CCB Magazine

35 billion plastic bottles end up in the oceans or in landfills around the world every year. The soulbottles from Berlin-Lichtenberg want to change that: The 13-strong team produces hip and robust glass bottles with individual designs. Eco meets lifestyle, so to speak. How do you build such a company? We talked to Paul Kupfer from soulbottles about the company concept and a plastic-free future. 

Interview Jens Thomas

CCB Magazine: Hello Paul, soulbottles are 100 percent plastic-free drinking bottles made of glass with many different motifs. Why do you need such a thing?

Paul:Quite simply: because that is good! And we want to help as many people as possible to live sustainably and avoid plastic. In concrete terms this means: using tap water instead of bottled mineral water and plastic-free and fairly produced soulbottles instead of PET garbage and disposable bottles. Drinking tap water is much more ecological, because: no transport, no unnecessary plastic and above all healthier, because: no softeners, germs and such nonsense. We are convinced that a sustainable lifestyle is easier if things that are produced sustainably and fairly can be easily integrated into everyday life.

We are convinced that a sustainable lifestyle is easier if sustainable things can be easily integrated into everyday life

CCB Magazine:35 billion plastic bottles end up in oceans and landfills each year and only one in ten plastic bottles is recycled worldwide. Is there any way to get a handle on this?

Paul:I hope so. And that is why a rethink is necessary. Plastic is extracted from crude oil in a highly complex process and the CO2 balance is miserable. In addition, BPA, bisphenol A, is a synthetic hard or plasticizer that is contained in plastics. Plastic bottles are suspected of releasing these toxins into the water. They can thus enter the human organism unnoticed. BPAfree is not enough - many drinking bottle manufacturers produce BPAfree, this is not controlled, nor is there any information about substitutes. Meanwhile, various substitutes are suspected to be even more harmful than BPA. Reason enough to switch to natural materials and avoid plastic. With the soulbottles we are just in time.

All pretty cool bottles: The soulbottles from Berlin. Photo: © Soulbottles

CCB Magazine:You have successfully financed the production of protective covers, ceramic drinking cups and a new 1.0 liter soulbottle through crowdfunding. You have raised almost 52,000 Euros on Startnext, which is a lot. Was the campaign so good or is your product so promising?

Paul:In recent years, our customers have repeatedly expressed the wish to have a particularly large soulbottle with a capacity of 1.0 liter. The interest was therefore already great in the run-up to the campaign. Nevertheless, we had to give a lot to reach our target amount: in the end, we had over 770 supporters* who supported us and invested in the products. The three new soul products are completely in line with our company philosophy: they are 100 percent plastic-free, fair and climate-neutral. Except for the soulsleeve, all our products are also made in Germany and the cork of the soulsleeve comes from sustainable cultivation in Portugal. Additionally we support drinking water projects worldwide with one Euro per sold soul product to help people with difficult access to clean drinking water and sanitary facilities.

CCB Magazine:How do you successfully implement a crowdfunding campaign? What does it depend on?

Paul:Communication before and during the campaign is absolutely crucial. The heart of the campaign is the video. We put a lot of heart and soul into this. If the video is not convincing, the product may be great, but the chances are slim. And don't forget: use the network and press contacts in the run-up to and during crowdfunding.

CCB Magazine:Where do you use the money how?

Paul:We use the money from crowdfunding to first pay for the tooling and production costs of the first production series. The soulbottle 1.0 liter with a total of 30.000 Euro costs of the first series is the most significant. However, since we have reached the funding target of 50,000 Euro, we can realize all three new soul products.

CCB Magazine:You were successful with soulbottles as a company even before crowdfunding. Was crowdfunding just a kind of additional financing for you or was it a real financial help for your business model?

Paul:Crowdfunding has allowed us to make sure that we only order products that will be popular later on, so we don't fill shelves pointlessly and put unnecessary effort and time into our ideas. But we are still a rather small social enterprise and that means that a high production sum also involves a great deal of risk. We have already had good experience with crowdfunding. For example, our current soulbottles design on startnext was also financed by crowdfunding.

CCB Magazine:Regardless of crowdfunding: How do you build a company like soulbottles? What does it depend on?

Paul:The most important thing from our point of view is definitely the lean startup principle: start small and iterate - we have to find a way to get feedback for an idea as quickly as possible. In addition, we have always asked ourselves whether what we are doing is really what we want to do - and whether the idea behind it really matches our vision. To start a start-up just because it's kind of cool, at some point you run out of energy. You'll only have a long breath if the company vision is compatible with your life vision. In the beginning, this helped us a lot to ask the big questions: Is this the contribution I want to make to society? Do I see a perspective in the project so that I learn what I want to learn? Does it give me the impact I want to have and can I live my life the way I want to? Whoever asks these questions can go far. 

You only have staying power if your company vision is in line with your life vision.

CCB Magazine:Where do you want to go with soulbottles? What are your goals? Where will you be in ten years?

Paul:For the first time, we now have a major milestone in the course of introducing three new products. After three years of soulbottles 0.6 liters, our product range is growing considerably and we are also expanding thematically with the soulcup. In the medium and long term we want to position ourselves more strongly on the international market and distribute further plastic-free soul products according to soulbottle's philosophy. That is a long way. But we are going it.

CCB Magazine:Paul, good luck with it.