“When wellness is tended, it grows.”
Donna Letier
Co-Founder and CEO
Gardenuity
… ringing the Nasdaq closing bell in Times Square to cap off Wellness Week.
A Dallas company closed out Nasdaq’s Wellness Week celebration—and the markets—on Friday.
“Being invited into this conversation actually signals something important,” Gardenuity CEO Donna Letier said from the podium. “Wellbeing doesn’t really live in dashboards and data.”
Lee Hixson, Nasdaq’s Vice President and Head of Listings Operations, set the stage from the exchange’s flagship studio at 4 Times Square, at 43rd and Broadway, where bell-ringing ceremonies are held.
“As part of Nasdaq Wellness Week, we’re proud to celebrate innovators, shapers, people advancing future human performance, preventative health, and everyday wellbeing,” Hixson said, introducing Gardenuity co-founders Letier and Julie Eggers.
“Today, we are so honored to close the markets this week with Gardenuity, a company transforming the way we bring nature into daily life and work,” Hixson said.
Letier, who co-founded the company in 2017 with Eggers, described what sets Gardenuity apart in the crowded wellness space.
“For years, we treated wellness as something we measure,” she said. “What we’re learning now is it’s something we tend.”
Donna Letier, Gardenuity co-founder and CEO, at the Nasdaq MarketSite: “Gardening isn’t about perfection. It’s about participation, just like wellness isn’t a destination, it’s a journey.” [Screenshot: Nasdaq MarketSite video]
“Gardening today doesn’t require a big yard, experience, or a whole lot of time,” Letier told the crowd. “It’s just a willingness to participate. Doesn’t matter if you’re in a high-rise, a brownstone, a wheelchair, or by the water.”
Gardenuity’s proprietary Match Technology pairs customers with customized container gardens based on their ZIP code, local weather forecasts, and seasonal conditions, as Dallas Innovates has reported.
The platform has celebrated over 5 million harvests nationwide and worked with more than 500 companies—from Google to Cigna—to bring gardening experiences to their employees, the company says on LinkedIn. In 2023, the company announced that Gardenuity is available through major health insurance and benefits providers including Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, and Aetna.
At Nasdaq, Letier made the case for why the approach works.
“We reward consistency, not urgency, and that turns out to matter deeply to human performance,” she said. “When we work with our hands and touch the soil, our nervous system settles and shifts out of constant urgency.”
Also in 2023, Gardenuity raised $5.5 million in seed funding, bringing total funding to $7.5 million to expand the company’s products and technology.
Gardenuity Board Chairman Scott Letier—Donna’s husband, who is also chairman of Xerox Holdings and managing director of Deason Capital—watched as she rang the bell. He later shared the moment on LinkedIn, crediting co-founder Eggers and the team “who have built this great vision.”
“A garden doesn’t rush its season. It trusts it,” Donna Letier said. “And no technology can replace the experience of putting your hands in soil.”
For more of who said what about all things North Texas, check out Every Last Word.
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