FOUNDER STORY 

- Matt Hastings

Is the secret to the future of work, hidden deep beneath the forest? 

I was born in the city, but have always been more at home in the woods. 

15 years ago, I planted a forest. 2,000 trees. Oak, Hazel, Cherry, Hornbeam, Beech, Silver Birch and a single Walnut (at the base of which my ashes will rest). I built a little cabin there where I now spend most of my time. 

I watched a redundant field, transform into a vibrant, high growth ecosystem. A place of connection, happiness and calm.

At the same time I was working in the UK Government’s innovation agency, running a $530m innovation fund. A complex ecosystem of disconnected silos, many of whom didn't understand the problems that needed solving, duplicated effort, reinvented the wheel and took too long to do anything. 

I started to contemplate the differences between the 'work' ecosystem, and the forest ecosystem. That's where ideaonomy was born.

What’s special about forests is not just what happens above the ground, it is what happens beneath. A fully interconnected mycelial network that joins the roots of trees so they can collaborate. 

What's missing from traditional forms of work, is connective tissue. We don't have the ability to join the dots at speed and at scale.

So I quit my job, and set to work building the world's first AI based mycelial network. Autonomously joining the dots between people, problems and solutions. Collaboration with a purpose, to solve problems together. An organisation that redefines what 'work' means, based on the fundamental first principles of nature.

Collaboration beyond boundaries, not just within but across sectors. Human centred, but AI supported. 

There’s something special about nature. You can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know it’s there. 400 million years of evolution, 60,000 different species. And now there's a tech company, sent by mother nature, with a single mission: to save humanity from destroying itself. 

And that's why it matters. That's why we exist.