Today, my guest is Lola Fernandez. Lola was born in Spain, but considers herself a citizen of the world as she's lived in Word outside of her home country for more than half her life. As a girl, she always had a love for nature and grew up with anxiety about the future of the planet. And she became an activist at an early age.
During the nearly 25 years, she built a corporate career, she had a sense that she was meant to do something more, she started toying with the idea of her own business where she could set the values to align to what she really believed in, she left the corporate world to embark on the biggest adventure of life founding GREEN CLOUD NINE.
It's such a pleasure to have you on Where Ideas Launch, you are one of my best friends in the sustainability space. And it's such a pleasure for me to host you. So welcome.
Lola Fernandez 1:29
Thank you. Thank you very much, Katherine, it's my pleasure to be here. Because as you know, I'm a great fan of your work.
Katherine Ann Byam 1:36
Thank you so much. And I wanted to start off with where you grew up. And, you know, I know there's, there's a bit of a story there. But how did that sort of impact your activism work? And how did that influence who you are today?
Lola Fernandez 1:49
Yeah, well, I grew up in Spain, and pretty much between the South and the North, my family came from the south by the sea. And then because of work, we move up to the north, very close to the Pyrenees, to the mountains. So I have always had a very close relationship with nature, I love both the sea, I love the mountains, I love animals, I, I started developing that passion as well as, as a Girl Scout. Very, very early in my life.
And basically as I was growing up, I started learning as well about the damage and the things that we were doing to our environment. And for me, it was very shocking, to see that sometimes trying to spend some time by a river where we were having picnics as a family, we couldn't do that anymore, because they have the streaming. So it started causing me anxiety.
So I started trying to learn a little bit more. And somehow inside of me, something reacted. So I couldn't just stay put. And I think when I was 13, or 14 is when I had very clear that I needed to do something, and that something started with very little changes at home. And it slowly grew a little bit bigger, and I started joining organisations, I started going to demonstrations, etc.
Katherine Ann Byam 3:12
That's amazing. So you have worked in, I think it's four important spaces, NGOs, big corporate sustainable ventures as well, which is within the big corporate space. And now as an intrapreneur, can you possibly reflect on what were the sort of lessons you took from each of those phases? to sort of give you the grounding you have now?
Lola Fernandez 3:34
Yeah, well, I think from every area, I have picked different things, probably from NGOs, what I learned was more about values, things like integrity and the passion to do something that you believe in. But the thing there were also the important things like commitment and engagement, because normally we join NGO NGOs out of conviction, but you need to keep that mission and that passion alive and for that you need to keep the feet on the ground, it is very easy to get lost in idealistic principles, but you really want to achieve change, you need to roll up your sleeves and work right. So I think that being realistic has been very important there. I mean, from the big corporate time, I mean, nearly 25 years there I have taken so many lessons.
And of course, many of them have been on the business side like learning to project manage, learning business development, how to how important is to focus on customers, but they think a very important part of the learnings has been on the leadership side. I mean, they all around leadership skills, like how to deal with people how to communicate, understanding notions of setting up an organisation. All of that has been very, very useful and Till now.
Now on the intrapreneurship adventure, I would say that the biggest lesson I've learned is humility. Because no matter how much I knew from before, for those 25 years experience, I have realised that there is still much more that I need, I need to learn. So I need to approach everything with a very open mind. And so that that together with greed and determination, I think is what I'm learning the most now from being an intrapreneur.
Katherine Ann Byam 5:30
Yeah, no, these are really powerful lessons. I mean, tell everyone about what Green Cloud Nine is so that they have a perspective before we get into some of the challenges, like just explain the concept.
Lola Fernandez 5:42
Yeah. So basically, Green Cloud Nine is a digital marketplace. And probably the best way that people envision it is Amazon. So it is pretty much like Amazon marketplace where people can find everything that they need, from clothing, up to cosmetics, food, etc. but focus on the niche sustainability. So that's the biggest difference. In our case, only sustainable and ethical brands are going to be allowed in the platform, and to make sure that they are ethical and sustainable. We make them go through an assessment process, and only those who pass the assessment will be able to sell on the platform.
Katherine Ann Byam 6:27
And the assessment process. Is this something created by you guys? Or is it something that you're collaborating with other organisations to do?
Lola Fernandez 6:35
Yeah, so well, we have our sustainability team in green cloud nine. And what we decided to do, I think, in the future, this will probably evolve. But what we decided to do is to create a simplified version of what the big certifying bodies are doing, which is a very expensive and lengthy process. And we have simplified that, keeping the spirit of it but making it very easy. Also, for small companies who cannot afford to spend 3000 euros a year or up to 5000 euros sometimes, on that kind of process, we are giving them the opportunity to demonstrate that they are sustainable with this simplified process that we have developed ourselves.
Katherine Ann Byam 7:21
Okay, and are you getting some sort of approval for your process as well? Is that something that you have in your work so that your process can become a certification as well?
Lola Fernandez 7:30
Exactly. So that's the idea. In the long term we ourselves want to get certified by one of the best renowned certification bodies out there and turn our little process into a certification on its own. Yeah, that we need to learn on what we have created so far, and see how that develops?
Katherine Ann Byam 7:51
Yeah, perfect. No, that sounds really great and exciting. What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced in building? What do you have today in green cloud nine?
Lola Fernandez 8:01
Well, I think there are many, many, but I think that the fact that it is a very complex project, I mean, everybody thinks, oh, yeah, Minnesota is just a marketplace, what can be complex there, but now everything is complex about it. And the fact that we are looking at a European scope, so we want to have sellers, we want to give sustainable sellers overall in Europe, the opportunity to reach more customers. And that adds complexity in terms of languages in terms of legal regulations in terms of taxes. So there is a lot there. Of course the capital, the budget itself. This is a massive project, you are always gonna need a lot of capital right now.
I'm funding everything myself as a single founder. But very soon we are going to be looking at investment. And of course, trying to build a team without a proper budget has also been a big challenge, which I think considering the complexities and the restrictions I'm, I'm solving relatively well. I have right now an amazing team of volunteers from all over the world. And another thing we are doing is setting a better tone. Considering that a year ago, this was just an ad on paper. So it's slowly we are facing our challenges as we are working through them. And of course, now there are some new challenges coming, especially on the funding side.
Katherine Ann Byam 9:38
Yeah, no, definitely. What is it like working with volunteers and tell me about this experience for you? Because I know there are two sides to this experience.
Lola Fernandez 9:48
Sure. Sure. I mean, it is amazing because we have very motivated people so normally all the people that are joining us, they are people they've been Leaving what we do, right is otherwise they would not be working for us for free. And, and they are, they are convinced about our mission and our vision and they're very creative, they are motivated. Yeah, they bring lots of ideas. And because the team is all over the world as well, we are having an amazing diversity, cultural diversity backgrounds.
So that's that, that makes the team very, very dynamic. Of course, on the downside, let's say it's, we are having to manage an already complex organisation also just using volunteers. And that's considering that most of the volunteers are only working part time. There are organisation challenges, time restrictions, sometimes people need to leave the team before the time. And of course there is on the personal side, people that they think that because it's volunteers, it means that they, they don't have to work. So there is always a bit of a challenge there, keeping people engaged and making sure that they understand the commitment behind what you're doing.
Katherine Ann Byam 11:17
And I guess I guess there's also an internal side for you. Because when you have so many people giving their time, giving their creativity, giving their role, you must also feel a sense of deep obligation.
Lola Fernandez 11:29
Yes, it is. It is a lot of work. And as I say, we are even starting to build sub teams. So on one hand is very good as well, because we're IC talent, I'm able to develop that talent and into team leaders. And we do have a lot of talent in the team. But of course it is. Right now we are about 35 people, we have been up to nearly 50 At some point. And to have that coordinated, and it's a lot of time, a lot of engagement, a lot of commitment. So yeah, not so easy to manage.
Katherine Ann Byam 12:12
So tell us a little bit about the intended business model, what's it going to look like? What's it going to feel like if you're a customer, if you're a supplier? Tell us about it.
Lola Fernandez 12:21
Yeah, so if basically, as we said, so we are a digital marketplace. Basically, if you are a sustainable seller, what you can do is to create a little shop on our platform, we are making, we are streamlining the process a lot. So everything can pretty much be done. Online, we are also simplifying lots of the complexities of taxes, for example, I mean, trying to sell the VAT within Europe is a nightmare. And what we are doing is we are coding lots of this stuff in the backend of the platform.
So it is a lot easier for the sellers. And the idea is to have sellers across industries pretty much on every consumer area and products but in the future also services. So we want now for later and also consultancy, marketing etc. And, yeah, so then through the platform, the sellers will be able to reach customers in other countries that they normally operate. So many of the companies that we are approaching are really small, they are usually selling within their country.
And we want to give them the opportunity also to reach customers internationally for now within the EU but later on in other regions as well. And if you're a customer, the experience should be, as we said, very similar. If you're shopping in Amazon, we want customers to save time and to be able to buy with trust and transparency that we don't want them to have to think Oh Are these brands really sustainable. So that's why we are doing the work for them with the assessment right so when you land on our platform as a customer you need to have that peace of mind that what you're buying is sustainable. Yeah. And we want to offer, as we said earlier, pretty much every everyday products that you may want to find such as food, your toothpaste, your cosmetics, clothing, etc. Perfect.
Katherine Ann Byam 14:31
And what's it been like as a woman leading such a big venture? And especially in the tech space?
Lola Fernandez 14:39
Yeah, I mean, it is challenging, I think because first there are not many women intrapreneur out there so we are still facing some challenges on that fence that if you come as a woman with such a big project, they look at you funny, like, Oh, you're sure what you're doing there. And, and you need to start pulling that, look, this is my CV, I have 20 years experience, I have worked in many areas and so that's still a little bit of an issue. But there are also I think there are also benefits, like I'm having the opportunity, being a woman running this, this show, I'm having the opportunity as well to help other women.
And I'm a great believer in empowering everybody, but especially women, because we know our own shortcomings when it comes to step forward and show our potential. So I'm using the opportunity now also to help women, so we actually have the majority of women in our team. And I'm also personally coaching and mentoring several of them that are showing interest in growing personally and developing to see where we can bring them.
Katherine Ann Byam 16:03
So that's really fantastic. I think it's something that's, I think, a big part of the sell for the volunteer right to get that sort of coaching and support.
Lola Fernandez 16:12
Absolutely, absolutely.
Katherine Ann Byam 16:15
And what would you say to someone wanting to begin a sort of green first intrapreneurial journey? What would you recommend?
Lola Fernandez 16:22
Yeah, I would say that the first step would be to look at yourself internally and understand your purpose. Why, why you want to do that, and what is driving you because this is a long and hard path. There are good days, but there are many nightmares, very many dark times and sleepless nights. So you really need to be very convinced why you want to do this. If you want to just do it for money, you can forget it, you need to have something a lot deeper, that that is driving you.
And that's what is gonna keep you that's why they were disconnected, especially when those dark times come that you say no, no, okay? Today has been bad, but they know tomorrow's gonna be better. And you can, you can continue. And apart from that, keep going and don't give up. Many startups fail because they give up too soon. If they continue for two more months or six more months, they could be successful. But mainly they add, they go through frustrating times, and they give up and are too early. So determination and purpose, I think, are two key elements. Perfect.
Katherine Ann Byam 17:35
How can my listeners get involved and support green cloud nine, I love what you're doing. And I'm very keen to you know, shouted from all my platforms.
Lola Fernandez 17:44
Thank you. Thank you, Catherine. Yeah, well, so as you know, we're going to be launching very soon. So I guess we would like to invite everyone to visit our website first, to bring cloud nine.com and have a little bit of a better time learning a little bit about what our vision and our mission is. Right now, as we are preparing for the launch, specifically, and specifically regarding sellers, we are looking for a limited number of sustainable companies that want to partner with us.
So we can develop and grow together, because we know how hard it is to find your place, not just in the market in general, but in the sustainability market in particular. So we think that by partnering and helping each other we have much better chances to succeed. So if anybody's running a sustainable business in Europe, Raoul later, we will expand. But please visit our website, sign up for our green pioneer programme. And then we can start talking and see how this can develop. And of course, on the customer side, we would love people also to subscribe to our newsletter to keep up to date with what's happening when our launches come in. Also, if people would like to spread the word, find us some work connections. That's always very good. And when we launch, of course, to visit our platform and see what kinds of sustainable products they can find there.
Katherine Ann Byam 19:15
Thank you so much for coming to the show for sharing all of this insight and for the exciting project that you're building. I know it can't be easy taking on Amazon. But it's really a pleasure to see that such a platform is happening and it's so purpose driven. So thank you and congratulations.
Lola Fernandez 19:34
Thanks. Thanks for having me. Thank you.