CEO Today Magazine July 2018 Edition

www.ceotodaymagazine.com business shapers Ingmar Rentzhog is a Swedish entrepreneur who founded and serves as the CEO of We Don’t Have Time, a tech start-up aiming to become the world’s largest social media platform for the climate crisis. He also is a Climate Reality leader trained by US former Vice President Al Gore. Here Ingmar tells all about his company, its mission and accomplishments in its endeavour to raise awareness of and combat the ways in which we contribute to climate change before we run out of time. What inspired the foundation of We Don’t Have Time? How has it faired compared to your initial goals? The election of Donald Trump for US President was a climate wake-up call. He got me and many others to wake up and realise that our leaders won’t solve the climate challenge by themselves. We are the ones who need to do it, all together. My first step was to set up a small team of professionals that I knew well, and like myself were dedicated to the cause. Earlier this year, we raised US$1.2 million through the equity crowdfunding platform FundedByMe. It was a success and we got 200% oversubscribed where we attracted over 430 investors from more than 15 countries all over the world, a mix of both ordinary citizens and angel investors. Right now, we are concentrating our efforts on building our platform. So far, as a kind of “teaser”, we have launched three action tools, one for sending climate love and climate bombs to chosen world leaders’ tweets, one for making a short selfie- video with a personal climate resolution, and a tool for carbon compensating your emails. What motto does We Don’t Have Time live by? What is its long-term objective? Our name – We Don’t Have Time – is our motto. We also have a manifesto on our website that basically states that climate change is an on- going catastrophe and that we need to act now. We all need to step up and come together. The political and economic elites are clearly not taking climate change and the threat against our ecosystems seriously enough, or we wouldn’t be where we are today. We can’t trust that political leaders, government officials and financial stakeholders will do enough by themselves – the challenge is too great, the issue too important, the catastrophe too imminent. We believe that real change will only come if a movement of ordinary citizens from all over the world demands change. We must push them, ourselves, and our peers, to do much more, and faster. By building the world’s largest social media platform focused on climate change, you, me, my friends, your friends, our families, all and everyone – can be the change by the power of many. Ingmar Rentzhog Founder & CEO of WeDon’t Have Time 44 “Our name – We Don’t Have Time – is our motto. We also have a manifesto on our website that basically states that climate change is an on-going catastrophe and that we need to act now. We all need to step up and come together.”