This series highlights the ventures and founders participating in the 2019 Impact Accelerator. Leading up to the Venture Showcase, we’re asking each company how their personal values are reflected in their business, and what they would do with $10,000 if they won it at the Venture Showcase this June.

Venture Name: Gardens of New York

Members: Chris Freimuth

Venture Description: Gardens of New York is an online media platform whose mission is to promote urban gardening and encourage new perspectives on the practice. Through engaging content and inspiring images of the public and private gardens in NYC, we aim to bring people together around themes of beauty, purpose and possibility.

How does this business reflect your personal values?
Chris Friemuth: Gardens make me feel whole. Not because gardens are “precious” and “whimsical” and so on – that stuff is too cute and only half the picture. Rather, gardens feel good because they’re real.  Plants don’t pretend. Good design can’t be faked. Gardens are gorgeous and rude and vengeful and generous – all the things that make life difficult and worthwhile. I’m absolutely bored by the tiny conceptual boxes people have put gardens/gardening/gardeners into, and I believe we’d all feel a whole lot more human if we allowed ourselves to relate to plants and design in a more direct, consistent and familiar way.

If you were to win the $10,000 grand prize at the Venture Showcase, what would you do with it?
CF: Ten thousand dollars would go toward jump-starting this program. Half of it would go directly toward fees for developing a new website with our Reno-based contractor. The other half would go into content creation – purchasing of film and photography materials, video editor fees, and attorney fees for counsel related to media licensing rights and other legal concerns.

The post 2019 Impact Accelerator Profile: Gardens of New York appeared first on reSET Social Enterprise Trust.