ocean lovers, big thinkers, party wavers, dreamers & doers.
We’re Palau, and we’re inspiring
people to make more environmental everyday food choices.
Sounds intense? We promise we’re not.
Our story - how it’s going.
As a startup aiming to change the world, Palau receives mixed reactions from people. For some, seeing a few kids trying to disrupt the food industry and fight climate change leaves them thinking we are delusional. But for others, it inspires them and lights up a fire inside them. Senior engineers, investors, high-end design teams, and even high school students have joined forces with Palau without much concern for time or money. It's a mixture of commitment, passion and hope... Even though we still can't quite name this feeling, we love it. It is Palau's main energy source - that stoke of not waiting for governments or big corporations to act but doing it ourselves, bootstrapping our way into one of the most significant changes our world needs to see.
This is who we are and what we will always aim to be; a messy startup with no hierarchy and big dreams to change the world.
Spring 2021
Simon & Jerome have their first real talk on joining forces to protect our planet and they came up with the conclusion that it wouldn’t make any sense in life to not put their time and talent on tackling climate change. They realize how crazy the impact of the food industry has on the planet and how the concept of ‘sustainability’ is so misused, that basically it is mostly for marketing purposes only. They both decide to start working on an app that makes the supply chain transparent to save themselves and others from greenwashing.
Summer 2021
Palau company is officially established! We finally have a small prototype that nobody understands but it provides the environmental impact of food products and their nutritional value. Simon and Jerome start pitching! Palau ends up being a finalist at food4future between 3000 startups! Palau was also the only company that reached the final with only a prototype. ACSL decides to give some financial support to Palau.
Autumn/Winter 2021
Palau gets accepted at the Birdhouse accelerator and receives a loan from the Belfiusbank. Jerome says goodbye to his dogs and his surfboards and moves together with Simon to work 24/7 in belgium. Palau launches their beta version with 400 testers! And a database of 1.5 million products! The app crashes often and the user experience isn’t great, but there is some proof of interest in Palau's solution. Palau creates their first board of advisors with CEO’s & founders of the birdhouse network! Cheers Catalina, Vincent, Moos, Jonas! Simon and Jerome forget what sleep is about and Jerome cries like a lil baby to get back in the ocean.
Winter 2021
Toby quits his Job at a big corporation to join Palau’s mission! Simon is finally not the only one working on the code and things start moving faster. Toby shows Simon & Jerome what a structured company really means. Nina & Holly join the team! Jerome is buzzing to have kitesurfers in the team to share his grief of missing the ocean, as well as the passion to save it!
Spring/Summer 2022
Palau graduates from Birdhouse; the app is public and the team is working full on. The company gets the subsidy of Vlaio as an innovative start up to continue on our growth. The app also starts to have some traction - around 500-1000 active users. The design agency Noise Studio decides to join Palau’s mission and work together on a 3 month branding and UX collaboration.
Jerome is one lucky bastard.
As a professional kitesurfer, he traveled the whole world living the hakuna matata life. But experiencing a lifestyle that was so connected to nature meant he could not escape or ignore the effects of the climate crisis any longer. He could see the ocean that he loved so much changing before his eyes, and knew he had to do everything he could to protect it. Together with his business partner and cousin Simon, they found a huge cause of the climate crisis to be the food and consumer industry, and decided to use this as their starting point to saving the planet. Palau was founded to save nature and protect our playgrounds, not to make money. We’re inspiring people to buy well and live better.
75%
of deforestation comes from agriculture.
1/3
of the world's pollution is caused by the food industry.
90%
of large fish have
already dissappeared .
Meet our rad team of ocean-lovers and big thinkers.
We’re a growing team of 7. Jerome, Simon, Toby, Holly, Nina, Emilio and Grayson. We all bring something different to the table - from coding to marketing, social media to design. The thing that connects us all is a love for the ocean and a sense of duty to use our time on this planet to protect it.
Want to be
a thrifter?
Interested in joining our team? We love hearing from
awesome people. See our jobs listing below and if you don’t fit
the mould even better - we’d still love to hear from you.
Get in touch below.
