September 10, 2024

S02|01: Unlocking Sustainable Solutions: A Journey with Nuha Siddiqui

Discover Nuha's inspiring journey from university student to successful entrepreneur, her creative problem-solving approach, and the importance of diversity in thought and collaboration.

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Nuha 00:02

Sometimes you can go into a very, very dark hole, and I have had those times as well, right? When you're hearing everybody tell you that it's not possible, but I think for me, what's always helped is centering myself to the purpose and why we're doing it. It's not about me, it's not about my Co-Founders, it's about the greater purpose that we're working towards.

 

Leah 00:25

Hi, thanks for being here and welcome to Season Two of The Founder Mindset, brought to you by ATB. I'm Leah Sarich, your host, and I'm super excited to talk to more Founders about the human experience of being an entrepreneur. In this podcast, we're digging into what it really feels like to build a company from nothing. I was a broadcaster for over 20 years. So, I've interviewed thousands of people, but entrepreneurs, not that many. And yet they have the best stories. They're solving big problems, and they're creating incredible impact. But it is hard work. So, why would they do this? Let's find out. 

Leah 01:12

Joining me today is Nuha Siddiqui, Co-Founder and CEO of Erthos, a climate technology company reimagining the building blocks of plastics to accelerate the worldwide adoption of sustainable materials. Nuha, good morning. Thanks for being here.

 

Nuha 01:26

Good morning. It's great to be here.

 

Leah 01:28

I love this conversation that we're going to have. I'm just so excited to learn more about you and your company and what you've done, and it's just extraordinary. So, thank you in advance for doing this and for telling us your story.

 

Nuha 01:39

Of course, I'm excited to dive in. It's not every day I get to have these conversations. So, I appreciate you.

 

Leah 01:47

Wonderful. Let's go back in time, shall we? How did you actually come to being an entrepreneur?

 

Nuha 01:53

I think I never imagined this for myself. So, first of all, I never thought that I would be an entrepreneur. If I think back to my childhood, my upbringing, I think I've always been instilled to want to create an impact and serve my community in some way. My parents always made sure that that was core to the way that we were brought up, and we grew up in different parts of the world, and were always exposed to different communities, and sort of built that network. But it wasn't until I was in university, I was at the University of Toronto. I was studying business. I was in business school, and as an immigrant family, stability was very important for us, and so I did join Business School, initially to become an accountant, which is probably the opposite of what an entrepreneur is, but I was just so wildly inspired by my community, again at University of Toronto, and I was a part of an organization called Enactus. And at that time, I never even knew what social entrepreneurship meant. I didn't know what social impact meant. And it felt like there was this world that existed, that brought together business and actually trying to create scalable, meaningful products and solutions alongside the impact part of who I was. And so, I'd say that Enactus was one of the key reasons why I even pursued this journey and thought of myself as an entrepreneur, which I think I would have never imagined myself to be at the time. 

 

Leah 03:28

Wow, so you started this company while you were still a student.

 

Nuha 03:32

Yes, I was in my second year of university, so I was 20. 

 

Leah 03:36

Unbelievable. That's amazing. How did you have the confidence, or even the audacity to think I'm just gonna do this?

 

Nuha 03:45

I love saying confidence now, but I think at the time, it was just a little bit of being naive and hopeful and optimistic. And I think that's what you really do need when you're an entrepreneur. You have to be so wildly optimistic about a future that doesn't exist, and you have to want to change that and create that. And so, I think a part of me was just thinking about the problem itself and how it inspired me, and how it was so big, and that was challenging and bold, but it was also just we needed to solve it. We needed to find a way to fix the problem of the plastic crisis. And so I think that's what kept me going, and keeps me going even today.

 

Leah 04:23

Amazing. But you know what I always talk about on this podcast, specifically with entrepreneurs, is, you know, lots of people have great ideas or are motivated to change the world, but very few actually do it. And you had did it. And in fact, if I'm not mistaken, as soon as you went out there to raise money, you raised, like, $7 million.

 

Nuha 04:46

Yes. I mean, I wouldn't say it happened overnight, for sure. But you know, it took a lot of learning, of growth, of self-reflection and really challenging myself too, and my team. And you have to not want to give up. And that resilience is what shapes every company, right, every success story that we see today. And yeah, it was quite the journey for me, and very grateful to have gone through that as well, because that itself is part of the journey.

 

Leah 05:15

Absolutely, it is the journey. So, what was it like for you, being a younger woman going out there and raising money and saying, This is the company I've got, and I'm building this, and I'm going to tackle this huge problem.

 

Nuha 05:30

Yeah, and, you know, I think I probably had everything going against me, right? I was younger. I, of course, I'm a young woman. I don't come from decades of years of experience, and I don't have a wealthy network of family and friends to raise around or anything like that. I knew that that was what I had against me, and I think being aware of that and knowing that we would have to prove ourselves 10 times harder than anyone else, and just knowing that that would drive us forward was really important, and it was really difficult at first. I got many, many rejections. No one wanted to invest in us. No one even wanted to join our team. It was hard to hire. It was very, very difficult. But I think over time, what really stood out to me is that it was really important to just prove that we had the ability to learn and grow. We knew that we didn't have all the answers, but we were willing to actually go out and find them. That was a key part of how we proved ourselves to investors, is showing them how we could actually learn and grow and move very quickly. And so sometimes it would take a rejection, it would take a no from an investor to then just say, Okay, why are you saying no? Tell me why you're rejecting me, and then going out and doing the work to prove why that was not true, and actually coming back to them a month later. And so, you kind of have to be okay with that rejection and have the courage and no ego to go back and just say, You know what? We tried. We tried to actually solve that. We tried to fix it. Now, will you invest? And sometimes they'll say no again, and then you'll have to go back, and it's a whole cycle, but it truly was important to do in those early stages when we didn't have anything else to kind of prove for our capabilities.

 

Leah 07:24

No kidding, but you know, there's people that would hear those no's over and over again and then say, okay, you know what? It's too hard, or okay, this isn't gonna work. I can't do it, but you didn’t do that. 

 

Nuha 07:34

Yeah, I mean, sometimes you can go into a very, dark hole, and I have had those times as well, right? When you're hearing everybody tell you that it's not possible. But I think for me, what's always helped is centring myself to the purpose and why we're doing it. It's not about me, it's not about my Co-Founders, it's about the greater purpose that we're working towards. And I don't care how many no's we get, this is real, and this is a problem that we have to fix. And so if it's not me, then then who? And just working towards that, it's always been, always been important. 

 

Leah 08:14

Wow. That's amazing. Well, let's talk about this solution. Tell me about Erthos, what it is and what you hope to achieve.

 

Nuha 08:20

Yes, so we're a biomaterials company, and we have a strong belief in the power of bio-based alternatives to plastics, and we feel as if this can truly change the trajectory that we're on with the climate crisis, with the plastic crisis. Everybody is aware of plastic pollution in our planet, and we know that there's solutions out there. But A. we don't want to accept a soggy paper straw solution, because that's not okay. And B. a lot of the technologies that we're seeing, even within the alternative space, are not scaling as quickly as we need it to be. And so at Erthos, our goal is to actually accelerate the use and the adoption of bio-based alternatives for plastics, and work directly with the world's largest brands to help normalize these materials and actually standardize them for scale. We don't have a lot of time. We really don't, and at this point, we've seen so many CPGs and companies come out with their 2025 targets and 2030 targets, and that's tomorrow. That's very, very soon. And if we don't actually reduce our carbon footprint, eliminate the waste that we're seeing in our planet, we're actually not going to be able to reverse the current state that we're in. And so that's that's what we're working on at Erthos. We are a material science company at our core. So, our team consists of some of the world's brilliant scientists and engineers who've been inventing incredible materials, but we also have been collecting really interesting insights and data on these ingredients and how to unlock them in new ways with AI and so, that's what the future looks like for us.

 

Leah 10:01

That's incredible. Can you walk me through so our listeners can understand, like, how that would actually be applied? Some of that, maybe a few case studies, things like that? 

 

Nuha 10:11

Yeah, so we work with brands who are creating and selling everyday products like a shampoo bottle or, you know, even food packaging and a lot of these materials are plastic. And so what we do is we reimagine these plastic materials with a bio-based source and a bio-based ingredient instead. And our materials themselves are better footprints, so they have a lower carbon footprint. They take less energy and water to create, but they're ultimately also designed to be fully compostable or recyclable in different cases. The way our technology is applied is that we work directly with these brands and help them reimagine this product, and within six months, which is very rapid in science timeframes, we're able to design a brand new, novel material that replaces that plastic and ultimately fits into their current systems, their manufacturing, and their global supply chain. 

 

Leah 11:13

Wow. So, these big companies then aren't like having to build new manufacturing capabilities. You're working with what they already have.

 

Nuha 11:19

Exactly and that's part of our approach, is that we don't actually feel as if there's a one size fits all, especially within this space, and it's really important for us to tailor these solutions to the end product, like a shampoo bottle or to the brand supply chains, because that's what maximizes scale and what maximizes the adoption of these materials long term.

 

Leah 11:43

No kidding, let's talk a little bit about that scale. Because when you talk about being a global company, that is what's required, isn't it, this scalability? So, talk a little bit about how you're going to be able to do that. 

 

Nuha 11:55

Yeah, I think for us, it's all about partnerships and making sure that our technology is built in a way that it can be scalable across different industries and different regions. We always built Erthos knowing that we wanted it to be a global company. We hated the idea of building a product or solution that would be so niche that would only be in one state, in California. We really wanted to make sure that we were building the solution for mass scale, because a lot of the communities that are impacted by the plastic crisis are not just here next door to us. They're across the world and they're they're seeing the impact of this firsthand. Our tech today, and the pivot that we made earlier this year was with that in mind and actually giving everybody access to our technology in a much more transparent way. So, in the past, we never actually talked about our ingredients, we never talked about the science. But now we've actually just launched Erthos Studio and our AI platform ZYA, for everyone to access and be able to use for their brands and for their products as well. 

 

Leah 13:02

Amazing. Let's talk a little bit about that pivot. Because, you know, as companies scale, startups often have to do a big pivot like that, and sometimes you're not really sure, like how this is going to go. It can be quite unnerving to say the least. Talk about the pivot experience for Erthos.

 

Nuha 13:16

Yeah, we've had multiple pivots, like most companies. I think that this one was truly a response to the urgency of this challenge, and the fact that, you know, eight years ago, when we started this problem existed, but it wasn't at the scale that it is even today. And I think it was part us just being frustrated at the fact that we know that we can accelerate this. And we know that we can actually solve some of these big problems, but if it took actually releasing our technology and opening up access to this technology to actually accelerate it, then that was what we needed to do. And so the Erthos Studio pivot was really based off of that, and I think it was the best time to do it for us because we have spent several years in R and D and actually understanding these challenges, getting down to the root of it, to understand what's required. And we built our own materials, and we've invented some incredible materials that can now be accessed for our clients. And so in some ways, yes, it's a pivot, but I hate using the word pivot because it sometimes feels as if it's a drastic change, whereas this really felt like a natural response to what was needed today in the market.

 

Leah 14:30

Wow, that's amazing. That's incredible. So, how many employees are you now?

 

Nuha 14:34

We are 23.

 

Leah 14:37

And they're from all over, aren't they? 

 

Nuha 14:39

They are, yes. So, we have an incredible team. Everyone is based in Canada but comes from very different backgrounds and different disciplines. The diversity of our team is truly our superpower. And I always say this, and I never change my answer, because our team is incredible.

 

Leah 14:57

That's amazing. Am I right, that you have finished your series A?

 

Nuha 15:01

We closed our round last year. So, it's been, it's been a year now. 

 

Leah 15:07

Wow, that's incredible. Is it 11 million? Am I right?

 

Nuha 15:09

We raised 6.5 million this last round.

 

Leah 15:14

That's incredible. So, incredible work. Tell me a little bit about what it's like being a young entrepreneur. I know you made the Forbes 30 under 30 list, by the way, congratulations. That's very exciting. How does it feel to be in that company, you know, in that magazine, on that list?

 

Nuha 15:33

it was definitely something Kritika and I always thought about, we never thought, you know, it would happen, but it's just such an honour to be a part of that list, but I think it's just us on that list, but it really is our team that deserves that recognition. You know, we get recognized for the work that we're doing, but we would not be where we are today if we didn't have the support of our investors, our partners, our families, our team. It truly takes a village. It feels incredible. But, you know, we still have a lot of work to do, so Kritika and I usually just get back right to work. We shake each other's hands, usually whenever we have some sort of win, a very formal business handshake, and then we go straight back to work. So, that's usually how we work. 

 

Leah 16:19

I hear this over and over again on this podcast, like, you have to be really conscious about celebrating the wins, because really, you're just heads down. You just want to keep going, like, what's next?

 

Nuha 16:27

Exactly. You're either in a constant state of euphoria or just completely scared and just everything is falling apart. So, there really is no middle ground.

 

Leah 16:40

Let's talk a little bit about that roller coaster of emotions, if you will. What's it like to be so high and then so low?

 

Nuha 16:50

It's a lot. It takes a lot. It's draining at times, of course, but it's also what makes it really fun and keeps everything very interesting every single day. And you know, I think I've tried to make sure that I have some sort of balance and even some of the wins, trying to celebrate them, but it's hard to celebrate sometimes when you know that there's so many other things going on. So, I think for me, I've just tried to be mindful of actually taking the time to celebrate some of those wins. Because, yeah, the highs are the highs, and they're incredible, and you kind of have to take in that moment sometimes too.

 

Leah 17:29

Absolutely. 

Leah 17:30

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Leah 17:54

Let's talk a little bit about your personal life, if you don't mind. Like, what does it look like to be an entrepreneur? How does that affect your personal life?

 

Nuha 18:03

It doesn't allow for much of a personal life in a lot of situations. It's been a journey in that world as well for me. I've spent my entire 20s, which is a core part of, you know, everyone's life, building Erthos, and it's been hard, of course, to balance everything. I have an incredible partner, family that supported me throughout this journey. But of course, it's a lot of compromise. You do have to make a ton of sacrifices when you're doing this at the age that I'm in, at any age, to be honest, but yeah, it's a different decade. My 20s have been a different decade than I thought it would be, but I'm super grateful for having an incredible partner and kind of support to do that. And there's one story, I mean, that kind of helps communicate the impact of this, but I actually got married the same day I closed my first round of funding, so I literally signed legal papers five minutes before I walked out the aisle. So, I anytime anyone asks me, what is the balance? I usually say that, and it sums up everything for me.

 

Leah 19:22

That is unbelievable. You're signing papers like two minutes before you have to walk down the aisle.

 

Nuha 19:26

Yes. And I wish I was exaggerating, but it was the same hour that we did that. 

 

Leah 19:38

Oh my gosh. That is unbelievable, but it also strikes me as almost a classic sort of entrepreneur story. Every entrepreneur's got a crazy story like that. That is unbelievable. That's making me giggle all the way. So, your partner must be an extraordinary person.

 

Nuha 19:52

Incredible, like I think, to actually be okay with that on my wedding day, takes an incredible person. So, yes.

 

Leah 20:01

Awe, that's incredible. Well, I'm happy for you, and I'm happy to hear that this is hilarious, because, you know, I'm reflecting on that not being an entrepreneur myself. Like, that's kind of nuts, actually. Like, there's not a lot of people that would be okay with that, you know, whether, you know, as the partner or as the entrepreneur themselves, they might just like, what am I doing? This is insane.

 

Nuha 20:21

I know, I know it is. It is completely insane. But you know, that is the life that I have chosen.

 

Leah 20:30

That's amazing. Let's talk a little bit more too about, you touched on this briefly when it came to celebrating the small wins. But is there a way that you consciously make an effort to fill up your own personal tank so that you can keep pushing ahead and taking the next challenge on?

 

Nuha 20:46

Yeah, you know, I've thought about this, and I feel like I'm always looking for something, and I wish I had something specific, but for me, what I found is just finding little things within all of the craziness, because it's hard to commit to something completely, right? Like, you know, thinking about something that'll take hours out of my week, and trying to commit to that is really hard at this state, and that's just me being super honest. But what's helped is just finding those little moments, whether it's, you know, when I'm travelling constantly for work, and just taking 30 minutes to just put on my air pods and walk this new city that I'm in and not know anything or anyone, and kind of just like take that moment in. But I also love just reflecting, journaling whenever I can, as well, and, of course, spending time with my family. I love baking. I'm a huge baker, and I like sketching, so things that are really just ways for me to feel like I'm just letting myself be more creative and kind of have no rules, and just kind of do what makes me happy, but I'm still looking for ways to keep myself sane. It's not always easy, but yeah, that's what I've been doing.

 

Leah 22:01

Amazing. Good for you. I love that that is a creative outlet for you, the baking and the sketching, you know, that's lovely. But I think actually, and I've talked about this before, being an entrepreneur is actually very creative. You know, you're really creative. It's the creative approach to the problem-solving, I think that really leads to really unique results.

 

Nuha 22:19

Yeah, a lot of entrepreneurs, you have to be creative just the way that you think and what you're doing. But yeah, for me, it's balancing that out with something else that just unlocks a different part of my brain sometimes. Which is important, I think.

 

Leah 22:35

Absolutely. Wonderful. Let's talk a little about your leadership style. I'm very curious about what that looks like for you. I would imagine being a younger entrepreneur that you have developed and gathered a multi-generational team. What's it like to lead that team?

 

Nuha 22:50

It's always been about bringing together the best of the best team, and knowing that you're not the smartest person in the room sometimes is always really important. Especially when I'm trying to recruit some of the most incredible people who come from different experiences and expertise, and bringing them on as a partner and bringing them on as a team member. We have an incredible setup for our team where everyone truly is collaborative. And you know, it doesn't matter what your background is and how many years of experience that you've had, when you come into a room and we're talking through, you know, a problem or something that we're working on for the project, everyone's opinions and thoughts are equal, and I think that that's always really key for us. But I continue to be very inspired by everyone on our team. And for me, it's just making sure that I can support everyone in their growth and their journey. Because for them, they're also joining a company at a very exciting time, but also not choosing a corporate job, right? And they're choosing to come work here and choosing to spend their career building out this company, and so it's really important for them to feel like they're part of that growth and journey. And that's just the way that I hope we continue to build the company too. 

 

Leah 24:13

Amazing. How did you learn to appreciate that diversity of thought? How did you learn to be receptive and open to all the ideas in the room and know that it's good for me not to be the smartest person in the room all the time? How did you get to that place?

 

Nuha 24:30

It was core to how we started the company as well, because we were trying to go up against the plastic industry, being students at the University of Toronto, and I think it was always just making sure we were humbling ourselves to know that we had a lot to learn, and if we wanted to actually solve this problem, we needed to put ourselves in a setting where people would talk to us and actually communicate some of their challenges. And I think that that approach and just that perspective we had was always core to how we built our products, too. When we couldn't figure out, you know, the right business model, instead of giving up on it, just because we were these Canadian students that were not plastic experts, we booked one-way tickets to Asia, and we literally lived in China, trying to work with plastic manufacturers to just have them tell us what's wrong and have them educate us on what's wrong so that we could build a solution that actually made sense. And I think that those are the key moments that inspired us early on, and I think it continues to be what we try to make sure the team is also incorporating in just the way we operate. 

 

Leah 25:46

Wow, so you just jumped on a plane and went to Asia and tried to figure out this problem. 

 

Nuha 25:51

Yes, when we couldn't figure it out here, we had to go where we would get answers. And I think that the curiosity of it all, but also just the drive of wanting to figure out the problem. And I think if we went in there with the, you know, persona of knowing everything or trying to challenge others in this space, or maybe make other plastic manufacturers feel bad for what they were doing, we would have never gotten the insights and the very valuable information that we did from them at the time. And so I think that that was really a core part of how we made the initial pivot to the company we're at today.

 

Leah 26:31

Incredible. I would imagine too, it bolsters some of your confidence in what you're doing as you are boots on the ground, learning what you need to learn, to make the decisions you need to make. 

 

Nuha 26:41

Yeah, exactly. I think we're now experts in this space because of those early, you know, early days of being on the ground and putting ourself in that position.

 

Leah 26:53

Absolutely. Talk to me a little bit about how you think of some of the great, big, massive players that are in this space that I'm sure are watching what you're doing, or might someday be watching what you're doing. How do you think about some of those big players watching and looking and lurking over your shoulder?

 

Nuha 27:13

I say, Let's chat. I think that Erthos Studio and the pivot we made was essentially our call to action for the entire industry. We no longer see anyone as a competitor. We see everybody as a potential partner in this solution that we're building. And it's been incredible to see some of that response, because previously, some of the companies that we would have never ever tried to talk to or communicate with, are now becoming really great strategic partners for us to help accelerate this. So, I think now is the time where we can really bring together a lot of key players to make the moves that we want to make. And I'm excited about it. I'm excited to see these big companies now paying attention to Erthos.

 

Leah 28:04

That's so exciting. It's a little bit scary. I mean, I'm just, I'm like, I'm just trying to get my head around that, like I would be maybe a little bit scared of these big companies coming in and having a look. But are you scared?

 

Nuha 28:18

No, I'm not. Maybe I should be? You’re making me think about this now.

 

Leah 28:23

Oh no, no, no, carry on as you were.

 

Leah 28:27

No, I'm really not scared. I think that it's so exciting. And again, if you asked me this question maybe a couple of years ago, I would have said yes, but I do feel like we've brought the company to a place where we can have these conversations, and we can genuinely add value to companies in a whole new way. So, I'm not scared, but maybe ask me again next year and I'll change my answer. 

 

Nuha 28:53

I really hope I didn't influence you that way. I think, I admire your courage and your audacity. I think it's incredible. I love it. Let's talk a little bit about what you truly love about being an entrepreneur. You touched on it a little bit, but I have a feeling that you really like the problem-solving. But I'm sure there's many things. Let's talk about it. What do you really love about being a Founder and an entrepreneur?

 

Nuha 29:13

I love that I am inspired every day by the people around me and the problem that we're solving for. I love that it's hard. I love that it's challenging me in a whole new way. And I think just knowing how much I've learned from this journey is really incredible. And I couldn't have imagined, you know, having that same experience or impact, and I feel very grateful and privileged to be in this position. I love when we can change someone's mind for the better. That is the most satisfying feeling is when you know that the work that you're doing has genuinely changed someone's mindset on sustainability, the future and our planet, and knowing that we can have even that small impact or influence in some of these legacy companies and these legacy leaders and executives is probably the best feeling in the world. And yeah, just seeing my team grow and the company make the impact that it is so gratifying for me.

 

Leah 30:27

No kidding, that's amazing. So, let's talk a little bit more about that impact that you want to make. When you think of Erthos, when you think of the planet, and you think of what you're wanting to do, how do you think of creating impact?

 

Nuha 30:42

For us, it's so closely tied to the impact that we make on a planetary level. So, of course, our business and growth in our business just ties directly to that. Ultimately, we want to change the trajectory of the plastic crisis. We know that we're not there, and if we continue to be on the path that we're on, we have no future like there is, it's truly do or die in that situation, right? And so I think, for me, impact is being able to actually be a reason why a large brand is completely shifting away from plastic and using a more sustainable product. And for everyone, whether it's you or me or our team or anyone, to actually go into a market or to any of the everyday locations that they go and to see a material that genuinely is better for the planet, and for that to be because of us, and I think that that's the impact that we want to make, is normalizing it and creating a future where sustainability is the norm and not just an exception.

 

Leah 31:52

I love it. Do you have any thoughts around impact when it comes to women in STEM and women in entrepreneurship at all?

 

Nuha 31:58

We have so much work to do when it comes to that, and that's what I hope. You know, personally, those are things that really motivate me, and I hope that that will be a part of what inspires another young woman, or, you know, just inspires women in STEM and women in entrepreneurship to continue to build big businesses and big impact solutions, because the world needs it, and I think that we don't often see women leading that, and we have a lot of work to do there, but I hope that we'll be in a better place, you know, a few years from now. We're almost there, but yeah.

 

Leah 32:40

Well, you are definitely part of the inspiration, that's for sure. All right, as we start to wrap up this conversation, I always like to end on a couple of similar questions. You are the Founder of Erthos, and you're writing the story for your company. How do you hope it goes?

 

Nuha 32:54

I think it comes back to the impact. So, the impact for us, and we want to be the reason why everyday plastics are reimagined to truly inspire systemic change, long-lasting change, and we hope that Erthos is at the forefront of that, and leading the way, and inspiring brands and manufacturers and everyday consumers to really see that as a solution for the long run. 

 

Leah 33:23

Amazing, and then, if you think of yourself as a Founder, as an entrepreneur, how do you hope your own story goes?

 

Nuha 33:31

That one's harder to answer. You know, it's a work in progress. Right now, I think for me, being able to be tied to the impact of my company, but also just the impact of the world that I'm in, which is climate tech and entrepreneurship, but also making sure that at the end of the day, I'm just a good human and I can maintain my community, my relationships, which are so important to me, and continue to serve my planet and my community in a way that's truly meaningful. So, regardless of Erthos that is my purpose in life, and will continue to be my purpose in life.

 

Leah 34:16

Wonderful. Nuha, thank you for this conversation.

 

Leah 34:20

Thank you. Thanks. Leah.

 

Leah 34:31

As the lead investor in Thin Air Labs Fund One, Sandstone Asset Management believes in building the commons through innovative Founders who are creating meaningful positive impact, both locally and globally. Sandstone is doing just that by backing the next generation of emerging entrepreneurs. Picture this, a Founder's startup goes from idea to international impact supported by strategic investors who believed in their vision. That's the power of Sandstone's approach. Sandstone doesn't just manage wealth, they cultivate it, supporting Founders at all stages. Visit sandstoneam.com to learn how sandstone builds legacies that last. 

Leah 35:14

The Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund finds, fuels, and fosters opportunities in sectors like aerospace, agribusiness and tech, creating a resilient and diverse economy, attracting world class talent, and solidifying Calgary as a launch pad for innovators. Discover more at www.opportunitycalgary.com  

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In this episode of The Founder Mindset

Leah Sarich sits down with Nuha Siddiqui, the visionary Co-Founder and CEO of Erthos, a climate technology company redefining the building blocks of plastics. Nuha delves into her unexpected journey into entrepreneurship, the pivotal role of Enactus in shaping her path, and the relentless drive to solve the global plastic crisis. With candid insights, she shares the highs and lows of raising millions in funding, the challenges of being a young woman in STEM, and the importance of resilience and purpose in her mission.

Nuha discusses Erthos' groundbreaking work in creating bio-based alternatives to plastics, collaborating with global brands, and the significance of scalability in combating the plastic crisis. She emphasizes the value of being receptive to diverse ideas and not always being the smartest person in the room. This episode also explores Nuha’s thoughts on the impact of women in STEM and entrepreneurship, as well as her vision for a sustainable future where Erthos leads the way in systemic change.

About Nuha Siddiqui

Nuha Siddiqui is a visionary entrepreneur and the Co-Founder of Erthos, a pioneering company revolutionizing the plastic industry with sustainable material solutions. With a strong background in entrepreneurship and an unwavering passion for sustainability, Nuha has led her team to create a significant impact by collaborating with diverse experts and partners. Her innovative leadership style, which emphasizes humility, creativity, and team growth, has positioned Erthos at the forefront of systemic change in sustainability. Nuha’s dedication to solving global challenges and her ability to inspire and support her team makes her a trailblazer in the field, driving the future of sustainable innovation.

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In this episode of The Founder Mindset, Leah Sarich sits down with Nuha Siddiqui, the visionary Co-Founder and CEO of Erthos, a climate technology company redefining the building blocks of plastics. Nuha delves into her unexpected journey into entrepreneurship, the pivotal role of Enactus in shaping her path, and the relentless drive to solve the global plastic crisis. With candid insights, she shares the highs and lows of raising millions in funding, the challenges of being a young woman in STEM, and the importance of resilience and purpose in her mission. Nuha discusses Erthos' groundbreaking work in creating bio-based alternatives to plastics, collaborating with global brands, and the significance of scalability in combating the plastic crisis. She emphasizes the value of being receptive to diverse ideas and not always being the smartest person in the room.

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