What’s your story, Ming Zhao?
The stories behind climate tech founders
This year, we’re sharing a series of posts profiling founders of Climate Connection’s tech community, asking them to share their journeys, inspirations, and insights into how they got to where they are today.
Today, meet Mingqiao Zhao, the Co-Founder of Cauli, a homegrown climate tech startup born in London in 2022 that has quickly become the UK’s largest reuse system for food service. Restaurants, ghost kitchens, cafes, and more use Cauli to provide customers with reusable packaging that they can send back after use, thanks to the Cauli app and full traceability.
Here’s Ming’s story.
How did your career begin?
My career began at a boutique economic consultancy in London that specialised in the Middle East. I majored in International Relations and Arabic at university and used my Mandarin and Arabic skills to work on client projects. It also enabled me to travel extensively in the GCC region, where I experienced first-hand how rapid economic growth led to a huge waste problem, exactly what I saw as I grew up in China.
How did you convince partners that reusables are only better than single-use if they're actually returned?
We always presented academic research results and empirical data from Life Cycle Assessments to partners. Some understood it intuitively. Others would go down the trial-and-error route before coming back to us – and this has been happening constantly!
It's almost like human nature. People learn through their mistakes and not by being told by others… For us, we just need to focus on one thing: convincing one partner at a time.
What have been the toughest challenges along the way?
Looking back, whatever felt like a tough challenge no longer seems so tough – maybe because we have overcome them to reach this point. Currently, the tough challenge (and the fun part of being a founder) is attracting, retaining, and enabling talent. Building a great team and team culture has always been my passion, and there's no end to this learning process.
Have you ever felt like giving up?
I had doubts, but they were more specific to aspects of the business, such as a product feature or an HR decision. But I never felt like giving up. In fact, I knew that when things were going well, all startups/scaleups probably felt the same way, with the buzz and thrill of growth. But when times are tough, the mission keeps us going. If I were working on a random tech startup that existed only to make money or achieve a huge exit, I would have given up many times when encountering certain challenges.
What has kept you going?
A resilient and problem-solving mindset. My parents are both entrepreneurs, and they inspire me to take on challenges and enjoy this journey
What advice would you give to anyone else looking to build a climate tech startup today?
The way tech startups are run has been fundamentally changed by AI, and this change is accelerating. The climate crisis cannot be solved with software alone. It's time for deep tech and hardware to shine.
Can you tell us a story about how this community or an unexpected connection helped propel you to where you are now?
It was my first time being part of the community, so I don't have a story to share yet, but I made many wonderful connections!
So there’s a glimpse into one of the founders of our Climate Connection community – a community built around the strategic magic of connection and intentional networking.
Interested in seeing yourself or another founder onstage?
We’re always looking for new startups and scale-ups to tell amazing stories. You can fill out our speaker nomination form here.
