A Tranquil Angle: Finding Nature In Startups

Since launching Floating in 2021, I’ve found joy in exploring the direct connection between nature and starting a business. It’s been helpful when approaching challenges, maintaining patience and considering speed. These three themes have continued to reveal themselves in my daily journaling:

1. Good soil is crucial to growth.

Soil is the foundation of the natural world. It plays an essential role in the health of any ecosystem, supporting an ever expanding network of interconnected roots, mycelium and organisms.

It takes a looong time (200–400 years!) to make one centimeter of new soil and up to 3,000 years (!!!) to create a layer of soil that can withstand plant growth. To be considered fertile, it needs major components like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium along with a plethora of other nutrients like calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc & sulfur.

And after all that time, all it takes is one flood, one drought, one polluted runoff, and the soil becomes unbalanced. While this doesn’t start the whole process over, it’s several steps in the wrong direction and is energetically taxing on the surrounding environment. Healthy soil is powerful, fragile and it takes time.

The similarities between the formation of mature soil and of a sustainable business are staggering: to build a business that can support growth, it takes time. It’s delicate; the conditions have to be just right for success. There will be obstacles that will demand a partial reset. One misstep or one toxic element will result in an unstable habitat.

With the proper nutrients — timing, team, product, market conditions, community, etc. — the potential is extraordinary; roots can expand, growth can happen, and the entity can thrive. This is only possible with a strong, intentional base.

2. Permaculture > monoculture.

Growth is three-dimensional. Monoculture erodes biodiversity, degrades soil and is a conduit to increased pollution, pests, weeds, fertilizer and pesticide usage. Its high volume / high calorie output is typically (not always) low in nutrient density. Monoculture celebrates a ‘growth at all cost’ mentality.

Permaculture’s approach, however, imitates the holistic design found in flourishing ecosystems to maximize biodiversity, preserve & create more habitat for plant and animal species, improve water retention and promote natural pest control. Over time it becomes self-sufficient. Nature constantly reminds us that just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. The same goes for business.

Most businesses that give mutual consideration to the many components that make them tick — product, operations, brand, communication, people, expenses, growth, profit — understand that the omission of a single component will effect the entire company. It’s a simple case of looking at what nature does on her own and mimicking it as effectively as possible.

How many companies have lost the plot because they put too much focus on profit without thinking about product? Or growth without thinking about operations? It’s not uncommon. That’s when monoculture mindset spreads, like a weed, often corroding the core element that made the company special in the first place.

When all elements of a company are collaborating, it can prosper and become self-sufficient. The process becomes the product. Success becomes a byproduct.

3. Resilience is required.

Nature finds a way to survive (and thrive!) in some of the most inopportune conditions:

The Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine produces heat-sensitive, serotinous cones which only open to release seeds during a forest fire. In White Sands National Park, the Hoary Rosemary Mint shrub creates a pedestal, a solid mound of sand for its roots to hold onto, for stability in the constantly moving landscape. Fire ants bond together in massive buoyant clusters of up to 100,000 to prevent individual ants drowning during a flood.

Nature’s constant creativity and adaptability shows why it sustains and evolves over millions of years.

While the timetable for business may be a bit shorter, the need for resilience is almost identical:

Airbnb founders famously paid off the credit cards they used to initially fund the company by selling Obama and McCain inspired cereal boxes. Metallica grew a massive pre-CD, pre-Internet fanbase through a global underground cassette trading network. In order to maintain a certain tone from the start, Reddit initially flooded the site with fake user accounts to attract new, real users and control the narrative and moderation.

When our backs are against the wall, we can see the whole room, giving us the ability to be patient, present and clever. If nature has shown us anything, it’s that there is always another path. We could stand to take more cues from the natural world.

Nature takes the time it takes, why should business be any different?