Founder interview:
Merit Valdsalu, CEO & Co-Founder of Single.Earth
Merit Valdsalu is co-founder and CEO of Single.Earth, a platform that trades natural resources as tokenised virtual goods, such as carbon allowance and biodiversity offset. Before founding Single.Earth, Merit worked in localisation at Pipedrive, one of Estonia’s tech unicorns. Pipedrive is what sparked Merit’s passion for building scalable tech solutions and also where she met Ragnar Sass who introduced Merit to her now Co-Founder Andrus Aaslaid. I had the pleasure of chatting with Merit and get to know more about her journey and learnings as a founder.
What sparked the idea to found Single.Earth?
Merit:
The big problem we wanted to solve was the super-intensive forestry we have here in Estonia. A lot of forests are clearcut, which obviously concerns people but is also something that people can’t do much about because it is after all an income source for the landowners. We started to brainstorm to find a systematic way to fix this problem; to figure out what needs to be changed to make nature protection more systematic, achievable and efficient. We discovered that we have to start reshaping the business models around natural resources. In a sense the current economy is driving natural destruction because landowners can only earn money by selling the raw materials out of forests, wetlands and other natural resources.
Quickly we realised there actually are these carbon compensation mechanisms and biodiversity schemes that we can use to solve the problem, if landowners get access to these alternative business models. We started to compare nature to gold and think about how to use nature as a financial instrument and that’s how it all started.
“I would’ve never believed that I could spend a year thinking about one thing before starting to understand what to actually do. It has been a long process and an interesting learning experience.”
What have been the biggest learnings during your time as a founder?
M:
One of the most important learnings is that the people are the most valuable asset, they are what brings value to the company. And also people around us; Icebreaker and all our networks have helped us so much. It’s actually really humbling to look back on the things — where we would have ended up if we didn’t have these exact people by our side. Having the right people around you is indeed essential if you want to succeed.
Another interesting learning is that I never thought it would take that much time to figure out how to build the product or what are you even building. The process has been quite long and we’re still learning but it took us nearly a year to figure out what the puzzle pieces are and how we should combine them. This is definitely something I never knew before I became a founder; you don’t just wake up in the morning and have this brilliant idea that you just need to execute. It takes a lot of time and talking to different people to come up with a solution that is actually working. I would’ve never believed that I could spend a year thinking about one thing before starting to understand what to actually do. It has been a long process and an interesting learning experience.
“Often it’s the people from a completely different field who’ll ask the right questions — not stupid questions, but naive questions that will help you get out of your bubble and find new ways of doing things.”
What do you do when you hit a wall and are unsure on how to continue?
M:
We’ve realised that this happens when we don’t talk to people outside the company for a long time. We start hitting the walls when we try to figure out everything without talking to the outside world or without brainstorming with other people; we get stuck in our own thoughts and are not able to look at the problem from a different angle. One thing that has helped us to get out of these situations is to simply talk with people. For example, last November we joined the Salto Growth Camp and it was so great to have a one week where you have different mentors, different people around you to talk to. You just go and meet people you never knew you were going to meet or even need to meet and just talk to them and gain incredibly interesting insights; the things you’ve never thought of before. So whenever we face a situation where we hit a wall the first resource is to talk to an outside and get their perspective.
Moreover, we’ve come to realise that thinking outside the box is actually one of the most difficult things to do because intuitively you always have the same ways of thinking and going about obstacles. You have to get those out of the system and start thinking about what you should actually do to get forward. Often it’s the people from a completely different field who’ll ask the right questions — not stupid questions, but naive questions that will help you get out of your bubble and find new ways of doing things.
What advice would you give to founders looking for their first hires?
M:
Hire people who share your mission. Hiring people who are there just to fulfil their tasks is not going to be enough in most cases because you need people who are able to take responsibility, think of new things, come up with new solutions and be more strategic. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received and something I always try to implement — even though it can be intuitively a bit scary or strange — is to always hire people who are smarter than me. It actually makes a lot of sense and I feel humbled when I look at my team; it’s like “wow, these kinds of people wanted to join us and it’s just amazing”.
“There’s a lot of money out there but a limited amount of cool people that you actually click with.”
What advice would you give to founders looking for their first funding?
M:
I’d definitely say look for people and culture, not the money. There’s a lot of money out there but a limited amount of cool people that you actually click with. You’re going to have difficult times, times when you’re really stuck, and if you’re stuck with people who you don’t actually enjoy being with, then you’re going to have even more stressful times ahead. But if you are stuck with people who you enjoy being around with, you’re going to have a much better premises to get forward.
Also, look for people who have time to invest in you because that is actually the most important and valuable thing you can get. It’s such a cliché but it’s true; look for the cultural things. Investors are like an extended team. When you’re looking for an investor, look for someone who you’d like to have on your team. If you find people passive or you don’t like them then why start this journey with them at all?
What has been your proudest moment as a founder so far?
M:
The proudest moment was definitely when after thinking about these things inside of our own bubble for such a long time, we actually gained a lot of international media traction and attention. I was extremely happy to see the positive feedback from the international press and see big media outlets such as Reuters and Forbes publishing stories about us. It was very, very encouraging to see that there’s so much interest and support for a topic like this.
Another proud moment is related to the team again; finding people who actually see what we see in this company and product. Finding these cool people makes me feel very proud of being a part of this journey.
“People really are the most valuable asset and you have to make sure they feel appreciated and can reach their greatest potential.”
What is the best advice you have ever gotten?
M:
One of the best pieces of advice that I’m constantly trying to implement myself — although not sure how well I’m performing — is that people are the most valuable asset of the company. It might sound like such a cliché that you have to take care of your team and culture but it’s something I learned and experienced at Pipedrive. Pipedrive has an amazing culture; it was fun, encouraging, motivating and inspirational to work there and that is something I try to recreate at Single.Earth as well. People really are the most valuable asset and you have to make sure they feel appreciated and that they can reach their greatest potential. This is a great advice because it puts a lot of things into perspective. There’re so many things you have to figure out with the company, team, product, growth and so forth and for me, team is the fundamental value I’ve tried to keep in mind when building the strategies for the company.
“It’s really going to be a full acceleration-mode for us for the next few months.”
What are you most excited about in the upcoming months?
M:
Next months will mean super-hyper growth for us and that is very exciting. We are building the marketplace which will be launching in the second half of the year. I’m very much looking forward to the launch, it’s going to be super exciting. I’m also looking forward to getting the first deals, doing some pre-sales and pre-registrations during the summer. We’re also hiring a lot of new team members. It’s really going to be a full acceleration-mode for us for the next few months. We have already found some really unbelievably great talent who are excited to join us and it’s really exciting to have this new brain power, knowledge and experience in the team. I’m pretty sure that as the team grows, we’ll come up with some very exciting new things as well.
About Single.Earth
https://www.single.earth/
Single.Earth is a platform that trades natural resources as tokenised virtual goods, such as carbon allowance and biodiversity offset. The new service enables forests, wetlands, and other natural resources to generate profit without being sold as raw materials. Tokenisation of the natural resources makes healthy ecosystem services a new tradable and liquid asset class.
Founders: Merit Valdsalu & Andrus Aaslaid
Founded: 2019
