Hello. Hello. Welcome back to this episode of Everyday Entrepreneurship. My name is Caitlin Fritz. I am an award-winning entrepreneur, enterprise educator, and business coach who supported 650 plus incredible founders from across the world. And I'm so excited to share with you today that we are going to be interviewing two of these really cool founders. Absolutely inspiring that I have worked with in the past, and they are the co-founders of Open Versum, absolutely incredible business that I have gotten to meet through the Hult Prize competition and Accelerator back in. 2021. I feel like it was just yesterday. So in this conversation, you're gonna meet Olivier, nicknamed Ollie and Laura, and they're gonna share with you their journey on what it was like to take a PhD research project on water filtration. And turn it into a social impact business that is not only providing clean water, but also empowering women to become their own water entrepreneurs across the globe. When I say they're incredible, they are incredible. They have been recognized by world Economic Forum. They're part of the Forbes 30 under 30 family, welcoming them in with warm arms. And they have really developed not only their products and their methodology, but their team and their entrepreneurial mindset. And that's really what I, what I want to share with you in this interview today. So have a listen in. So today I am so lucky to have two incredible entrepreneurs who I am honestly blessed enough to call friends. I think at this point, knowing you guys for two years, Olivier and Lara with me from Open Versum, and if you haven't heard of Open Versum, you must be living under a rock because they're doing. Absolutely incredible things for not only just the world of water, but also empowering individuals and local communities and really making a difference, I would say, around the world. So welcome, Laura and Ali. Thank you so much. I mean, if you can just introduce me every time I have to be introduced somewhere, I'll take it. I'll be your, I'll be your hype girl, don't worry. Awesome. And where are you calling in from today? So we're both based in Zurich right now, calling in from our offices in Schlieren, or we have a small lab in one of these kind of startup co-working space with our own lab where Oli is getting very excited and putting a lot of stuff together right now. So we're lucky to catch him. Thank you Ali. I'm always, I'm always lucky to have you. So Ali, please share with everyone you know, what is Openversum and how did this come to be? 'cause I know there's some strong roots with your research. Sure, yeah. All started, actually, I. During my PhD when I worked a lot of membranes and especially with membranes for drinking water filtration. Um, while during my PhD I realized, okay, technology, cool, everything, but how do we actually bring such technologies to people or areas where these are urgently needed? So talking in the, uh, low or middle income countries, um, especially in the rural areas. So. In the second step then, um, uh, I basically analyzed or reanalyzed what are the main reasons why these technologies did not, um, did not go there. Uh, and so the PhD converted itself to a little bit finding the, the right routes to bring these technologies, which then is basically the main reason why. Why such technologies fails to be applied. Our, uh, lack of supply and not only talking about supply of raw material and the replacement material, but also supply of know how. And there was the starting point, kind of open version, uh, which. Um, then I, when I finished my PhD, luckily ran into Laura who shared the dream. She has been working a long time in water, and then we went to this venture together and maybe, uh, just right after, give out to Laura to them, say the rest of it. Yeah, it was quite a, a fortunate event I would say. I met Oli at the conference, actually an international conference, which was kind of dedicated to, you know, like new technologies, new business models to actually reach these emerging contexts. And I think we had a chat of, I dunno, 40 seconds. No, not more. Oli gave me his card and we just both went our ways and then that kept on, you know, popping into my mind like, God, this seemed like a, a really good project. So we stayed in touch. He told me more about his project. I. More about my interests and also my, my frustration as an engineer in Switzerland Kind. You always working on optimizing things, but not really, you know, doing breakthrough things and breakthrough impact in a way. Uh, I slowly got hooked and then the whole prize happened, which is kind of where we, we kind of set up all of these foundations of the business and the business case, and then he just convinced me to, to jump on that ship with him, and it's been an absolute blast. Exhausting, but fantastic. Absolutely. I know, I know what that, that feeling is like is always, always exhausting. So. I know I've known you guys through HALT Prize. I've got to see your business grow. I mean, share with me. You started out with these ideas. How did you build a team? And also when did you know that hey, there is a business in this technology? It kind of went, um, through it. It was successful. We had certain successes in, in the field, uh, during my PhD. Um, and there it was kind of okay. I mean, I can leave it as, um, as a thesis or I can try to do something real out of it. And this is kind of how then I always knew, which is the second part of the question with the team. I cannot do this alone. 'cause, um, um, I mean, you cannot see all sites. You, you cannot see everything. You need a good team or if you want, if you want to do this. And, um, so that's the reason why I talk with several people. One, one of them being Laura, um, and, uh, and also Lorenzo and, um, and Julian, um, which had a team of four of us, uh, then, um, joined the whole prize. Which was quite, uh, interesting actually. We met and, and spoke very short time and then, but we connected and had a shared vision very early on, which was very nice. So Laura, what, what made you take the leap as a really incredible woman engineer to go, you know, into the startup scene? Yeah, that's a tough question because it's true that in the first place, I mean, I didn't have that same vocation as Oli. I didn't wake up in the middle of my studies saying, okay, I'm gonna have my own business. You know, I just figured. I actually just never really thought of that past, you know, I thought, you know, I can work with, with NGOs, I can work in research, and I kind of, kind of getting into these different fields and getting these experiences, I realized that I still had that little frustration of, ah, it's, it's not enough, and I would do it differently. But when you want to change kind of a machine that's been running for a while already, if you want to, to change things, I think you can do it. But it takes years and dedication. And I was not ready to put maybe that much of myself into something that then did not belong to me in a way. And so kind of getting into it with Ali and I could see kind of that aspect of. Connecting to the communities, but also that vision of empowering them with all of the tools that they would just need, that they don't have to actually take ownership of these solutions was just, I don't know, it struck a bone in me and I love combining that kind of social aspect of things with the engineering part. And that's kind of hard to find, let's say, in the typical job market. And that's exactly what I have with with this, with this project. I love that. I think that's incredible. And I'm, what I, what's really interesting is you mentioned empowering the communities and I want people to like get perspective. You guys right now are based in Switzerland, but some of the communities you work with are in Latin America. How did you make that happen? Like how did you bridge that divide, uh, and getting your filters where they needed to be and also having the community accept them? It was, again, step by step basically. So, um, starting with, with, uh, first prototype, then improving the prototype, another prototype. Uh, and so observing a lot how the community reacts to certain things. Um. To get the, the, the right pro product actually for the community and, and to really, um, what is important for them or not. And this is also, I mean, this is a major part, and then Laura from is, is, um, is, is improving a lot, the whole structure. It's not only about the product itself, if you want, uh, to have, uh, a product for a community, but it must everything around it. Work. Work and uh, I think there is where Laura can give her. Yeah. That's, uh, awesome expertise. Yeah. In, in the, in the field of, of water technologies, but also hygiene, sanitation, all of these basically tools that kind of alleviate a basic needs. What you're doing is not, you're not just selling, you know, a new phone. People just switch to the new product. You're actually sometimes creating a product for something that people didn't realize they needed in a way. So you have to kind of change their whole perspective of things, their perspective on water, on water safety, and also basically the way they behave every day. Because if every day you just get your water from the tap straight and rick it, and then I tell you, oh no, you have to do an extra step. And now every time you have to pour it through something and then drink it, you might not want to do it. So then there's that whole aspect of, I mean, it, it's a combination of behavior change and what we call also a decision intelligence building. You're not actually, I. Trying to convince people to buy your product. You're actually trying to give them the tools to make the informed decision that is better for them to actually get that product, which will make their life better. But then it'll depend on each community, because each community has different cultural habits, different beliefs, and that's why you have to have these strong partnerships, but also these very open. Yeah, let's say open discussions with this community so you can understand. What they want, what they need, and kind of the deep reasons why that, that's totally true. A anything with habit building. Yeah. Whew. You are, you are pushing a rock uphill. But it, but it's amazing to see how, how the community have latched onto this. Now, I know we've mentioned before it's a lot of work and it hasn't been easy. So, you know, what has been your biggest challenge or failure thus far? I know as an entrepreneur I have time. So there's no, the biggest challenge, I think it's in the, would it be in the whole production itself only? Yeah. I mean, it seems so easy basically to do minor things, um, on the production. Now that to be, I mean, that's easy. And then if you think of a production of 5,000 filters, which we're currently at, so, uh. But there's so many minor steps, and if you want to set up a production line, there is. Continuous improvement of minor things. So you have to improve this, this, and you have to tweak this. This would work and this wouldn't work. All of it that they have actually have a product that people, people love. And if you don't tweak the things on the user, um, friendliness as well, then, then in the end, you won't have a good product. Then it's. The quality aspect is a huge aspect, which you, if you have 10 filters, then you can easily control them. You can look at them individually. But if you have a production line of 5,000 filter, then you need to set up, uh, a whole quality. And I think this is something I we underestimated quite a bit. Um, it's going very well now. Uh, but uh, I think also because we learned, um, a lot and really have great partners all, all around. So we have great production partners, we have great suppliers, we have great, um, people on the ground. So we have two people in Colombia working with us, and they're awesome. Uh, and yeah, I think this makes it, uh, happen. This, the challenge number. Two, actually having, uh, companies in different countries, um, I think comes the whole financial aspect. I mean, I'm, we are engineers and uh, then it comes, okay, how do we actually bring money from here to Colombia? How do we bring it back? And there comes like fancy terms, like arm's length and deep principle and so on. This is things you just as entrepreneur, which actually challenges our love. So because you learn a lot and you talk with different people and experts and then you learn a lot. And this, this is one of the, apart from having an awesome team and grow growing together, one of the really things I love is learning and learning, uh, at a very quick speed. I think that is, honestly, both of you have that mindset of just constantly learning, but. Oli kind of throwing it back at you, you know, what was it like to kind of go from this PhD where I feel like in academia and even engineering Laurie, you can even even touch on this, there's kind of a set plan, and in entrepreneurship you can only plan so much because you're gonna hit these hurdles. Like were there any kind of mindset shifts? That you had to embark on to kind of let go of that checkbox and move into almost like the wild west of entrepreneurship? Yeah. Funny. I think everyone, I mean, tells about having hurdle before going to entrepreneurship. Uh, and for me, when I think back actually. Before when I was like 18 years old, I always knew that I want to change something in the world by using technology and, and now I am so happy that I'm actually trying at least to, to do this or I'm doing this. So, so for me, it was never, um, um, a hurdle. The only hurdle was, so I'm having a family side and I'm a proud papapreneur. This is the most difficult part, kind. Telling the, basically telling my wife that, uh, yeah, after my studies I'm going to have a job and have a decent salary, and then I'm going to do master's. Yeah, after my master's and I'm going do PhD without, yeah, after my PhD, and then a post after my postdoc. And then I'm entrepreneur. So when I going to earn? Yeah. Never. But, but this is kind of the thing, but then you decide what is more important, um, to you. Is it really moving something? Um, I mean, do you have so much benefits being an entrepreneur as well? Um, and, and this just for me is paying out because I'm, I'm really having fun learning a lot, um, while also obviously working a lot. But in the end, it's a net positive by far. Amazing. I I love that. I love that. It's, it's honestly the legacy. You're gonna leave your family as well, I think in the midst of it. It's a lot of hard work, but. That kid is gonna look up to you and say, wow, my dad moved mountains not only in Switzerland, but also in Columbia. Laura, what about you? Did you have any like mindset shifts? I know you've been nominated for tons of awards for women in technology engineering, Forbes 30, under 30. Before we jumped on the call, we talked about how Forbes 30 under 30 is great. It's, it's, it's a wonderful, incredible honor. But at the next day, you go back to work. Yeah. How, how has your mindset shifted from engineering to kind of being this entrepreneur and also woman leader in technology? Mm-Hmm. Yeah, I think so. As, as an engineer, you know, kind of coming out of studies. So it wasn't, it wasn't applied engineering that we did so much. It was a lot of kind of theoretical engineering in a way. So when you get out of studies, you kind think, oh, I feel like I know how to do everything, but also nothing. So, you know, you're kind of already constantly in that kind of learning day by day process, which meant that basically switching to the entrepreneurship, I just felt like, okay, I just. Have to keep learning and it's, it's kind of normal in that way. But then I think the way my mindset changed is looking more into, okay, we're engineers, but we actually have to put our business out there. Say, Hey, we exist. Look at what we're doing, because that's the way we can get funding. And so for this, you have to kind of learn how, how to present yourself, how to present your company, how to actually use the words that will. Speak to the, the people, like the stakeholders that you're interested in. And I think, you know, I had to learn the investor language, the VC language, but then the philanthropy one, then just the kind of stage one. Then it's also a big difference between, for example, pitching in the US or pitching in Switzerland. You know, it's completely different communication strategies that you have to adopt. And I think maybe the mindset change I had was that first I was thinking. Oh my God, they all know more than me. I was very stressed, you know, to go on stage to start talking about what we do, and now I just realize they're normal people that just ended up there, either because they, they trade very hard or they just, you know, like a series like me with only just a series of random, random events that just led to a place and they're just humans and you can talk to them and you're the one who knows your business more than they do. So then it became less convincing and more. Kinda just enjoying talking about what we do. And I think that changed a lot. The way we communicate and the way we, we network also and we connect that. Yeah, I mean, seeing what you guys have been communicating is so authentic. I mean, even your video with, I think it's World Economic Forum, I watched it like a hundred times. Everything you've been doing with the various entrepreneurship organizations across Europe. It's really pioneering, like you guys mentioned, this kind of age-old machine and completely flipping it on its head. So I guess my question also for both of you is, you know, what has been the most rewarding thing thus far? Like when was that moment that you knew you are onto something? I think there is not one moment, and there's also a thing I. You have to learn as an entrepreneur to keep celebrating the small successes because there's not one thing, because as I said before, a production line, I mean, there's always things to do better and to tweak. It's, it's never ending story. When I got asked like, when, uh, did you finish working? You never finished working, you just make a break because there's, you have endless tasks, so. The rewarding moments for me is kind of the, the, the celebrations having with, with the team to look back and really see, hey, what we've achieved is great. So, so far we, we've came. Obviously there's always things that could go better, but just take a break and look at what you've have achieved and then celebrate that. I think this is the really re rewarding and. We have to remind ourselves sometimes to do it. It's not always easy because you are stressed and doing this and that and this, but just sometimes make a break and then, um, for example, to tomorrow we'll also probably have some, a dinner, a drink, whatever, and then we can look back what we've achieved and this are, uh, together as a team. And these are really great moments. Mm-Hmm. That's, that's great. I remember. Opening a bottle of Prosecco for even the minor, minor thing, like finishing a grant application. I was like, yep, let's open up that Prosecco. What about you, Laura? Yeah, I think, I think it's the same in a way that I, maybe I would extend it to kind of for extended team also. So we have a team in Colombia, uh, our two regional managers, Yesenia and Eduardo, and they're just being absolutely fantastic and kind of every time that. You can see that we collaborate on something and there's, there's really a tangible outcome on it. And, you know, they go to the fields, they ask questions. We get feedback from, from the communities that we're working with. To me, that's always like, oh wow, I'm really not just sitting behind the computer and doing things that no one will use. It's actually being used as we speak. And, and there every time I get a little bit emotional and, and, and very happy. On this and maybe still talking about that kind of extended open version family. I would also extend it to our advisors. I think we're super lucky to have amazing people who, who believe in us and who trust us. And every time we meet with them, they like to challenge us a lot, you know? But it feels always super good to actually be able to, to challenge them back in a way. And you know, we always have. Answer and then we kind of keep growing together. And for this, I mean, seeing the relationships that we've built around that vision always makes me very, very happy. No, I remember seeing some of your photos in your pitch and they were, they would make me well off. I was just like, this is game changing stuff. If I add up, uh, on this, I totally agree with Laura. I think the reward is being. Out in the field and talking to the people that can actually benefit. I think this is the most rewarding, of, of all to really see and experience and hear and feel the impact. I I a hundred percent. Anytime you can see your product in action, it just gives you that goosebumps of like, okay, all that hard work, sleepless nights, they're totally worth something. Now, if you were gonna. Give yourself one piece of advice. Looking back, if you could talk to the entrepreneur way back on that very first day, what piece of advice would you give? Hmm. Uh, for me, maybe it would be, maybe I. Don't spend too much time trying to convince everyone, you know, as a social business at the start, you're not really sure, okay, where like, how does funding work? Which strategy should I adopt? And then, you know, you learned about the startup game, so you're like, okay, I'm gonna go to these VCs venture capital and. Actually, your interest just simply don't necessarily match. And it's okay and it's normal. And it's, I think a learning process to kind of identify who you should go talk to. But I think maybe I, I spent a little too much time at the start, you know, working on this, which is something that probably now I would just, I would just not Not do it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think pushing past that imposter syndrome and just. Knowing, you know, your stuff and, and being able to communicate that I was there. I would be worrying after every talk, like, did I sound like an idiot? Absolutely. What about you, Ollie? I mean, it sounds like you knew when you, at a young age you wanted to make a change, but what advice would you give yourself of. Or maybe someone who's pursuing this kind of academic path, you know, what advice would you give them if they wanted to take the leap and become an entrepreneur? I, yeah, kind of agree with Laura. So first, I mean, there are many Ms. Mistakes you do. But on the other hand, it might be also important that you do these mistakes in order to improve, to learn. So I'm never sure what would have done better if I haven't made the mistakes, which there were obviously many. Um, I wouldn't be here neither, maybe. So it's very hard to, to pinpoint one mistake, what would've done better and so on. It's, I'm. I'm, I'm very happy about certain decisions, um, like team buys are going the right direction and so on. Sometimes I think things could have worked faster, um, and these are minor things could have, uh, decided differently. We could have not gone a certain way, uh, which would have make everything faster. And also, I totally agree with, with Laura, um, like if you. If you don't know the game, the startup game or the whole world, um, you make many things that is are unnecessary. So kinda the same thing that Laura said in different words. So you really need to learn where to put your time and where not to, and where to put not, not put your time is actually the most difficult to, to find, and this is kind of important. This makes wasting your time and this makes such things go slower in the end. Honestly, I, I completely agree, and I, and I almost wanna echo you. You don't know that until you're in it and you can look back and realize that that was a tiny molehill in the list of things I needed to do. Now for our listeners who I know have to be excited to hear what's happening next in Openversum, what does 2024 hold? I'm so excited. I wanna know. Hopefully, uh, I mean hopefully not, hopefully it's actually on the way. These, these filters are gonna be out soon. So these newly designed filters, we made them bigger, better, nicer, every, everything in R. and with our local team now on the ground. And we'll simply, we'll be deploying this so, uh, we'll be hiring. Entrepreneurs actually, we've already been talking with a lot of entrepreneurs, going to the field with them, training them also. We've been testing our platform with them, and they've been loving it, and they actually can't wait for the filters to be there. So we're a bit, uh, trying to push it there. And then the idea is that we just, we try to grow as big and as fast as possible while making sure that our filters are used properly. And in a, in a sustainable way, in a way. Then we also have another exciting project in, in Uganda actually we're contacted by a local NGO there to pilot our technology with GIZ. So that's also quite exciting. That's also happening in, well this year. Wow. And based on this then, you know, maybe it's an open version of is everywhere. That's the goal. Ali, anything else you wanna add about your world? Domination. So. It's actually about. Scaling, we have prepared ourselves, uh, to be able to scale fast now. So from the production line to the e-learning and the digital platform. So everything is set basically to, um, to scale. And this is what we want to show that we can actually, um, scale. again, there will be many challenges, um, because then, I mean, scaling from 5,000 to a hundred thousand will be another challenge, but in the end. We have set everything and we are moving everything fast to really optimize it for scalability, and that's what we've been doing in the, in the past, past, uh, months to really prepare ourselves for that moment. I. 2024 Open Versum's, year two scale. Amazing. Thank you so much, Oli and Laura for talking with me. I know you guys are incredibly busy in the labs doing amazing work, but I know your story is one that needs to be shared and I'm so glad to have you here. Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure to meet with you Kiki. Thank you very much. I mean, come on. What is there not to love about their work at OpenVersum? Laura and Ollie really share with you very genuine insights on what it is like not only going through team transitions and understanding what it's like to manufacture something at scale, but also really putting the impact in the work. What they do at the core of their business model. So if you're interested in finding out more about them, then check out the show notes. There's links to OpenVersum as well as their individual LinkedIn's because they are worth following. Once again, nothing short of incredible. So if you wanna hear more conversations like these, let me know. And if you have any individuals that you wanna highlight on the podcast, drop me a line. I'm always looking to interview some really great entrepreneurs making an impact out there. So thank you for listening in, and until next time, this is every day, Entrepreneurship. Thank you for joining me for this episode of Everyday Entrepreneurship. To stay tuned and most up-to-date, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow me Caitlin Fritz on Instagram. And if you have any questions about building your business with Impact, drop me an email with the link in the show notes.