Co-Founders' Letter: Brightseed's Evolution & Leadership Change

A Letter from Brightseed's Co-Founders: 

Seven years ago, we founded Brightseed to illuminate nature’s answers to health. To do so we built Forager®, an AI that finds bioactives and delivers these answers to customers. Brightseed has won multiple awards and recently Forager was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024.

Today, we have an announcement to share as we mark a fundamental evolution of Brightseed: we are transforming Forager from a research tool that enables custom discovery programs into an automated scientific AI platform. Forager will soon power an external-facing platform that can deliver on-demand insights into thousands of predicted bioactives with a user-friendly interface. Our objective is simple: deliver value from the world's largest natural compound library more seamlessly to our customers. 

To lead this evolution, Lee Chae, formerly our Chief Technology and Operations Officer, will assume the role of CEO as Jim Flatt retires from Brightseed and becomes a Strategic Advisor. Sofia Elizondo is stepping into the President and Chief Commercial Officer role to shepherd our growth. 

Lee’s innovative vision and extensive AI experience will guide Brightseed into its next phase of expansion and technological transformation oriented towards the needs of our customers. This transformation will allow customers more direct access to Forager’s data and proprietary insights. With this hands-on access, companies can build and iterate their AI strategy using Forager and use its deep knowledge to solve their product innovation needs.

Brightseed Bioactives remain a critical component of our business and are key proof points of Forager’s capabilities. We will continue to commercialize select products from our bioactive ingredient pipeline. 

To support this new direction we will adjust our operating model and restructure our organization. We are energized by the possibilities ahead and excited to keep pushing the boundaries of uncovering nature’s answers to health. Thank you to our community of customers, partners, supporters, and fellow Bioactivists for being a part of our journey.

Jim Flatt, Lee Chae and Sofia Elizondo

November 13, 2024 – San Francisco, CA