Irete Hamdani is a female solopreneur and founder of askBelynda, a greentech startup helping reduce our carbon footprint. askBelynda offers a Google Chrome extension that recommends sustainable products to consumers while they’re shopping online. She has a Computer Science MSc. with honours from Tel Aviv University and is an AWS Certified Associate Developer and Solution Architect. Irete uses her 25 years of tech experience to develop askBelynda. She believes in a greener future with the expansion of sustainable consumer goods. Irete resides in Denver, CO, with her husband and two daughters.
Irete Hamdani 0:00
So what I've done initially is develop a Google Chrome extension that consumers can download for free. And then when they're shopping on Amazon, it pops up and suggests sustainable alternatives. So that goes back to making it as easy as possible for them to be able to shop while they're on Amazon.
Katherine Ann Byam 0:17
What would you do with funding now? What's your top priority,
Irete Hamdani 0:20
Still marketing, obviously, so I invent, investing, my work within my budget, but if I had backing, I would invest a lot more. And I also would grow my team, I'd have a product manager, I'd have a development team, obviously a marketing full time person. So if you know when funding comes, that's when it's gonna go to towards growing the product, growing the vetting, growing, the, the marketing and obviously growing the target base and the revenue.
Katherine Ann Byam 0:53
This is Season Five, the great debates of our times, Season Five will be centred around the great debates. And we will be comparing and contrasting different viewpoints on various topics that are consuming the public discourse at present. The reason I've decided to take this approach is because, we or at least many of us, are losing the skill of debate. And I think this is an essential skill for us all to practice once more. I don't see how we get to the point of saving the world and saving our planet, if we don't know how to discuss our differences. I also think that the solution to most of our challenges is somewhere in the spectrum of views but never at either extreme. I will be working with guests to curate the content and discuss beforehand, I will understand their positions, their areas of genius, and navigate my questions around that so that the conversation is challenging and stimulating without being combative. I hope you enjoy Season Five of Where Ideas launch; The Sustainable Innovation Podcast. Today, my guest is Irete Hamdani, she's a female solopreneur and founder of askBelynda, a green tech startup helping reduce our carbon footprint askBelynda offers a Google Chrome extension that recommends sustainable products to consumers while they're shopping online. She has a computer science MSC with honours from Tel Aviv University and is an AWS Certified Associate developer and solution architect. Irete uses her 25 years of Tech experience to develop askBelynda she believes in a greener future with the expansion of sustainable consumer goods. Irete welcome to Where Ideas launch.
Irete Hamdani 2:29
Hi, thanks for having me here.
Katherine Ann Byam 2:31
Really great to have you. I had a bit of a look at your background. And I found it so fascinating what you're doing. Tell us a bit about how you came to technology as a career, and why sustainability is so important to you?
Irete Hamdani 2:43
Both my parents come from computer science backgrounds, and both have master's degrees in computer science. And it was kind of like from third grade that it was inevitable that I would be in computer science as well. You know, I have kind of an analytic type of thinking. So I had a very long career at a large corporation, and there I started out as developer, later on and went into pre-sales as a solution architect, and in the last past years, in addition to that and parallel to that, I have become growingly aware of the environment, of our impact and you know, living in Denver, you see the Amazon trucks pass your house, the FedEx, that you get every day, you see the boxes pile up on your doorstep, on on your neighbours. And you know, it's so easy. But on the other hand, it kind of masks, what goes on behind the scenes, where are these products coming from? Who's manufacturing them? What are their manufacturing processes, their shipping, how they treat their employees. So all of these things kind of, I started to look at, and I found that it's not that easy to find reliably sustainable products, there's a lot of what's called greenwashing out there with companies, large corporations giving tonnes of slogans, but you're not really sure if that's reliable or not. And so I started doing the research and I was talking to people around me and I realised that they would benefit from a product that would give them these answers immediately. So that's kind of how I started up with askBelynda, I did a lot of research, talked to a lot of people, and found that the best solution would be for them to keep buying things on Amazon. But to get the information while they're shopping on Amazon, make it really super easy for them to understand what sustainable products are out there, why they're considered sustainable. So all the information on the values behind the companies and their certifications is provided to the consumer while they're shopping on Amazon, and super easy to just click on a product and add it to cart and buy it instead of a less sustainable product.
Katherine Ann Byam 4:56
Was this easy to develop?
Irete Hamdani 4:58
So I come from a programmers background. But things have changed since that 15 years ago when I was a computer programmer. So it took a little bit of getting up to speed. But you know, the basics are still there. So I would say, I enjoy the development a lot, and it hasn't been too difficult.
Katherine Ann Byam 5:16
How does your solution compare to others on the market, for example, sites dedicated to sustainable product offerings that have registered their products and solutions with the site owners? For example? How does it compare what makes your your offer easier?
Irete Hamdani 5:30
So what I've done initially is develop a Google Chrome extension that consumers can download for free. And then when they're shopping on Amazon, it pops up in suggest sustainable alternatives. So that goes back to making it as easy as possible for them to be able to shop while they're on Amazon. Now, there are many curated storefronts, marketplaces out there, and I shop from some of them. But the average consumer wants to get everything at the same place wants to be able to track it, Amazon is so much easier. These websites offer comparable solutions. It's not the same target audience, my target audience would prefer to buy everything they need on Amazon and have it shipped together. And so that's why my solution is targeted to that.
Katherine Ann Byam 6:16
That's really interesting. I like the idea of this because it's definitely frustrating. I know many brands who've started a dedicated site so that you can really support sustainable brands, but they don't get the traffic, because the traffic is going to Amazon. So what your solution is doing really makes so much sense. How do you measure your success at present, and what kind of surprised you the most about the process of developing askBelynda?
Irete Hamdani 6:41
So obviously, the success is, the more customers that download the extension and use it and are happy with it. And it leads them to reducing our carbon footprint by buying sustainable products. But better. That's, that's the ultimate success. A note on that is that I, the types of products that I'm covering are necessity products, or personal care products or cleaning products, basic clothing, I'm not promoting consumerism, I'm not promoting, you know, going out and buying more and more, it's the basics that typically people will buy anyway. So preferably, they buy a sustainable product while they're shopping. Now, with regards to what surprised me, I'm on this journey, especially since January this year. And I've been reaching out to so many different startup founders and CEOs. And what is really amazing is the amount of people out there that want to help. It's very humbling and very, you know, just eye opening, how much help is out there? How much I think consult with people get their support, get their advice. That's something that's been really awesome on this journey.
Katherine Ann Byam 7:52
Yeah, that's cool. And I do feel as if this community is different. If they think back to other experiences I've had sort of, you know, tangentially to startups since 2016, when I completed my MBA, it's, this is a very different community. So people are really willing to give you a hand. So many people have volunteered, for example, to support some of the projects that I'm working on for next year. And this is really inspiring that people really give generously to a cause that they believe in. And, you know, everyone does this stuff for their own reasons. But it's, it's really good that we can still have that. And, you know, when you look at some of the solutions being offered today, like I've looked at what some of the communities in New Zealand are doing, like having their own local currency to encourage people to buy local and stuff like this. These are really important sort of ways to to reimagine commerce and reimagine capitalism.
Irete Hamdani 8:50
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes.
Katherine Ann Byam 8:51
What sort of challenges and obstacles have you faced?
Irete Hamdani 8:55
So I come from a tech background, so I'm doing the tech, and I know a little bit about product management, so I'm doing kind of that, where I don't have a lot of skills with marketing. So I initially had a marketing consultant, and then I moved to a marketing agency. And, you know, my budget is limited because I'm still bootstrapping this on my own. And I found that just the dedication and you know, the commitment, the passion is not there when it's, you know, it's high with me, okay, so, so right now, I've kind of left those organisations, those agencies and consultants and I'm trying to kind of run it on my own with, with specific people that have specific expertise, like I just started with a social media manager, but I'm kind of stepping up and learning about Google ads and Facebook ads, and I'm doing the marketing now on my own until it gets to a certain point where I feel I can outsource it to others. But the challenge is, is marketing, the challenge is getting to the consumers that it's relevant for them. So, for them to Download it, you know, here's like to grow and, and provide the solution to more and more people. So getting out to them is important.
Katherine Ann Byam 10:08
So let me ask you something when it comes to to deciding to bootstrap, as opposed to, let's say, getting angel or VC funding, what made that decision for you?
Irete Hamdani 10:18
When I started out in January, there was a lot of money out there, and VCs and Angel investors were handing it out, it seems like without a lot of due diligence, but by the time I came around to thinking of reaching out to angel investors, the market changed, and it's harder now, I'm not opposed to getting funding, I just believe that the more customer traction I get, the more valuable the startup is, the easier it would be for me to raise funding. So for now, as long as I have the budget, I'm running on my own.
Katherine Ann Byam 10:48
And about that. So what would you do with funding now? What's your top priority?
Irete Hamdani 10:53
Still marketing, obviously, so I invent, investing, you know, my work within my budget, but if I had backing, I would invest a lot more. And I also would grow my team, I'd have a product manager, I'd have a development team, obviously a marketing full time person. So if, you know when funding comes, that's what it's gonna go towards growing the product, growing the vetting, growing, the, the marketing and obviously growing the target base and the revenue.
Katherine Ann Byam 11:22
And I'm gonna ask another question, sorry, I'm probing so much. But I find this very interesting, especially for my listeners, who also business owners. But have you considered, for example, first dedicating what you were doing to the Denver area, like just really tapping into Denver space and seeing what that brings? Or is that too soft to target for you at this point?
Irete Hamdani 11:43
So, in general, on my journey here, I've become fearless. So I, I'm up for any challenge. And so I did spend a few kind of targeted, focused weeks, just hanging out at different kinds of WeWork type places. And I just approached everyone there and talk to them about askBelynda and shareed it with them. I went to a TEDx event and talked to a whole bunch of people there, outside that were mingling and shared it with them. So that's kind of how I reached out to the community in Denver. And I've gotten great feedback, and they kind of feel like they're involved in the process. So they also give me kind of their wish list of what features they want me to add. So, so absolutely, yes. But marketing wise, I'm targeting American population, people who care about the environment. Typically, it's young, young parents, to young kids that care about the health of their, you know, and the safety of their kids and the environment. So just targeting Denver, I mean, there's a lot of population in Denver, you also see a lot of amazing startup, sustainable startups coming from Denver. But the target audience is broader than just the local Denver community.
Katherine Ann Byam 13:01
Yeah. I love your tenacity as well and going after it. What's next in your growth or development for the app? And what would you like to bring, other features, etc, that you'd like to bring to customers?
Irete Hamdani 13:14
So what I really want to set up and I'm working towards this is personalisation. So sustainability means different things to different people. Some don't want to buy anything that has plastic in it. Some are, you know, avoiding anything that has in any part of its supply chain cruelty to animals. So the data is already there. But I want to expose it in a way, I want to create customer profiles where you can pick and choose which criteria are important to you. And then we'll filter the products based on that. So that's kind of in the works right now. But it will take a few more months to be released. If you're asking beyond that. So you know, right now, it's a Google Chrome extension. It works on Amazon, but the plans are to expand beyond Amazon, Target, Walmart, Google search, and beyond just being an extension. So yeah, there's a lot of plans.
Katherine Ann Byam 14:04
That sounds super exciting. I feel really thrilled to actually have you on the show and learn more about it. I wanted to ask another thing. So have you considered stuff like potentially having affiliates so people with huge communities, for example, to help support your brand?
Irete Hamdani 14:21
And now you're asking they would get a percentage of the revenue because they're, they're supporting and promoting it with their communities? Is that what you mean by...
Katherine Ann Byam 14:31
Yes Something like this. Yes.
Irete Hamdani 14:32
Um, it's not something on the radar immediately. But that's not to say that I won't get there at some point. In general affiliate marketing, so my revenue model is based on amazon affiliate, but a lot of companies, a lot of companies that I'm promoting have affiliate programmes of their own. And so when I expand beyond Amazon, I will be connecting to them on their affiliate programmes.
Katherine Ann Byam 14:55
Yeah, that makes sense. So, can you give my listeners who are business owners an idea of how you check and vet companies for your service.
Irete Hamdani 15:05
Yes, it's a very thorough process, it takes some time, we have, so I have a sustainability expert that I consult with. And together, we put together a list, very long list of criteria that looks at many different aspects. It's kind of beyond sustainability. You know, in the core, its manufacturing processes, shipping processes, ingredients, where the, where is if it's local, in the US, the manufacturing plants are outside, and also how committed the companies are to diversity and inclusion. What are they doing with their employees, how fair are they treating them? So it's a very broad list of criteria. And now I'm outsourcing it, so I have a few people on my team that are vetting company after company, and then I have a process that automatically pulls the products of those companies and puts them in my database.
Katherine Ann Byam 16:03
Yeah. And have you considered doing Impact Reporting for what you're actually doing already? So just to really embed the principles of sustainability into your business offer as well? Are you doing that sort of Impact Reporting?
Irete Hamdani 16:18
I have connected with an organisation that, you know, I'm really, really small operation right now. But I have connected with an organisation that calculates the carbon footprint of you know, my home office computer, I don't travel a lot. So it's very basic. And I put dollars towards a forestation project to kind of offset that. Beyond that, I think it's a little premature for, you know, in depth recording, because like I said, I'm still a very small operation.
Katherine Ann Byam 16:46
And what about the sort of downstream So looking at there's a stage of Impact Reporting, that takes into consideration the alternative that a consumer might have chosen? So for example, because they've actually purchased your, purchased something from your service, they've avoided purchasing something from more damaging service. And, you know, people do comparisons on this sort of thing to like, what do you, what pain are you avoiding for the planet as well, right. So I think this whole space of Impact Reporting is really fascinating. It's growing, it's, there's a lot more thought being put into now. And there's a lot more that you can squeeze out of even your digital business, because your digital business potentially has huge forward impact, you know, in terms in terms of the rest of the ecosystem that you're impacting on. So there's a lot of potential there, though. Don't Don't underestimate that.
Irete Hamdani 17:44
Yeah, no, I've, it's definitely something to look into. Thank thank you for that.
Katherine Ann Byam 17:47
So how can my listeners get involved with this? How can they access askBelynda? What do they what can they expect when they're using the service? Let us know how it how it goes.
Irete Hamdani 17:59
So beyond the basics, you know, we have an Instagram group, a Facebook group. And there's also a LinkedIn group, but beyond the basic social, obviously downloading the extension, and I'll share with you the link that they can click on. So you download it once it's free, it takes seconds. And then whenever you're on Amazon, if I have something to recommend it pops up, it gives you all the suggestions, lists all the criteria by which this product was selected to be in the recommended product. You can you can see the image, you can click on it, you can click on the link, you can add it to cart. It's very easy, seamless within Amazon. So, and we have our email on the on the listing. So if anyone downloads it and has any feedback, I'd love to hear it. We're always improving based on our customer feedback. So yes, so the more downloads the better and feedback always welcome.
Katherine Ann Byam 18:56
Thank you so much. Irete for sharing askBelynda with us. And really we're rooting for your success. Thank you for joining us.
Irete Hamdani 19:04
Thank you so much, it was a pleasure.
Katherine Ann Byam 19:09
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