Surya sat down with Made Of Brilliance to share his journey of working with amazing impact-making players over the last 3 years trying to help to create sustainable cities and communities in Southeast Asia.
Thank you MOB for inviting us. The sustainability community wouldn't be as warm without you all!
Here are some highlights from the talk!
"We don't have experience... do you want to help us?"
When starting out in an overwhelmingly huge sustainability scene, it is inevitable for an early-stage impact-making founder to feel like they don't belong.
Earlier on, Surya mentions that he felt the need to prove that he knows x y z to qualify for a b c when in reality, all it took was the switch in narrative by embracing that it's okay to not know everything and instead be open to inviting people to help him out on his journey.
What can we do at Interseed to help you out and guide you in the sustainability scene? Let us know!
Light of Hope shining a light wherever they can
Light of Hope Ph is a grassroots movement in Cebu Philippines, aiming to improve the lives of the less privileged off-the-grid communities, through the use of clean renewable energy technologies and towards a more circular economy
One of the latest startups we worked with in 2020 is Light of Hope PH which is a strong and inspirational entity in which the founder, Jovie, taught us the importance of taking things piece by piece in order to slowly make the impact that he wants to make in order to build a sustainable society .
Working with him reinforced the importance of a strong communal effort backing every founder in order to create the impact that can invoke long-term change.
Are you "Fund-ready"?
Unfortunately, most early-impact startups are just not ready for investors to come in and help them grow their impact. It could be due to a wide range of reasons such as the product not being fine--tuned enough or that the problem isn't well-defined enough.
What is an environmentally sustainable society without a little help?
At Interseed, we hope that our upcoming platform can help early-stage impact making founders reach out to others and collaborate in hopes to grow their output and eventually be fund-ready! Let's help create sustainability opportunities for everyone.
Here's a breakdown of the topics Surya discussed!
[0:00] Intro to YSI SEA - Young Sustainable Impact Southeast Asia and Interseed
[0:29] Highlight of one of the startups we worked with! Light Of Hope Ph where Jovie bootstrapped to make as much impact as possible in rural households
[1:30] Surya's "itchy hands" and his need to build
[1:45] Early stages of him starting out and embracing the fact that he may not know what he was doing and asking for help
[2:04] Important soft skills in the start-up space
[2:55] Mindset that helps entrepreneurs build
(He mentioned Urban Tiller Singapore where Jolene made a leap from literature to urban farming! Podcast we did with them: https://lnkd.in/gupXqtF)
[4:00] Importance of helping early-stage impact making founders be fund-ready!
Miss Surya's soothing voice? You can leave the full 44mins video running in the background and pretend he is working with you! https://lnkd.in/gBytSc2
Want to be a part of a sustainability community for founders and talents? Check out our platform for founders and talents! We promise we won't ask you if you have any experience like how we were constantly asked.