13 Jun Nike accelerator companies may move to Portland
After a wildly successful demo day Monday, several of the 10 companies in the Nike+ Accelerator could make Portland home.
CoachBase CEO and founder Keith Rumjahn said after the event he wants to move his company from Hong Kong to the United States. Portland is at the top of his list.
Brent Gilmore, CEO and founder of Boston-based High Five, also has his eyes on Portland.
Rick Turoczy, a tech blogger and director of the Portland Incubator Experiment, tweeted this week about rumors of Nike accelerator companies moving to Portland.
Nike+ Accelerator Managing Director Dylan Boyd confirmed the speculation and said expect an announcement next week. He subsequently tweeted that “one of the teams from NYC” is looking for used office furniture to equip a new space.
Three of the 10 teams in the incubator — GoRecess, GoFitCause and Totem — have New York roots.
Boyd also tweeted about Totem possibly moving to some other incubator space in Portland.
It’s easy to see why the companies in the accelerator like Portland. It brims with cheap engineering talent and dozens of exciting young software companies.
TechStars, which partnered with Nike on the accelerator, also introduced the 10 companies to 300 mentors, a professional network that would be hard to match elsewhere.
The accelerator, which Nike announced in December, gave 10 startup companies a chance to build on Nike’s digital platform. Each company received $20,000 and an immersive three-month experience that included visits with mentors from Nike and other companies.
Roughly 800 attended Monday’s event. Several of the companies have made significant progress since the program started in March. Many have raised additional money from investors.