Discover Bend Outdoor Worxs Ninth Cohort

Nurturing the Next Wave of Outdoor Innovation in Central Oregon

Bend Outdoor Worx (BOW), Central Oregon's outdoor industry accelerator, has unveiled the four startup companies chosen to participate in its ninth cohort. Since its inception in 2014, BOW has been instrumental in identifying and nurturing the unique potential of outdoor product companies through comprehensive discovery meetings, business analysis, and tailored curriculum. BOW pinpoints the needs of each company, providing guidance from both founders and an extended mentor group. The accelerator further aids these companies by linking them with crucial resources for success, including legal assistance, financial planning, marketing, logistics, sales, digital marketing, and product development.

The ninth cohort, hailing from locations around the West Coast and featuring an array of innovative outdoor products, include:

• Aeronaut Outdoor (Ventura, California) - Warm and comfortable camping quilts.
• Ahoya Life (Bend, Oregon) – Durable, inflatable float tubes for aquatic adventures.
• Rustek Collective (Portland, Oregon) – Creators of the most sustainable hats on earth
• Ryoken Instinct (Seattle, Washington) - Pre-scored energy recovery bars for active dogs

Gary Bracelin, co-founder of Bend Outdoor Worx, expressed his excitement about the new cohort, saying, "Each year, the talent and innovation we see in our accelerator program inspires us and this year’s group is diverse and exciting. We’re excited about their creative, forward-thinking ideas and look forward to collaborating and growing together."

The founding team of BOW, composed of Gary Bracelin, Will Blount, Justin Rae and Eric Meade, brings together a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to the outdoor industry. This foundation, coupled with the support from strategic partners like White-Summers Law, Price Fronk & Co, LLP, the Relativity Agency, and Algofy Outdoors, ensures that BOW's cohorts have access to top-tier resources and guidance.

BOW's Manifesto:

We're dreamers, radicals, achievers, believers, and vanguards with a shared belief and a common goal.  We're an independent organization with independent spirit - and we love the outdoors. We embrace the unpredictable nature and the grit it takes to navigate the hurdles and obstacles in our industry. In fact, we enjoy it. We're fearless, but we value vulnerability. We encourage risk, but we support solid strategy. We're not even remotely interested in the status quo.  We're interested in lending our expertise, our stories, and our respect for the crazy-but-we-love-it volatility of the outdoor industry to help our companies adapt, adjust, and achieve. We're here to lead outdoor industry entrepreneurs.

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