In this Q&A, you’ll hear from Jared Hanley, CEO of NatureQuant, a technology company quantifying the impact of nature on human health. Jared shares how his company’s products NatureScore and NatureDose provide governments, healthcare organizations, and everyday consumers the tools needed to treat conditions like depression, anxiety, and obesity through time spent outdoors.
Can you tell us about NatureQuant?
Jared Hanley: The science is indisputable: Nature exposure provides profound mental and physical health improvements. Through innovative technology, machine learning, and big data, NatureQuant provides tools to fully leverage nature’s impact on well-being.
Our current “built environment” is dramatically different from the one we occupied for 99% of human history, as it physically separates us from the natural world. This means that humans are increasingly disconnected from nature, leading to a growing nature deficit.
As we have begun systematically studying the impact of this fundamental change, links between declining nature exposure and increasing depression, anxiety, disease, and obesity over the last five decades are becoming clear.
NatureQuant was formed to create a suite of patent-pending technologies that enhance the health impact of nature on humanity. Specifically, NatureQuant’s innovative tools quantify the natural elements for a static location (yielding a “NatureScore™”) and track an individual’s nature exposure over time via a mobile app (providing a “NatureDose™”).
Further, our technology is providing new intelligence around environmental determinants of health.
What led you to pursue this opportunity?
JH: NatureQuant saw a need to provide a counterbalance to the rapidly growing “technostress” and urban/indoor lifestyles.
Much like the 10K-step standard raised awareness around the importance of daily activity levels, NatureQuant’s mobile app, NatureDose, can help more people enjoy the therapeutic benefits of unplugging and getting outside more.
How did you turn your idea into a company?
JH: In partnership with numerous leading academic organizations around the world, NatureQuant started as a research platform that built novel technology to examine environmental determinants of health.
As the links between time outside in bio-diverse areas and health became clearer, the tools were repurposed to help governments, organizations, and individuals convey nature’s impact on health.
How do you reach your core customer?
JH: NatureQuant’s location intelligence tools (“NatureScore”) are used by governments and nonprofits, as well as in real estate analytics, corporate ESG, and healthcare applications.
The personal mobile application (“NatureDose”) can be delivered as an SDK, API, or other back-end integrations to any health and wellness platform, as well as through a stand-alone direct-to-consumer application.
While it’s silly to define a free commodity like nature as an addressable market, with a material impact on things like sleep, mental health, and preventable disease, NatureDose used as a tool for behavioral intervention could tap into a combined market worth $100B.
What’s next on the roadmap?
JH: We are looking for organizations that share our mission to improve health through nature exposure, helping individuals to #OptOutside.
We’re also excited to take this worldwide; NatureQuant will also be expanding into Europe in late 2024.
If you’re interested in having your company featured in our Startup Q&A series, send an email to team@fitt.co.
