EP #8 - Roman Gaus: The Challenges of a Social Impact Startup

Timestamps

7:32 - Realizing corporate life isn't for you

28:32 - Hiring strategies

32:57 - Handling divergent expectations within the company

45:14 - Setting and changing targets

49:17 - Work-life balance

Biography

Roman is best known as the Founder and CEO of UrbanFarmers, a company dedicated to building commercial food production systems in and around cities. Together with Andreas Graber, he has developed UrbanFarmers’ vision how food could be grown in an urban space at a large scale. He noticed the trend abroad and learned about a breakthrough Swiss technology that could make it more reliable and sustainable. Since 2011, UrbanFarmers has become a technology leader in Aquaponics, saving water, energy and nutrients to grow fish and plants in a closed-loop.
Roman graduated from University of St. Gallen with an M.A. in Accounting, Finance and Controlling. Before starting UrbanFarms, he has a worked with various large companies in the food and health sector, such as P&G, Novartis and Franke Group.