Feature article by Talent International

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At Talent, we're proud to support the start-up community. Working with The Impact Accelerator, we're excited to bring you the stories of some pretty cool start-ups. Kicking things off is Greener, an up-and-coming company committed to repairing the planet.

Sydney recruitment specialist, Catherine Wiggett, spoke to Greener's Founders, Tom Ferrier and Neil McVeigh, and Community Manager, Jaime to get an insight into what goes on behind the scenes:

Tell us a bit about your start up, Greener, and what’s been happening since the Accelerator.

Greener is an app that brings green businesses and consumers together to repair the planet.

Securely link your bank account to the app so we can easily calculate the emissions of what you buy. Then when you shop with Greener businesses, we clean up the emissions of your purchase, at no cost to you. When you don’t shop green, we provide Greener suggestions for next time. Simple!

Our time in the Accelerator was hampered by the c-word. COVID. And at first we decelerated more than we accelerated.

Then we decided to double down on the things within our control, instead of worrying about what might happen next. We spent time crystalising our purpose, and released a number of pilots to help us hone our value proposition. As a start-up we need to focus our efforts on the good ideas customers will buy and use, not just the good ideas.

So we did just that.

Our most recent pilot demonstrated we could bring Greener businesses 5-21% of customers from their non-green competitors, across various retail categories on the app.

For businesses serious about getting more customers while caring for the planet, Greener is a no-brainer. That has meant we have been able to run fast and lock in high profile Greener brands for our 2021 launch.

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How did the Mirvac Accelerator Program help Greener?

The biggest thing the program did for us was open doors – into new networks, into organisations we want to partner with, and into pools of incredible talent. Talent International has been fantastic in helping us build out our networks and make our first hires in the product space.

Who makes the magic happen inside the Greener team?

Tom, one of our co-founders, is the dreamer and the perpetual optimist. Neil, our other co-founder is the realist and the spreadsheet king. People are drawn to our purpose of ensuring every dollar spent repairs the planet. Because of that, we’ve brought together an amazing team across product development, partnerships, sustainability, and communications. And we’re now looking to grow out our digital team.

What’s a typical day like at Greener?

It’s a cliché, but as a start-up, every day is different! It’s a roller coaster of incredible lows and incredible highs. Safe to say we’ve had tears (happy and sad) from everyone on the team at least once. Since the world has started to return to some version of normal, we’ve found an office space in Sydney. It’s great having the team working together.

As you start to scale your start up what type of mindset, experience and skills are you looking to hire?

Attitude is everything. We look for people who are curious, who believe in our vision and who are ready to go above and beyond. We challenge each other’s thinking, but we always remain family. From a skills perspective, we’re looking for a full stack superstar with an entrepreneurial mindset who wants to help take our product to the next level!