David Nelems is a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in four different startups. He is currently the VP of Innovation at the Don Ryan Center for Innovation. He sole task is to help new and early stage companies in Bluffton and the surrounding area grow and thrive.
Prior to this he was working with Elongator Tailgates. A DRCI Graduate. This company manufactures a revolutionary, one of a kind product that breaks new ground in the truck accessory space.
Before that he had a 5-year stint in the public sector as the CEO of the Don Ryan Center for Innovation. A Bluffton-based incubator that is chartered by the Town of Bluffton to help grow early stage companies in Bluffton and the surrounding region. In five years 35 companies went through the program.
His greatest success came from a private sector company called ActiveGroup. This company provided video-streaming services to the marketing research industry. This technology enabled marketing clients to view their focus-groups in nearly 450 different locations in real-time, eliminating the need for clients to travel. David started the company in 1999, grew it to a multi-million-dollar firm and sold it in 2007.
