PermaGuide: Where We Are and What’s Next

Mid-Year Community Update — 15 June 2025

PermaGuide Joins the Makers Home Impact Startup Programm

Good news, friends: on 15 June we learned that PermaGuide has been accepted into Batch 4 of the Impact Startup Programm run by Makers Home in Neumarkt, Bavaria, Germany. The five-month accelerator is built for mission-driven ventures; its mentors, peer circles and Community Weeks are all geared toward real-world impact, not quick exits. We are thrilled to have been selected to participate. It’s a perfect fit because…

PermaGuide: a community project at heart

PermaGuide isn’t a classic start-up chasing hockey-stick growth—it’s a social business shaped by its community. Our guiding ethics mirror those of permaculture itself: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share—a reminder that every decision should nurture the planet, support one another and give back more than we take.

This spirit means that we are building with you, not for you. At this point, we would like to say a big thank you to everyone who is supporting us in this initial phase. We really appreciate it. We have already achieved a lot together and look forward to taking the next steps with you.

What we’ve already achieved

• Turned a sketch on a whiteboard into a working site in under twelve months.

• Built an all-remote volunteer team that collaborates across five time zones.

• Drafted outlines for our first five hands-on courses (soil life, seed saving, DIY solar and more).

• Designed a prototype listing tool for work-and-travel opportunities, inspired by networks such as WWOOF, to connect learners with regenerative farms worldwide.

Where we are today

• MVP finished, closed beta live. Fifty early testers joined in the last three months and helped us squash the most noticeable bugs.

• Platform foundations stable. Sign-up, community features and group shells are running smoothly.

Your feedback so far was mostly technical (“this button label is confusing; that link is broken; cannot connect to other users; cannot send messages”). That is exactly what our beta was for. The smoother the basics, the more energy we can pour into creating the content library you actually need.

What’s next

The next—and most important—step is our three-minute Content & Features Survey (live from 1 July). It asks where we should pour our energy first: expanding online courses and live webinars, adding more hands-on opportunities like work-and-travel projects and regional workshops, strengthening community forums and local networks, or deepening the news and how-to section with fresh articles and success stories. Your answers will decide the order—so please jump in, spread the word, and help steer PermaGuide’s roadmap.

How you can help right now

• Fill in the content survey (update: click here) and tell what to do next.

• Continue poking around the beta and hit the feedback button whenever something feels rough (click here for free sign up).

• Nominate a host site for the upcoming work-and-travel board (click here and fill the form).

• Share PermaGuide with a friend who loves practical sustainability—our best growth comes from people who care. Sharing is caring.