Author: Maëlys Renaud
Ray of Hope Gallery 2025: Ten Nature-Inspired Innovations Now Live on AskNature
There is a phrase from Janine Benyus’s book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature that has never left me: “Life creates conditions conducive to life.” In a moment when we urgently need systems that regenerate rather…
Lessons from our Nature Retreat: Voices from the 2025 Cohort (Part 2)
This is Part 2 of my reflections on the Nature Retreat with the 2025 cohort of nature-inspired startups, following my first article, Doing the Hard Things That Matter: Reflections on our 2025 Nature Retreat. At the…
5 Key Characteristics of Nature-Inspired Startups
What does it mean for a startup to be nature-inspired? The phrase sounds simple, but it holds layers of meaning. At our Ray of Hope Accelerator, “nature-inspired” isn’t a tagline, it’s both an eligibility requirement…
Doing the Hard Things That Matter: Reflections on our 2025 Nature Retreat (Part 1)
We just had our Nature Retreat with the 2025 cohort: 10 nature-inspired startups, 18 participants, and I’m thinking about Paul Graham’s famous advice: do things that don’t scale. At its core, the message is that…
Five Years of Nature-Inspired Innovation: Our Impact Report Is Out!
For the past five years, the Innovation team at the Biomimicry Institute has been steadily and purposefully supporting nature-inspired entrepreneurs worldwide as they address some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. Now, with the…
How Intentionality Drives Our Startup Selection Process
Intentionality breathes life into our Ray of Hope Accelerator's mission and into our operations. Our mission is to accelerate the growth of nature-inspired startups to scale systemic solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
