Just shy of two years after the company announced a move to Denver, global apparel giant VF Corp. is looking to tap into the local innovation scene with a new incubator program designed to support budding entrepreneurs.
This time last year, as the company was officially opening its new local office, Kent Bassett said VF began crafting the ideas that would ultimately become VF’s Venture Foundry.
Bassett, who heads up the new innovation effort, said the company was seeing the trends caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and was looking for a new avenue to complement its base brand portfolio.
VF was also feeling the growing momentum stemming from Denver’s startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
“I think a little bit of the move to Denver precipitated this as well. Given the talent base and growing startup space in Denver, we felt like Venture Foundry was a great idea,” Bassett said.
The incubator was designed with two primary goals: to innovate on new business models and to develop a venture platform to back promising ideas in four different target areas. Those target areas include health and self, marketplaces, sustainable and conscientious living, and virtual goods and experiences.
“We wanted to develop and invest in opportunities that go beyond VF’s current planning cycle,” Bassett said. “We’re trying to identify opportunities that we can eventually shape to VF’s advantage.”
The incubator recently launched its first program to attract talent, an entrepreneur-in-residence challenge that will ultimately lead to winners working within Venture Foundry.
VF is looking for entrepreneurs with early-stage technology ideas that offer new business models, services, platforms or experiences and generate revenue for its brands. Bassett said he hopes to draw in founders with previous startup experience that will be able to tap into VF’s resources to build on an idea.
After submissions close on July 12, VF will select a group of applicants to make in-person pitches in Denver in August. From there, winners will be selected and invited into the Venture Foundry incubator.
Once selected, they’ll receive a stipend, funding to research and develop their idea, along with access to VF’s various brands and resources to help with commercialization.
While winners won’t be required to move to Denver, Bassett is hopeful local companies will be able to take advantage of VF’s RiNo lab space to potentially develop their idea.
As it makes a push into the local entrepreneurship scene, VF will also take the main stage this October as a sponsor of Denver Startup Week’s Pitch Competition. With that and the new entrepreneurial challenge, Bassett said to expect to see more out of Venture Foundry in the future.
“We’re early days in this, but eventually we’re trying to build that flywheel where we get perpetual idea flow, deal flow and entrepreneurial flow that wants to come in and work for Venture Foundry and create ideas to push out to consumers to solve problems,” he said.
