Interview with Green Alley Award Winner 2023: S.Lab!
Interview with Julia Bialetska, Co-Founder & CEO
Julia, you are the winner of the Green Alley Award 2023 – congratulations! Can you please describe: a challenging moment, a fun moment, and a moment you felt proud during the event?
I would say that overall participating in the Green Alley Award was a very smooth process from the application to receiving prize money, so we didn’t face any challenges. But when we saw shortlist for the finals we were really honoured to be among them, and we did think that it would be a challenge to win the prize. So, I think every startup has a very strong problem that are trying to solve and impactful solution to the problem and all of them deserve to be winners as well.
I felt really proud during the Q&A session after the pitch as we had answers to almost every judge’s question. We’ve been exhausting all our ideas, strategies and potential risks in the team by communicating all of them, finding solutions and eliminating potential risks, so it was easy for me to have all of the answers already.
The fun moment probably was the announcement of the winner, we were positively surprised to be the winner and were really-really happy about that, so we shouted in surprise when we heard the name of our startup. And then when we were on the stage, I was a little bit caught off guard as I didn’t think of any speech so I said what I was feeling and what was coming from my heart.
Winning an award is an important step for most startups. How do you think this award impacts your company?
Startups that are working in the field of circular economy are putting efforts in a difficult industry and have to be drivers of change in the economy, business and even society. It’s not an easy task and every recognition, every opportunity to meet like-minded people, to get advise and the possibility to talk to the potential customers has a very high value.
In the way that the Green Alley Award was organized we were able to gain a lot by just participating in it. We got a validation from the jury members, experts that were invited and potential customers that we met during the event. One of the key goals in our startup is raising awareness of the material that we develop and its potential application for different segments of the customers.
And winning the prize gives us even more validation and recognition, helps build credibility and establish S.Lab as a reputable and innovative player in the circular economy field. Winning awards helps with the promotion and increases visibility. This increased exposure attracts new customers, investors, and potential partners.
Your startup is in a crucial state at this present moment. What will be the next step and how do you see your company evolving? Where do you see your startup in one year?
As we aim to have worldwide exposure of the sustainable packaging, we are focusing ourselves on scalable technology, that will allow to produce packaging in a very efficient way on an industrial scale. Therefore, in one year we see ourselves producing 1 million packaging units in a year and then scaling even further to the mini-factories deployed around the world and producing packaging in every location of the world.
Every year, we receive an increasing number of applications from all over Europe. What is your advice for other startups that wish to apply in the future?
First, I want to encourage startups to file applications as soon as possible, it’s a very simple process to file an application but an outcome might be grandiose!
Of course, first understand criteria and evaluate your startup whether it fits the criteria and corresponds with the circular economy field. Prepare your pitch to clearly describe the problem and its impacts, your solution and scalability of your solution, traction and achievements that your startup already has.
Be sure to communicate your solution and ideas in a precise and simple manner so the audience can quickly understand what you are actually doing and show the positive impact that your startup already has and how it will develop in the future.
In our case we are showing how much kilograms of CO2, liters of water and square meters of landfills we can save by providing an alternative to polystyrene.
Show your current achievements, customer discoveries, first customers or early adopters and plan for the future by expanding your market reach and making a difference in the long run.
With the Award you received €25,000. How will you invest the prize money?
We will invest the prize money into our automated production line where we will be able to produce more sustainable packaging. Further, we want to scale production with the help of decentralize mini-factories. This prize will help us build machines in the production line and we will not need to raise this money from investors.
For more information about S.Lab, click here!