43 - From Marketing to Marshlands: How a Climate Startup Raised €1M to Restore Wetlands - Alex Kornelsen, Mission to Marsh

In this episode, I speak with Alex Kornelsen — a former startup and innovation strategist who left the corporate world to co-found Mission to Marsh, a storytelling-led non-profit restoring wetlands and rebranding peatlands as climate heroes.

We talk about how it all started with a Tinder date and a one-sentence peatland pitch, and go deep into what it takes to launch a mission-driven organisation from scratch — from faking a film to raise €50K, to securing Patagonia support, to building a community using marketing, humour, and open storytelling.

Whether you’re looking to launch something planet-positive or just curious about how skills from marketing and innovation can be redirected for nature — this episode is packed with insights, honesty, and energy.

00:00 Intro
01:00 From Tinder to Peatlands — how it all began
04:00 The one-sentence pitch that changed everything
06:45 Why a documentary came before the non-profit
09:30 How they raised €1M and got Patagonia’s support
13:00 Behind the scenes of making the film
16:40 The power of storytelling in conservation
20:10 “Fake it till you make it” — lessons from launching
25:30 From GoFundMe to corporate partnerships
30:00 AI + grant writing: how they raised €20K in 30 minutes
32:00 Why LinkedIn beat Instagram for traction
36:45 Personal branding in nature restoration
40:15 Disrupting the non-profit model
44:00 Co-founding with your life partner — the real talk
50:00 Starting a for-profit arm with peatland tech
57:00 Final thoughts on optimism, failure, and what nature teaches us
01:00:45 The billboard quote, book recommendation & business idea

👉 Connect with Alex Kornelsen on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/k0rnelsen/

👉 Explore Mission to Marsh and watch the film
https://missiontomarsh.org/

📷 Follow the Mission on Instagram and LinkedIn to see where the film is touring next.

🛠️ Interested in building your own planet-positive venture?
Check out The Startup Diaries episodes — where I document the behind-the-scenes journey of building No Longer Known, a new nature-led brand from scratch.

Subscribe on your favourite platform and come along for the ride.