Tana Hoffman has started a new adventure collective helping women find their outdoor friends
New to town and looking for some pals to shred with? Or are you a super local wanting to get out in the woods and explore more? Maybe you’re somewhere in between. ILLA is a first-of-its-kind matching platform for connecting women in the outdoors.
ILLA was founded by Tana Hoffman in February of 2022. It launched as a pilot in Jackson Hole this past summer, followed by a public beta test in Denver. As the platform continues to scale, it will be accessible throughout the country.
Tana is a hard-working super-connector and multifaceted entrepreneur. She is constantly evolving and thinks the way we connect should be too. First, she earned her chops in the outdoor industry through positions with Teton Gravity Research and Winter Park Resort in Colorado. Next, Tana founded Mountainist, a revolutionary e-commerce store for womens outdoor gear rentals. She then took all that knowledge and used it as a springboard for ILLA.
A little over a year ago, Tana joined VF Corporation, the parent company of Vans, The North Face, Smartwool, and others. She was one of two young founders selected to join the inaugural VF Venture Foundry Fellowship. This program is designed to equip next-generation outdoor entrepreneurs with the tools, resources, and guidance to build and scale their ideas.
“A few months later, I was invited to become an Entrepreneur in Residence, to take ILLA from a concept to reality, and build out the companion app MVP with investment support from VF Venture Foundry,” Tana told us.
Tana knows what it’s like to be a newcomer to intimidating sports like backcountry snowboarding, snowmobiling, and dirt biking. She knows how hard it can be to find adventure buddies on a similar level and those willing to let you into their crew. Her experiences working and being a part of the outdoor and tech industries lit the spark for ILLA.
With partnership perks for members on the horizon, it’s a good time to get into the ILLA community. Right now, women are using the ILLA app to make plans to shred tomorrow and hit up the hot springs after. So why wait to build friendships and explore? Forget swiping for randoms: Build your own adventure instead.
Interested in checking out ILLA? Head to weareilla.com and get started.
– HH
Heather Hendricks was recently promoted to CMO of @ILLAwomen…. She thinks her new title means ‘Creator of Mountains of Opportunities’