Accelerators in Enterprise: Nike+ and Techstars Demo Day
Big companies are notorious for moving slow and lacking innovation. Some companies try to triage this by creating "Labs", where a handful of people are tasked with "doing cool stuff that may be able to help the goals of the company". These groups are often treated like separate companies with their own budget, and in the case of Zappos Labs, don't event sit in the same city as the parent company. Another way to rapidly innovate, is by buying companies with innovative technologies or "acquire" established creative development teams.Â
With the recent success of some of the top accelerators like Ycombinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars it's not surprising that an innovative enterprise company like Nike might want to do an accelerator of their own. It's a win/win all the way through. The companies that get accepted get access to capital and distribution channels they desperately need, and Nike gets top tier innovators helping their employees think outside the box while getting a bit of equity in these promising startups that align with their company goals.
Nike partnered with Techstars to bring 10 teams to work for three months at Nikes' HQ in Portland, OR to work with Nike and Techstars mentors to build and iterate on their products. They are the first companies in the world to work with Nike's new API and were given advice from 200+ mentors that ranged from people at NIke, TS mentors , folks at other companies like Apple and Google. Lots of information and opinions were thrown at them in a short amount of time and they had to digest, make decisions in implement rapidly to come up with what we are about to see.
 With out further ado, here is a recap of the 10 companies that just 'graduated':
Chroma:Â An active gaming studio that creates virtual worlds tied to real-world activity.
CoachBase: A platform that modernizes the coachâs clipboard with an interactive digital playbook together with digital training and instruction.
FitCause: A social giving platform empowering individuals to turn everyday movement into a charitable donation.
FitDeck:Â Digital decks of exercise playing cards that deliver ever-changing workouts for fitness and sports.
GeoPalz:Â A gaming peripheral that captures kidsâ real-life physical activity and converts it into digital coins, game tokens and rewards.
GoRecess:Â A one-stop destination that helps people find, book and review fitness classes and activities.
HighFive: A mobile rewards platform that gives users unique and customized rewards for physical activity and healthy choices, at just the right moment.Â
NextStep.io: A dashboard that simplifies the connection between the quantified self and the rest of your life.
Sprout: An enterprise app that inspires employees to get ïŹt and empowers employers with tools to manage and measure wellness.
Totem: A new way to discover and share your next adventure.