Why do you want to start a company?

Before the business model, the investors, and the product: five questions about purpose, contribution, and building something meaningful.

It is the first question I ask every founder I meet. And the answer matters more than the business plan, the pitch deck, or the funding strategy.

Because profit alone is not a reason to build something. The best entrepreneurs I know (and the ones history remembers) are the ones who saw a problem no one else was solving, and decided they could not look away.

So before the business model, before the investors, before the product, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is there a real problem you want to solve?

Not a perceived one. A real, unmet need. A group of people underserved, overlooked, or left behind by existing solutions. That is where every meaningful company begins.

2. Is it aligned with our planet’s capacity to regenerate?

This is non-negotiable for me. A business that threatens ecosystems, endangers species, or harms indigenous communities is not a solution. It is a transfer of costs onto the planet and onto future generations. Businesses and investors have a critical role to play in addressing the climate and nature crisis. “The Nine Planetary Boundaries” are not a constraint on innovation. They are its highest standard.

3. Is your solution truly unique?

Not just differentiated on a slide. Genuinely defensible. Something you can become the world’s best at. Competition is healthy, but your unfair advantage has to be real.

4. Is the team committed — truly committed?

Not excited. Committed. There is a difference. Excitement fades. Commitment carries you through the months when nothing seems to work.

5. What is your contribution going to be?

Not your revenue projection. Your environmental and social contribution. To the people you serve, to the ecosystem you operate in, to the society that will be shaped, in part, by what you build.

The entrepreneurs who change things are not the ones chasing the biggest exit. They are the ones who cannot sleep because a problem exists and they believe they are the ones to solve it.

Sources

Office of Technology Development (OTD), “Startup Guide: An Entrepreneur’s Guide for Harvard University Faculty, Graduate Students, and Postdoctoral Fellows,” Harvard University.

Beatrice Crona et al., “Doing Business within Planetary Boundaries,” Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 2024.