Connecting
with the wild

Wild Around is an impact initiative created by Elena Goldberg, an entrepreneur, venture builder, filmmaker, and applied research leader working at the intersection of wildlife, technology, business, and storytelling.

Inspired by her experiences in Costa Rica, India, South Africa, the United States, Russia, Rwanda, Uganda, and other parts of the world as well as a volunteering experience with a Siberian tiger conservation project in The Netherlands, Elena became interested in a central question: how can we reconnect people with wildlife in a modern, capitalist, and increasingly technological world?

Her work focuses on building applied projects that make wildlife-related initiatives sustainable and beneficial both for their creators and for wildlife from conservation technologies, research, and education to ethical tourism and responsible wildlife observation. She is also interested in the systems behind wildlife exploitation, including wildlife trafficking, trade, and the political and economic structures that enable them.

Storytelling and awareness are central to this approach. As a filmmaker, Elena explores how stories can change the way people perceive wildlife, expose exploitation, and rebuild connections with the natural world. She has also served on the Board of Advisers of the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, contributing to the intersection of conservation, environmental impact, and visual storytelling.

Her interests extend to animal cognition, anthropomorphism, and the evolution of consciousness, exploring what other minds can teach us about human consciousness, its evolutionary relationship with the natural world, and the broader question of whether artificial systems could ever become conscious.

Wild Around brings these directions together by connecting people, ideas, research, technology, capital, and storytelling to turn them into practical projects with real-world impact.