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Tracking Planet Earth’s Environment with Wildnote

Tracking Planet Earth’s Environment with Wildnote

Spiffy the interplanetary journalist next to entrepreneur Kristen Hazard, CEO of Wildnote.

Hi all, Spiffy here with Kristen Hazard. She’s the CEO & Founder of Wildnote. She’s another one of Planet Earth’s leaders that I’ve met this pride month.

SPIFFY: Hi there Kristen, thank you for joining me today. Could you tell me about Wildnote?

Kristen: Thanks for coming all this way, Spiffy. At Wildnote, we protect natural resources by empowering professionals to effectively collect, manage, and report on environmental compliance.

SPIFFY: You’re bringing tech and the environment together, I like it! And what prompted you to start this journey?

Kristen: My love of nature and of technology motivated me to build Wildnote. I wanted to support the fine folx protecting our environment by providing them with a modern, intuitive, joyful app to collect, manage, and report on environmental data.

SPIFFY: How do you seek to make Planet Earth a more equitable place? 

Kristen: As a registered Benefit Corporation and having set the goal to be a certified B Corp, we want to be an example of a hugely successful company that is able to make a massive profit while also conducting ourselves for the benefit of all stakeholders including our employees, shareholders, customers, the environment, and our community. 

SPIFFY: What is a recent milestone in your journey to help people preserve the environment?

Kristen: Launching the Wetland 4.0 product line is a big milestone for our company. It is the product that supports wetland restoration monitoring, wetland determinations. Wetlands are hugely important to our shared ecosystems. They provide flood control, water filtering, and migratory bird habitat.

Also our citizen science program. We partner with citizen science and research projects to provide the platform for free so they can better collect, manage, and report on the important work they are doing.

SPIFFY: What was a failure you’ve overcome recently? 

Kristen: In 2019 Wildnote ran out of money. We laid-off employees and hunkered down for survival. It was a tense time, but in 2020 we brought home a $2M Seed Round that took the pressure off a bit.

SPIFFY: One last question for ya! What is something you’ve learned unexpectedly in this journey?

Kristen: I have learned so much as the Vice-Chair of the SLO Climate Coalition from our Chair, Eric Veium. Leading a volunteer organization requires consensus and buy-in. Brute force would never work and I have become a much better leader in my company through that experience.

It’s been a pleasure talking to you, Spiffy. Is there anything I can do for you before you head off?

SPIFFY: You too, Kristen! Thank you, but I’m all set, my ship is all packed up for my next trip.

My name is Kristen Hazard – maven, coder, yogi, leader of humans. I am a problem-solver who loves to build things. My passion and skills as a software developer inevitably lead me toward building solutions. At Wildnote, I am on a mission to create the best tools out there to continually bend the arc of environmental data management towards efficiency and effectiveness. (Nominated by Techstars)

Ladderworks is a publishing platform of diverse stories with the mission to inspire kids and youth around the world to become entrepreneurs with empathy. In partnership with Nasdaq, we've featured Spiffy's interviews of LGBT founders to help young readers observe Pride Month with a renewed commitment to building a more equitable world for all.

This interview was featured on the Nasdaq blog as well: Read it here!