Thank you so much for joining us, Steffen. Do you think you could provide some information about your organisation and its goals?
Absolutely. Our organisation, Eeden, is dedicated to developing and scaling technology for recycling textiles, addressing a significant but often overlooked issue. We have created a chemical recycling process to effectively separate and recover the two dominant fibre types in the market: cotton and polyester, which are frequently found in combination. This separation and recovery process is essential for efficient recycling without substantial material loss in these products.
How did you encounter this problem, and what compelled you to solve it?
Well, it was actually my co-founder, Rainer, who attended a textile university and serves as our CTO. He asked himself what the most sustainable textile or t-shirt should look like and how to achieve it. It became evident that utilising recycled materials, particularly from waste, was a crucial component of the solution.
As he went deeper into the subject, he discovered that less than 1% of old clothing was being recycled back into new garments. He observed that emerging technologies in the market were still in their infancy, and many companies focused on recovering only one type of material from mixed products.
He believed that this approach was inadequate and decided to conduct research to find a superior solution. This marked the beginning of our journey. Interestingly, Rainer and I have been friends since our first-grade days. At a certain point, he invited me to explore the market side of things and assess whether a technology like ours had the potential to make a significant impact on the industry.
Can you provide more details about the solution you're developing?
Our solution combines various technologies. To create this product, several steps are involved. For instance, when dealing with a product like this, you must shred it and separate components such as buttons and zippers. Fortunately, established technology already exists for these processes, so we didn't have to develop them from scratch. The primary focus of our development was on three specific steps in our modular technology.
First, we needed to separate the polyester in a way that allows for reuse. With our initial product, chemical companies can either produce new fibre or use it as a base chemical for entirely different products. This circular product has applications in various industries, not just textiles, although our ultimate goal is to close the loop in the textile industry.
We also had to decolorize the cotton material to obtain a white product. Finally, we adjusted a few parameters to make it a drop-in solution for the existing textile industry. From the cotton, we recover cellulose, which is the main component and the most common biopolymer on Earth. This purified cellulose can be re-spun into fibres with proportions comparable to cotton fibres using existing spinning technologies.
What have been the biggest challenges you encountered in developing this project?
There are many challenges and stories to tell— primarily technical ones. Initially, we focused solely on cellulose, but as we progressed, we realised that many products incorporate combinations of materials like polyester and cotton. This led us to ponder what a suitable solution for these combinations might look like and whether it would work without compromising the quality of the final product.
We encountered a series of technical hurdles along the way. The first challenge was ensuring that our approach was effective— then we had to figure out ways to make the process more efficient and cost-effective. Additionally, there's the task of transitioning from a linear industry to a closed-loop system. Currently, the industry operates from raw material production to the creation of products like t-shirts or jeans, which are eventually discarded as waste.
Our goal is to find a point within this value chain where we can intervene and collaborate with industry players to solve their problems, collect and recycle materials, and reintroduce them into the industry seamlessly. Engaging the right partners at the right time is a significant challenge.
Lastly, there's the issue of fundraising, assembling the right team, and creating the ideal company environment. Despite these challenges, the journey is incredibly rewarding.
What is the primary goal of your company?
What we are trying to achieve with the company in a nutshell is to transform the textile industry from its current linear model to a more circular economy. Right now, only 1% of our clothing is recycled back into clothing, which we find simply disgraceful.
1% is an astonishingly low percentage. What exactly led you to create your business?
It was mainly my co-founder who inspired the creation of our business. Among other things, he was once a javelin-thrower, and I believe this is a strong contributor to the dedication he has brought to his work with Eeden. He has always been dedicated and motivated, working extremely hard toward his goals and doing everything possible in his power to make it work. However, after having had issues with his elbow, he sought a new topic to dedicate his energy to during his studies.
He began with biology, then shifted to textile technology after having had a pivotal moment through looking at where the industry was moving. He recognised the textile industry's shift towards sustainability and circularity. With his background in biology and chemistry, he explored chemical textile and recycling technologies, identifying a gap in the market for processing blended fibre textiles.
Most technologies at the time focused on separating either cotton or polyester from mixed fibres. He said, "We need technologies that are able to separate and recover both of these dominant fibre types, because then we have a yield that can go into a more sustainable, more economically viable technology."
This is how he started the development of our R&D to get a proof of concept, and then patenting of our technology. We completed a seed financing round in 2022 and are now into technical scaling, shortly before kicking off our Series-A financing to build a demonstrator plant capable of producing several hundred to a few thousand tonnes of product output a year.
What part of your work is most fulfilling for you?
I'm very much a generalist. What I love about what I do is the challenge of having to manage everything at once and the energy you need for that. The dynamic involves interacting with investors, the textile industry, suppliers, managing my team, managing research and development, managing your focus and handling topics that come up in your team, who you've worked together with for years and years.
At the same time it's about going in the right direction, making sure not to lose too much time and making sure you have spent the money wisely when managing projects. Putting all of that together, I think that is what I love about it.
It's an overall challenge that I really enjoy. In all my previous jobs after one or two years, it became in some sense, repetitive. The learning curve was not that steep anymore. And I haven't discovered that in the last four and a half years with this company. It's just a more and more intense and more and more steep learning curve over the years. And that's what I love about it.
What are your personal roots?
I was born and raised in the 90s, in the heart of Germany, between Dusseldorf and Cologne— two of the larger cities in western Germany. I went to school with my co-founder, and after school, I had a sales role in real estate and then went to university in Hamburg.
Before this, I did an exchange in British Columbia, Canada, for high school. That for me was a very important part of my development because it brought me from being a very shy, introverted, young guy into someone interested in meeting interesting people. It expanded my view in many ways. When I got home, I wanted to explore a little bit more than the town I grew up in, leading me to move to Hamburg. Hamburg is Germany's second-largest city and, in my opinion, the most beautiful.
At Hamburg I studied business economics, gaining experience in market research, project management, and leading event management teams. Later, I worked at Airbus in change management and strategy, planning to move into consulting in that field. However, my journey took a turn when my co-founder, nearing the end of his university studies, told me that he’d ended his studies and was doing research on chemical textile recycling. He asked me if I wanted to join him on the business side to see if there was a market opportunity, and I said yes.
Who are you speaking to directly with the company's work?
With a circular economy company, we've found that you have your direct touchpoints with suppliers and your touchpoints to the downstream value chain partners. In our case, we work with the chemical industry for the polyester component and fibre producers for the cellulose, akin to the cotton part. But also you have to talk to the fashion brands and textile companies, who make the decisions about the materials, the proportions, and the types of products they want to introduce to the market. The way it works today, a brand goes to their supplier, like a fabric producer or someone does the final assembly of a textile, and tells them we want to produce a t-shirt with this or that property and performance. Then, this request goes down the value chain through their suppliers and so on.
We talk to those three main touchpoints, the direct suppliers, direct downstream value chain partners, and brands along with other technology companies.
What are some of the significant sacrifices you've made on this journey to build your business?
First and foremost, in Germany, it's relatively easy to fund a company. The initial challenge is simply starting. The most significant sacrifice is the time and effort invested. It's not a typical nine-to-five job; you work on weekends and nights to ensure your company has an impact. This sometimes affects your personal life and work-life balance.
However, I don't consider it a substantial sacrifice because I enjoy what I do so much. It's inspiring and fun. Still, when I talk to friends who remark that they haven't seen me in a long time, it's a reminder that I should make more time for personal connections. Looking back, there were moments when I thought staying up all night to prepare for an important appointment was crucial, but with time, I've realised that some of those things may not have been as critical as they seemed. It's about reflection, determining the next important steps, and finding a balance that maintains your well-being.
The double-edged sword of having such a great purpose is that you're driven by it, sometimes to the point of tunnel vision. How do you find that balance?
The most challenging aspect is the fluctuation. There are phases when you think it's worth putting in extra hours, and then there are times when you need to pull back. Each phase of the company is different, requiring different coping strategies. Sometimes it means avoiding weekend work entirely, and at other times, working through weekends is necessary.
However, it's essential to establish a defined start and end time for work and make time for activities like sports and socialising. For me, it's about constantly reflecting on where I currently stand and what rules and structures I can implement to maintain a better balance.
Regarding mentorship, what role has it played in your journey as an entrepreneur in building your business?
I consider mentorship important, but initially, it's challenging to find the right mentors and evaluate who can genuinely guide your journey. Especially in the early stages, numerous consultants and mentors approach you, claiming they have the exclusive answer to your business strategy. This is when my scepticism kicks in. I'm wary of people who offer one-size-fits-all advice. I'm cautious because I don't appreciate generic guidance.
In the beginning, it's easy to think that these experienced individuals know exactly what's best, and if they insist there's only one way to do things, you might feel compelled to follow their advice. However, I've learned that this isn't always the case. There are often multiple, and potentially better, approaches to a problem.
I've realised that not every piece of advice from experienced individuals is necessarily the best advice. Nonetheless, having a network of experienced people, a few steps ahead in their entrepreneurial journey, is always valuable. I tend to seek out inspiring entrepreneurs who have faced similar challenges and successes. Learning from their experiences, both their mistakes and accomplishments, allows me to gain valuable insights.
When was it that you decided to do something differently or take a new direction in your life and/or career?
I would say there were two moments. One was a decision when I was quite young: at thirteen, I approached my mother to say I wanted to go to a high school abroad in the U.S. or Canada. Going to Canada was driven by the fact that none of the organisations in the US were willing to take someone that young because usually, you do it when you're in your later teens— sixteen to eighteen. At least it was like that in '08 when I went. So, it turned out to be Canada, and it was a perfect match with British Columbia. The family I got into was a very caring, very nice, loving family with a brother, a younger brother who was about the age of my younger brother. It was a good family setup for me, and we are still in contact today, visiting each other occasionally.
So this exchange to Canada was definitely a very important part of my life. The other most important part of my life must be when my co-founder approached me. I’d felt a bit lost before that, not knowing exactly where I wanted to go in terms of my career. I knew I was a dedicated person that loved to work intensively, but I didn't know it was going to be this project or founding a company itself. Being pulled into that was another pivotal moment of my life that I wouldn’t want to miss today.
What life experience gave you the perspective and confidence to know that you can come up with something different or better than what was currently out there?
I would ask myself whether I was always confident, to start with. But I am driven by the narrative that everything is possible if you ask the right questions. For example, what do I need to achieve my goal? Know-how, network, resources. And how do I need to manage that in order to achieve that goal, and that is what is driving me and always challenging myself. What do I need to get ready? Where do I need to progress? What is missing in my overall setup, and how can I involve that to succeed?
So I'm not driven by the perspective I'm perfect or the person to execute something in that regard. Instead, it's about asking, "What do I need? Who can challenge me? Who can offer new insights or highlight something I haven't considered?" It's about filling up that overall puzzle that you need in order to succeed. And that's kind of like the way I look at it.
What do you think have been some of your greatest “Aha!” moments, or personal epiphanies of some kind?
Some of the very important proof-of-concept trials were great. It was incredible to get back the results when our processes worked— and not only worked, but worked really well. Another “wow!” moment was when we closed the first financing round and really got into the business of venture capital investors, investment managers, and how they look at cases. At the time, I was listening to a podcast I really enjoyed that really got me learning in many ways in terms of entrepreneurial thinking. These were big positives for me, that brought me a huge step towards being more in a good position to push the company forward.
How do you want your close friends and family to look back on you and your journey? And what would you like other people to take from your journey?
I think all that matters is that they don’t feel like they’re falling off the end of my priorities because I’m working too much. I try to learn from the big mistakes that many people have made and regretted. People who are very dedicated to their careers and jobs sometimes say at the end of their lives that they wished they had spent more time with family and friends. That’s the only regret I think I could have. I try to manage it sensibly: choosing the people I spend my time with carefully, then dedicating enough time to that so I don't regret not managing that overall balance well enough at the end. I would say if my family and friends think I prioritise them well, that would make me really happy.
Has there been a specific piece of advice that has significantly advanced your journey and growth which you'd like to share with us?
When we were pitching to investors for the first time, there was a gentleman from an established company with a spin-off startup within their organisation. After our pitch, he took us aside and said, "Guys, we need to talk. If you present it like this, it's okay, but you won't capture people's excitement. You need to approach it differently and begin with this information instead." He helped us understand how to deliver a compelling pitch.
The guidance was crucial because discussing business and technology is one thing, but presenting to investors requires addressing a different persona and telling a different story in a specific order. We had to grow into that, and it was vital. If we hadn't heeded his advice, finding an investor and financing our journey would have been challenging. It's important to consider these aspects as well.
What lessons have you learned from your business failures?
It's always been about getting back up. When I face a setback, it can feel terrible at the end of the day, and I might wonder how I'll solve it and whether I can even sleep. But over time, I've realised that it's a consistent pattern. I may struggle at night, but when I wake up again, I have a clearer vision and a more positive outlook. This aspect of my personality has made it easier for me to deal with difficult nights.
Now, when I feel down, I simply go to bed and tell myself that I'll think about it again tomorrow, and I'll have a clearer perspective. It's important to identify what situations align with your strengths and clarity. Establishing a personal rhythm for tackling challenges can be immensely helpful. For me, the change from nighttime to early morning has been significant. I treat each setback as an opportunity to reflect and figure things out because, so far, I haven't encountered any insurmountable red flags— just challenges that can be overcome.
What were the biggest challenges you faced or mistakes you made when you started out in your journey? And what did they teach you?
Looking back on founding the company, I'd say one of our biggest mistakes was not talking to potential customers early enough. Looking back, this was a risk. We were moving in the right direction and had the right hypothesis. However, I've come to understand which is quite common among German founders compared to those in the US, where you've got to repeatedly talk to your customers first. Many companies I hear fail because they believe they're not ready to expose themselves to customers; they think they need to develop something first. For us, fortunately, our direction turned out to be correct, but it was still a risk. Today, I would have started that talking process earlier.
Same with investors, we had some early offers in the early days from business angels. At that moment, we were in an R&D phase where we didn't know for sure where to spend the money. But now we have progressed and we know how the money would be useful. But then the angel is probably thinking, “Well, you didn't take it early on.” So taking on investors earlier and approaching more people that could add value in terms of know-how and guidance, etc, especially entrepreneurial background people was something that I would have been doing differently if I started again today.
There wasn't one big huge mistake we made; rather, it was more about the directions we explored that ended up costing us time, but it was not that big of a mistake.
Are there any big or important books, movies, speeches, people, or in your case, podcasts that inspired you the most in your journey?
I’m a big fan of the podcast OMR, or Online Marketing Rockstars, though I should say that its name is kind of misleading. The guy who started it was in online marketing, but it grew bigger and bigger, and now it encompasses quite a lot of topics. Though it’s mostly in German, he has international founders and guests from the US, and there's even a huge convention once a year in Germany. I’m also inspired by a lot of books: Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss, Total Competition by Ross Brown, and The Scrum Fieldbook, by J.J. Sutherland. Finally, I like Formula One, though I’m admittedly not much of a car guy; I just like the management and engineering aspects of it, and the focus they have on R&D. A book in this area is called Total Competition: Lessons in Strategy from Formula One, by Ross Brawn, a big manager. That’s something I really enjoyed reading.
Since the inception of your organisation, how has your mission evolved, and what factors contributed to this evolution?
In the beginning, we saw the huge potential in using recycled products and creating a compelling narrative around them to educate consumers about sustainable choices. We initially believed that launching our own fashion brand and managing recycling and everything in between would be essential. However, we soon realised that it might not be feasible and that collaboration with others would be necessary. This was our first step.
We then expanded our vision to include spinning the fibre. Eventually, we refined our focus, deciding that recycling was the core area where we needed to innovate. From there, our focus shifted from just cotton to cotton and polyester blends, and so on. Our journey involved continually evolving our company's focus, determining what we wanted to do, what we didn't, and when collaboration was needed versus going solo.
What future are you hoping to create with your organisation?
We want to establish an honest and transparent relationship between consumers and sustainability. In a market saturated with sustainability marketing, we believe in the importance of conveying the true story. Rather than encouraging indiscriminate consumption with vague claims of sustainability, we advocate for a more informed and responsible approach. Our goal is to help individuals who genuinely wish to make a positive impact through their consumption habits but are often overwhelmed by the abundance of information in various product categories.
To put this vision into action, we focus on two key aspects. First, we seek out like-minded partners, and brands that share our values and are committed to the same narrative. This partnership is crucial to our mission. Second, we emphasise the importance of educating consumers. We stress that recycling is just one component of sustainability; it contributes to making the industry more sustainable but is not the ultimate solution. By communicating this message, we've observed positive reactions from people who appreciate honesty and want to understand how they can change their consumption habits truthfully. This approach, combined with strategic partnerships, is our way of making a difference.
If there was a piece of advice you could give to entrepreneurs looking to start their careers, building organisations, or someone looking to change their career, what advice would you give them?
I would say it is the idea of just getting started. I see so many people that have great ideas and energy and want to do something, but then they think it’s going to be hard, and they just focus on all the challenges and don't even start, even though they have the energy and have good ideas. So starting is extremely important, and then I think the most important thing is to always get up again, because there are going to be so many setbacks and challenges where you’ll wonder if something is possible, or if you can succeed, or if your team can succeed. You just have to keep on going and solve all the challenges bit by bit: one step at a time.
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