International Women’s Day 2022
Merit Valdsalu, CEO & Co-founder of Single.Earth — Be bold and follow your passion
Next up in our International Women’s Day interview series Merit Valdsalu, CEO and Co-founder of Single.Earth. Single.Earth is tokenizing the world’s nature for its ecological value (carbon, biodiversity) and by doing that is turning nature into a new liquid asset class.
Merit is a great example of a bold and inspirational leader who has followed her ambition to build Single.Earth and the amazing team behind it.
What has been the driving force to get you where you are today?
I’m 100% driven by two things: wish to make a real positive impact to the world, and my love for the natural world. I always knew that I must do something meaningful and impactful with my life but I never really thought that I could do that as my full-time career. So, I consider myself extremely lucky for the opportunity to build Single.Earth.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced during your career?
I think the biggest challenge for me has been finding the right career path. As an English major, becoming a startup founder was not an obvious choice. And neither was working in the tech sector in general.
I’ve been a tech writer, content writer, I’ve led localization at Pipedrive, tried out programming and learned some finance. I’ve tried building a couple of startups before.
Having done all of that, and learned massively from each of these endeavours and from the people I met during the journey, I feel that I am right now exactly where I need to be. I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else than building Single.Earth. But I also know that it hasn’t been a straight path to where I am today.
What are you most proud of?
I’m extremely proud of the team that we have at Single.Earth. They are the greatest validation to what we’re building, and I have huge respect for each and every single person in the team. It’s really humbling to look at all the people who have joined our mission, and the knowledge and experience they’ve brought to the team.
I’m also really proud of the culture that we have in the company. People support and encourage each other a lot. I love how we’re all aligned towards the same values and the goal of saving the natural world to leave a better planet for our children.
Who is your biggest inspiration/role model?
I admire people who stand up for what they believe in — people in Ukraine fighting for their freedom, school kids demanding governments to act on climate change, women protesting for equal rights, or anybody who dares to speak up for any injustice they see some in our daily lives. It takes so much courage.
I’m really inspired by the bold people who dare to call things for what they are, never just look away, and always fight for what they believe in. I try to be more like them every day.
What advice would you share to fellow entrepreneurs for this year International Women’s Day?
Be bold. Think about what you want the world to be like and start working towards making it happen. Don’t limit yourself to how things have been done so far — go crazy with your ambition!
Surround yourself people who support you in your ambition and encourage you to think even bigger. And surround yourself with a diverse team because the more diverse you are, the stronger you become.
