OUR MENTORS

Melanie Strong

Managing Partner at Next Ventures, Sports and Wellness VC

mentors-header

Mel spent over 17 years at Nike, leading international marketing teams across running, women’s, soccer/football and training. She worked on all of Nike’s digital sports and tracking products, advised their new business incubator Valiant Labs, and was most recently vice president and general manager for their skateboarding business. Today Mel is managing partner at Next Ventures, a VC fund investing in innovative health, sports and wellness companies. She sits on the board of performance brand PowerDot and sports media group Pocket Outdoor Media, and is an advisor for photography app VSCO. And she's an advisory board member for Women in Sports Tech and Outdoor Afro. Mel and her husband also run a mountain bike tour guiding company in Hood River, Oregon.

Involvement :

GO-TO-EXPERT, KICKSTARTER, PINCH HITTER

Expertise :

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNICATION & PR, HEALTH & LIFESTYLE, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, SPORTS

SPORTS :

ADVENTURE & EXTREME SPORTS, CYCLING, FITNESS & WORKOUT, RUNNING