In today’s fast-paced world, we all seek connection, a sense of belonging and purpose that ties us to something greater than ourselves. The connection between the startup founders in our Ray of Hope Accelerator goes beyond just launching a startup. They are scaling nature-inspired technologies to address urgent environmental and social challenges. This is no small feat, and many early-stage founders often find themselves working solo or with a small, close-knit team. Lacking a strong support network can be a major barrier for founders in sustaining the mental, emotional, and physical resilience needed when scaling these important climate solutions.
Through our accelerator, we have made a commitment to prioritize human connections by beginning our 6 month program with a mandatory in-person 4 day nature retreat. Thanks to our incredible partners at the Ray. C Anderson Foundation and the Bentley Environmental Foundation, we support two founding or executive team members from each of the ten startups in the accelerator to attend it. Our mission during this time together is to help founders reconnect with themselves, their purpose, and the natural world, while laying the foundations for a lasting support network they can rely on throughout the accelerator and beyond.
Nature’s Recharge: How a Retreat in the Catskills Fuels Nature-Inspired Innovators
Let me take you on a journey to discover how spending four days in nature together can be a transformative experience for nature-inspired founders and provide the key elements we need to drive collective climate action.
This year, we gathered at New York Climate Week with a networking reception at the beautiful CookFox Architecture office. You can imagine the scene: a beautiful biophilic studio set against the dynamic backdrop of New York City’s skyscrapers. There, the ten startups delivered their polished one-minute pitches to a packed room of corporate partners, investors, and nature-inspired advocates. The atmosphere buzzed with curiosity and energy as founders shook off last-minute nerves and jumped into pitches and conversations with potential collaborators, while attendees eagerly sought insights to learn more about these ten inspiring and hopeful climate solutions.
The next morning, we left the hustle of New York City and headed to the Catskills. Again, imagine the stark contrast for these founders, as they leave what has become their norm; the fast paced environment of pitching, back-to-back meetings and the constant troubleshooting resulting from scaling a deeptech and business; to all of a sudden be transplanted into nature. A quiet and restorative place, where the fresh fall air, open spaces and sounds of nature evoke reflection and inspiration.
Over the next four days these founders were fully immersed in nature; no tech, no distractions, just time spent together sharing stories, laughter, and sometimes tears, dreaming of a future that looks and operates like the natural ecosystem all around them. This intentional time together is precisely what early-stage founders need, cultivating deep connections, finding genuine support, and taking a breath to build the resilience necessary to scale their impact and create lasting change.
“An incredible experience that I didn’t realize I needed.”
-Patrick Mitchel, co-founder of Source, Inc.
The Foundation of Community
Building the foundation of a community and support network is not an easy task, especially in the startup ecosystem where founders often find themselves competing for funding, resources, and market share. This competitive environment along with the intense pressures of building a startup, leaves many founders feeling isolated, carrying the weight of their challenges and entrepreneurial journey alone.
Our cohorts are also incredibly diverse, spanning different sectors, technologies, countries, and cultures. We believe this diversity is crucial for collective climate action but it can create a challenge for cultivating deep connections. This is why the nature retreat is a mandatory component of our accelerator, prioritizing that these founders come together to spend time in-person to get to know each other, putting relationships first.
“One of the most meaningful aspects of the retreat was the people I met. Many were founders and innovators from startup companies, all starting from ideas inspired by nature. This brilliant crowd, coming from various parts of the world, were not only driven by entrepreneurial success but also by a shared vision of using technology and science to positively impact the environment and human life.” -Guangyu Bao, Research Scientist at SanaHeal
During this time together, these founders realize that they are connected by more than their nature-inspired technology but also by their journeys, their ambitions, their questions and doubts. These deeper connections create the foundation of a strong community. However, sharing these challenges and asking for support requires vulnerability and trust, which take time and intention to build.
Pause for a moment and ask yourself who would you call if you needed help or feedback. It’s safe to assume that this is a person you have a long standing relationship with, someone you have shared experiences with, someone you trust. This is the type of connection we are building among these founders.
The Path to Trust: Through Safety, Shared Experiences and Vulnerability.
To begin to build a foundation of trust we first focus on creating a safe environment; a space where everyone feels physically, mentally, and psychologically safe to be their authentic self. The best place to do this, we’ve found, is in nature. Nature has an intrinsic way of leveling the playing field, reminding us of our place within the broader ecosystem. For our nature-inspired founders, this connection to the natural world holds even more relevance, connecting them to their source of inspiration and to their larger mission. Research has shown that nature immersion; such as hiking and forest bathing, activates the body’s relaxation response, reducing stress hormones, lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol levels. Studies indicate that spending time in green spaces and listening to the sounds of nature can foster a profound sense of calm and safety, allowing us to breathe deeply and naturally let our guard down (Ref 1-5).
Startup founders often have their entrepreneurial guard up, portraying themselves as strong confident startup leaders with a clear vision for the future. Letting their guard down and embracing vulnerability can feel risky when trying to scale a business. Admitting doubt, fear of failure, or uncertainty about the future may seem like weaknesses, but in reality, among peers, this vulnerability contributes to building deeper connections and trust. Creating a safe environment for founders to share these challenges without fear or judgment provides the spark for authentic conversations and collaborative problem solving.
A nature retreat offers the perfect setting for founders to practice vulnerability. Through intentional activities that encourage reflection like journaling, founders explore the personal and professional challenges they face in leading a startup. Sharing experiences and overcoming challenges together; such as a challenging hike or team activities like a game of volleyball, or the simplicity of sharing family style meals together, founders start to feel a sense of camaraderie and belonging. The foundations of a trusting relationship start to organically emerge as there is time for genuine and authentic conversations. By the time we get to our group activities; from world cafes to campfire stories, these founders have dropped their professional personas and have fully let down their guard to connect on a much more human level. By opening up in this way, the founders themselves begin to cultivate their own support network building on the foundation of safety welcoming vulnerability to build deeper and more authentic connections.
Learning from Alumni to Activate a Wider Community of Nature-Inspired Founders
The value and importance of such a support network was brought into even more clarity for these founders as we had the privilege of hosting Chui Lian Lee, the co-founder and CEO of Werewool (2020 Ray of Hope alumni). Sitting around the campfire, Chui shared her journey with us, including the power of the relationships she has built, and so often relied on, with her founding team and wider community. She shared tales of rejection, disappointment and also challenges uniquely faced by female founders. She reminded us how important the people we choose to surround ourselves with and look to support from is not only essential for the success of each of these individual startups, but also for driving collective climate impact.
With these inspirational words from Chui and this incredible time spent together in nature, we often save our “Show and Tell” activity to the closing half of the retreat. Here, the founders find themselves in a familiar setting, gathered around a large table, prepared to present their nature-inspired technology with the cohort. But now the atmosphere has shifted, this isn’t just another pitch presentation; it is a space for genuine exchange, an opportunity to share challenges, ask for feedback and explore solutions with a community of trusted peers.
Again you can imagine the scene; a room full of nature-inspired deep-tech founders, giddy with curiosity of their fellow founders’ inspiration and technology, driven by a shared mission for positive climate action. Over the next two hours these founders shared challenges, traded insights, advice and connections, learning from and supporting each other’s journeys. The energy in the room was captivating once again, as these founders took a deep dive into the diversity of solutions the cohort represents from fundamental chemistry, to cosmetics, energy and battery technology, from medical solutions to transportation, to coastal resilience and the built environment. In that moment, it was clear to everyone in that room; that we were no longer dreaming of a future that looks and operates like nature, we were building it. And that through this trusted support network of founders, these startups can realize collective climate action, achieving far more together than they ever could alone.
Tapping into Purpose: The Power of Nature Retreats for Startup Founders
Often our closing activity for our Nature Retreat is asking the participants to write a letter to themselves, which we mail to them a year later. The intention of this activity is to offer founders the chance to reflect on the past four days spent together, to reconnect to their personal journey and the impact they hope to have through their work. Spending time together in nature can serve as a powerful reset, and it offers a powerful reminder of what’s at stake. Walking through a forest, staring at the stars or quietly listening to the yips of coyotes in the distance can reignite the passion and sense of urgency that drives these climate innovators. It is during this time of reflection that can lead to renewed clarity and focus, helping these founders return to their work with a stronger sense of purpose.
“The tranquility I experienced during the retreat made me see how essential it is for me to carve out time to reconnect with nature, not just for personal well-being but also for creativity and inspiration. The retreat also sparked a desire to create a more positive and sustainable environment within our company. Seeing how driven others were house their knowledge for good made me realize the potential to foster a similar mindset in our team. Whether it’s through eco-friendly practices to creating a work environment that encourages personal growth and mindfulness, I now see the importance of leading with these values.” -Guangyu Bao, Research Scientist at SanaHeal
By bringing founders together in nature, away from the pressures of daily life, and providing them with the tools and space to build deep connections, we create the conditions for a thriving ecosystem of collaboration and support. This ecosystem can become a powerful force for scaling nature-inspired innovations and driving the systemic change needed to address our climate crisis.
In a world where the challenges we face are vast and complex, no single startup can solve the problem alone. But by fostering a culture of trust, vulnerability, and purpose (6), we can empower a new generation of leaders to work together toward a sustainable and regenerative future.
For nature-inspired founders, whose work is inherently tied to the natural world, there is no better setting than nature itself to reconnect with their mission, build lasting relationships, and ignite the collective power needed to create real, lasting change. By investing in these retreats, we are investing in the future of our planet, one founder, one startup, and one retreat at a time.
References
- Park, B.J., et al. (2010). The physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing): evidence from field experiments in 24 forests across Japan. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 15(1), 18-26.
- Ulrich, R.S., et al. (1991). Stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 11(3), 201-230.
- Li, Q. (2010). Effect of forest bathing trips on human immune function. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 15(1), 9-17.
- Bratman, G.N., et al. (2015). The benefits of nature experience: Improved affect and cognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(28), 8567-8572.
- Hartig, T., et al. (2003). Tracking restoration in natural and urban field settings. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 23(2), 109-123.
- Coyle, D. (2018). The culture code: The secrets of highly successful groups. Bantam.
