Handprint’s journey: How our cofounders met

Despite the fact that Handprint's adventure is still in its infancy, our cofounders have known one another for a longer period of time Regardless of their professions, everyone of them had a fierce desire to improve the world even before they met The tale of how they connected and made the decision to work together is what serendipity is made of

Let's get to know the cofounders of Handprint before you grab some popcorn and come us on our adventure Following are their names and the positions they each hold within the company:

● Mathias Boissonot, Chief Executive Officer

● Dr Simon Schillebeeckx, Chief Strategy Officer

● Dr Ryan Merrill, Chief Impact Officer

Cofounders fromAcademia

The origin of Handprint's story is academics, like with most great things

A grant to investigate "innovation in the natural world" had just been awarded to Simon, a professor at Singapore Management University After completing their PhD in Environmental and Energy Policy, Ryan was looking for a new opportunity and was working at the Department of Energy in Washington, DC, at the same time.

At the 2017 Academy of Management Annual Conference "At The Interface" in Atlanta, Georgia, they both crossed paths. Simon talked about his work in digital sustainability and revealed his plans to work with a postdoc researcher. Ryan expressed interest right away, and the next day, during a conference social function, they were hired.

Ryan & Simon: Global MangroveTrust

Shortly after, Ryan visited Myanmar and got the chance to see for himself the incredible power of mangrove plants to absorb glasshouse gases from the environment. Ryan was motivated by this encounter to start working on Global Mangrove Trust (GMT). In order to ensure that mangrove forestry enables enterprises and families in nearby communities, GMT collaborates with leading teams and local impact partners on a global scale.

Ryan initially worked on GMT by himself, but they quickly realised they required Simon's skills to get GMTup and running.This alliance would serve as Handprint's initial framework.

TheThird Cofounder: Mathais

A blockchain system was developed by GMT and DBS Bank to increase transparency in climate financing But, they had trouble making the project scaleable Mathias is the third founding member

Simon had known Mathais prior to GMT They had just recently arrived in Singapore and had only a passing interest in one another's line of work when they first met Nevertheless, Mathais started to realise the project's entrepreneurial potential when he learned about GMT's blockchain work with DBS Mathais had taken out the company he was working at by this stage and had far more freedom on how to spend his time than Simon and Ryan, who liked academia but felt slightly constrained by the field's lack of obvious influence

Once a week, Mathias started working pro gratis with the other two cofounders to upgrade GMT from its current state The three of them discovered they like working together after multiple free sessions To determine what part they would play, each of them concentrated on their own distinctive personal strengths For instance, Simon was the ideal candidate to serve as the front-facing founder of what would become Handprint since he was adept at interacting with people. While Mathias provided the comprehensive perspective needed to carry out commercial

objectives, Ryan was particularly skilled at structuring complex systems to guarantee that everything on the backend operated without a hitch

HandprintToday

Handprint has expanded from a trio of two PhD candidates and an engineer in 2020 to a staff of more than 45 personnel, all of whom are dedicated to regenerating the world Since its founding, Handprint has collaborated with some of the biggest Asian businesses and used technology to increase the transparency of impact programmes Leading provider of payment card technology Idemia, e-commerce behemoth Lazada, and world-renowned media outlet Teads are just a few of Handprint's biggest partners Powered by these three co-founders' leadership.

Handprint has earned multiple accolades for sustainable business, including the Huawei Spark Ignite 2022 competition in the sustainability category, the Cities of the Future Urban Innovation Competition, and the 2021 Microsoft Singapore GreenTech Challenge

Moreover, Handprint has completed two rounds of fundraising, with the most recent taking place in December 2022 The CEO of Handprint, Mathias Boissonot, describes the organization's history to date;

“Handprint signifies a revolution in business sustainability Companies have been concentrating their efforts on mitigating harm and balancing their negative impact for decades This investment round will allow us to move more quickly towards our goal of creating the internet's sustainability infrastructure, which will make it simple, easy, and effective for businesses of all kinds to go beyond offsets and contribute to the preservation and renewal of the environment ”

To consider that all these accomplishments were made possible by a few serendipitous events Simon meeting Ryan in Atlanta, Georgia, Ryan discovering his passion in mangrove trees in Burma, and Mathias meeting Simon in Singapore is rather bizarre.

With this fortunate momentum and a dedication to making a positive difference, Handprint's trip to the galaxy may be shorter than anticipated.

Souce: Handprint’s journey: How our cofounders met