Startup Junkie plans to continue its services for entrepreneurial support in Northwest Arkansas in 2019 while expanding its program offerings and adding new events as well.
“Startup Junkie always gets a lot of exciting new ventures after the start of the year,” says Haley Allgood, the executive director of the Startup Junkie Foundation.
While the final 2019 calendar is still in progress, Startup Junkie executives plan to expand the programs and number of events they offer next year while maintaining their core services for the entrepreneurial community, like consulting with growth-oriented companies, providing growth planning, commercial finance assistance, and general management consulting. All of these services are provided at no cost to companies that make up to $25 million in revenue.
Next year, Startup Junkie will increase the number of events aimed at showcasing and connecting local entrepreneurs and business mentors. The organization will also continue hosting their regular events, like a startup weekend in April, pitch contests and weekly 1 Million Cups morning meetings—altogether, Startup Junkie hosts about 200 events each year. Jeff Amerine, founding principal at Startup Junkie Consulting, and Michael Iseman, chief relationship officer for the Startup Junkie Foundation, will continue releasing a podcast each week featuring entrepreneurs from Arkansas and other states.
READ MORE: Haley Allgood: Fayetteville’s Startup Queen
“It’s a good storytelling component for our entrepreneurial ecosystem, and it recognizes a lot of the work of Startup Junkie and the companies we’ve worked with,” Iseman says.
The organization will also attempt to increase access to capital for entrepreneurs, provide more education on what it means to be an annual investor and relaunch a forum that connects investors with entrepreneurs in the community.
Startup Junkie will highlight Northwest Arkansas companies at South by Southwest Music Festival’s Startup Crawl in Austin. Startup Junkie will also host the first iteration of a new accelerator in 2019. Supported by Walmart, Casestack and many other mentors, Fuel Accelerator will accept approximately 10 companies from across the globe to work from Bentonville for 16 weeks, where executives will get enterprise training and have the opportunity to make connections.
Additionally, Startup Junkie is planning a startup crawl in Fayetteville. Allgood anticipates that, like other years, this will be one of the biggest events of the year, with up to 2,000 attendees.
“We have been doing consulting for entrepreneurs for 10 years now,” Allgood says. “We’re taking everything we’ve learned and applying it to innovation training” with both small business owners and larger corporations as well.
READ MORE: Startup Junkie is Paving the Way in Northwest Arkansas