We help organizations cut the cost of sustainability reporting and carbon reduction by up to 75%

In one line, what do you do and what is your most significant achievement?

We help organizations cut the cost of sustainability reporting and carbon reduction by up to 75%.

Who are you and what business did you start?

I graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Aerospace Engineering, but I started my professional career in the sustainability industry. What started out as just a job to get me started sparked an interest and passion for using technology to solve a crisis threatening our existence. I have always had a passion for entrepreneurship, but felt that there was no point venturing into starting a business without the right idea.

So in 2020, when I noticed how manual the process of measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions was, I knew I couldn't let this slip by. We built Zuno with the goal of streamlining and automating all the grunt work that goes into becoming a sustainable business.

What's your backstory?

Dealing with the regulatory and compliance aspects of Environment Social & Governance (ESG), I developed an interest in environmental conservation, and this interest sparked a passion to save our planet. Zuno is my attempt at making an impact in our fight against climate change.

What should be the first steps to take to enter your industry?

A thirst for learning new things, and the agility to keep up with a fast changing industry.

How did you spend your First 100 Days of launching your business?

Our focus has always been on building a customer centric product. We spent our first 100 days talking to customers, iteratively building out the core features of our product and incorporating feedback into our product development.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain partnerships/customers?

Focus on customers, customer service, and building a product that not just solves a pain, but adds value to their business.

What has taken you from 0 to 100?

Sticking religiously to agile principles has allowed us to pivot, adapt, and regroup at an astounding pace. Ensuring that we keep moving forward every day.

What is one underrated thing in your industry that business owners should start doing/using?

Walk the talk. We see a lot of talk about sustainability, and solutions that help with sustainability. However, the easiest way to validate your product, and a great way to solidify your brand in this industry would be to use your own products and show the results.

What was one failure you had to go through that others in your industry should look out for?

Technology, and accuracy isn't everything. If you have the most cutting edge tech, and provides the most accurate forecasts doesn't mean much if the value proposition isn't all that different from competitors. It's about finding that sweet spot where you are providing cutting edge technology to solve a problem, and provide added value on top of that.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

Hubspot as a CRM, and for marketing automation (including content marketing)

Atlassian suite (Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Bitbucket, Confluence) for managing our SCRUM projects, helpdesk, version control, and documentation,

Microsoft 365 for Office Apps (Powerpoint, Excel, Word), and Teams for virtual meetings

Slack for communication - cuts down on emails by a lot, and has great integration capabilities

AWS, Azure, and GCP for cloud hosting and ML training

Xero for accounting and bookkeeping

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

We're growing, and our products are growing in capability as well. We hope to see a future where the fight against climate change goes beyond regulations and PR, and becomes a collective effort from all of humanity.