Mission First - Entrepreneurs for future

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 

Resources and recommendations from the episode:

Books

• Zero to one

Influencers/podcasts

• The energy gang

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🎧 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.

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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!

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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)

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 

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

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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.  

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!

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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

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  

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If you want hands-on advice

• on greentech and renewable entrepreneurship,

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

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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

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

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

Influencers and resources to follow:

• Nina Jensen from REV Ocean

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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, 

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!

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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

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!

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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)

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