(prduct.com) Interview w/ Harry Marshall from OpenAtlas
Describe your career
I’ve spent most of my career at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and entrepreneurship. My background is in business and international relations, but I’ve always been drawn to how deep tech—especially AI and satellite imaging—can be applied to solve global problems. Over the past few years, that focus has sharpened around one key issue: deforestation and its ripple effects on compliance, supply chains, and climate resilience.
What is your role at OpenAtlas and how would you describe OpenAtlas’ work?
I’m the co-founder and CEO of OpenAtlas . We’re a remote sensing company that helps businesses navigate compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Our flagship tool, Vantage, uses high-resolution Sentinel-2 satellite imagery combined with deep-learning models to detect land-use changes and assess deforestation risk. Think of it as plug-and-play deforestation compliance - you input your plots, and we return clear, verifiable risk assessments that align with EUDR legal requirements.
How do you see digitalization and automation shaping the future of compliance?
Digitalization is transforming compliance from a manual, reactive burden into a proactive and scalable advantage. Automation means companies can monitor vast supply chains in near real-time - something that would be impossible using traditional boots-on-the-ground methods alone. It’s enabling a shift from static PDF reports to dynamic, API-driven compliance ecosystems.
What are some of the most common challenges businesses face when it comes to implementing digital compliance solutions?
There are a few recurring challenges:
Data quality - often the geolocation data from suppliers is incomplete or incorrect.
Internal alignment—compliance sits across legal, procurement, sustainability, and IT departments, making implementation complex.
Cost and resource fears—companies worry that digital tools will be expensive or hard to integrate with legacy systems.
How can automation and digital tools improve the efficiency and accuracy of monitoring systems for compliance with global regulations, such as those related to deforestation or environmental sustainability?
By automating detection of land use changes via satellite and machine learning, systems like ours remove the guesswork and reduce false positives. OpenAtlas ’s Vantage tool, for example, analyzes forest change data using peer-reviewed methods and applies a standardized risk logic based on EU criteria. This allows for scalable, verifiable monitoring that would take teams of analysts months to replicate manually.Given the growing importance of data-driven decision-making, how do you see AI and satellite technology playing a role in helping companies ensure they meet compliance standards in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape?AI and satellite technology are becoming the backbone of next-generation compliance systems. AI enables pattern recognition at scale—flagging risks, anomalies, and trends across massive datasets. Combined with satellite imagery, which offers near real-time coverage of global land surfaces, these tools ensure that regulatory decisions are based on what’s actually happening on the ground, not just what’s reported on paper. It’s actionable, audit-ready intelligence.
With your knowledge of our product, what do you think makes prduct.com valuable?
prduct.com fills a critical gap: it turns complex product development data into centralized, actionable insights. The value lies in its ability to connect the dots - strategy, delivery, and execution - in a single platform. From what I’ve seen, it’s especially powerful for product teams juggling regulatory constraints (like EUDR), global supply chain inputs, and evolving customer needs. Its modularity and collaboration features are well-suited to fast-paced, compliance-sensitive sectors like agtech, fashion, and food systems.
