Nike veteran's brand Omorpho grew 743% in three years

Stefan Olander left Nike after more than two decades to start his own sportswear company, Omorpho, where he is founder and chief executive.

Inc. reports that the brand grew 743 per cent over three years. The magazine does not state which measure that figure applies to, or the years it covers.

Olander's Nike career included the company's partnership with Apple. He has said he took a design lesson from Steve Jobs during that work, according to Inc.

What the lesson was has not been reported in detail. Olander has described it as a constraint on how he designs product.

That is the whole of the public account at present. The company has not published revenue figures, headcount or funding alongside the growth number.

For founders, the useful part is the arithmetic rather than the pedigree. A 743 per cent increase sounds enormous and can still be a small business, because a percentage without a starting figure describes a shape, not a size.

The same caution applies to the growth claims founders make about their own companies. A number quoted without its base, its period and its unit is a number a buyer, an investor or a journalist will eventually ask about.

Olander's second act is worth watching for a plainer reason: 20 years inside the largest sportswear company in the world is an unusual apprenticeship for competing with it.