This is Part 2 of our reflections on the Nature Retreat with the 2025 cohort of nature-inspired startups, following our first article, Doing the Hard Things That Matter: Reflections on our 2025 Nature Retreat. At the heart of the Ray of Hope Accelerator is the belief that founders are human beings first, which might sound obvious, but in the tech startup world, that’s often overlooked amid the relentless push to build and sell. Now that we’ve established what the Nature Retreat is about in Part 1 – we’d like to give the startups a voice, sharing their post-retreat reflections, insights, and what the experience meant for them personally, as founders, and as members of a nature-inspired ecosystem.
Ground yourself as you scale
The retreat began with a focus on grounding and presence. Founders spent time slowing down, observing, and tuning into the rhythms of place, in the Catskills. Angel Enriquez, Co-founder and CEO at Emboa Medical reflected, “I was reminded that effective leadership, like nature, often thrives on patience, structure, and cycles. Growth doesn’t happen by forcing it; it happens when conditions are right.” This insight about patience and cycles is a reminder that slowing down isn’t a pause in growth, it’s part of it. Similarly, for Phoebe Kwon, Lead Scientist at Limax Biosciences, the quiet moments of observation revealed the value of stillness: “Immersed in nature and the company of other purpose-driven founders, I found myself slowing down enough to notice the small details again…These moments reminded me that progress doesn’t always come from momentum; it sometimes grows out of stillness, reflection, and trust in the process.” She continued: “The retreat made me think differently about what it really means to build a nature-inspired company. It isn’t just about technology – it’s about cultivating an ecosystem where growth, care, and creativity coexist.” In building a startup, just like in nature, it is sometimes as important to pause as it is to push. Each time I witness these moments of stillness and connection, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for the opportunity to remember and practice that and invite our ecosystem to do the same.
Build your founder network
With self-awareness as a foundation, the next step was to strengthen bonds within the cohort. Shared meals, circle conversations, stargazing, and team-building activities created a space of trust and openness. Jiye Son, Founder and CEO of ANEW Material wrote “The retreat was a valuable experience, it was nice to be surrounded by other nature-inspired people and learn from their leadership styles, from thinking about tech, talking to investors, managing people relationships, especially the international insights.” Another participant shared that “By having the opportunity to form deep connections with strangers that became friends in a few days, I am inspired to work on creating more community among the start-ups within our technology incubator [back home].” These moments strengthened bonds across startups, creating a sense of community and sparking collaboration, empathy, and peer support that will carry forward through and beyond the accelerator.
Learn from nature’s playbook
Nature itself became a teacher, offering a diversity of lessons. Ella Csuka, Founder and CEO at Ecotune shared, “I had the opportunity to be present in nature, observing the world around me from moment to moment – the last blooming wild flowers of autumn, the falling of leaves in the forest, the migration of blue jay birds in the early morning – a reminder of the ever-present cycles of change.” Ariel Blumenberg, Lead Engineer at PolyGone Systems observed, “Everything finds its own way to grow and thrive in the forest, and the ecosystem operates in cycles rather than linear progressions. Setbacks are natural, but new success can take its place through different pathways.” As Jiye Son at ANEW Material beautiful put it, “It taught me to think holistically about my startup as part of a bigger ecosystem and how we’re all tangled up together.” Immersed in a new landscape and the changing colors of fall, founders drew insights from nature to inform their work and role, and embraced systems thinking and the bigger picture, inspired by the interconnection inherent in nature.
Lead with clarity and impact
With self, community, and nature as guides, founders returned to their purpose and mission with renewed clarity. For example, Lorena Salazar, Co-founder and Chief Sustainability Officer at Parsons Kinetics reflected, “From a team-building perspective, at this early stage, I’ll keep this philosophy: relationships before tasks, slow down to listen, build trust first, then move faster together with more clarity and purpose in every step.” Blake Goodwyn at Pyri described the freedom that came from curiosity without the day-to-day agenda: “Simply allowing ourselves to experience curiosity without agenda was invaluable not only for reconnecting with the original inspiration behind our work but also reawakening that same sense of exploration within our [team] dynamic.” Phoebe at Limax Biosciences additionally reflected, “Our work is focused on helping the body heal itself and this experience helped me realize how healing and growth are deeply connected. Both take patience, the right conditions, and a willingness to adapt. That feels true for people, for teams, and for the systems we are actively trying to change.” Jon Kiel, strategic advisor at ANEW Material, highlighted that reconnecting with self and nature reinforced the value of exploring multiple approaches in strategy and growth. Finally, Ariel at PolyGone Systems emphasized that the lessons of nature’s resilience will guide leadership and decision-making in the fast-paced world of startups. The retreat left participants ready to act with curiosity and grounded purpose.
It is an honor to work alongside these nature-inspired startup founders and to create spaces where they can pause, reconnect, and grow. The act of building, of bringing something new into the world, is deeply human, and nature has a way of reminding us what that creative process can look like when it’s grounded and guided by nature. The reflections you’ve just read? These are from startup founders! These insights exemplifies the philosophy of the Ray of Hope Accelerator where one can be both: driven by tech, unit economics, and growth, and deeply grounded in nature’s lessons, reflection and care. This retreat was a reminder that innovation is rooted in our shared humanity, and that slowing down can bring a renewed sense of clarity, purpose, and care for the systems we’re part of. For me, it reaffirmed why I do this work, to nurture the kind of leadership that creates conditions conducive to life.
Maëlys Renaud is the Program Manager of the Ray of Hope Accelerator. She is a chemist, open-innovation enthusiast, and former Science Diplomat. Maëlys joined the Institute to identify, support and accelerate nature-inspired startups. Learn more about Maëlys and the rest of the team here.
