Emil Wasteson Wallén

Meet Emil

Impact has always been important to Emil – something that his acts of using the profit he made when selling his student apartment to build a school in Malawi, and donating one of his kidneys to a stranger. But for a long time, he felt lost in how to channel his will to contribute to a better world. In 2018, he came across EA through a pitching competition where he proposed the idea of giving incentives for corporations to donate a part of their profits to charity. Emil didn't pursue the idea, but the introduction to EA provided the community and frameworks Emil had looked for.

EA has been an important influence in Emil’s career

Emil started his career in the corporate sector, but rapidly switched into entrepreneurship when he got the opportunity to join as a co-founder at a startup tackling food waste. He loved the entrepreneurial life but, due to the challenge of finding a viable business model, they decided to shut down the company. 

At this point in time, Emil had come across EA and had a career coaching session with the then Secretary General of EA Sweden, Gabriella Overödder. He considered going back to the corporate world to build career capital, or set out on another entrepreneurial journey together with an acquaintance, Tom, who was excited about starting a plant-based seafood company. Realizing the neglectedness of the welfare of marine animals, and the scope of the problem – and reflecting on how much he had learnt during his previous startup venture, he decided to co-found Hooked Foods Tom. Two years later, they had one fully vegan substitute for salmon and one for tuna on the market, being one of the first companies in Europe to offer plant-based seafood.

In late 2022, Emil decided to leave the company and join EA Sweden as Executive Director, with the goal of using his startup experience to continue his predecessors’ work to professionalize the organization, and to support other people to use their careers to do more good. 

Emil’s tips on how to apply EA in entrepreneurship and a for-profit environment

1. Find a business model where more business success (e.g. increased revenue or profit) goes hand in hand with increased impact as much as possible. For Hooked, more products sold meant both increased revenue and increased impact (assuming that the people who bought the product would have bought an animal product otherwise). 
2. Know your priorities. Sometimes you need to make a trade-off between impact and financial success. At Hooked, setting a higher price on the products meant higher profit, but also a risk that free people would replace regular seafood with Hooked’s plant-based alternatives. Hooked’s priorities were partly defined by setting the main KPI to “Saved fish lives”, and see money as an (important) means to scale up their impact. 
3. If you can, start your company together with a co-founder. It can be extremely challenging starting a company, and having someone to share both success and challenges with was crucial to Emil. 
4. Choose your co-founder wisely, as you will likely spend more time with your co-founder than any other person. Make sure you align well in values and working style, and preferably have skills and perspectives that complement each other.