Portland entrepreneur wins national award as growing startup readies product launch
Courtesy / KinoTek Inc.
Justin Hafner, CEO and co-founder of KinoTek Inc., said that being named a Front Office Sports Rising 25 Award winner is "humbling."
At the ripe age of 24, KinoTek Inc. co-founder and CEO Justin Hafner has received a national award for sports-business movers and shakers under 25 — with big growth plans for his 3-year-old software startup.
On Tuesday, he became the first Maine business leader to be chosen for the Front Office Sports Rising 25 Awards, whose winners have gone on to start companies, lead departments and shape the country's booming sports industry. The 2021 winners will be honored in a virtual event this fall.
Hafner's award comes three years after he teamed up with University of Maine classmate David Holomakoff to start KinoTek, a Portland-based developer of a digital platform that uses computer-vision technology for body-motion assessment. The platform is targeted to the sports medicine field. KinoTek won the "Greenlight Maine Colleague Challenge" in 2019.
This year, nearly 500 people were nominated to the Front Office Sports Rising 25 Awards. Contest organizers said this year's nominees "crushed it in the workplace and carried that spirit 'off the field' by championing philanthropic causes and advocating for diversity and inclusion.”
"To be nominated for this award is humbling," Hafner said in a news release, crediting the hard work of KinoTek's entire team.
He added that "being the first leader based in Maine to win this award is a great honor. I hope this can motivate other young leaders in the state to pursue their dreams and take a chance because you never know what is possible until you try."
Speaking to Mainebiz by phone, Hafner said the award was "totally unexpected," adding: "It's definitely the biggest award of anything that I've won personally, and the first on a national level ... It's pretty cool."
Product launch, hiring plans
The news caps a whirlwind week for Hafner, who just returned from an Orlando, Fla.-based sports health and health accelerator program as KinoTek prepares to launch its software product in July.
KinoTek, which named two independent representatives to its inaugural board earlier this year, currently employs six people. The company hired two more in May and is looking to be over 10 in the next month or two, Hafner told Mainebiz.
"We're doubling in size right now, and things are pretty crazy," he said. "It's super-exciting, but definitely a lot to swallow at once."
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