silver zebra + goodbalancer

Success and sustainability without contradiction

Veronika Sharonova and Matthias Fehske wanted to do something that would make a real difference when they founded silberzebra in 2020. The two brought experience from their previous careers as digital business consultants in a market-leading Swiss digital agency with 500 employees, where they worked for large corporations and banks. When their old jobs failed in their attempt to change their employer to more meaningful projects, they no longer wanted to devote their time, energy and skills to a world where the planet is reaching its limits and society is dividing, but to find better solutions to the problems of our time.

That was the turning point, and the start of silberzebra. From the outset, the two clearly embedded their corporate philosophy in their name. While many start-ups have the goal of becoming "unicorns" and aim for a company valuation in the billions, silberzebra instead identifies itself as a "zebra". In this context, zebras are companies that put the purpose of their business before profit and see themselves as part of a socially committed group that wants to help make the world a little better.

The start-up helps companies that take sustainability seriously to take a comprehensive view of the issue. With goodbalancer, silverzebra's main product and online solution, it supports comprehensive sustainability management and reporting in organisations that are committed to the common good. Goodbalancer offers a unique overview of all ecological, economic and social sustainability issues in the organisation. This makes the process of creating a sustainability report and the development towards a more sustainable organisation simple, clear and digitally accessible for goodbalancer customers.

Freiburg was the ideal environment for founding the company silberzebra. Thanks to a co-working scholarship at SIL - the Social Innovation Lab - the company was able to gain a foothold and start business operations with two free co-working workstations in the Lokhalle Freiburg. Today, silberzebra GmbH is an inspiring example of how the desire to make the world a better place can be a strong foundation for entrepreneurial success, as its product goodbalancer is the living result of this vision.