Where Emerging Outdoor Brands Come to Connect & Grow.

4 people talking at outside entrepreneur networking event
3 people smiling at the camera around table at outside entrepreneur networking event
10 people posing together for the camera at Big Gear How
8 sitting at table talking to each other at outside entrepreneur networking event
9 Embark Program Alumni smiling at camera outside at entrepreneur networking event
Woman presenting to a crowd around her at Embark happy hour with mentors

A group of founders invested in each other’s success.

Building a company can be challenging and isolating, requiring you to juggle many roles and deal with constant uncertainty. We created this community to help you feel supported, connected, and informed on your founder journey. And it’s free to join!

  • Our Slack group has over 450+ outdoor founders from across the country. It's a place to share knowledge and resources with other folks taking the outdoor founder path.

  • We host ongoing workshops on Zoom on important business-building topics. Our past workshops have included everything from sourcing and manufacturing to financing.

  • Every quarter an established founder joins our community to share lessons learned and best practices from their business building experience.

  • On a quarterly basis, we bring in investors, buyers, or other domain experts to answer our community members specific questions.

  • In peer groups, our members share current challenges or areas where they feel stuck for the group to problem solve together.

  • We gather the community in person as often as possible, including at happy hours during industry trade shows and at local community-member-led meetups.

Yvonne Leow Headshot

“Founded Outdoors has been a game-changer for the outdoor industry. Prior to starting Bewilder, I spent over a decade working in digital journalism. I had zero connections in the outdoor industry. I’m now on the board of Together Outdoors, and I have an incredible community of outdoor founders.”

Yvonne Leow, Founder of Bewilder

“Founded Outdoors has enabled me to connect with like-minded small business founders so we can easily work together on solving common problems. And it’s done in a very convenient way that values my limited time. I wish I’d had this when we were starting up years ago.”

Niki Singlaub, Founder of Hydaway

Criteria to Join

Founders/Owners

You founded and/or currently own and operate an outdoor recreation business.

Your business sells or is building a product or service that equips people in their lives outdoors, increases access to nature, or inspires more people to get outside.

We aren’t currently accepting freelancers providing services to outdoor businesses.

Outdoor Business

You're beyond the “thinking about it stage” and are working on your business for at least 5 hours a month.

Currently Operating