Those things coming together really got me motivated to help people, help our planet and solve climate change. In 2007, I found out about climate change for the first time and realized how much of an existential threat that is to humanity. ![]() Then later on living in Latin America, I was just observing this massive destruction of our planet. So I saw this kind of big, global injustice and unfairness that just convinced me that I need to dedicate my life to helping people who don't have the same opportunities. Basically, there are so many people in Nepal, who are more intelligent, more hard working, and just really great people who didn't have the same opportunities as I did just because I was born in Germany and they were born in Nepal. I spent a lot of time living in Nepal and in South America, most of the time in Argentina.ĭuring that time, I really observed how much we're destroying our planet and also how unfair the world is. Initially, I think I wanted to do it for half a year, but it stretched to one and a half years. So after I finished university, I decided to take a lot of time off and make a trip around the world. I studied business administration, and already during my university years, I thought that I wanted to do something that has more of a purpose than just having a normal career and making money. I just had the courage to basically do it. Kroll: I didn't really know what I was getting into. Marquis: Where did you get the idea to start a search engine that helps plant trees? But we're growing exponentially, so who knows how far this model can take us. Google has more than 90% in most ranking markets. And even being Europe's biggest search engine, which sounds very fancy, we actually only have around 1% market share. We have really, really great people here at the company, and that allows us to gradually gain market share. That allows us to attract different types of users and different types of employees in this very, very competitive market. Sometimes I say we're making money because we want to plant trees whereas, other businesses plant trees because they want to make money or to greenwash because, in the end, the bottom line is they want to make their shareholders happy.įor us, it's completely the opposite, and that allows us to do things that are very, very different. We're running a search engine because we want to solve climate change. Because we're not a profit-maximizing company, our business objectives are totally different. That combined with a lot of authenticity and transparency makes us a lot more interesting to a lot of people who care about climate change and other social justice topics. That sets us up in a very different way and that allows us to create that competitive advantage where we're giving basically all the profits that we're generating to tree planting. ![]() We have a different kind of structure where basically the company can never be sold and profits can never leave the company. It has to pay dividends to shareholders, if not shareholders will get very angry. What we have is a competitive advantage that Google can never copy, and that is basically how we are structured as a business. ![]() Christian Kroll: It's a little bit like David against Goliath - and it's a very big Goliath, and we are a very small David.
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