sensecast

Christina Moreno, founder of She Matters, joined us on this new, inspiring episode of sensecast.

She Matters is a social enterprise based in the Netherlands that specialises in matching highly skilled female newcomers with positions in international companies.

In the interview, Christina not only shared her experience in starting her company, but also took us through her journey as a person, which was full of challenges and turnarounds.

Back in the US, as a teenage mother with no financial means and no high school diploma, all odds were against her. But she made the active decision to change her life and follow her dreams, put herself through school and graduated in law. While working as a human rights lawyer in the Netherlands, the encounter with female refugees made her realise that she wanted to create more impact in the world. So she founded She Matters, through which she is helping refugee women to find their way into the Dutch job market and make a new life for themselves and their families.

Katrin Häuser, a social and a political entrepreneur, joined us on this new episode of sensecast.

After years of working in the corporate sector and living in multiple countries, she decided to quit everything and rethink her career by focusing on purpose and sustainability.

She co-founded TheGreenSpring, a springboard for sustainable ideas within the impact space that helps companies develop their business, open new sales channels and develop green and sustainable strategies. She is also expanding her impact through her political party, Klimaliste Berlin.

What you will hear in this episode:

• Her journey from employee within the corporate world to co-founder of her own sustainability consultancy and political party
• How travelling, freelancing and the On Purpose program were part of this journey
• Bringing sustainability and business together: the sweet spot for changing the world and moving things forward
• The challenge of letting go of the employee mindset
• TIP! Setting boundaries and taking time for yourself: a counter-intuitive way to be more productive and bring more value to your work
• An example of how TheGreenSpring is helping clients integrate sustainability into their strategy
• Katrin’s relationship to the corporate world today

One key takeaway from Katrin’s story:
Just do it! Take the first little step and enjoy the process.

On this episode we had the pleasure to interview Iva Tsolova, co-founder of Jamba - Career For All. This non-profit and social enterprise supports people with disabilities to attain key competencies, soft and professional skills in the IT and AI sector, as well as connects them with future employers.

Iva co-founded Jamba in Bulgaria and then moved to Vienna, expanding the scope of her business to Austria (and Hungary) as well. She is also part of Snowball Effect’s business replication programme, which you can find more about by listening to our second episode!

In the interview you will hear about:

• The 2 main motivators that led Iva to start Jamba: having role-models with disabilities in her family and seeing first-hand the need for more inclusion at work
• How she persisted with her project even though she was told to quit - and how finding the right partner organisations was key to kick-starting her business
• How the range of services provided by Jamba developed while Iva learned more about the needs of her target groups (the people with disabilities as well as the employers)
• Practical tips for the inclusion of people with disabilities in your organisation
• The story of Dantio, who found work and changed his life through Jamba - and how impact stories like these mean everything to Iva
• Why companies actually benefit from diversity and inclusion
• Her two key takeaways

Gianmarco Marinello, social entrepreneur and founder of Nai Nami, joined us in this episode of sensecast.

Nai Nami is a social enterprise in Kenya which transforms the street skills and life stories of street children into a job and a source of income for them. They offer a unique storytelling tour in Nairobi to make people experience the city through the eyes of a street child.

In his search for meaning and fulfilment in his work life, Gianmarco took on different jobs and roles, which led him to discover his true passion: reinventing himself professionally and helping others to do so as well.

What you will hear in this episode:

• The journey that brought Gianmarco to Kenya
• How Nai Nami was co-created by Gianmarco and the street children on eye level
• The challenge of earning their trust
• The impact of Nai Nami on the street children and on the whole community
• Nai Nami becoming a self-sustaining business, as Gianmarco's biggest achievement
• How his journey continued between the corporate and social impact sector
• How having the right mentor can help you change your life

One key takeaway from Gianmarco's story:
There is only one risk: not trying; failing as a person doesn't exist!

Find out more about Nai Nami and book a tour:

This episode's guest is Nicole Ryan, founder of Alex’s Adventure, a drug education company that focuses on helping young people learn about drugs and substance misuse, while also helping them make better decisions as they grow into adulthood.

Nicole's motivation to start this business as well as her whole entrepreneurial journey are deeply rooted in her personal story, which she shared with us in this episode, alongside with:

• The process of developing her business with no knowledge on the topic and why she calls herself an "accidental entrepreneur"
• Her realisation that if she wanted to see change in the drug education system, she had to do it herself
• The reason why she chose to start a social business instead of a non-profit organization
• How she overcame her biggest challenge: thinking she wasn't the right person to start this business
• The importance of coming back to your WHY in order to stay on the right track within your project
• How she balanced between her two sides, introverted vs extroverted, and learned how to avoid burnout
• Her key takeaway: the worst thing that can happen is nothing; at least you tried and won’t have any regrets.

Find out more about Alex's Adventure:

Coral Ruz, founder of the Zero Waste Berlin Festival, joined us in this episode of sensecast, which we recorded at Impact Hub Berlin.

Zero Waste Berlin Festival is an event that aims to bring green entrepreneurs and citizens together to learn and exchange about zero waste, circular economy and sustainability.

What you will hear about in this episode:

• How Coral’s project started out as a Meetup group and evolved into a festival and a business
  
• Her two key motivators: the need to connect with others and her vision for a green future
  
• Her holistic vision and definition of "waste", along with tips on how to reduce it on a daily basis
  
• When the core of your business is a physical event and then suddenly a pandemic happens: turning difficult circumstances into an opportunity to rethink and reinvent
  
• An example of how living more sustainably can start from taking small, simple actions
  
• Her message to aspiring entrepreneurs: "You need to find your passion to chase an entrepreneurial life".

This episode's guest is Laure Brouard, co-founder of Snowball Effect, the first school where you can learn how to replicate a successful social business in your region.

At Snowball Effect, Laure and her co-founder, Yoon-Joo, support aspiring social entrepreneurs who would prefer to not reinvent the wheel: they teach them how to replicate a social business that has already proven to work somewhere else. The participants learn from the original founders to replicate the same concept in their region. The solutions to cope with our social/environmental issues already exist, it's high time we spread them!

Here is a taste of what you will hear in our interview with Laure:

• How working with many aspiring social entrepreneurs at Ticket for Change made her aware of their struggles and developed a business idea to tackle some of them
• How meeting the right people (be it a business partner, a mentor, or other) to accompany and support you on your journey is key to the success of your social business
• Her determination to not compromise her dreams and to thrive as a mom, a social entrepreneur and soon as an artist
• The importance of finding your why in order to be fully aligned with your project
• How following her energy led her to improve both her productivity and work-life balance
• How having an impact as a social entrepreneur is not really about having a brand new genius idea
• Snowball Effect's first milestones as well as the concrete goals it aims to reach by 2025
• Her key takeaways - hold on till the end, because they are worth the wait!

One quote from Laure that really resonated with us :

“We really believe it's possible to be entrepreneurs and to have a fulfilled life with a good balance between the private and the professional.”

*****

Snowball Effect is offering a free masterclass to understand what spreading a social business means and how it works concretely, as well as a Discovery Program to help find a project worth spreading and know if it’s for you or not.

Our first sensecast guest is Johanna Kühner, co-founder of SuperCoop, a collaborative supermarket in Berlin.

Through SuperCoop, Johanna and her co-founders want to make quality and sustainable products accessible at fair prices. In this community-based business model, each member of the cooperative contributes by working 3 hr/month at the supermarket and by co-designing it through democratic governance.

Johanna will share with us:

• Her motivation to start SuperCoop and how she and her team tackle the challenges of today’s food industry and have a social and environmental impact as a community
• The importance of the community in co-creating the business and the ongoing process of idea development and action taking
• The biggest challenges SuperCoop has faced and how they are overcoming them
  - Spoiler: the exchange with people and organisations plays an important role in it!
• Her key takeaways from her journey at SuperCoop.

One quote from Johanna that really stayed with us: “Do things together with others, onboard others, talk about your ideas, and ask for help. We can change things when we come together.”