Meet our experts! Today: Jonne Hellgren!
Our startups are, of course, experts for the circular economy. Nevertheless, they could also profit from exchange with other experts. That's what we are offering our Green Alley Award finalists in our so-called expert sessions! In these sessions, circulareconomy as well as startup experts provide hands-on advice and the startups will get the possibility to enlarge their network and to profit from knowledge of other experienced professionals.
The expert we present you today is Jonne Hellgren, the co-founder and CEO of RePack - the winner start-up of the first Green Alley Award in 2015! His field of expertise encompasses consumer-facing circular economy solutions, public funding and everything related to building a start-up from scratch. Find out more about Jonne in this interview!
What is your professional background and how will it help you to be a startup advisor for the Green Alley Award finalists?
When we started Repack in 2013, we were doing Circular Economy before we actually knew that what we did was Circular Economy. Right from the start we thought about creating brand awareness, setting up operations on an European level, setting up supply chains for manufacturers, building the architecture, raising money and then finally expanding to EU level. So I know how it feels to build a startup from scratch, especially a startup in the field of the Circular Economy and I’m happy to help others with the experiences I’ve already made.
Most of the things you have to consider when starting a business, you don’t learn in any school. So, generally speaking, in what way could entrepreneurs profit from mentors or advisors like you?
It always helps to be able to give a detailed description about the specific problem you’re facing. The better you can describe your problem, the better the advice. Also, I think that people from a corporate background can give the best advice on corporate issues, crowdfunding experts give the best advice on crowdfunding etc. In my opinion the best advisors are those who have also been there and also have failed.
When founding a startup one can have the perfect idea and the best conditions but still fail to be successful. As execution is key, what are you as an expert looking for in an entrepreneur, his team and his business idea?
Having a great vision. You also need determination and resilience. Not everyone is built for the setbacks and you’ll have more setbacks than successes so celebrate the wins, but not too much and don’t wallow in the defeats. With regard to the team: the easiest job in a startup is pointing out what doesn’t work. You need people who are curious about how things work and who’ll find a preliminary fix for everything in between. Be critical about how you do the things, accept that its not perfect. Try to be a good communicator, learn quickly, adapt quickly: you will always have to do things you haven’t done before, so get used to it.
The Green Alley Award is all about circular startups. In your opinion, which are the key challenges for a circular economy in Europe?
There is no infrastructure for the Circular Economy and in order to be competitive we need an infrastructure to support it. There should be a kind of European vision, e.g Finland has a great bottle return system, every store in Finland is obliged to have one, otherwise they loose customers. That principle could be applied to more products. CE is by nature more local, so we must look at it also from a job creation perspective. The EU should be a pioneer in creating more possibilities for the Circular Economy to become THE economic system for Europe.
If you had the chance to start your own business, what kind of startup would it be?
Ideas are only worth 5%. If I would have known how difficult RePack would be, I probably wouldn’t have done it, but it becomes a lifestyle it becomes a part of you. Even though it's difficult and challenging startups are a unique position to learn a lot of new skills quickly and at scale. You are trying to build something groundbreaking and at scale. It's not going to be easy. Leading a startup teaches you skills you didn't know you’d need, challenge comes from the fact that you need those skills when the situation rises so you need to learn by doing. It's not for everybody as it can be stressful, there are insecure and bad times and then there are times of existential threats too but if you like to solve problems and learn to bounce back from inevitable disappointments without losing the belief in your vision then nothing compares. It's like an extreme sport 🙂