Mathias Boissonot is the founder of Handprint and an engineer at heart. Handprint allows corporations to embed regenerative practices into their businesses and become a force for good — all while turning a profit. They raised over $3M for their seed round.

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👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

I developed a technology that enables companies to restore ecosystems critical for planetary health in a transparent, digitized, and quantified way. We aim to effectively transform capitalism from a tool for environmental exploitation into a lever for good. By turning regeneration into an economic advantage, we are helping businesses to easily become a part of the Regenerative Economy of the Future in just a few clicks.

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🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

When we started listing Coral Reef Restoration projects on our platform, I planted the first 360 baby corals myself with our Impact Partner Living Seas, for 20 of our clients [video]

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🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

I bought over the company that first hired me in Singapore as a Junior consultant through a Management Buy-Out. Then, I met Dr. Merrill and Dr. Schillebeeckx: at the time, they were writing a report commissioned by the United Nations on how to use new digital technologies to benefit sustainable development. I was fascinated by their work and thought that my skills could be useful in transforming these great ideas into a commercial reality. So, I decided to leave a comfortable professional situation to venture with them and created Handprint.

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🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

AI-generated content. It's already changing how companies operate, but in a good way: not the "machine replacing humans" way, but more the "augmented human" way.

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💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

Don't build one more footprinting tool or one more ESG platform. The world needs fewer accountants and more change-makers.

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🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

I wish I could say "Ray Dalio's newest big idea," but the reality is French literature.

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🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?

Cyrano with Gerard Depardieu. It's poetry interpreted by the greatest actor in the french language. It's about "Losing with Panache," a very French concept that puts the beauty of how things are done above the outcome.

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Chili. I grow my own chili farm, more than 120 chili plants, using permaculture principles.