Wildwood Ventures

Wildwood Ventures Research Investment Thesis Wildwood Ventures is the first venture studio focused on the outdoor and wellness industries, backed by VF Corporation — a global leader in outdoor and active lifestyle brands including The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Dickies, Supreme, Altra, Smartwool, and Icebreaker. Founded in May 2023 by David Wagner and Jesse Marble, Wildwood builds and invests in early-stage consumer technology companies addressing America's health and wellness crisis. Their core belief is that connection, movement, and time outside are essential solutions to challenges created by technology — sedentary living, addiction, loneliness, and burnout. They target a $1 trillion U.S. market opportunity at the intersection of outdoor recreation and wellness economies. Wildwood operates as a venture studio, meaning they take a more hands-on approach than traditional VC — often incubating companies from concept stage and providing operational support during formation before making follow-on investments as companies gain traction. Sector Focus Wildwood organizes investments around five key themes: Improve My Health : AI diagnostics, preventive care, nervous system health, chronic condition management Explore & Move : Outdoor recreation, sustainable travel, national parks tech Train & Play : Fitness, sports accessibility, athlete wellbeing Connect With My People : Relationship platforms, community building Focus My Mind & Spirit : Mental clarity, meditation, mindfulness tools Stage Focus Wildwood invests at the earliest stages: Pre-Seed and Seed. As a venture studio, they frequently build companies from scratch and serve as the first institutional capital. They occasionally participate in follow-on rounds for portfolio companies. Check Size Wildwood invests between $10K and $500K per deal, consistent with their pre-seed/seed studio model. Their venture studio structure means initial investments can be very small (company formation stage), scaling up as companies demonstrate traction. Lead Tendency Wildwood typically leads or co-leads rounds in their portfolio companies. Given their studio model, they are often the founding investor and take an active role in company creation. Their Onrise investment was co-led with Crescent Ridge Partners. Recent Activity Wildwood has been actively deploying from their Active Studio Fund I: August 2025 : Led seed round in Onrise (athlete mental health), co-led with Crescent Ridge Partners September 2025 : Invested in Perx Health (digital care management for chronic conditions) January 2025 : Invested in SparkSponsor July 2024 : Seed round investment in Mostest 2024 : Investments in Flowcart (6th investment) and Outway (5th investment) August 2023 : Added Chimani to portfolio (4th company) 2023 : Initial portfolio of Out & Back Outdoor, Kinsa Active, and Roots The fund is actively deploying and seeking new opportunities, with reported performance metrics of 15% net IRR and 2.63x investment multiple. Portfolio Highlights Wildwood's portfolio of approximately 16 companies spans health, wellness, outdoor recreation, and related consumer technology: Onrise (onrise.care): Athlete-specific mental health platform providing peer support from retired athletes and licensed clinicians. Partners with USWNTPA, PWHL, PLL, and MLS teams. Achieved 36-340% year-over-year utilization growth. Perx Health (perxhealth.com): Digital care management for high-risk chronic condition patients, delivering 96% adherence rates. Raised $6.43M total. Meo Health (meohealth.com): Nervous system training app with AI coaching for IBS and chronic conditions. 90-day structured program with HRV tracking. Chimani (chimani.com): Consumer app helping people maximize their national and state park experiences. Mostest (joinmostest.com): Social/community platform. Out and Back Outdoor (outandbackoutdoor.com): Outdoor recreation company. Kinsa Active (kinsaactive.com): Active lifestyle/fitness company. Roots (getroots.app): Wellness app. Flowcart (flowcart.com): Consumer technology. Outway (outway.io): Outdoor/active lifestyle. Team David Wagner, Founder & Managing Partner : Former EVP at VF Corporation where he served on the Executive Leadership Team for 6 years across a 17-year tenure. Worked across nearly all VF brands in Colorado, North Carolina, and Switzerland in strategy, consumer insights, innovation, new ventures, and purpose. Prior experience in private equity and consulting. Educated at UNC Chapel Hill and Harvard. Jesse Marble, Founder & Partner : Co-founder working across all of Wildwood including growth, founder sourcing and advising, and investor relations. Amy Maher, Principal, Head of Product : Product leadership across portfolio companies. David Krasny, Principal, Head of Growth : Growth strategy for portfolio companies. Jess Rusin, CTO : Technical leadership for the venture studio. Nick Thomas, Principal, Head of Builds : Leads company building/incubation efforts. Rita Herzog, Investment Associate : Investment analysis and deal support. Kristen Gendron, Principal : Portfolio company support. Advisory board includes Kevin Bailey (Global Brand President, Vans), Melanie Strong (Partner, Next Ventures), and Cassie Abel (Founder, Wild Rye). Decision Process Wildwood operates as a small partnership with David Wagner as Managing Partner and Jesse Marble as Partner. Given the venture studio model, decisions involve deep operational engagement rather than traditional pitch-and-vote processes. The team of ~10 works closely with founders from concept through execution. Founder Preferences Wildwood seeks founders building consumer technology that addresses health, wellness, outdoor recreation, and human connection challenges. They favor founders with domain expertise in health/wellness and those whose products can leverage VF Corporation's brand portfolio and distribution channels. Their pitch competition partnership with Venture Fuel suggests openness to early-stage founders who may still be refining their concepts. Geographic Focus Headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Primary investment focus is the United States, though not explicitly limited geographically. VF Corporation's global brand presence (including operations in Europe and Switzerland) provides potential international reach for portfolio companies.