In this blog post we’ll talk about the journey of scaling up a kindergarten by implementing Seeds.Tools and creating a website from scratch.

Setting up website & social media

Setting up a kindergarten website is about creating an engaging, welcoming online environment that ranks high on Google, and leads to active social media channels, catering to parents, grandparents, caregivers, and children with quick access to essential information.

We chose WordPress for its flexibility, using bright colors, child-friendly fonts, and high-quality images to attract visitors. SEO optimization involved thorough keyword research, relevant keywords, meta descriptions, and structured data markup to enhance Google rankings.

Content guidelines for social media were developed to ensure engaging and valuable posts, maintaining corporate design despite changing personnel.

Public and personal Mailbox

By implementing our Mailbox Tool we were able to change how the kindergarten manages communication. With the use of shared mailboxes with individual logins we were able to simplify processing, ensuring transparency and clear task allocation.

Each email can now be assigned to specific team members, tracked via an activity log, and supplemented with notes and to-dos for clarity and reminders.

Performance KPIs, such as response rates and times, are monitored for continuous improvement. The tool also facilitates efficient campaigning through newsletters and mail merges, and offers team-wide access to email templates, significantly scaling up our kindergarten’s communication and operational efficiency.

Accounting

The accounting tool has organized billing, receipts, accounting, and payroll processes for the kindergarten.

Invoices are efficiently managed with an automated claim management system featuring a five-stage warning process and recurring invoices generated by robots.

Receipts benefit from direct SEPA file exports compatible with third-party banking software, enabling smooth integration into our accounting system with individualized bank account assignments. The tool supports three account types—creditor, debtor, and impersonal accounts—and integrates banking functionalities for automated bank statement processing and creditor/debitor matching.

Vacancies

Our vacancies tool has simplified the recruitment process for the kindergarten, offering efficient management of job postings and applications.

The tool supports the entire vacancy lifecycle, from design and release to deactivation, and manages application statuses such as received, ongoing, offering, hired, rejection, and refusal.

A web plugin ensures seamless synchronization of vacancies with WordPress pages, while import/export capabilities allow integration with platforms like JOIN or Indeed. This comprehensive solution has made it easier to manage and track applications, ensuring that the kindergarten is able to attract and hire the candidates efficiently.

Do you have any questions about the product or need a customised quote? Contact us now!

In our eyes, giving something back is part of corporate responsibility. But how can you do this in a meaningful way without spending too many resources? If you’re lucky and have open eyes, you might know of a good, worthwhile project in your neighborhood. For those who don’t, we’ve been working on a solution.

What did we look for?

Our recommendations on the tool:  

1. Automated counting of an individual indicator
2. High quality and significant impact of the projects
3. A solution that is easy to implement, runs without effort and can reach the customer as directly as possible

But let´s have a look step by step… only for the impatient ones it goes directly here:

1. Automated counting of an individual indicator

Every industry and every company is different. Therefore, it must be possible to count different indicators. Per invoice, per sale of a certain (core) product or even by turnover. One X | One Tree already carries this principle in its name. This is made possible by an API interface.

Our pilot project is One Crew | One Tree for the event staffing industry, where one tree is donated per digital crew booking. Participating companies include artlogic and Stagehands.

2. High quality and significant impact of the projects

We settled relatively quickly on tree-planting projects because this is where environmental and development aid intertwine – if they are geared toward sustainability. The selection is made by the project partner Panterito Foundation. The planting projects should be designed according to both ecological and economic sustainability criteria and provide monitoring at least in the first (critical) years.

The focus is therefore on agroforestry projects. Here, the initial investment is supported, but the prospect of returns – whether through fruits or timber harvest – is the needed motivation for tree care. After all, this is often the crux of the matter: the organization of the plantations is rather simple, but the trees are ultimately supposed to grow.

The range of agroforestry projects is itself very broad, from semi-natural reforestation to timber plantations that provide soil improvement and shade. Depending on where you are on this range, the costs are just not to be covered for 10 cents, as with some large suppliers. We set 1 € per tree as the lower threshold, 2 € would be optimal. For example, cheaper plantations that already benefit from the scaling effect of an established system can outweigh higher costs for projects that are just starting.

To the project page One Crew | One Tree by Panterito

3. A solution that is easy to implement, runs without effort and can reach the customer as directly as possible

The count is automated. This minimizes the effort and also provides a reliable source of truth.
The tree donations become tangible in two places: Firstly, the tree counter for the website, where the growth of the “company forest” can be tracked live. And secondly, the project presentation with photo and geodata that customers receive: This is where your tree is planted.

Do you have any questions or would you like to implement the tool?

As we found a great product manager in Raluca Hreniuc with roots both in Germany and Romania, we decided together to built up a developer team in her home country (where the internet speed is clearly faster than in Germany).

Therefore, we are looking for a Full Stack Senior Developer in Romania who has the desire to work in an international team and a job with a background in sustainability. Sustainable Seeds combines intelligent enterprise software with the development of reliable processes as a foundation for the long-term growth of sustainable businesses. We offer standardized solutions and customized developments.

This is accomplished by our beloved SquidWeb application, now in its third version and on its way to the fourth enhancement: SquidWeb is a people’s network application that uniquely solves the challenges of managing the preparation and execution of cultural and business events by intelligently gathering every possible detail in a simple and concise UI.

Learn more about about our perfect match in the vacancy.

Interview with Sustainable Seeds founder Rainer Surkow

Turning scientific developments into entrepreneurial practice is the linchpin of Rainer Surkow’s professional work. The graduate biotechnologist studied law and business administration for several semesters and founded a consulting company at the end of his studies. At the same time, he remained involved in research and completed his doctorate in the field of regenerative energy production. Several start-ups followed, including in the fields of nanotechnology, software development and 3D printing.

In this interview, he talks about the basic idea behind Sustainable Seeds and what founding means in Corona times.

What do software and process modeling have to do with sustainability?

It may not be immediately obvious, and I only came up with the idea last year: I don’t see all these topics as contradictory. Software and process analysis optimize processes, regardless of the area – if I have the right support here, I can concentrate on my core tasks. On the other hand, we have the need for sustainable projects. A lot is already happening here, but I still think we’re only at the beginning. In my opinion, the key lies not in old-fashioned approaches – otherwise everything would already be ready – but in innovation. And who is essentially implementing innovation? It’s startups. Startups will be the key drivers of sustainable developments in the future. And this is where we want to support them with customized software solutions.

With so many different enterprise software already in the market, why is there a need for another solution?

There is a basic problem, which affects startups just as much as established companies – and affects myself as well. The problem is that what is offered on the software side to map processes in companies very often doesn’t really fit, it’s often not flexible, doesn’t grow with the company and actually forces the company to adapt to it very strongly. If you think about it now: Startups naturally go new ways and are diverse in terms of their demands, then it is precisely a particularly high level of flexibility that is required. I haven’t found that for myself, nor for the companies I’ve worked with for the last ten to fifteen years. Grönemeyer once said, “I’ve licked everything, but nothing really tasted good to me.” That’s when I saw the potential that there’s a really big gap here, where you can a) solve the problems that are de facto there for other people and b) build a good business on top of that.

Are the problems the same for all companies or do you have to look at it individually?

All startups that don’t deal genuinely with administration – there may be those, but let’s take a technology-oriented startup, for example – have to take care of their own issues and already have a lot to do with that. In addition, they have to deal with administrative and formal requirements, such as approvals or regulations that have to be complied with, and accounting – so that at some point they reach the limits of their capacity. Especially in the initial phase, it is critical if too much capacity has to be spent on organizing oneself. And this problem is the same, ranging from the high-tech industry to construction companies to the catering industry and, unfortunately, especially in the area of sustainably oriented approaches.

Starting a business in the middle of the Corona crisis – does that make sense?

I asked myself the same question! But noticed quite quickly that the response was positive in almost every case – AND: the Corona crisis was almost a co-idea generator, the last drop, so to speak, that triggered everything: Digitization is now – not tomorrow. It continues to be an opportunity but I believe also imperative to survive in the market. And digitization is a central key to getting the economy and projects moving again. Anyone who doesn’t go along with this will end up having big difficulties.

Is money an issue?

Now I first have to ask my media advisor what to say… So: money is always an issue, neither we nor any other startup can make anything happen without money. We are fortunate that our concept has also met with a good response from financiers.

However, Corona is already an issue here as well. Those starting up now face even greater challenges. Financing is much harder to obtain, and Corona aid is strongly geared toward maintaining existing structures. Those who start up now often fall behind, which I think is completely wrong. In a situation where you expect bankruptcies to start at some point, it’s criminal not to throw new seeds in and say maybe they’ll make it because they’ve already grown on other soil.

What comes next?

What’s next, and here I still have to be a bit secretive, are several projects that we’ve already acquired that we’re working on together with interesting, sustainable startups. There, we are cooperatively developing tools that we will subsequently make available to others.
We are also in the process of expanding our team and are looking for good and inspired people!