Founder’s Story

For our founder, it’s been a calling since she was born,

even while growing up in one of the densest cities in the world. I was raised in Hong Kong, but amidst the concrete jungle, we were also surrounded by the mountains and sea — both never more than thirty minutes away from all the places I had called home.

Later, through art and poetry, I began to understand that connection more clearly. My AP Art Portfolio told the story of a girl who felt empty living in a material world until she stepped into the ocean, where she was reborn as part of the natural world. In the final piece, she became a tree. I was painting myself, though at the time, I hadn’t fully understood the message.

Still that search for meaning never left. At university, I discovered biomimicry, cradle-to-cradle design, and zero-waste principles. For me, design was never about making beautiful objects, but about solving problems for the people and planet. For my thesis, I spent weeks studying kids at school and in their lunch halls. What I saw was SAD — figuratively and literally, the Standard American Diet — and mountains of disposable packaging, and habits that felt disconnected from our healthy essence.

I didn’t have the answers, but I tried to design a system where scraps could be upcycled into biodegradable (and even edible) plates. I called it MATAWA: Matters of Taste and Waste. Some professors dismissed it as unfinished. In a way, it was incomplete. The project proposed a community wide collaboration with local cafes and stores while introducing a collection system for raw fruit and veggie compost that would be sent to a facility where the transformation happened. It was a design proposal that was never implemented. For years, I carried that project quietly like a failure.

Even after graduation, I wrestled with how to turn that calling into real-world impact. I didn’t want to add to our growing waste problems, so I turned to biotechnology, believing that healing human health could also heal the planet. But I was constantly burnt out, and something kept nudging at me, reminding me I wasn’t where I was meant to be despite climbing the career ladder with a lot of promotions in a short span of time.

By 2023, I broke down and took the gap year I never had to heal and rediscover myself. I volunteered and immersed myself in the work of farmers, local communities, and conservationists. It was there that I began to truly understand the scale of the challenges we face: how our ways of living pollute and destroy our world while leaving those who sustain us and protect ecosystems more vulnerable than ever.

But I also witnessed firsthand how regenerative agriculture restores soil health, nurtures biodiversity, and protects our land and water. I discovered that it’s not just a method of farming, but a way of living in harmony with nature. I had also found power in community through all the incredible humans I met along the way whose love for our planet was far stronger than profit or greed. It gave me a lot of hope and courage to set out on a wild ambition to regenerate our planet through our daily rituals. Wilde was born from a deep love for our planet and a longing to preserve it for generations to come. And when I say I love it, no words, no love letter, could ever capture the depth of that feeling, except through the true art of caring for this planet.

It means a lot that you’re still here, so thank you for reading this letter. I hope you will be part of our Wilde Expedition in regenerating our planet, together.

With love,

Ocean Jen