Startup Brings “SusTech” to the World

Quantic Alum, Thiruvenkateswaran Ramachandran, is bringing “SusTech” to the world. He is the co-founder of ClimeUp, a Sustainability Technology company whose mission is to assist businesses in hastening their sustainability journey, as well as their reporting process. We were lucky enough to sit down with him and learn more about the innovations and inspirations behind this exciting technology that will have a positive impact on our planet, people, and economy.

What inspired you to launch ClimeUp?

After close to two decades of B2B and B2C technology and product development efforts, I was able to find my purpose in making a significant impact on the planet and people. In my recent work, I was heading a global digital product development team and integration of Sustainability Solutions for Smart Cities. This helped citizens to be energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and able to embrace sustainable behavior. The social impact that we created, by integrating a digital app and technology in their daily lives, was a real driver for me to change gears and solve sustainability challenges. I realized I could do this for a larger arena and the focus would be to integrate employees’ behavior in achieving sustainability for enterprises. That’s how ClimeUp was born.

At ClimeUp, we strongly believe in making a greater impact on the planet, people, and economy by leveraging the power of technology and by nurturing a sustainability mindset across organizations.

We are the industry first’s Sustainability technology (SusTech) company that enables corporates, advisory firms, and ESG investing firms with a one-stop ESG Software Platform to report, monitor, and measure ESG performance & Climate impact. We do this by leveraging advanced technologies such as IoT, AI, and behavioral science. Sustainability is a relatively young corporate function that needs a lot of handholding, processes, and digital tools to realize the company’s agenda.

How would you define SusTech?

We’ve coined “SusTech” as a term that signifies the conglomeration of broader agenda of “Sustainability” and “Technology.” Since we wanted to leverage technology as a primary catalyst to help accelerate the global sustainability mission, we are glad to share that we’ve introduced industry sector “SusTech” to the world. To our knowledge, we are the pioneer in adopting and marketing it in a big way to create awareness about this sector. When we first looked at this idea, it was a Blue Ocean strategy and now we see more entrants in this space, which is great for the sustainable world.

How did your background prepare you to launch ClimeUp? 

Hailing from a city in southern India and being brought up by a middle-class parent with great family values, becoming an entrepreneur has always been my ambition and I am glad that it happened now. I always like to master the basics before I jump into any journey. Some of my key strengths are being curious and passionate to make a difference in everything I do. It helps me to be focused. For this reason, I choose to pick opportunities to work and learn different functions in different industries. Having this holistic experience helped me gain the confidence to launch ClimeUp.

How did your Quantic education help with the launch process? 

Enrolling in the Quantic Executive MBA has been a life-changing experience for me. While I was pursuing my aspiration to launch my startup, I realized that I needed a systematic approach towards creating a company that would be relevant in today’s business world. Quantic helped me understand the technicalities of starting and running a business, while providing me with the flexibility to learn on the go. 

I’m also glad that I’ve found a Blue Ocean opportunity that soon will become an unicorn in the Sustainability space. Quantic came into my life at the right time and without a doubt, played a big role in my decision to launch the ClimeUp venture.

What would you say to others who are looking to take the entrepreneurial route and are just getting started? 

1) There is no rule of thumb to start your own business because there are so many variables. It must come as a result of a constant search for a purpose.

2) Try to gain practical experience in the majority of the corporate functions (including hiring and marketing,etc..). This is important because when you launch, you may be limited by resources and the only way to survive is knowing what and how to do it by yourself. For those who didn’t get the opportunity, take a formal MBA to lay the foundations of all the corporate functions. 

3) Finally, You should learn to enjoy dealing with uncertainties and managing challenges on a daily basis. The entrepreneurial journey would be enjoyable when you are very much focused and passionate about solving customer problems, that’s the time you seriously need to think about launching your venture. I am enjoying it so far and learning all along the way. If I put it simply, entrepreneurship is a state of mind and the outcome of multiple tiny skill developments.

What would you say to the global community to help make sustainability a main goal? 

We must make conscious efforts to embrace sustainability habits in everyday routines. Individuals can start traveling twice a week in public transportation, instead of a long, lonely drive in your car, in order to help reduce the environmental impact. For companies, understanding the baseline impact of ESG will help set your goals to become a better risk-friendly company in the years to come. The smart decisions to adopt alternative energy and make environment-friendly decisions will drive significant behavioral change in every employee’s lifestyle and make sustainability a number one priority for all of us.