Dear Brainforest Follower,
Sunny (and hot!) greetings from Zürich! ☀️
Summer has arrived, and with it the moment to pause, look back, and celebrate what an intense and beautiful few months it has been.
Cohort 7 crossed the finish line!
In April, eight ventures and fifteen founders from seven countries joined us for our 7th Venture Program! Workshops, expert sessions, mentor matches, pitch rehearsals, and yes, once again more Miro boards than we want to admit.
If you missed the full cohort introduction, you can catch up on all eight ventures here.
The Pitch Event: months of work in one room!
Everything came together at our Pitch Event, where all eight ventures took the (virtual) stage in front of our community of investors and partners.
After weeks of screens, we got to close this chapter the best way possible: some of our founders made the trip and joined us in person in Zürich. There is really nothing like sharing stories face to face.
What was their experience? Well, why don’t you just hear it yourself! ⤵
What comes next?
With Cohort 7 wrapped, the big question is now on the table: who will become the next Brainforest portfolio company? We are in full discussions with our Investment Committee, and we will share the answer with you as soon as the decision is made. 👀
Beyond that, we will step back and take some time for ourselves over the summer, to recharge and to fully put together the next Venture Program (exciting!!).
And here is where you come in: applications for the next Venture Program open on 25 July, with rolling review. If you know founders or initiatives you think are the right fit, now is the time to share the luck with them.
They can already sign up to our waiting list, and we will send another email the moment applications go live.
And the Venture Program was not the only thing looking back…
We were also out and about at Climate Week Zurich. Crazy to think that back in May, we were standing in the forest in the pouring rain.
Almost unimaginable now, in the middle of such a long (Swiss!) summer.
For Climate Week Zurich, we hosted our own event, together with Waldlabor Zürich. We walked straight into the Waldlabor next to ETH Hönggerberg, with its experts as our guides. The rain came, the umbrellas popped out, and 40 of you showed up anyway. 🥳
And we learned things we are still thinking about:
‣ Dr. Martin Brüllhardt held up a small wooden cube, about 28 grams. “Every second,” he said, “this is how much wood grows in our forest here at Hönggerberg.”
‣ When it rains, the stream rises, but the water you see is not today’s rain. Today’s rain soaks into the soil and pushes out older water, stored for weeks or months.
‣ “Im Wald sind die Zeiträume lang.” In the forest, time moves slowly. The Waldlabor’s experiment on which trees can handle a warmer climate started 7 years ago. Solid answers will need another 20 to 30 years.
Standing in that rain in May, and sitting in this heat in July, one question stays with us: has working with nature, not against it, ever felt more urgent?
Thank you & happy summer!
As always, thank you for being part of the Brainforest community. For reading, sharing, introducing people, showing up at events, and cheering founders on.
We wish you a wonderful start into the summer. Take a break, touch some grass (literally), and we will see you back here soon with more news from our forest. 🌳
Warmly,
Your Brainforest Team
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