I did not create The Garden
to build companies.
Elmire van Tongeren
Founder. Investor. Gardener.
Why I created The Garden
I created it because, after more than twenty years of working alongside founders, investors and leaders, and as both an entrepreneur and an investor myself, I realized that the greatest challenges in venture building are rarely strategic.
They are human.
The strongest partnerships are not built on capital alone, but on trust, reciprocity and a shared understanding of who we are and what we are trying to create together.
The Garden emerged from a simple belief:
People need to understand themselves before deciding what they build and who they build it with.
My Journey
For more than two decades, I have worked alongside founders, CEOs and leadership teams across healthcare, technology and innovation.
As an entrepreneur, I understand the courage it takes to build something from nothing.
As an investor, I understand the responsibility that comes with believing in another person’s vision.
Having experienced both perspectives, I have seen that the greatest opportunities—and the greatest challenges—rarely come from the business itself.
They emerge from the relationships between the people building it.
Over time, I realized that my work was never truly about building companies.
It was about creating the conditions in which people can flourish.
Why The Garden exists
The Garden was born from the belief that founders and investors should meet
one another not only through financial ambition, but through a deeper understanding
of who they are, what they value and the future they want to create together.
Because alignment is not the destination.
Alignment is the soil.