Throughout this episode, we encourage you to think big and explore opportunities when becoming a partner. Kasia shared her personal story so you can find out the background of this decision, the deal’s organization, and all things you should take into consideration. Never mind if you want to become a partner or thinking about someone else joining t…

Scaling a business comes with its own set of challenges. In this episode, we discuss the difficulties that arise when a company grows, based on our own experience. We focus especially on:- communication issues,- new roles and the meaning of HR nowadays,- company culture and how to make people understand it.Tune in to learn more about it! We don’t g…

When you have your own company or are deeply devoted to your work, it’s easy to become a workaholic. In this episode, you will learn how to avoid this way but stay highly performed at the same time.As an entrepreneur or founder, running a business can often feel like a never-ending battle. That's why it's crucial to have a routine and healthy habit…

The founder's perspective is our daily reality. An accelerator's perspective brings new insights into the start-up market, which we share with you through a talk with Gabriel from Elemental Excelerator. They have developed a mentoring program that takes a personalized approach to help founders reach their goals and achieve success. And of course, t…

What can work against greenwashing look like? Quality carbon credits are the answer. BeZero Carbon focuses on quality carbon rating, helping companies become transparent and have a positive impact.In this episode, we talk with Tommy about his personal career which led him to BeZero Carbon, some industry insights, the importance of the quality in th…

Are you a founder who's successfully convinced investors to trust in your startup? Congratulations, you've taken a significant step towards fulfilling your dreams! However, the hard work doesn't stop there. Once you've secured the funding, you'll need to learn how to manage your investors effectively to ensure a successful business relationship.Sve…

You can often hear complaints about how the impact investing scene could be better. But that depends on your perspective. The state of impact investing looks a lot different when you’re the first one on the scene. That’s exactly the wide point of view that Wojciech Majewski has.Dealing with investors and founders from Poland and the CE region, Wojc…

For companies that work in software development, diving right in to build a complete software product seems like a natural course of action. That’s exactly what Jamie Dujardin and his team at Altruistiq did. Until they learned the hard way that sometimes the best way to move forward in the tech world is to go analog.Because what’s the point of inve…

When you think of carbon credits, companies reactively and unconsciously buying up credits to offset carbon emissions might come to mind. Thankfully, those days are becoming a thing of the past.That’s not only thanks to a shift in mindset and evolving regulations. It’s also thanks to companies like goodcarbon that are paving the way for a new way o…

ESG is a framework that helps companies to manage risks and opportunities related to environmental, social, and governance criteria. This aspect is increasingly important among investors during startup evaluation and due diligence processes.One of the primary responsibilities of both parties is to align what ESG means in the context of a particular…

Impact is a global issue, there’s no doubt about that. We talk a lot about involving entire industries, countries, and regions in the battle with climate change. The problem with that is that it’s quite hard to do. In fact, it might be much more efficient starting off at the micro level with an individual instead.Here’s the scenario: you get a pers…

When you think of oat milk, the word “revolutionary” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. And yet that’s exactly what oat milk can be if you have the right approach. Imagine taking all the water out of oat milk, leaving behind only the 10% plant base and selling it as a powder. That means a lot less CO2 emissions and significantly less packagi…

When it comes to Life Cycles Assessments, many founders hit one of two brick walls. Either they need to practice a whole lot of patience waiting for a consultant that comes with a hefty price tag or they can use complicated software that doesn’t necessarily show founders all they want to know.Does that mean that founders just need to grit their tee…

In today’s market, transparency is taking up more and more of the spotlight. For companies to keep up with the growing trend and legal pressure, they need to implement transparency measures in their supply chains. It’s the same for any industry, including food.But it’s not just laws keeping companies accountable. More aware consumers want to know w…

There are few things as exciting and enrapturing as creating a product. You put your blood, sweat, tears, and time into it, coddling it and nurturing it until finally you’re ready to go to market. Or at least you think you are.Oftentimes instead of going headlong into success, founders crash head on into a brick wall when it turns out that the mark…

Struggling to find a good funding option? A lot of founders do. Especially when they believe that they only have the simple choice between retail and angel investing.But there’s another interesting solution on the market. One that brings the best of both investing worlds, in both Europe and the United States, to the table. All for the relatively sm…

What do you think of when you think of international market expansion? Metrics? Capital? Risk?You wouldn’t be wrong. But there’s something important missing.What about the more human side?A lot of real business is done on the ground floor and that’s where personal relationships and shared goals take center stage, not numbers and graphs. Intricate k…

In today’s day and age, a lot of companies use carbon credits to pat themselves on the back and make themselves feel good about impact.But take a look around you, the environment isn’t having it.We need to transform our mentality when it comes to how we treat nature. But that can’t be done without the help of private capital. But how do you make th…

You’ve probably heard of the high emissions of the meat industry. But did you know that the dairy industry is as much of a culprit, accounting for the highest emissions just after lamb and beef?In fact, the emissions given off to produce the cheese consumed in Europe is equal to the emissions of Belgium.Yet, for Willicroft the most important stakeh…

No matter who you are in a teal organization, one day you’ll find yourself saying these words—brace yourself, change is coming.And in all honesty, you either embrace the change or lose your head.Why? Because as the organization grows, so does its complexity. So you automatically ask yourself the question—how do I keep the company culture I worked s…

When the organisation is small, it’s relatively easy and intuitive how to work together. But the bigger the company gets, the less obvious it gets, especially in terms of building a company culture in teal organisations. Recently we had a case, when one of our portfolio companies reached out to us with exactly this kind of problem - they needed adv…

Sustainable fashion is a thing now. Retailers put “made from recycled materials,” “organic,” and “sustainable” labels on their clothes and collect worn-out apparel for recycling. But from the customers perspective, making sustainable choices is not a no-brainer. Apart from order returns, the pure evil of the industry, as customers we have a really …

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Founders talk about impact measurement a lot. Most of the time, they complain about not knowing how to handle it.Frankly, though, there are many frameworks like life cycle assessment (LCA) that help startups make the first step towards it. In the latest episode of the Founding Impact podcast, we explored this topic with Marie Bos - Managing Partner…

As an entrepreneur, why would you want to have both a for-profit and non-profit organization? It makes complete sense in many scenarios.One of them is when a part of your company focuses on solving social problems.Our guest - Sabrina Konzok, Managing Director at Kiron Digital Learning Solutions - knows the non-profit - for-profit transformation sec…

What’s the carbon footprint of software solutions?At a glance, its impact might seem minimal. Software development is responsible for “just” around 2.1 to 3.9 percent of global GHG emissions. But when you compare this number to 2.1 percent produced by aviation, you quickly realize how big this problem really is. In this episode of the Founding Impa…

The food production sector is one of the biggest CO2 emitters worldwide. There’s a huge room for improvement in this area. To reach zero emissions and stop climate change, we need bold founders with visionary ideas. The guest of this episode of the Founding impact podcast is Michael Mitsakos from the Evig Group.Working closely with scientists tryin…

Is transparency a perfect foundation for the company culture? For us at Ragnarson, it turned out to be a game-changer and allowed us all to better understand each other. It doesn’t mean that it’s a perfect, all-in-one cure for every problem, but it’s a great first step towards changing your company for the better. If you want to explore the most im…

Being so close to the Berlin impact startup ecosystem, our podcast guest has a clear view on how drastically it improved over the course of past 10 years. The guest of this episode is Leon Reiner - Co-Founder and Managing Director of Impact Hub Berlin, a unique place helping people and organizations to co-create innovative solutions for people and …

In this episode of the Founding Impact podcast, we’re talking with Borris Foerster - Managing Partner at Amathaon Capital. As Borris said, they’re “not an impact investor focused on agriculture, but an agriculture investor with a strong focus on impact."Their unique approach combines a clear vision of “where the food industry needs to go” with a st…

The food industry has changed rapidly during the last 10 years. Many elements triggered this change - like open-minded entrepreneurs and the influx of money to this sector. Today, topics like regenerative agriculture, food waste, urban and vertical farming are popular, but not everyone knows what challenges agtech founders have to face. In this epi…

In this episode of the Founding Impact Podcast, Kasia and Maciej talk with Michael Fairbairn. He’s a partner and founder at 8 Dimension Ventures - a leading impact Health & Wellness fund investing in companies that have the potential to make an impact on people’s lives and world health. Their offer is very unique. Apart from being invested in, foun…

This episode's guest is Katrin Häuser - the CEO and co-founder of TheGreenSpring.Her company combines business and sustainability expertise with a hands-on approach. Together with their clients, TheGreenSpring shapes ideas into sustainable business models and match them with their trusted network of sales partners, clients, and investors.In this ep…

Have you ever heard of the steward ownership model?It addresses the concern of many founders: “How to secure the company’s values, so they don’t deteriorate over time.”How?There are 2 basic rules we call the principles of the steward ownership model:1. Shares can’t be sold.2. The majority of profits get reinvested or donated.As a result, no one can…

Taking someone’s business over is difficult. It’s even harder when this “someone” is your relative, and even more so when they are gone.Our latest podcast guest - Finn Wentzler - had to face this massive challenge when his father passed away. Somehow, he not only managed to keep his father’s legacy alive but also started his business journey and be…

Why is everyone so crazy about communities these days?It's a great way to meet interesting people. As the guest of this episode said, it became his addiction at some point. But it's not only about that. People bring new possibilities. In this episode, we talk with Daniel, the co-founder and Head Of Tech For Good Community at Tech To The Rescue. His…

“No one ever picked a product purely out of the impact story behind it. The impact story might have triggered attention to this brand or the product. But at the end of the day you are putting your credit card in, because you like the product and you feel that it fits and it feels good”This might sound exaggerated, but it totally makes sense when yo…

When is the best time to hire the CTO for your project?Is it at the beginning when you’re looking for the product-market fit? Maybe later, when your team grows a bit?Our guest - Greg Kołodziejczyk, heard this question from startup founders multiple times over the last few years.Does he know the answer? Listen to this episode and find out!…

There’s a constant pursuit of new, innovative business models to bring new revenue streams to the nature conservation sector. According to our guest - Adrian Dellecker - head of strategy and development at Luc Hoffmann Institute it’s a massive challenge, but also a great opportunity for ambitious startup founders. In this episode, he explained that…

Why exactly are supply chains so complex? Why is it difficult to innovate them?To answer these questions we have to envision that even a simple product consists of many pieces. All of them come from different suppliers, who again have their own suppliers that often change depending on price or quality. This dynamic makes gathering and verifying dat…

The society’s wealth in Poland started growing after 1989. That’s when many individuals had the chance to build and sell companies, becoming rich. The next generations took over the family businesses and to keep growing them, started reinvesting their profits in other companies, startups, etc. That’s how the first family office investors in Poland …

Every career path is different. Many entrepreneurs don’t know which way to go. Even with the career path planned step-by-step, they sometimes ask themselves if what they do is really what they want to do. There’s a lot of uncertainty. In this episode, Kasia shared her story of looking for the direction to pursue, with all the decisions, dilemmas an…

There are two ways we do business at Ragnarson. On the one hand, we invest in impact-driven startups, on the other, we act as an agency with technical expertise, helping other businesses build different kinds of products, like software as service solutions and online marketplaces. Those two pillars, however, differ a bit. While it’s relatively easy…

Investing in startups involves a huge risk. Investment analysts spend hours analysing every detail of startups before the fund, or an angel decides to invest and take a financial risk. It’s a tremendous surprise to see that the whole community - both founders and investors tend to shut their eyes to one of the greatest risk factors of all - mental …

The number of impact-focused ventures in the European market is growing rapidly. It’s an indicator of growing awareness of global problems.One of them is excessive carbon emission. And that was exactly the problem we discussed in this episode together with our guest - Tobias Matetschlaeger from Global Changer. If you want to find out how you can pl…

“We can’t build a world that values women equally if women aren’t a bigger part of the building.”The impact startup ecosystem talks about diversity all the time. And yet, one of the most important parts of the startup environment - angel investors - lacks a female presence. This has many consequences and impacts the entire startup ecosystem. And th…

If any European country can be considered as a startup super-factory, then it’s definitely Estonia.With growing awareness and more and more companies turning green, it has a great foundation for an impact-driven startup ecosystem.There are many reasons that account for that, like Estonian Startup Visa Program, low corporate tax rate, or affordable …

A few years back, Romania wasn’t the primary destination for impact investors looking for interesting projects so far, but it’s changing now.That is because the Romanian startup ecosystem is growing fast. There are more and more impact-driven startups present on the market, willing to make a change and to solve the pressing problems of today.In thi…

Water is one of the Earth’s priceless resources and, being involved in almost every aspect of our lives, it’s the foundation of the world’s economy.This means that a global water problem is a serious threat to almost every business sector.That’s the reason why protecting this natural resource is one of the most important priorities in fighting clim…

The most common sources of funding for startups are venture capital and private investors.There is, however, one more very interesting alternative source. It’s the public sector.There are dozens, if not hundreds, of public support systems providing smart money for Impact-driven companies.In this episode, Kasia Zalewska and Jonas Schorr from Urban I…