenerative-agriculture-with-philippe-birker-climate-farmers
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/kCHCY9ZTgZk
Resources:
Philippe Linkedin
Climate Farmers website
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
In this Best of episode, Sam Sutaria, CEO of WaterBear, shares his B2B2C community growth strategies. Learn what are the challenges of growing a B2C community while building the B2B partnership side of the business. Learn about the importance of shared values when creating collaborations and finding the right trustworthy partners.
Listen to the full episode with Sam on: Setting a new standard for impact in media with WaterBear, the free “Netflix” of captivating films and thought-provoking series
Listen to the full episode here - https://smartlink.ausha.co/mission-first/setting-a-new-standard-for-impact-in-media-with-waterbear-the-free-netflix-of-captivating-films
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtfX1tvgG24&t=12s
Resources:
Sam’s LinkedIn
WaterBear website
Book recommendation: The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
In this Best of episode, Tessa Clarke, co-founder & CEO of Olio, shares her experience with the different strategies for influencing consumer behavior they’ve used. Learn how Olio flipped communications and instead of talking about the global impact, they lead with the personal as a driver for change. Tessa also described how you can harvest behavioral psychology for positive impact and use different levers to nudge people to take the behavior that you want.
Listen to the full episode with Tessa to learn also: How to define a new business model? And how to fundraise as a female co-founded business?
Listen to the full episode here - https://smartlink.ausha.co/mission-first/40-150-million-meals-saved-how-to-grow-a-food-sharing-app-with-tessa-clarke-olio
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/R9KRy2eTyWc
Resources:
Tessa’s LinkedIn
Olio website
Book recommendation:
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
In this Best of episode, Nathan Bonnisseau, co-founder of Plan A, shares two key frameworks for building a successful brand: The Mountain of Tomorrow and How Wow Now. We then explore the topic of how to create a crisp brand that all employees and external stakeholders understand.
From the full episode, you will learn from Nathsn's experience how to build a sustainable brand without greenwashing and turn your employees into brand ambassadors.
Listen to the full episode here - https://smartlink.ausha.co/mission-first/37-how-to-build-a-sustainable-brand-backed-by-science-without-greenwashing
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yektDUiKtaE&t=1s
Resources:
Nathan Bonnisseau LinkedIn
Plan A website
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
In this Best of episode, Timothée Parrique, PhD in economics specializing in degrowth and post-growth theories, shares why the current way we measure GDP is a poor indicator of the quality of life. It's an indicator that was created in the 1930s and does not reflect the social well-being of the people and the eco state of the planet. We then go to discuss what "value" means today and what should be the real factors that bring value to the economy and the well-being of the people.
Listen to the full episode here - https://smartlink.ausha.co/mission-first/36-why-green-growth-is-a-myth-and-how-does-degrowth-apply-to-green-entrepreneurship-and-to-our-future
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26I8i8bRWro
Resources:
Timothée Parrique LinkedIn
Timothée’s website
Timothée’s book Ralentir ou péri
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
If you are into nature tech, greentech, regenerative economy, product-market fit. This episode is for you.
Is it possible to make economy regenerative? Can we make e-commerce, fintech and other digital sectors more sustainable? And prove it.
Handprint are on a mission to regenerate the planet with the help of digital technology and partnerships. They want to change the narrative and convert our extractive economy to an economy that benefits nature.
They do exactly what it says on the label - they help companies increase their handprint, the sum of their positive impact on the world’s environmental and social ecosystems.
Their platform provides nature credits. A nature credit assigns a value to nature’s services, like that companies are not just reducing their environmental footprint, but they are also helping to regenerate and preserve nature.
Mathias Boissonot is the co-founder & CEO of Handprint and he always had a “let’s hack it” attitude. That is why he set on a challenge to tackle environmental issues with digital technology.
So far Handprint:
✨ has funded 2.5 million m2 of ecosystems
✨ generates 6-figure revenue monthly
✨ has attracted big financial institutions as clients
✨ has 25 FTEs
In this episode, we dove into how to find a new product market fit and how to get big contracts within the fintech industry
In this episode you’ll learn:
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How to use new digital technologies to benefit sustainable development
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How to find a product-market fit
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How to run a pilot and still make a profit
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How to attract big companies as clients with a positive mission
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How to close sales (even w/o a commercial background)
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Benefits of lead magnets
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How to convert climate action into a winning company strategy resulting in ROI
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How to develop an engagement strategy for brand ambassadors
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/BKnuNHuEoVo
Resources:
Mathias’s LinkedIn
Handprint website
Obviously Awesome by April Dunford
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
If you are into clinical research, life science, pivoting, founder sales or company culture. This episode is for you.
If you could do just one thing that would impact the lives of one million people, what would it be?
This question nudged Maya to find a solution to help people.
Millions of patients around the world need treatment, but they do not know if it exists and how can they get it. At the same time new drugs and therapies are available for free in clinical trials.
FindMeCure bridges the gap between patients and clinical trials.
Building any medical or pharmaceutical product is one of the hardest things you can do, because it's an extremely regulated market. Then add building a marketplace on top of that with a typical chicken and egg problem, and you are facing a very difficult challenge. But my guest overcame that challenge.
Maya Zlatanova is the CEO and Co-founder of FindMeCure. She is also developing TrialHub, a platform that empowers doctors and researchers with data intelligence to plan over 6000 successful clinical trials.
They have helped two million patients to search for clinical trials and have doubled their team size from 10 at the beginning of the year, to currently 25 FTEs.
Today we are going to talk about 💡How to pivot, how to get to product market fit and how to deal with clients in the highly regulated clinical trials industry 💡
You will also learn:
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What’s the difference between recruited and supported patients in clinical trials
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How to do a mom test
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What are the challenges in clinical research and how to navigate the corporate structure
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Maya’s founder-led sales tips
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How to create good team culture
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/GhRe0zKKMto
Resources:
Maya Zlatanova LinkedIn
FindMiCure website
TrialHub website
The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
What if, for once a year, corporate business leaders, innovators, investors, and activists come together, not as enemies, but as collaborators for change? Picture an event on impact and environment that leaves you not with despair, but with hope and concrete actions that could be taken.
That's the essence of ChangeNow, the world's largest impact summit, besides the COPs, where the goal is not just to highlight the problems but to showcase real solutions and mobilize businesses to change.
Kevin Tayebaly, is one of the co-founders and the Chief Development Officer of ChangeNow. He takes care of all the relationships with the international delegations, and the investor relationship. And before ChangeNow, he has created three companies.
ChangeNOW started as a small gathering in 2017 with just 2’000 participants and in a bit over 6 years it grew into an event with:
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35’000 attendees from 120 countries
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1’000+ C-level decision-makers
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1’200 investors
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and a team of 35 people who take care of the event organization
No co-founder of ChangeNow is actually from the event industry. That's probably how they managed to come up with such a new business model and to scale this event so quickly.
Learn from Kevin’s experience 💡 How to gather 35,000 changemakers to accelerate environmental and social change 💡
You will also learn:
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How to select partners for your event whose mission and impact is in line with your company’s DNA
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the strategies they used to scale the event
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the hardest part about scaling up
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How do you bring together tech, corporate and activism with a positive outcome?
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How can we influence and change the system
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/er_osxVVxnk
Resources:
Kevin Tayebaly LinkedIn
ChangeNOW website
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
If you are into marketplace, apps, behavior psychology, food waste prevention. This episode is for you.
What’s “the chicken and the egg dilemma” when it comes to marketplace?
People looking for an item want to join your marketplace only if you have a wide offering.
But sellers or people who want to share something only want to join your marketplace if you have a lot of people searching for something.
So how do you manage to attract both sides in your marketplace? With whom do you start? How? And how do you attract investors too?
It seems Tessa Clarke, co-founder & CEO of Olio, managed to crack this chicken-and-egg problem.
“Why isn’t there an app for that?” was the thought that sparked the creation of Olio when Tessa faced the hard decision of whether to throw away food or smuggle it.
Some market research and a lot of trials and errors later, now the 2015-founded company has:
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7М users around the world
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104k volunteers rescuing unsold food
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57k ambassadors spreading the word
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150M portions of food shared
Olio’s motto is “Share more, waste less” and so they do. Their mission is to solve the climate crisis by solving the problem of waste in our homes and local communities. It is a local sharing app for passing on things you don't need to people who live nearby, from food and clothes to books and toys. It helps to turn your useless into someone else useful and helps fight waste.
In this episode, we went over 💡 How to drive consumer behavior change at scale? How to define a new business model? And how to fundraise as a female co-founded business?💡
In this episode you will learn:
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How they used WhatsApp to run a proof of concept?
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How to solve the cold start problem of a marketplace?
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Tessa’s 3 tips for setting up a marketplace
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How to drive consumer behavior change at scale?
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The EAST behavior change model
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How to find your early adopters?
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Why monetize your product at a later stage
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How to get comfortable with failure and experimenting
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Fundraising for female cofounded business
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/R9KRy2eTyWc
Resources:
Tessa’s LinkedIn
Olio website
Book recommendation:
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Dana Kanze’s TED talk: The real reason female entrepreneurs get less funding
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
If you are into philosophy, system thinking, economy, research, science. This episode is for you.
Have we, as humanity, built a world that is so complex that even we cannot understand it? Or has it always been this way and we just simplified it so we fear it a bit less?
In these days, the world is changing faster compared to any period in history.
It has become a world of uncertainty, where reality blurs with the fake, confusion seems to be the new norm.
My next guest spent the last five years of his life trying to figure out what’s going on with the world, how civilizations work and what are all the connections and mechanisms behind them.
Julien Devaureix is the founder of Sismique, a podcast that promotes dialogue, openness and curiosity. Sismique’s goal is to make you understand how this fast-changing world works.
🎧 It has been listened to more than 5 million times
It's in French and in English
Julien has interviewed some of the most brilliant thinkers, entrepreneurs, and people doing good in this world. Among the guests on his podcast you can find names such as Noam Chomsky, Captain Paul Watson from Sea Shepherd, or Ryan Gellert, the CEO of Patagonia.
Julien is also the author of the book “Le monde change et on n'y comprend rien” (The world is changing and we don’t understand anything). It's a book that changed my view of how the world is working, where are we heading and what is our role in these complex systems of our society and planet.
In this episode you will learn:
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How complex is today’s world and why we cannot understand it
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What are the biases when we analyze the world around us
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How to check the sources you get your info from
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The iceberg model of system thinking
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What are black swans, black elephants and black jellyfish
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The debt system in the capitalist world
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Can we maintain economic growth with less energy?
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Is there hope in the face of ecoanxiety
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/qaG9a2vOh4s
Resources:
Julien’s Linkedin
Sismique website
Sismique on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@sismique
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
If you are into agriculture, food supply chain, non-profit, community building, accelerator programs. This episode is for you.
What if farming wasn't just a means of survival but a way to nature restoration? And instead of being part of the problem destroying our soil, biodiversity, and amplifying climate change, it became part of the solution?
Let me introduce you to a new (not so new 😉) type of agriculture. Regenerative farming. It doesn't just sustain nature, it restores it. It brings back the health of the soil, sequesters carbon, and boosts biodiversity. For the future of our planet and our food, regenerative farming isn't just an option, it's a necessity.
Climate Farmers are supporting farmers in the transition towards regenerative agriculture. They are building the infrastructure to scale regenerative agriculture in Europe.
Climate Farmers provides a platform for farmers to meet and network, learn from each other and from experts, get regenerative agriculture consulting and get transition financing as they sell carbon credits. They also support retailers in their supply chain transition to regenerative agriculture produce.
🌿 They are a community of 700+ farmers from 16 different countries
🌿 Got 1M € funding raised without giving away company shares
🌿 32 FTEs
Philippe Birker bought a part of an abandoned village in Portugal back in 2017. In the course of the next years he and seven others acquired more parts of the village and some land. Owning some land set Philippe on the search for knowledge about regenerative agriculture.
Today he is one of the co-founders of Climate Farmers and he shared his insights about
💡 What is regenerative agriculture? How do you put impact first with an economic model focused on growth? And how to choose and prepare best for an accelerator program? 💡
In this episode you will learn:
-
What is regenerative agriculture and what it really means to farm in harmony with nature
-
What does a regenerative farm look like?
-
Why we should pay more attention to our food?.
-
How to scale regenerative agriculture?
-
What could be the solution to make farming attractive to younger people in Europe
-
Which are the 3 levers to help farmers transition to regenerative agriculture
-
What are the benefits for farmers from networking with each other?
-
Organizations that can support you with business know-how
-
How to prepare for an accelerator program?
-
How to manage a company differently with regenerative leadership
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/kCHCY9ZTgZk
Resources:
Philippe Linkedin
Climate Farmers website
The Great Simplification Podcast by Nate Hagens
For the Love of Soil by Nicole Masters
Regenerative Skills Podcast by Oliver Goshey
Advancing Eco Agriculture by John Kempf
Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
If you are into branding, communication, PR, brand building, employee advocacy, Linkedin, science, greentech, decarbonization, this episode is for you.
How can brands incorporate sustainability and science into their core in an authentic way and avoid the trap of greenwashing?
It is one thing to craft a sustainable brand on paper and a completely different story to integrate branding as part of the whole company and the whole customer journey, without greenwashing.
Every company in the world needs to decrease its carbon footprint and the negative impact on the planet, but it's not an easy thing to do. You need to have clean data, a decarbonization strategy and a lot of scientific knowledge.
That's why Plan A is here. Plan A helps foster sustainable transition in the business world. They work towards eliminating and avoiding emissions, rather than compensating them and this takes a great amount of science behind.
More than 1500 companies trust them to decarbonize their business with clients such as BMW, Deutsche Bank, Visa, and KFC.
🚀 They've raised 27 million dollars this year
🚀 They are on their way to get 1 gigaton of carbon under management by 2025
💻 Plan A has 150 employees
🏠 and 3 offices in Berlin, London and Paris
📚 and a knowledge academy with 250+ articles available to everyone
In this episode, Nathan Bonnisseau, co-founder of Plan A, joins me to bring light on the topics of:
❓ How to make science part of the brand
❓ How to build a sustainable brand without greenwashing
❓ How to make your employees ambassadors of the brand
❓ How the brand can be used through the entire funnel of customer acquisition
Plan A has a very inspiring presence online (and offline), their CEO Lubomila Jordanova is a thought leader in decarbonization and sustainable business.
You can spot Plan A employees posting online or speaking at conferences, talking about decarbonization.
How did they achieve that?
In this episode you will learn:
-
How to apply the Mountain Of Tomorrow and How Wow Now frameworks for brand management
-
How to create a fun experience with the brand and make employees contribute
-
How to help your employees communicate the brand and its milestones online and even make them enjoy posting
-
How to set the stage to capture feedback from your team
-
How do make science part of the brand in an innovative way
-
How the brand helps you optimize your sales funnel
Watch the full episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/yektDUiKtaE
Resources:
Nathan Bonnisseau LinkedIn
Plan A website
Listen to episode 3 with Lubomila Jordanova - here
Lex Friedman podcast
ARTE YouTube channel
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
If you are into entrepreneurship in general, economics, degrowth, post-growth, ecology, climate change, activism, or simply into the future of our planet, this episode is for you.
Is the constant search for economic growth slowly pushing us to extinction?
It’s time to change the way we measure economic success. It should no longer be about GDP.
My guest today is a different type of entrepreneur. Timothée Parrique is a knowledge entrepreneur 🧠
Timothée holds a PhD in economics, he is specialized in degrowth and post-growth. He's making big waves with his presentations. Just this year, he has done a TEDx presentation, a keynote speech at the event Beyond Growth, hosted at the European Parliament, a presentation called How to Blow Up an Economy at the University of Lund.
In his book Ralentir ou Périr (Slow Down or Perish), he explores the transition towards a post-growth economy, challenging the current pursuit of growth.
Discover how degrowth and post-growth concepts can revolutionize your approach as an entrepreneur.
In this episode you will learn:
-
What’s the current problem with growth?
-
What are the consequences of the way we measure GDP today?
-
Do we need growth to overcome inequality?
-
What’s green growth and why it is a myth?
-
What a degrowth future will look like?
-
What’s the difference between degrowth and recession?
-
Degrowth for green entrepreneurs
Watch the full episode on YouTube - link
Resources:
Timothée Parrique LinkedIn
Timothée’s website
Timothée’s book Ralentir ou péri
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
If you are into AI, data, mental health, building B2B2C business, pivoting, OKRs, sales. This episode is for you.
How can you say you are running a successful mental health company?
How do you calculate the profitability of an employee mental health program?
Kimberly Breuer, co-CEO of Likeminded (and a psychologist herself) will share her experience in this episode
Likeminded is a solution for mental health at work. They developed a data-driven mental health solution that ensures it is highly efficient at improving mental health but also scalable!
Customers get access to different support formats from 101 sessions, to digital exercises to group sessions.
The data-driven approach of the platform guides the users through their journey.
Today Likeminded:
-
Is improving the well-being of more than 20’000 employees
-
Pivoted successfully from B2C to B2B after one year
-
Is raising Series A at the moment
-
has 40+ employees
Kimberly shared her learnings about 💡 How to build a successful mental health company based on data and machine learning 💡
In this episode you will learn:
-
How the idea of Likeminded was born?
-
How they decided to have 4 people co-founding the company
-
What helped them make the decision to pivot from B2C to B2B after a year into the business?
-
What’s it like to pitch a non-existent product
-
When do you know you found a product market
-
The benefits of being data-based
-
How to choose your set of data you collect
-
The hardest part about machine learning setup in a company
-
OKRs and how they help to keep you focused
-
From founders sales to global sales
-
Short vs long-term benefits when launching a business
Watch the full episode on YouTube - HERE
Resources:
Kimberly’s Linkedin
Likeminded website
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
If you are into media, documentaries, activism, growing communities, NGOs, impact, technology & how to use product to drive action. This episode is for you.
In a world where “bad news sell better” it’s easy to believe that it’s all negative.
In this episode with Sam Sutaria, CEO and first employee at WaterBear, you will learn
💡 How to set a new standard for impact in media 💡
WaterBear is a free Netflix-like content platform with a twist 😉
They have over 1,000 inspiring documentaries and movies, all developed in collaboration with people and organizations changing the world for the better.
🚀 WaterBear brings entertainment but also inspires you to take action, to dive deeper into the issue and to connect with like-minded individuals who care to drive tangible, measurable impact around the world.
🌐 The WaterBear Network is made of:
-
700’000+ subscribers
-
a free subscription, no ads
-
3 Million followers across all channels
-
40+ FTEs
-
150+ NGOs and freelancers with whom they work in collaboration
In this episode you will learn:
-
What’s the mission of WaterBear and how they came up with a new business model for media
-
How brands need to focus on new ways to tell stories
-
Revenue streams for a streaming company without ads
-
How do you measure real impact in media
-
Navigating the lessons learned during fundraising
-
How B2B2C can really be collaborative
-
How to grow a supportive community
-
What’s the impact of positive news
Watch the full episode on YouTube - link
Resources:
Sam’s LinkedIn
WaterBear website
Book recommendation: The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
===
Watch my video presentation “3 key strategies to grow a following of 7500+ changemakers on Linkedin” 👉 watch presentation
===
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
Follow us:
LinkedIn - follow us on LinkedIn
YouTube - follow us on YouTube
Instagram - follow us on Instagram
TikTok - follow us on TikTok
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
If you are into greentech, product innovation, social entrepreneurship, developing a business in Africa, or simply into inspiring entrepreneurship. This episode is for you.
Which entrepreneur can say they risk their lives every day to have a positive impact on the planet?
My guest, Torsten Schreiber is the Founder & CEO of Africa GreenTec and four other companies which have the sole mission of empowering people to achieve self-determination and growth.
Torsten is a serial sustainable social entrepreneur and a politically active climate change activist.
He is also a mentee of Muhammad Yunus, walking the talk, getting his hands dirty in very dangerous places of the world to help those who really need it.
In this episode we will talk about Africa GreenTec. The company which brings clean electricity, water and cool chains to some of the most isolated and dangerous regions in Africa.
Benefits stretch beyond the commodities. These places become more stable, safer and economically attractive.
Africa GreenTec has:
⚡150 FTEs
⚡30 sites in 4 countries in Africa
⚡Assets for more than 25M euros
✅ 24.975 people supplied with electricity
✅ 2.080 max. Tons of CO2 saved
✅ 419 small businesses empowered to increase productivity
✅ They’ve celebrated access to electricity with 100.000+ people
Learn from the broad experience Torsten has to share on 💡How to use a bottom up approach to help African communities achieve economic growth 💡and at the same time safely build a business in a risky country.
You can find out more about:
-
Why donations actually might hurt Africa’s development
-
The benefits of high-quality German technology under harsh conditions
-
How to involve users in the design of the solution
-
Expect nothing, be lean
-
How to find the right price point for your product
-
What motivates people to become changemakers
-
The rules of thumb to follow when in a risky country
This is episode 3 of a 3-episode mini-series.
Here is what you can find in each episode:
Episode 1/3: What’s the significance of sustainable business models? What does sustainable electricity brings to African communities?
Episode 2/3: How to use a bottom up approach? How as a for-profit-company to set the right price for the service provided?
Episode 3/3: How to safely build a business in a risky country?
Resources:
Torsten Linkedin
Africa GreenTec Website
Africa GreenTec Community
Africa GreenTec Crowdfunding
Africa GreenTec YouTube
Books by Muhammad Yunus
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
===
Connect with us on Linkedin > here
Instagram - here
If you are into greentech, product innovation, social entrepreneurship, developing a business in Africa, or simply into inspiring entrepreneurship. This episode is for you.
Which entrepreneur can say they risk their lives every day to have a positive impact on the planet?
My guest, Torsten Schreiber is the Founder & CEO of Africa GreenTec and four other companies which have the sole mission of empowering people to achieve self-determination and growth.
Torsten is a serial sustainable social entrepreneur and a politically active climate change activist.
He is also a mentee of Muhammad Yunus, walking the talk, getting his hands dirty in very dangerous places of the world to help those who really need it.
In this episode we will talk about Africa GreenTec. The company which brings clean electricity, water and cool chains to some of the most isolated and dangerous regions in Africa.
Benefits stretch beyond the commodities. These places become more stable, safer and economically attractive.
Africa GreenTec has:
⚡150 FTEs
⚡30 sites in 4 countries in Africa
⚡Assets for more than 25M euros
✅ 24.975 people supplied with electricity
✅ 2.080 max. Tons of CO2 saved
✅ 419 small businesses empowered to increase productivity
✅ They’ve celebrated access to electricity with 100.000+ people
Learn from the broad experience Torsten has to share on 💡How to use a bottom up approach to help African communities achieve economic growth 💡and at the same time safely build a business in a risky country.
You can find out more about:
-
Why donations actually might hurt Africa’s development
-
The benefits of high-quality German technology under harsh conditions
-
How to involve users in the design of the solution
-
Expect nothing, be lean
-
How to find the right price point for your product
-
What motivates people to become changemakers
-
The rules of thumb to follow when in a risky country
This is episode 2 of a 3-episode mini-series.
Here is what you can find in each episode:
Episode 1/3: What’s the significance of sustainable business models? What does sustainable electricity brings to African communities?
Episode 2/3: How to use a bottom up approach? How as a for-profit-company to set the right price for the service provided?
Episode 3/3: How to safely build a business in a risky country?
Resources:
Torsten Linkedin
Africa GreenTec Website
Africa GreenTec Community
Africa GreenTec Crowdfunding
Africa GreenTec YouTube
Books by Muhammad Yunus
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
===
Connect with us on Linkedin > here
Instagram - here
If you are into greentech, product innovation, social entrepreneurship, developing a business in Africa, or simply into inspiring entrepreneurship. This episode is for you.
Which entrepreneur can say they risk their lives every day to have a positive impact on the planet?
My guest, Torsten Schreiber is the Founder & CEO of Africa GreenTec and four other companies which have the sole mission of empowering people to achieve self-determination and growth.
Torsten is a serial sustainable social entrepreneur and a politically active climate change activist.
He is also a mentee of Muhammad Yunus, walking the talk, getting his hands dirty in very dangerous places of the world to help those who really need it.
In this episode we will talk about Africa GreenTec. The company which brings clean electricity, water and cool chains to some of the most isolated and dangerous regions in Africa.
Benefits stretch beyond the commodities. These places become more stable, safer and economically attractive.
Africa GreenTec has:
⚡150 FTEs
⚡30 sites in 4 countries in Africa
⚡Assets for more than 25M euros
✅ 24.975 people supplied with electricity
✅ 2.080 max. Tons of CO2 saved
✅ 419 small businesses empowered to increase productivity
✅ They’ve celebrated access to electricity with 100.000+ people
Learn from the broad experience Torsten has to share on 💡How to use a bottom up approach to help African communities achieve economic growth 💡and at the same time safely build a business in a risky country.
You can find out more about:
-
Why donations actually might hurt Africa’s development
-
The benefits of high-quality German technology under harsh conditions
-
How to involve users in the design of the solution
-
Expect nothing, be lean
-
How to find the right price point for your product
-
What motivates people to become changemakers
-
The rules of thumb to follow when in a risky country
This is episode 1 of a 3-episode mini-series.
Here is what you can find in each episode:
Episode 1/3: What’s the significance of sustainable business models? What does sustainable electricity brings to African communities?
Episode 2/3: How to use a bottom up approach? How as a for-profit-company to set the right price for the service provided?
Episode 3/3: How to safely build a business in a risky country?
Resources:
Torsten Linkedin
Africa GreenTec Website
Africa GreenTec Community
Africa GreenTec Crowdfunding
Africa GreenTec YouTube
Books by Muhammad Yunus
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
===
Connect with us on Linkedin > here
Instagram - here
If you are into carbon credit, business, agriculture, product & business model innovation, or simply scaling up your team, this is the right episode for you.
Robin Saluoks is the CEO & co-founder of eAgronom.
eAgronom is a platform which brings economic benefits to sustainable farmers.
Farmers get paid for improving their soil and sequestrating carbon.
🚀 In 2021 eAgronom onboarded 150 farmers who contributed to remove 100k tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere
🚀 They raised a series A round of $7 million
🚀 72 FTEs across the world, less than half of them in Estonia
In this mini-series you will learn:
Part 1:
- What’s the difference between carbon credits and carbon neutral
Part 2:
- How to see opportunities where others see obstacles
Part 3:
- How to introduce a new attractive business model to the farming industry?
Part 4:
-
How to stay focused on your vision?
-
How to get new talents to join your company?
This episode is Part 4 of a four-part series of our conversation with Robin, make sure you check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
===
Connect with us on Linkedin > here
Instagram - here
If you are into carbon credit, business, agriculture, product & business model innovation, or simply scaling up your team, this is the right episode for you.
Robin Saluoks is the CEO & co-founder of eAgronom.
eAgronom is a platform which brings economic benefits to sustainable farmers.
Farmers get paid for improving their soil and sequestrating carbon.
🚀 In 2021 eAgronom onboarded 150 farmers who contributed to remove 100k tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere
🚀 They raised a series A round of $7 million
🚀 72 FTEs across the world, less than half of them in Estonia
In this mini-series you will learn:
Part 1:
- What’s the difference between carbon credits and carbon neutral
Part 2:
- How to see opportunities where others see obstacles
Part 3:
- How to introduce a new attractive business model to the farming industry?
Part 4:
-
How to stay focused on your vision?
-
How to get new talents to join your company?
This episode is Part 3 of a four-part series of our conversation with Robin, make sure you check out Part 1 and Part 2
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
===
Connect with us on Linkedin > here
Instagram - here
If you are into carbon credit, business, agriculture, product & business model innovation, or simply scaling up your team, this is the right episode for you.
Robin Saluoks is the CEO & co-founder of eAgronom.
eAgronom is a platform which brings economic benefits to sustainable farmers.
Farmers get paid for improving their soil and sequestrating carbon.
🚀 In 2021 eAgronom onboarded 150 farmers who contributed to remove 100k tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere
🚀 They raised a series A round of $7 million
🚀 72 FTEs across the world, less than half of them in Estonia
In this mini-series you will learn:
Part 1:
- What’s the difference between carbon credits and carbon neutral
Part 2:
- How to see opportunities where others see obstacles
Part 3:
- How to introduce a new attractive business model to the farming industry?
Part 4:
-
How to stay focused on your vision?
-
How to get new talents to join your company?
This episode is Part 2 of a four-part series of our conversation with Robin, make sure you check out Part 1 here
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
===
Connect with us on Linkedin > here
Instagram - here
If you are into carbon credit, business, agriculture, product & business model innovation, or simply scaling up your team, this is the right episode for you.
Robin Saluoks is the CEO & co-founder of eAgronom.
eAgronom is a platform which brings economic benefits to sustainable farmers.
Farmers get paid for improving their soil and sequestrating carbon.
🚀 In 2021 eAgronom onboarded 150 farmers who contributed to remove 100k tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere
🚀 They raised a series A round of $7 million
🚀 72 FTEs across the world, less than half of them in Estonia
In this mini-series you will learn:
Part 1:
- What’s the difference between carbon credits and carbon neutral
Part 2:
- How to see opportunities where others see obstacles
Part 3:
- How to introduce a new attractive business model to the farming industry?
Part 4:
-
How to stay focused on your vision?
-
How to get new talents to join your company?
This episode is Part 1 of a four-part series of our conversation with Robin, make sure you check out Part 2 here
Save time: get a summary of all episode’s advice by subscribing to the Mission First newsletter - here
===
Connect with us on Linkedin > here
Instagram - here
This is the best-of from Mission First, the podcast-masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
Kick back and listen to some of their best advice from Seasons 1 and 2.
New episodes will be available in September 2022.
Christoph Berger is the founder and CEO of Vilisto and Planet Sustainability. With Vilisto, Christoph has developed a digital heat management system with self-learning radiator thermostats which reduce CO2 emissions & heating costs by up to 32%.
Learn from his experience on How to recruit the right team for a seed round?
***Keep up with new episodes and exclusive content by signing up for our newsletter here.
Follow us on Linkedin, IG and Facebook.***
***We’d love it if you could share the pod with friends and people who need entrepreneurial advice. All you need to do is send them a link like these…
Spotify - link
Apple Podcast - link
All other podcast platforms - link
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This is the best-of from Mission First, the podcast-masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
Kick back and listen to some of their best advice from Seasons 1 and 2.
New episodes will be available in September 2022.
Robert Schrimpff is a serial entrepreneur. He has been the founder, CEO, or director of six companies, mostly in the energy sector. He has a huge entrepreneurship and business experience.
In 2015 he took the bet to start a new company called Solar for Schools.
Have you ever wondered: How long should you keep trying to sell your product before you give up? Well, here is what Robert has learned through his experience.
***Keep up with new episodes and exclusive content by signing up for our newsletter here.
Follow us on Linkedin, IG and Facebook.***
***We’d love it if you could share the pod with friends and people who need entrepreneurial advice. All you need to do is send them a link like these…
Spotify - link
Apple Podcast - link
All other podcast platforms - link
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the full best of Mission First ⚡️⚡️⚡️
Signup for the newsletter here and receive all the best-of episodes + get the summary of Do's and Dont's of each episodes!
This is the best-of from Mission First, the podcast-masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
Kick back and listen to some of their best advice from Seasons 1 and 2.
New episodes will be available in September 2022.
Franziska Schmid is the Co-Founder and CEO at JUNGE TÜFTLER. With her companies, Franzi and her team teach technology through events, workshops, and webinars to kids and teenagers in Germany, who have learned that way how to become young tinkerers and inventors.
Learn how she drives entrepreneurial spirit throughout the organization with holocracy, transparency and flexibility.
***Keep up with new episodes and exclusive content by signing up for our newsletter here.
Follow us on Linkedin, IG and Facebook.***
***We’d love it if you could share the pod with friends and people who need entrepreneurial advice. All you need to do is send them a link like these…
Spotify - link
Apple Podcast - link
All other podcast platforms - link
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the full best of Mission First ⚡️⚡️⚡️
Signup for the newsletter here and receive all the best-of episodes + get the summary of Do's and Dont's of each episodes!
This is the best-of from Mission First, the podcast-masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
Kick back and listen to some of their best advice from Seasons 1 and 2.
New episodes will be available in Q4 2022.
Captain Paul Watson is а marine wildlife conservation and environmental activist. Watson was one of the founding members and directors of Greenpeace. In 1977, he left Greenpeace and founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which is the biggest non-governmental navy in the world, dedicated to protecting the ocean.
Learn from his advice about the impact of their new branding, and how to "hack" the media by serving them what they want.
***Keep up with new episodes and exclusive content by signing up for our newsletter here.
Follow us on Linkedin, IG and Facebook.***
***We’d love it if you could share the pod with friends and people who need entrepreneurial advice. All you need to do is send them a link like these…
Spotify - link
Apple Podcast - link
All other podcast platforms - link
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the full best of Mission First ⚡️⚡️⚡️
Signup for the newsletter here and receive all the best-of episodes + get the summary of Do's and Dont's of each episodes!
This is the best-of from Mission First, the podcast-masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
Kick back and listen to some of their best advice from Seasons 1 and 2.
New episodes will be available in Q4 2022.
Jeff Kirschner is the Founder and CEO of Litterati, a global community working to create a litter-free planet. Listen to his advice on how to build a community around your brand.
***Keep up with new episodes and exclusive content by signing up for our newsletter here.
Follow us on Linkedin, IG and Facebook.***
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the full best of Mission First ⚡️⚡️⚡️
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If as a kid, you dreamt of trying to protect lions and other wild animals at the other side of the world and now you have a normal job but you still have such a dream, and you don't know how you could achieve your childhood dream beside your job, this episode is for you!
If you are already on your way to have an impact on the world with your social organization, or your startup, and donations are a part of your revenue streams and you'd like to learn how to maximize them, then this episode is also for you!
“Many organizations which have the sole purpose of doing good are not led in a very entrepreneurial way. They are less efficient and KPI driven.” contemplates Marlon, my guest in this episode.
Dr. Marlon Braumann comes from the VC world. No surprise, he looks for efficiency even when it comes to his NPO.
Marlon founded AMES Foundation (Africa's Most Endangered Species) 2 years ago as a side project.
AMES’s mission is to conserve wildlife, protect biodiversity and make Africa a safer place for animals.
It became Marlon’s most successful fundraising.
AMES has:
🌟a business model that collects 600k+€ of donations per year
🌟a merchandise shop and travel expedition sales as extra revenue streams
🌟2 reservation sites in Africa
🌟17 FTEs from local communities working on site
They make an impact in 4 different ways:
-
Conservation
-
Innovation - transfer technology to Southern Africa
-
Community Development - jobs for local people
-
Legislation - political work and jurisprudence
I believe I found the right guy to talk about 💡How to start and boost your revenue as a social or non-profit organization💡
In this episode you will learn about:
✅ Commit time to the project
✅ Look at it as if it was a normal company
✅ Aim for profit
✅ Know who you want to have on board
✅ Tell a clear story when looking for funds
✅ Don't expect people on site to have the same work standards as you
✅ Don't allow everybody to join the operational team
Do you want to join AMES,? Well, most probably you can’t. They are an invite-only community. But you can listen to this episode of the podcast 😀
Let's go 🦁
Resources:
Dr. Marlon Braumann LinkedIn
AMES website
Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
If you are into circular economy, non-digital products, e-commerce, or retail, or if you simply want to go from thinking about it to actually starting your own business. You don’t want to miss this episode.
Circular economy is great on paper, but only a few manage to turn the model into real business success.
Creating a tangible product is never as easy as creating a digital product.
It's not as fast to iterate with clients' feedback and the costs are higher.
And when you’ve finally built the right product… How do you sell it?
Online only? Or in a physical shop?
MOYU produces rewritable notebooks, made of stone paper, on which you can write and easily erase without traces up to 500 times.
I was skeptical at first, but I met the Moyu’s team in Berlin last year and after trying it, I directly ordered two notebooks for my girlfriend and myself for Christmas.
Since then, I stopped buying “normal” paper notebooks and have already filled and erased their notebook twice.
Moyu has successfully grown in the Netherlands and now they are scaling up internationally.
They have more than 20 people and so far more than 200 companies have bought their notebooks that they can personalize for their employees.
Plus, you can find them in more than 70 retail stores across the Netherlands.
The Moyu team believes in a world without deforestation 🌳. Together with Trees for Kenya, they have planted more than 60.000 trees, one for each product sold.
My guest today Roel Schatorjé, is the founder of MOYU. He shared his advice on 💡 How to dare start your journey as an entrepreneur 💡
In this episode you will learn:
✅ How he stopped being a wannapreneur and started Moyu
✅ How to be prepared to fail
✅ How to listen to your customers
✅ The importance of nurturing your first clients
✅ Why and how to bootstrap as much as possible
✅ The pros of investing in branding early
✅ Why you shouldn’t make too many products
🎧Listen to the episode
And if you want to order a Moyu notebook, get your 15% discount by clicking here (this is NOT an affiliate link).
Resources:
Roel’s LinkedIn
Moyu website
Link to Moyu’s documentary
Podcasts:
Groeivoer (entrepreneurship podcast in Dutch)
Books:
Charles Eisenstein - The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
Charles Eisenstein - Sacred Economics
Kim Scott - Radical Candor
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
If you are interested in B2B partnership, SaaS product development, Sustainable fashion, or Supply chain, this episode is definitely for you!
🌟 How do you develop an online sustainability fashion platform with 55 brands onboard, more than 3.000 suppliers and more than 2 million products?
🌟 What happens when you find out spreadsheets are great for lots of things, but they fail when the amount of data gets too big?
🌟 What happens when you find out there is no existing solution to track transparency in supply chains?
Retraced happens!
Retraced started as a simple green marketing tool in 2018.
The simple tool grew into a whole sustainability management platform in 2020 when Covid pushed the company to a pivot.
How did this happen?
Lukas Puender and his team listened to their clients and they worked together with them to develop the perfect solution.
🚀 Today Retraced has grown to 30 people, working from 10 different countries
🚀 They’ve raised 2.5M+ in funding
🚀 Their revenue is 7-digit and it has +15% month-on-month growth
And they still listen to their clients.
Retraced still has its chat function. A client can send them a question and in minutes it will be answered. This is a KPI that’s tracked.
Their platform usage tracking makes them even more client-centric, helping their partners in the onboarding and the improvement of the platform.
So who else, if not Lukas shared his advice on 💡How to become successful in B2B sales by seeing your clients as partners 💡
Among it you will find:
✅ How to find the best solution together
✅ “Fake it till you make it”-mentality is a double-edged sword that quickly cuts deep
✅ Why invest early into a project?
✅ Innovation is good, solving a problem is better
✅ How to build a team you can trust
Get this and more in the new episode. 🎧Listen to the episode
Resources:
Lukas Puender LinkedIn
Retraced website
Book: Chris Voss - Never split the difference
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
TODAY'S EPISODE
How can we make people more aware of the extinction risks on the animals of this world, get people to care about it, to change, and also to raise money to protect these animals?
My guest today, Paul Goodenough realized that environmentalism is too often not something on the menu. People are too caught up in their everyday lives, they don’t have the time, they do not know how to help.
So he came up with Rewriting Extinction, a comics book collection with stories to change the world. In a few frames, their comics help you understand the issue, relate to it, and get a tangible action you can take today.
Their mission is simple: change, protect, restore, inspire.
With his mission, Paul has managed to attract a panel of stars like the comedians Ricky Gervais, Andy Serkis (Gollum from Lord of the Rings for those who don’t know), Jane Goodall, Peter Gabriel, and in total more than 300 creators to contribute to these stories.
Without spending a penny on ads, Rewriting Extinction managed to reach 115M people and collected 1’480’000 pounds in donations.
💡Paul is a great producer and a storyteller so in this episode we discussed about:
- How to build a brand, with no media investment
- How to get a lineup of stars to join your mission
- How to get big media attention without paid PR
- How to tell an emotional story that anyone can understand (and how he organized his brainstorming sessions to create these stories).
Are you ready? Let’s go!
Resources:
Paul Goodenough Linkedin
Rewriting Extinction site
Books:
Don’t make me think by Steve Krug
Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalde, Yves Pigneur
The dog comics discussed in the episode
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
TODAY'S EPISODE
You thought B2B was challenging? How about dealing with governments? 😱
Who should you contact? What is the best way to reach out to people in power in different countries? How to sign deals or test potential solutions quickly?
Working in B2G, business 2 governments, can be extremely challenging but
Jacob Bossaer has done it successfully with governments across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
He founded Bosaq in 2015 with the mission to supply clean drinking water to the people who don’t have it today and Bosaq does it in a sustainable way. The company’s current ambition is to bring clean drinking water to 1.5 million people across the globe.
Since 2015 Bosaq went from 2 to 14 employees.
It is active on 3 continents.
They provide drinking water to 40.000 people.
And they have 3 patents.
Working and selling to governments requires a wide set of skills and a personal touch. Especially when it comes to a national security asset such as water.
In this episode Jacob shares his 6 Do’s and Don’ts when talking to people in power and
💡How to grow a B2G and sell to governments💡
Among them you will learn:
✅ how crucial it is to know the key decision-makers in the organization
✅ how to do your research
✅ how to not forget the human touch
✅ to be patient
✅ the importance of “What’s in it for me?”
✅ how to listen actively
Get this firsthand advice. Listen to the episode with the link below.
Resources:
Jacob Bossaer Linkedin
Bosaq website
Book:
Chris Voss - Never split the difference
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
TODAY'S EPISODE
Si vous aimez la greentech, les projets collectifs porteurs de sens, les actions écologiques concrètes, ou que grandir une communauté est important pour votre projet, cet épisode résonnera sans aucun doute en vous !
Si beaucoup d’entrepreneurs embarquent dans leur aventure seuls ou avec quelques compatriotes, le projet de Time For The Planet est quant à lui ancré dans le collectif et l’humain. C’est la force de la communauté qui peut faire bouger les choses en matière de protection environnementale et Arthur Auboeuf l’a bien compris.
Il est aujourd’hui l’invité du podcast Mission First, et nous prouve que co-construire son projet peut faire la différence et lui donner du sens.
Arthur Auboeuf a pour projet de trouver des solutions concrètes à la crise environnementale en levant 1 milliard d’euros pour développer 100 innovations d’ici 2030.
Time For The Planet permet aux citoyens d’aller plus loin dans l’engagement écologique en allant vers l'innovation. Tout le monde peut participer et peut investir pour ces innovations avec un montant minimum d’un euro.
Arthur a partagé une list de Do's and Don'ts sur le sujet:
💡“Comment grandir une communauté d’investisseurs et la transformer en business viable”💡
Nous avons parlé en particulier de :
✅ La nécessité de savoir qui l’on est pour aligner son projet avec ses valeurs et lui apporter l’énergie nécessaire.
✅ L’importance de testerl'appétence du marché en premier
✅ Comment construire son projet grâce aux échanges humains
✅ Comment commencer rapidement et ne pas rester figé sur ses positions
✅ Comment se créer des opportunités pour améliorer son discours et son projet
Alors, prêt(e) à rejoindre la communauté ?
Ressources et recommendations de l'épisode:
Arthur on Linkedin Time for the planet website
Livres:
- Sapiens, Yuval Novah Harari https://www.amazon.fr/Sapiens-Animales-History-Humankind-Espagnole/dp/8499926223
- Le bug humain, Sébastien Boehler : https://www.lisez.com/livre-grand-format/le-bug-humain/9782221240106
- Les petits carnets d’alerte de Juliette Duquesne avec Pierre Rabhi https://carnetsdalerte.fr
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
TODAY'S EPISODE
What is it like to start from scratch in an industry you know nothing about?
This is what Megan Glover did back in 2016 when she started 120Water. Today 120Water has grown to 75 FTEs, more than 200 customers and a 7-digit revenue.
They are paving the way for the water industry, moving it from paper into the cloud. They offer digital solutions to water professionals, helping them protect public health way more efficiently.
Megan spent 10 years in marketing before deciding to pursue water as her next career move, and it was then natural to talk about
How to use your experience and a different perspective to innovate in a new industry and find purpose
Megan shares her angle on how to:
✅ Find mentors
✅ Apply proven concepts and solutions to your business
✅ Keep your customer at the center of your strategy even as you scale
✅ Don’t let hearing NO discourage you
✅ Learn to let go
✅ Hire the right people
✅ Build a brand your customers would love to buy
Ready to dive in the water? Let's go!
Resources and recommendations from the episode:
Megan Glover on Linkedin and Twitter
120Water website
Podcasts:
Everyone Hates Marketers
This Week In Startups
How I Built This, Guy Raz
(Don’t) Waste Water, Antoine Waler
Books:
We the Possibility: Harnessing Public Entrepreneurship to Solve Our Most Urgent Problems by Mitchell Weiss
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
TODAY'S EPISODE
Today, I welcome Ilona Ludewig to share with us how she was able to accomplish what most entrepreneurs dream to do. Create a greentech company and exit it after less than 5 years.
Ilona Ludewig is a serial entrepreneur, strategy director in several companies, consultant, and she founded 4hundred in 2016. 4hundred became the fairest green energy provider in Germany in 2020 and was acquired by the UK tech unicorn Octopus Energy.
Ilona shared Do’s and Don’t about:
“How to start, run, and exit an energy company” and This episode is a must-listen if you would like to learn:
When is the right time to sell your company or join forces with another player in your market.
How to improve your team’s operation by building in-house tech tools.
How to ensure that your product or service maintains a culture of positive growth.
We also shared on the importance of mindset when hiring someone to join your team and how valuable are skills in the over all hiring process.
Ilona also shared personal experience on how she leveraged technology to provide better customer experience
Are you Ready? Let’s dive in together!
Resources and recommendations from the episode:
Ilona Ludewig on Linkedin and Instagram
Digital forum provider: Standing on Giants
Book: Alchemy By Rory Sutherland
Podcast Recommendations: No Stupid Questions By Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth
Squeezing the Orange By Professor Dan Cable and comedian Akin Omobitan
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
TODAY'S EPISODE
If your income was suddenly cut by 1%, would that have a negative impact on your quality of life?
This is the question posed by One for the World Executive Director Jack Lewars, and also the foundation of their sponsorship model.
One for the World is a movement of people changing charitable giving to end extreme poverty. Since 2014, they have donated over $1m to highly effective charities fighting extreme poverty and malaria-related death.
In this episode, I had the chance to speak with Jack about his experience working in the nonprofit sector. He shared highly actionable insights into how to reach the right donors and ensure a bigger impact with your NGO.
Listen to the episode to learn:
Why the most impactful charities are 100 or even 1000 times more effective.
One for the World’s very unique approach to recruiting donors that enables them to build a sponsorship pipeline for long-term growth.
How to calculate and clearly show the tangible impact created by your NGO.
Four essential criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of a charitable organisation.
Plus, many more actionable tips on data-driven decision making, marketing, and managing your NGO.
Let’s dive in.
Additional Resources & Links
- One for the World website
- One for the World on Facebook
- Jack Lewars on LinkedIn
Books and influences mentioned in the episode
The Building a Second Brain Podcast
Mindset - by Carol Dweck
The Lean Startup - by Eric Ries
The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures - by Erin Meyer
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
This episode is brought to you by Asana. Click here to learn more and get your free 30-day premium trial.
Welcome to Mission First, the masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
TODAY'S EPISODE
Would you prefer having a social impact or a sustainable environmental impact on the world?
Well, do you know it's possible to achieve both?!
In this episode, I have the chance to talk to Wietse Van Der Werf, CEO and founder of Sea Ranger Service.
Sea Ranger Service is a social enterprise with a mission to restore 1 million hectares of ocean biodiversity by 2040, whilst training 20,000 young people towards a maritime career.
When the common advice for entrepreneurs is to focus on one product only, Wietse developed successfully three products / services with his social enterprise: from marine research services to offering a bootcamp to train people for a new career, and also the construction and design of a new ship certified in the industry with a zero-emission specification.
For this episode, Wietse prepared a list of very hands-on tips about
💡how to create a company with a social and environmental impact!💡
Ready, set, go!
Resources
- Wietse on Linkedin
- Sea Ranger Service website
- More info about the admin structure of for-profit and non-profit companies composing the Sea Ranger Service social enterprise.
- Books: Eat like a fish
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
Welcome to Mission First, the masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
TODAY'S EPISODE
If you are into greentech, B2B2C, crowdfunding, scaling up, or solar,
this episode will probably be very useful for you!
Lots of entrepreneurs dream of having an impact globally, but at the same time you often hear that you should be careful to not internationalize too quickly.
Today I have the chance to interview an entrepreneur who is proof that it’s actually possible to have a global impact very quickly!
Martin Baart has for mission to save the planet as the CEO of Ecoligo.
Ecoligo helps solar projects to be funded for businesses and companies in emerging countries like Kenia, Vietnam or Costa Rica.
The solar projects are financed through their crowdinvesting platform, that offers attractive returns to private investors.
Investments start from 100€ and save tonnes of CO2 emissions, enabling citizens to have an impact on the global energy transition with their money.
Martin shared a list of Do's and Don'ts about
💡 “How to internationalize a start-up globally from scratch” 💡
and in particular we talked about:
✅ How to think from scratch as a global player
✅ When is a good time to expand internationally
✅ How to optimize your structure to scale
✅ How you should consider the different regulations and business cultures in every country
Fasten your seat belt and be ready to learn a lot!
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
Welcome to Mission First, the masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
TODAY'S EPISODE
Would you like to create, or are you in the process of growing your sustainable brand at the early stage? Would you like to improve your supply chain to make it more sustainable or transparent?
Well, you will get some answers to these questions in this episode. I am really excited to talk to Marian Von Rappard, the founder of Evolution three and Dawn Denim.
After spending a few years in the fashion industry, he created his own factory in Vietnam, and he started to produce jeans for global brands where they kept in balance production, ethics, sustainability, and quality. And then in 2015, he started Dawn Denim, which is changing the fashion industry one fine pair of jeans at a time.
In their factory in Saigon, they are setting new standards for fair working conditions in eco-consciousness with the two companies. They have now 200 factory workers in Vietnam and eight employees in Berlin.
So if you want to learn more about sustainable manufacturing, supply chain, and building a brand in the sustainable fashion industry, this episode is for you!
Guest info:
- Marian on Linkedin
- Dawn Denim's website
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
Welcome to Mission First, the masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
TODAY'S EPISODE
Starting and growing a tech company is never easy, especially if you are trying to have a high impact on a global market like the food and agriculture industry.
Developing an AI technology is a very fancy and trendy topic, but you can only be successful if you find a real paint point to solve, so
-
How should you best try to find product market fit in such a busy, technological and competitive market?
-
How much funding should you raise?
-
How long should you try before you decide to pivot?
-
How should you expand and internationalize: should you go in attractive but expensive markets like the US?
Well, these are all questions that we are going to answer in today's episode.
I am very excited to receive our guest Will Wells, founder and CEO of Hummingbird Technology, an artificial intelligence SaaS platform that helps food and agriculture business to be more efficient and sustainable. They use drone and satellite enabled data and imagery analytics for example to help reduce the chemical usage of farming
Started in 2016 and they are already in the commercial scale up phase with 60 employees in 10 different countries. They are in their Series B funding and raised 20 million $ so far, and they should reach break even next year.
Will prepared a list of 8 Do's and don'ts about
💡“raising funding, finding product market fit, expanding your company globally, and pivoting from B2C to B2B!”💡
If these topics resonate with you, you won't be disappointed.
Will Wells and Hummingbird:
- Will Wells on Linkedin
- Hummingbird’s website
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
Welcome to Mission First, the masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
TODAY'S EPISODE
Lots of us dream of having a real positive social impact, but it's easier said than done.
Are you dreaming of starting your nonprofit organization, but you don't know where to start?
Or maybe you started it, but it turns out that growing it and funding it is more complex than you thought.
Well, this episode might have the answers you need to start and grow your non-profit organization.
I'm really excited to talk to Melina Taprantzi, the founder of Wise Greece, a social entrepreneurship pioneer and non-profit organization.
Melina recently won an award from the United Nations, recognizing her as one of the seven women worldwide, whose activity significantly contributes to the achievement of the global sustainable development goals 2030.
Wise Greece has a double mission: they support small Greek food producers by promoting top quality Greek products through the sales of which they raise money and buy food in order to donate it to the people in need.
They cooperate with more than a hundred producers selling more than 2500 of their products. And they have distributed more than 50 tons of food to orphanages and soup kitchens across the country.
She prepared a list of 8 Do's and don'ts about
💡 “how to build a social enterprise!” 💡
So be ready to learn from a very inspiring and very impactful social entrepreneur.
Melina and Wise Greece:
- Melina on Linkedin
- Wise Greece website
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
Welcome to Mission First, the masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here.
TODAY'S EPISODE
Everybody tells you
“you should raise funding as a startup!”
But is it true?
Is this the only way?
Well, it's not.
And actually, there are many cases where raising funding is actually a really bad idea and bootstrapping your startup would be much smarter.
But how do you bootstrap your startup?
Today, I'm talking to Kati Ernst, co-founder and CEO of Ooia. They sell innovative consumer products for the needs of women.
They've entirely bootstrapped the company they started two and a half years ago, they already have
🚀 more than 100,000 customers
🚀 several million euros of revenue.
They also have an exceptional company culture, completely flexible: they work without working hours and both co-founders are also parents combining entrepreneurship and raising children.
Katy shared a list of Do's and Don'ts about
💡 “How to bootstrap a consumer product company” 💡
and in particular we talked about:
✅ finding alternative financing options than the classic investor road
✅ taking bold decisions while bootstrapping
✅ growing an audience organically with storytelling
✅ Preparing a successful crowdfunding campaign without paid PR
✅ choosing the right business model for bootstrapping
So fasten your seat belt and be ready to learn a lot!
Welcome to Mission First, the masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here:
https://gtimpact.com/best-advice-for-green-entrepreneurs/
TODAY'S EPISODE
Aujourd'hui, j'accueille Claire Chouraqui, cofondatrice de Dreamact, une plateforme de E-commerce responsable qui vend plus de 12.000 produits éco-conçus et engagés.
Claire rêve d’une société où l'écoresponsablité est la norme, et non l'exception.
Alors, en 2015, moins de deux ans après avoir terminé ses études, elle crée DreamAct
Comme tout entrepreneur, Claire et sa cofondatrice ont galéré, notamment pour trouver le bon business modele,
Mais depuis 2 ans, le succès est au rdv et la croissance prend bien
Maintenant, DreamAct, c'est 3 millions de chiffre d’affaire, 19 employés et plus de 800 marques sur leur plateforme, avec un modèle mixte et deux sites webs, un pour vendre aux particuliers en B2C et un pour vendre aux entreprises en B2B.
Claire nous a fait le plaisir de préparer une liste de conseils à propos de
- Comment développer une plateforme de vente de produits éco responsable et comment sensibiliser ses consommateurs
Donc si vous êtes dans l'e-commerce écoresponsable, accrochez vous car cela risque d'être un épisode passionnant pour vous, comme pour moi!
Claire Chouraki et DreamAct:
- Claire sur Linkedin
- Dreamact: site pour entreprises et professionels B2B ainsi que site pour particuliers
Resources and recommendations from the episode
Livres
- 80 hommes pour changer le monde
Influencers/po dcasts
- Génération XX
🚀 Discover more episodes and entrepreneurship masterclasses on https://gtimpact.com/podcast-for-entrepreneurs/
🎧 About Mission First
We are at a critical period for our planet and its inhabitants, and entrepreneurs and companies are going to play a massive influence on our future. As always, there are two sides who can pull us in opposite directions. On one side, there are entrepreneurs who chase and base their decisions on money, success, and fame. On the other side, I believe there are entrepreneurs who truly care about making a positive difference on this world. Money is a mean and not an end to these entrepreneurs: they care about their Mission First, and their goal is not fame nor a quick exit for the sake of it. I call them Entrepreneurs for Future. My name is Gilles Toussaint, I am an entrepreneur and an expert in Growth Marketing. With my company GT Impact, I help sustainability-driven companies to increase their revenue faster with growth marketing and multi-channel content marketing.
Welcome to Mission First, the masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here:
https://gtimpact.com/best-advice-for-green-entrepreneurs/
TODAY'S EPISODE
Lots of entrepreneurs dream of disrupting a market with a real innovation, but few are those who manage to achieve that.
The circular economy seems like the perfect solution for our future, but it is not easy to develop the right product with the right business model at the right time. You have to find the early adopters and sometimes factors like market, society trends, or even political decisions play a key role on the timing.
In this episode I have the chance to talk to Jonne Hellgren, the founder and CEO of Repack.
He launched his company in 2011 and from what he told me, he launched it way too early.
He went through some difficult phases like changing co founders and the early team, but he hung on and now his company is trusted by more than 150 brands, like Zalando, Levis, the AvocadoStore, and they are revolutionizing the packaging industry for E-commerce.
Repack makes packaging that is reusable and returnable.
E-commerce companies use the Repack packaging to send their products to consumers, which can return the Repack packaging for free, anywhere in the world just by posting it in a postbox. Then Repack checks it, cleans it and it is ready to be used again.
Thanks to their solution, companies sending products can save up to 80% of CO2 emissions compared to classic packaging
They won more than 14 design and sustainability awards since their launch, so today we are going to talk about how to disrupt a market and end packaging trash!
Jonne has shared 💡Do’s and Don’ts about 💡
- product design,
- circular economy,
- how to find the right customers,
- shareholder agreement and how to best set the terms between co founders when you start a company., and what kind of mistakes you should avoid in that case.
Can you relate to these topics?
Then take a listen now (or make sure to save it in your playlist to listen to for later!
Jonne Hellgren and Repack:
- Jonne on Linkedin
- Repack’s website
Resources and recommendations from the episode
Books
- Good to great
- The hard things about hard things
🚀 Discover more episodes and entrepreneurship masterclasses on https://gtimpact.com/podcast-for-entrepreneurs/
🎧 About Mission First
We are at a critical period for our planet and its inhabitants, and entrepreneurs and companies are going to play a massive influence on our future. As always, there are two sides who can pull us in opposite directions. On one side, there are entrepreneurs who chase and base their decisions on money, success, and fame. On the other side, I believe there are entrepreneurs who truly care about making a positive difference on this world. Money is a mean and not an end to these entrepreneurs: they care about their Mission First, and their goal is not fame nor a quick exit for the sake of it. I call them Entrepreneurs for Future. My name is Gilles Toussaint, I am an entrepreneur and an expert in Growth Marketing.
With my company GT Impact, I help sustainability-driven companies to increase their revenue faster with growth marketing and multi-channel content marketing.
Welcome to Mission First, the masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here:
https://gtimpact.com/best-advice-for-green-entrepreneurs/
TODAY'S EPISODE
Today, my guest is Ryan Hunt, co-founder of Algix and its brand Bloom. With his companies, he sells durable resins to brands like Adidas, Reebok, Billabong, who make shoes with these green products. Their eco-innovative products use algaes, that transform air and water pollution, as a replacement for plastic consumer products.
So far with their products, they've cleaned more than 600 million liters of water! Started in 2010 as a spinoff from the University of Georgia. The company has now more than a hundred customers and employs more than 20 people. During these 10 years, Ryan went through a few difficult phases where they had to adapt their company products and manufacturing strategy.
We talked about these challenges and Ryan also shared a list of Do's and don'ts on the topic of
In this episode, Ryan has shared a list of 9 Do's and Don'ts about
💡💡“How to sell a B2B eco-innovative product to a brand like Adidas, and in particular, how to integrate into a supply chain in Asia”💡💡
So if you want to learn about B2B eco-innovative product development, pivoting, supply chain strategy, this episode is for you!
Ryan Hunt and his company:
- Ryan on Linkedin
- Algix’s website
Resources and recommendations from the episode:
Books
- The 3-minute rule
- Never split the difference
Influencers/podcasts
- Green Planet Blue planet podcast
🚀 Discover more episodes and entrepreneurship masterclasses on
https://gtimpact.com/podcast-for-entrepreneurs/
🎧 About Mission First
We are at a critical period for our planet and its inhabitants, and entrepreneurs and companies are going to play a massive influence on our future.
As always, there are two sides who can pull us in opposite directions.
On one side, there are entrepreneurs who chase and base their decisions on money, success, and fame.
On the other side, I believe there are entrepreneurs who truly care about making a positive difference on this world. Money is a mean and not an end to these entrepreneurs: they care about their Mission First, and their goal is not fame nor a quick exit for the sake of it. I call them Entrepreneurs for Future.
My name is Gilles Toussaint, I am an entrepreneur and an expert in Growth Marketing. With my company GT Impact, I help sustainability-driven companies to increase their revenue faster and have a greater impact on this planet.
Welcome to Mission First, the masterclass to learn from successful entrepreneurs changing the world for the better!
⚡️⚡️⚡️DONT MISS the best of season 1 ⚡️⚡️⚡️
= 10 episodes of less than 10 minutes to download and listen to here:
https://gtimpact.com/best-advice-for-green-entrepreneurs/
TODAY'S EPISODE
Being an entrepreneur in the energy industry is a tough challenge. The market is very broad, the sales cycle and the product implementation are very long, products are usually a mix of hardware and software, so it is very difficult to be a successful entrepreneur in that sector.
That's why I am really excited to talk today to Ernesto Garnier, the CEO of EINHUNDERT.
Launched in 2017, EINHUNDERT is already making a 7 digit revenue.
They offer a 100% sustainable energy solution and help real estate companies become solar power suppliers for their residents.
In this episode Ernesto will share a list of 6 Do's and Don'ts on the topic of
💡 “How to optimize and develop a new energy solution in the B2B real estate market” 💡
This includes tips about how to pin down your ideal customer, how to develop and design your software and hardware solution, or how to develop your partnerships.
Can you relate to that?
Then let's dive into this conversation together.
Ernesto Garnier and Ein Hundert:
- Ernesto on Linkedin
- EINHUNDERT’s website
Resources and recommendations from the episode:
Books
- Zero to one
- Why nations fail
- Human Kind
Influencers/podcasts
- The energy gang
- Leaders in cleantech
- Global Chances (in German)
🚀 Discover more episodes and entrepreneurship masterclasses on
https://gtimpact.com/podcast-for-entrepreneurs/
🎧 About Mission First
We are at a critical period for our planet and its inhabitants, and entrepreneurs and companies are going to play a massive influence on our future.
As always, there are two sides who can pull us in opposite directions.
On one side, there are entrepreneurs who chase and base their decisions on money, success, and fame.
On the other side, I believe there are entrepreneurs who truly care about making a positive difference on this world. Money is a mean and not an end to these entrepreneurs: they care about their Mission First, and their goal is not fame nor a quick exit for the sake of it. I call them Entrepreneurs for Future.
My name is Gilles Toussaint, I am an entrepreneur and an expert in Growth Marketing. With my company GT Impact, I help sustainability-driven companies to increase their revenue faster and have a greater impact on this planet.
Signup for all the best of episode series here:
https://gtimpact.com/best-advice-for-green-entrepreneurs/
Mission First best-off advice #1 - Leadership: The key ROI that most of CEO's forget + how to learn about climate change
Lubomila Jordanova is the CEO of Plan A, a B2B Saas which helps companies to be more sustainable thanks to data science and actionable plans.
Before pivoting to B2B, Plan A was a platform that raised closed to 1 million euro for sustainable and environmental projects. In that episode #3 of Mission First, we talked a lot about how they successfully pivoted, but here I want to share two inspiring and useful sequences related to leadership.
In the first sequence, you will hear from which sources and how Lubomila became more knowledgeable about climate change science (even though she is has no scientific background), why she estimates that it is crucial for a CEO from a sustainable company to understand at a deep level the science of climate change.
In the second sequence, you will learn about one type of ROI that lots of CEO forgets to take into account for their company, the type of ROI which makes your employees commit to your company and stick with you however hard it gets!
Today my guest is Mattias Josephson, a serial entrepreneur and the cofounder of Epishine. Mattias is a wonderful and very humble human being, but he has set himself and his company a very ambitious mission: he wants to scale the manufacture of his solar cells to make it one of the largest energy systems in the world.
A few years ago, he founded Dreampark, a leading software provider who was sold to Motorola in 2011. After that, he worked as a consultant and started a company helping with fundraising for charities and associations.
Then in 2016 he started Epishine. Epishine helps harvesting light to create a sustainable world. To describe it simply: They make printable solar cells, fully organic with no toxic nor expensive raw materials.
They have made manufacturing breakthroughs that allowed them to scale up a R&D product at low cost. Their first product is a small, thin and flexible light cell, printed on recyclable plastic and easily integrated into wireless products where it convert the ambient light into electricity. The light cells can be used instead of batteries on wireless sensors and similar devices in our increasingly connected world.
The company has now 23 employees and they are growing quickly.
Mattias shared 7 Do’s and Don’ts about his experience of entrepreneur, and specifically about
“How to scale up an R&D product and build a market that doesn't exist, in particular in this case how to build electronics in a new way”
Very often, new materials get out from the R&D lab too early to be able to scale properly. Founders choose applications that are too far away and they don't have the right business case to scale. This is the pitfall that Mattias avoided with Epishine and this is what we are going to talk about today.
You will learn a.o:
- How to be prepared to start a company developing an advanced material (especially on the funding part)
- Where to look for your first customers
- How to have a big inspiring vision but an achievable first business case
- How they proceeded to formulate the values and a strong why of the company, that really works to attract top talent and to which everyone refers to in the company
- How and why he stepped down as a CEO to give his place to a new CEO
If you are into technological breakthrough, finding product-market fit, and scaling up technologies, this episode is for you!
Mattias Josephson and Epishine:
- Mattias on Linkedin
- Epishine’s website
Resources and recommendations from the episode:
The gifts of imperfection, Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are.
The seven habits of highly effective people
Start with Why
Don't miss any episode & join our community of entrepreneurs for future by signing up for the newsletter here: https://gtimpact.com/podcast-for-entrepreneurs/
Today my guest is Pierre-Yves Paslier, cofounder and co-CEO of Notpla, a company that makes packaging disappear. They have created a cutting edge packaging material directly made from the ocean, from seaweed. It is biodegradable in six weeks and it can actually be eaten.
This episode is perfect for you if you would like to learn:
- how to go from an idea to a cutting-edge sustainable product through several years of R&D. Pierre created his company in 2014 and it started as a student project. They have now more than 25 employees. They have industrialized 2 products, and a 3rd one is on its way.
- We talked with Pierre about how he used an innovative funding method, equity crowdfunding to get more than 850’000 pounds from 900 private investors, at a moment when classic investors didn’t want to fund the next stage of their company
- You will also hear how to take advantage of social media and PR to raise awareness on your brand and your product. Pierre and his team managed to create several viral campaigns without working with any external agency and without spending a single penny on PR and social media. They grew everything organically in DIY mode, with some videos who reached more than 19 million views. In fact, I am pretty sure you have seen some of them, explaining how they trap water inside little transparent bubbles of seaweed packaging who can be eaten directly during events like marathons or festivals.
- We also talked about their IP strategy, how they decided to patent certain things and keep others as a secret recipe without patent.
Pierre shared 7 Do’s and Don’ts about his experience of entrepreneur, and specifically about how to bring a disruptive technology on the market.
Notpla won among others the world technology award in the environmental category or the climate kick UK venture competition. They are really revolutionizing single use packaging in the food industry, so fasten your seat belt for an episode full of learnings and inspiration!
Today my guest is Christoph Berger, the founder and CEO of Vilisto and Planet Sustainability.
It is a perfect episode if you want to raise seed funding and to learn:
- how to build the right team and hire the right employees
- how to optimize your recruiting process
- how to build a B2B greentech company with hardware and digital products
With Vilisto, Christoph has developed a digital heat management system with self-learning radiator thermostats which reduce CO2 emissions & heating costs by up to 32%.
He has founded this company in 2014 directly after finishing his university degree in Energy systems. Since then, the company has 21 FTE, they are currently raising their Series-A funding round and they recently won the German Innovation Award 2020 for Climate and Environment.
They are rated 4.7 out of 5 stars by their employees on Kununu (the Glassdoor for German companies), so they have an extremely good reputation as an employer.
We will focus this episode on learning from his experience with his Do’s and Don’ts about:
“How to build the right team for a seed-round!“
We will also talk about his new online event Planet Sustainability, which brings together innovators and B2B startups.
Among others, you will also learn:
- How to best manage equity share distribution between founders
- How they developed their MVP
- How they really failed their Kickstarter campaign and what they learned from it
- How they pivoted from a B2C to a B2B product for non-residential buildings
- How they funded their company until now (with 4 million € raised so far)
- How they found their first B2B client at a fair by doing something most of the startups don’t do at fairs
- Where to find and how to attract interns and working students
- The different types of business models they considered (performance contracting, renting model)
If you want hands-on advice
- on greentech and renewable entrepreneurship,
- on relentlessness and product development iterations,
- on how to build a business and a product for a specific market like schools,
- on how to grow your company with strategic partnerships,
this episode is for you!
Today I have the chance to talk to Robert Schrimpff.
Robert is a serial entrepreneur. He has been the founder, CEO, or director of six companies, mostly in the energy sector. He has a huge entrepreneurship and business exprience. In 2015 he took the bet to start a new company called Solar for Schools.
Solar for Schools provide solar energy to schools, as well as education on energy and sustainability to the kids of these schools. They already provide solar panels to over 150 schools in the UK and Germany. They have educated more than 77 000 kids on sustainability and how to cut carbon emissions with renewable energy.
Today you will learn:
- How Robert almost gave up this project, and what was the trigger with his neighbor and his daughter that convinced him to double the efforts to make it work
- How they adapted their strategy to win the trust of schools and their potential partners (councils, community energy groups,...) to be able to sell their solution to schools without being seen as a competitor
- How Robert tried 3 different methods of lead generation...two methods who failed and the third one that was successful
- How they set the financing, business, and legal models of the company to develop the projects in each country they operate, and to make sure it is attractive for all stakeholders (investors, schools, and Solar for Schools)
- How they grew their business with different types of partnerships (solar project developers, utilities, community energy groups, councils,...)
- Which strategy they used to develop a product that was really attractive for their audience, and how he positioned themselves in order to be attractive to the councils of schools, which initially see them as a competitor and didn’t really want to support them.
- Why Robert chose to make a for-profit company instead of a non-profit
- How to know when to give up or when to keep on iterating with your idea
- Why his experience in the solar sector made him decide to launch in two countries even though they were at an early stage, and how that strategy saved him from bankruptcy.
This episode’s guest is Maren Hjorth, one of the co-founders of Katapult Ocean and the founder of Fynd Ocean Ventures.
Both companies invest and support startups with a positive impact on the ocean: Katapult Ocean invests in early-stage startups (pre-seed & seed funding), while Fynd Ocean Ventures focuses on startups in their growth phase.
We talked extensively about Katapult Ocean, which has an accelerator program, has invested in more than 23 companies (150-300k€ per startup), and has built a network of 100+ mentors and partners worldwide.
In this episode you will learn:
- How Maren saw a market opportunity to start a smart investment company in the ocean space
- How she selected her co-founders
- How she found the first investors for her new fund
- How they use OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) to remain focus and learn to say no to anything which is not contributing to these objectives
- How she grew and selected her network of partners and mentors
- How she makes the most out of virtual events to network
- How she made sure she could step out smoothly as a CEO of Katapult Ocean to start developing Fynd Ocean Ventures
As usual for every episode, Maren shared her list of Do’s and Don’ts, this time about fundraising:
4 Do’s and Don’ts about how to raise pre-seed & seed funding as a startup.
If you are:
- a startup with a positive mission who needs to raise funding, or
- someone who wants to build an investment company/fund to invest in startups with a positive impact,
this episode is definitely for you!
The link to:
Katapult Oceans
Fynd Ocean Ventures
The resources mentioned in this episode:
Books and good reads:
- McKinsey quarterly
- Harvard Business Review
- The fiction books from Maren’s aunt
Influencers and resources to follow:
- Nina Jensen from REV Ocean
- The Ocean Panel
- Kristian Teleki on Twitter
In this episode I had the chance to talk to Benny Mandos, founder and CEO of Got Bag.
Benny’s company is not just another backpack brand. They have for mission to clean up the oceans and they get their hands dirty: with their team and a network of 1500 fishermen they collect and recycle plastics from the ocean in Indonesia and turn these pieces into various sustainable fashion products.
Started in 2014, Got Bag has now more than 30'000 customers.
During this episode, we discussed Benny’s challenges and what he has learned on the way.
Among others you will learn:
- how Benny and his cofounder started Got Bag beside his full-time job,
- how they manage to grow a profitable company and to fund it without investors
- how they organize the clean-up in Indonesia and their holistic approach to not only recycle PET but other types of waste in the ocean
- how they found and selected their partners all along the supply chain to make it as sustainable as possible
- how important certification and transparency of their supply chain are important for their team and their customers
- how he organized their Kickstarter campaign (and his pre-sales) before he quit his job
Finally, from his entrepreneurship experience, Benny shared with us 5 Do’s and 3 Don’ts about how to create a sustainable fashion accessory.
If you are interested in entrepreneurship, sustainable fashion, and you are passionate about our ocean, this episode is definitely for you!
In this episode, I welcome Vaitea Cowan, one of the co-founders of Enapter. Vaitea’s mission is to bring hydrogen and clean energy to the islands. For that purpose, her company has developed an electrolyzer that produces green hydrogen.
This high-tech product can among others replace diesel generators. It uses renewable energy to produce hydrogen that can then be used for various applications like mobility (planes or vehicles with hydrogen fuel), industrial use (use of the pure hydrogen), or to produce green electricity (when used in combination with a fuel cell).
Enapter has raised a total funding amount (seed and series-A) of 8.7 million euros and is now thriving with 100 employees in 4 different locations in Europe and Asia. Their products are already being used in 33 countries, and their next stage is to mass produce these electrolyzers in Germany, with soon over 200 more employees to be hired.
Vaitea is such a nice person, with an exciting story that led to the creation of Enapter in Thailand, and its development in Russia, Italy, and Germany, so I was thrilled to interview her for Mission First.
In this episode you will learn:
- how Vaitea’s roots inspired her to start this company and to follow this mission
- how she ended up in Thailand, met her cofounders there
- how they trusted so much a technology that they decided to save from bankruptcy the company that was producing it, to keep their team, and to give it a vision and a roadmap
- how they divided the roles and responsibilities between the 3 cofounders
- what were some of their biggest challenges and how they overcame them
- what are their USP and their technological competitive advantage
In particular, Vaitea shared with us the Do’s & Don’ts she has learned as an entrepreneur while creating this alternative fuel (like Walk the talk, Don’t follow general go-to-market strategy,...).
If you are into green technology and inspiring entrepreneurship stories, this episode is definitely for you!
In today’s episode, I had the chance to welcome Maayke-Aimée Damen. Maayke has received several prestigious awards for her pioneer work on the circular economy. With her company Excess Materials Exchange, she has for mission to eliminate waste from the dictionary. They help companies turn their waste into valuable resources. Together we talked about how they developed and tuned their products according to these companies’ needs and concerns. We discussed their extremely impactful results in terms of environmental but also financial impact for these industrial companies. If you want to learn more about circular economy, to learn how they developed a high tech product using AI and blockchain, and how Maayke kept her motivation high against all advice in order to create a market that didn’t exist yet, this episode is for you.
In this episode you will learn:
- How she funded her company using a mix of public funding and direct revenue from companies who paid for their services (even for their first pilot)
- How the maturity of the circular economy market impacted the development of her idea until the launch of her company
- How she invented and developed the Resources Passport which helps companies to evaluate their resource assets
- How she shifted and adapted her company pitch to her clients to get a better reaction and be able to sell her product better to corporate companies
- How she got invited to present 3 Ted talks and how she prepared them.
- How they use blockchain technology and a new protocol to overcome trust issues and company technology secrets
- What are the 3 cornerstones of her company product (Identity, Intelligence, Integral approach)
- How they defined and set their 3 different revenue streams
- How they started their first pilot project with 10 corporate companies in order to develop and tune their products WITH these potential clients (and how she made it a paid pilot).
- Her tips as a CEO to get clients to jump on her journey and listen to her
In this episode, our guest is Franziska Schmid, the CEO and co-founder of Junge Tüftler and the Tüftel Akademie. With her companies, Franzi and her team have taught technology through events, workshops, and webinars to more than 25 000 kids and teenagers in Germany, who have learned that way how to become young tinkerers and inventors. Franzi is a friend of mine, and I was very excited to learn more about the successful growth of her company, but also because she has an inspiring vision of education, and how her company should be developed in all transparency through a new organisation culture called holacracy. I was very curious to learn how they both share the CEO role with her co-founder and how she quit her job to found her company while being pregnant. I was also very keen to learn more about how they used that holacracy system to develop the companies to more than 25 employees, providing full transparency to the salaries, and using that system to give ownership and power in the decision making to all employees.
Together we discussed about:
- the importance of educating people and kids on technology,
- how she quit her job while being 5-month pregnant to co-found her company
- how her mission helped them to attract developers who find a meaningful work at her company, even though they can’t afford to pay them as much as in the corporate world
- how they are creative to find funding and support from third parties to be able to finance their projects and make them available for free to as many kids as possible
- the importance of the state in the education system, and the possibility to involve companies to help finance this education system
- the Open Badges system developed by Mozilla to show what people have learned
- how they set up their recruiting system to be able to hire the right people fitting to their company culture and that holacracy system
- How to have an efficient but flexible system for the team schedule, as most of their employees work with flexible hours and part-time contracts
- Learning to let go as a CEO
- Her learnings as a mother and entrepreneur
- How they took advantage of covid to focus on their strategy and the accelerated digitalization of their company.
If you want to learn more about what flexibility and transparency might look like in the future of modern organizations, this episode is for you.
In this episode discover how Lubomila Jordanova left her corporate job in fintech to start PlanA as a solopreneur. Lubomila is a very engaged and inspiring leader who has won a lot of awards in the last two years for her work with Plan A and for her impact as an entrepreneur.
We broke down how she turned a wake-up call in 2016 on a beach in Morocco into a company that generated close to 1’000’000 euros in donations for environmental projects.
Next, we analyzed step by step how she pivoted and transformed successfully that donation platform into a software as a service tool, currently used by 100+ companies to reduce their carbon footprint and to become more sustainable.
Among others, you will learn:
- how she bootstrapped the company and her first steps as a solopreneur,
- how her mission to fight climate change and her passion helped her find enthusiastic collaborators and grow a team of dedicated employees,
- how she learned enough about data science and climate change to be able to start a data-driven company alone without a scientific background,
- how their communication strategy and Linkedin helped them to get 500 applications in two days for their new job offers,
- how they evaluate company culture fit during their recruiting process,
- How she built her following and Plan A’s following on Linkedin all organically, without any PR or paid advertising
- how they keep their employees motivated through continuous training, and by making her company fun to work at.
If you want to learn about data-driven product development, pivoting, and communication and recruiting strategy, this episode is for you.
Captain Paul Watson was one of the co-founders of Greenpeace. In 1977 he left that organization to create Sea Shepherd. For more than 40 years, Sea Shepherd has been defending the oceans, saving the lives of thousands of whales, and fighting against illegal fishing. Today I am incredibly honored to have the chance to learn more about his fantastic story and experience building the biggest non-governmental navy in the world. Among others, we discussed his experience with branding, how they came up with their new flag logo, and how it tremendously impacted their revenue. We talked about how they maximize their operation efficiency, how they avoided any paid promotion, and instead had people choosing to join them. We talked about his first steps to fund and kick off Sea Shepherd at the beginning, as well as how they set the organization administration and operations in such a way that it is an international movement with independent entities working on their own campaigns. We talked about leadership, passion for the mission, and how they find and recruit their volunteers and crew members. We spent a long time, in the end, talking about his communication strategy and the tactics they used to get so many TV documentaries filmed about their cause. We discussed also positive and negative press, haters, and how far you can go to get media attention. If you want to have a lesson on communication strategy, leadership, and how to grow one of the most charismatic and impactful NGOs in the world, this episode is for you.
Today, our guest is Jeff Kirschner, a fantastic storyteller, and an inspiring entrepreneur. With his startup Litterati, he created a community of 170’000 people who are on a mission to clean the planet.
During this episode you will learn:
- How he started and financed Litterati as a solopreneur in parallel to his consulting career.
- How his TED residency, his TED talk, and their Kickstarter campaign contributed to his progress.
- How he started growing this community organically using only Instagram, without having to build an app.
- How the power of its mission helped him attract his first collaborators and his co-founder.
- How they managed to move their community from Instagram to their Android and iOs app, which was a very tricky move.
Jeff was extremely honest by sharing with us his biggest mistake with Litterati, how that mistake hurt him and his community, and how they fixed it with his team.
Finally, Jeff also discussed with us his list of 4 Do’s & Don’ts on how to build a community, which, as promised, are super insightful and hands-on tips.
Visit www.GTImpact.com for the resources and bonuses linked to this episode.
Welcome to Mission First, the podcast to learn from successful entrepreneurs who are building a sustainable future for our planet and its people!
In this episode I explain you why I created Mission First, what you are going to learn, and I introduce you to our first four guests.