Interview | Anna-Liisa Palatu, CEO and Co-Founder of Woola
Can you introduce yourself, your role and experience in the packaging industry?
From moving sidewalks to replacing plastic, I’ve spent the last decade starting futuristic businesses, quitting jobs and analyzing why most of my ideas fail. Until one didn’t.
In 2020, I co-founded Woola to stop Big Oil companies from drowning us in plastic. Four years and 6 million euros in investments later, I am the CEO of Woola, a company that uses leftover sheep wool to replace bubble wrap.
What inspired you to pursue a career in the packaging industry?
In 2019, my co-founder Jevgeni and I were running an e-commerce store, where we ran headfirst into the packaging problem. Not only was there just so much plastic, but there weren’t many sustainable alternatives available, especially to bubble wrap.
Then I read an article saying that in Europe, up to 90% of sheep wool goes to waste. That adds up to about 200,000 tons of coarse wool that goes unused in the EU every year. This article was written by Katrin Kabun, a textile designer and sheep wool expert.
We were surprised to see this news since the article also explained how durable, versatile and multifunctional wool is. In addition to being elastic, it also regulates temperatures and humidity.
That same week, we started Woola with Jevgeni and Katrin to reduce the demand for single-use plastic packaging by offering a better alternative – protective packaging made from leftover wool.
What is one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a young leader in the packaging industry?
We have been running Woola since 2020, so the “crisis” is the only macroeconomic state we know of. When it comes to challenges on the company level, the constant state of crisis remains, yet it’s easier to handle since we can actually affect it.
For me personally, the role of a manager actually came as an unpleasant surprise. I’ve always seen myself as an entrepreneur who wants to build solutions and fix things that are broken. I don’t like to be on calls, I like to work quietly at my desk.
When we came up with the idea of Woola, things started to pick up fast, and suddenly I was responsible for tens of employees. My previous focus for “building” was now taken over by things like HR, performance reviews, contracts, and fundraising. This was a big adjustment and I found the task of leading people the most challenging. I think there isn’t a lot of logic in it – a good leader has to stand for the company’s best interests and this also means unpopular decisions. So if you do your job well and make difficult decisions, you are likely to encounter some negative reactions as a consequence.
If you could change one thing about the packaging industry, what would it be and why?
We have to stop burning fossil fuels to make packaging. Plastic has two major problems: reliance on fossil fuels and single-use mindset. The supply chain is built to be linear, so the precious material we drain from Earth’s crust turns to garbage after just one use.
Fossil fuel reliance and single-use mindset are so intertwined thanks to plastic that we can’t break pollution and emissions into two separate problems. Plastic is the problem.
How do you see the role of future leaders like yourself in shaping the direction of the industry?
We need to turn the packaging industry upside down. And to do that, we have to do a lot of things differently from what has been done before. Young leaders can look at the challenges we face with a fresh set of eyes, and act without even being aware of industry norms.
What advice would you give to young professionals who are just starting their careers in packaging?
My advice is to stop preparing for the launch of your own business and just do it. You will never be fully ready, so there’s no need to focus on having the perfect business plan, investment strategy, financial projections, office space etc. Just take the first step as soon as possible and get your idea out to the customers. You can figure everything out later.
At Woola, we often say “sometimes lose, always win” because that’s the only kind of mindset that keeps us going and winning.
What does it mean to you to be selected as a Future Leaders?
Being named a Future Leader gives us recognition and credibility. It’s quite something that all the Future Leaders selected share a vision of sustainability. Now, it’s on us to bring about real change and start a movement of sustainable packaging.
You can hear more from Anna-Liisa and the other Future Leaders at Paris Packaging Week, held 28 & 29 January 2025 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, Paris.
