Jess Jorgensen

Foundress of Sporesight, a Social Enterprise / Independent Insight + Foresight Director / Speaker / Mycophile / Ex-Pernod Ricard Global Insight / NGO Board Vice Chair / Nature rights advocate / Love talking fungi

LINKEDIN ✉️ jess@sporesight.co 📌 London / Cape Town / remote 🧠 Contact for Media Bio or CV

LET’S WORK TOGETHER

Consultancy

My work is grounded in global cross-sector expertise, with a soft spot for the edges of culture. I’m known for imaginative, evidence-led, constructively provocative thinking that inspires and drives real world impact.

 

  • I can help you anticipate, imagine and prepare for the future, through applied strategic foresight and futures thinking. Incl: desk research and lit. review, trends, drivers for change, scenario planning and implications.

  • I can help you understand the current consumer, culture, natural environment or category, including developing frameworks such as Demand Spaces, Archetypes or the classic 2×2.

    Research + Insight support incl: Qual ethnography, depth interviews, online tasks, group moderation, expert engagement, netnography.

  • Leveraging Sporesight’s proprietary regenerative design principles, I can help you to inspire action off the back off insight and foresight work, integrating regenerative design thinking in product, innovation + systems design or program development.

  • Regions:

    • Global multi-market (one answer; regional nuance)

    • UK, US, Europe

    • Sub-Saharan Africa esp. South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

    Sectors:

    • Sustainability, B-Corp, Regenerative Design

    • Mushrooms, Fungi Innovation, Psychedelics

    • Food, Alcohol, Drinks

    • Health + Wellness

    • Medical Cannabis

    • Arts + Humanities

    • Gaming

    • Media

  • Invited speaker at regular marketing, research and strategy conferences, podcast shows (and one TV show).

    2025 + Keynote topics cover regenerative design, futures and fungi.

    2016-2019 Keynote topics covered innovative research methods, African youth cultures and emerging market trends.

Email or book a call to chat about working together.

Who I’ve worked with

Since 2006 I’ve had the opportunity to lead and design hundreds of fascinating insight and foresight studies informing brand strategy, innovation & programme design. Sadly, most of this work sits behind NDAs rather than open-sourced, but here is a selection of case studies, brands, companies, NGOs, agencies and entities that I’m proud to have worked with.

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38 Degrees
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  • Fungi as your Futurist toolkit

    Fungi as your Futurist

    Fungi as your Futurist is a free toolkit sharing 12 regenerative design principles, inspired by fungi. It invites you to be more like a mushroom, to imagine symbiotic futures for humans, our earthly home and our more-than-human neighbours. Access here.

    By: Sporesight + partners

  • SA Youth Report with UCT

    Project lead and a key contributor to South Africa’s biggest academic youth report in 2018. Led by the UCT Marketing Institute, instead of the standard go-to reporting on generational differences, we took 20 months to study 50% of South Africans under the age of 24, highlighting key insights for the future of South African youth.

    Ref: Youth Report 2018, Egan, P., Lappeman J., Jorgensen, J., Tembo, D.; University of Cape Town Institute for Strategic Marketing and Instant Grass International

  • Hodari Foundation - Board Vice Chair

    Hodari Foundation are a refugee-led non-profit supporting refugee self-sufficiency in south western Uganda, through mushroom farming, regenerative agriculture, education and enterprise development 🍄‍🟫🌿 I am proud to sit on the board in a pro-bono advisory role.

  • Talk: Our Fungal Futures

    Talk -- Our Fungal Futures: How mushrooms are shaping good futures

    Invited to share my mushroom tour journey at a 2025 monthly South London Mushroom Club gathering — a journey entangled with how fungi and nature are impacting our futures. Reach out to discuss presenting this at your workplace, for a dash of mush inspiration about shaping good futures!

  • Life Through a Gaming Lens

    Designed a proprietary in-game ethnography methodology to understand gaming mindsets, needs, motivations and behaviours first-hand. Along with a deep dive report scoping out the future of gaming tensions, we produced a 16 minute documentary — watch here!

    Agency: The Drop by BAMM
    Creative director: Tom Ford
    Ethnography support: Candice Jiang

  • The Bento Club podcast: How mushrooms can inspire better insights in global research

    “If mushrooms can grow from sh*t, so can your insights”. In conversation with Giulia Romano of Field Notes, about what market research and the insights community can learn from mushrooms.

    Listen here on The Bento Club podcast

  • Africa Day teaser image - a taste of what to expect

    Africa Day workshop at Jameson HQ

    A multi-media cultural experience diving into the African cultural context, new consumer and rules for engagement. The day inspired and educated Jameson brand teams in Dublin about their next big market, who their consumer is and how to win.

    Agency: Instant Grass International (now Culture Foundry Co.)
    Designer: Daniël Ferreira

  • Jess Jorgensen and Victoria Lauren on The Psychedelic Mindscape podcast

    The Psychedelic Mindscape podcast with Victoria Lauren

    “Jess shares her journey from a director of strategic and cultural insights to launching a futures company powered by nature. She discusses the motivations behind her career transition, emphasizing the importance of well-being, morality, and intrinsic motivation.

    Jess highlights the profound influence mushrooms have had on her thinking, particularly regarding organizational structures, sustainability, and ethical business practices.”

    Listen on Spotify / Watch on YouTube

Happy clients.

  • Jess is a superstar - the work she did for us at The Absolut Group was stella and I would highly recommend her as a freelancer.

    Jason Tagg, The Absolut Group

  • Jess is an exceptional professional whose contributions to our project were remarkably significant.Her ability to extract insights, engage with experts, conduct thorough analysis, and present the results was truly outstanding. She always offers a unique perspective, yet she is equally adept at listening and incorporating client feedback to refine her work.

    Patricio Colliers Pérez, The Coca Cola Company

  • Most naturally gifted, multi-skilled people live their lives being associated with terms like ‘jack of all trades and masters of none’. And then there’s a tiny contingent of people who’re actually masters of a wide variety of fundamental skills, in a way you just can’t emulate. Jess is one of those people. If you’re looking for a rare combination of raw yet sophisticated insight, you’ll never go wrong with Jess or the colleagues she manages.

    Dali Tembo, The Culture Foundry Co.

  • Working with Jess was an absolute pleasure. Despite the complexity of covering multiple topics in a short timeframe, Jess managed the discussion with great depth and clarity. She skillfully adapted the flow and interaction to suit each group, ensuring smooth, engaging sessions. What stood out most was her ability to offer insightful reflections grounded in broad expertise. Jess is a highly skilled moderator and a true insight partner.

    Convenience food brand

  • Jess is the very best - skills + passion in abundance. Couldn't recommend her highly enough.

    Matt Baker, BAMM Global

  • Jess is a great person to work with, she is always energized and ready to go. I admire her professionalism and her commitment to any project she embarks on. She is very creative and always with a hands-on approach. I have enjoyed working with her in multiple research projects we have done in Africa. She is an expert in consumer research and consumer market insights. She stands out with her expertise in merging the company strategy with the local market insights and consumer behavior.

    Gilbert Sakr, Red Bull

  • Jess has a knack for story telling. She is well versed in the categories she works in and adds tremendous expertise to the brand teams as a result. It was good working together to give strategic input to our brands at a local as well as an international level.

    Kuhle Belu, Pernod Ricard

  • What stands out is Jess’s profound passion and curiosity about people and culture, particularly on the African continent. She digs deep to find out what makes people tick and continually questions assumptions to uncover real truths about people.

    Honore Gasa, The Storyteller’s Workshop

We talk about

How to become fungal.
How to organise like mycelium.
How fungi are impacting our futures. 
How mushrooms have a branding issue.
Decentralising foresight, just like fungi.
Rot & regeneration: The light & the dark of mushrooms.
Why fungi are the ultimate futurists.
What mushrooms can teach us about futures.
And what they can teach us being good brands / good researchers.

Jess bio

Jess Jorgensen helps decision-makers shape good futures by tuning into fungi and nature’s intelligence. A foresight strategist with two decades in global insights, she’s helped 200+ brands to consciously consider people and our futures. After two years exploring mushroom culture worldwide, she now advises and serves on the HODARI Foundation Board while running Sporesight. UK & ZA based.

WORLD MUSHROOM TOUR

2021 + ongoing exploratory research tour. 100+ interviews and counting. No set objective or destination. Interspecies ethnography, exploring impact of humans x fungi on each other. Following mycelium, from one interview to the next. Mushrooms became more than subject matter; they are my teacher, guide, partner.

Formal education + training

  • 2025 — CIFS Applied Strategic Foresight — Copenhagen — Applying futures studies and foresight methodologies to specific societal and business challenges.

  • 2022 — Market Research Society — London — Masterclass course in Applied Semiotics, on using cultural insight in to unlock strategy; including semiotics for .meaning-making.

  • 2021 — Market Research Society — London — Learning how to create and package insight recommendations to spread beyond your client’s desktop and throughout their business.

  • 2019 — Training and Resources in Research Ethics Evaluation — Online — Globally recognised training and resources in research ethics, ethics evaluation, informed consent, as well as specific African market requirements.

  • 2003-2006 — Red & Yellow Creative School of Business — Cape Town — Diploma course in creative advertising, marketing and graphic design.