“In an exploratory call with forest, I really felt like somebody understood my work. Every time I shared an initiative, forest bounced it back with a model that gave me a picture telling me they understood my words. It was empathy, through their model, that let me understand that they are understanding me—and that gave me energy to share more.

When people only use words to come back to me with their understanding, that reciprocation is not always present. When I share with forest and they are able to put my vision into a model and communicate that back to me—that tells me they got me.

The model makes it much easier. Whenever I am sharing any idea, any concept, I basically have a model in my head without words, and I am trying to put words to it so that I can communicate that model. So, if someone can catch my model, that's a big deal. forest's work is to bring that model in my head, which is invisible to others, out to the world. I am sure forest's work is going to make a big difference in the world out there!"

Ashish Arora
Bringing inner-work to founders and startup ecosystems

“I've had the opportunity to experience forest chaffee's work, and what stands out most is their rare ability to make complex systemic shifts feel both intuitive and deeply human.

In recent pieces on systemic investing and community land trusts, forest didn't just explain alternative models, they made visible the transition between paradigms. They bring people into that "third space" where we can move from conventional ways of thinking into more relational, systems-based understanding with clarity and care.

What is often abstract or difficult to grasp becomes embodied through their storytelling. They create access not only intellectually, but viscerally, which is exactly what is needed in this moment. Many people sense that current systems are no longer working, but lack the language or felt sense of what comes next. forest helps illuminate those pathways.

Their work supports a kind of remembering, reconnecting us to our innate capacity to think in systems and to engage with complexity in a grounded, meaningful way.

I'm grateful to be in this field of emergence alongside them and would highly recommend forest to anyone working at the intersection of systems change, storytelling, and regenerative futures.”

Marianne Wyne. Founder & Chief Operating Officer for ThePivot.Earth