Founded Outdoors is your strategic partner in growing the outdoor economy. We offer expertise to ensure your efforts in supporting outdoor businesses achieve meaningful results.

Our Services

We work with partners to evaluate the needs of local/state outdoor business owners and the current landscape of support through interviews and surveys. Based on our assessment, we recommend initiatives, including in the areas of educational training, mentorship-network building, financing, and promotion.
Our accelerators are multi-month long programs based on a structured curriculum. Accelerators typically include weekly business-building workshops, office hours with domain experts, fireside chats with mature entrepreneurs, and peer groups for group problem solving. Stage and type of partnership is determined with our partner.
We design and facilitate workshops on a variety of business-building topics. Our workshops are created specifically with outdoor entrepreneurs and the outdoor consumer in mind. The Founded Outdoors team typically teaches the workshop or, for particularly niche topics, may work with an outside expert to lead the instruction.
Founded Outdoors works with partners to facilitate pitch events, including pitch showcases. In addition to spearheading the event, the Founded Outdoors team provides instruction and 1:1 support to entrepreneurs to prepare them to pitch.
To support aspiring entrepreneurs and folks who are just getting started building their businesses, Founded Outdoors offers a New Business Launch Series. The series includes multiple workshops (in person or virtual) on: Business Concept Ideation; Identifying Your Customer; Evaluating Your Business Concept; Developing the Founder Mindset

Who We Partner with

State Outdoor Recreation Offices & Business Alliances

Work with us to boost the local economy by building resources and programming to support operating outdoor recreation businesses, catalyze new outdoor businesses, and attract outdoor entrepreneurs to your region.

Partner with us to support emerging brand vendors and offer your customers the latest innovative products. Build trust with small brands so they come to you first.

Established Outdoor Retailers

We partner with industry associations to design programs that elevate outdoor businesses and boost brand awareness of your organization in the outdoor business community.

Industry Associations

Case Studies

Embark, a collaboration with REI Co-op Path Ahead Ventures, is a 3-month accelerator program. We’ve run three cohorts through the program and have worked with a total of 66 entrepreneurs. Additionally, together, we facilitate workshop series on launching a business, marketing, sales, and financing. We’re also developing business benchmarking reports.
In partnership with MOB, we designed three workshop series on marketing, wholesale, and financing. Additionally, to catalyze more outdoor businesses in the state, we designed a “New Business Series” series for aspiring Maine outdoor entrepreneurs on how to generate business ideas, get customer feedback, and test their product concepts.
In partnership with MEDC and the Michigan Outdoor Industry Office, we facilitated a product development and production needs assessment survey, designed multiple workshops and created content on manufacturing, and facilitated 1:1 introductions between outdoor businesses and factories.