Entrepreneurs and inventors in the central part of the state have for the past two years had a great place to work through their ideas thanks to the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub. Similarly, entrepreneurs seeking consulting in Northwest Arkansas have had a strong ally in Startup Junkie.
Both entities have been vital resources to the startup communities in which they are located. Now, the two are hoping to work together to serve early-stage businesses throughout all of Arkansas.
A joint announcement last week served as the formal unveiling of a partnership that has existed informally for months. Both Innovation Hub executive director Warwick Sabin and Startup Junkie founder Jeff Amerine said the two organizations are perfect complements for each other.
Fayetteville-based Startup Junkie has thrived on mentoring startup founders, investors and clients focused on innovation. Where the Innovation Hub in North Little Rock is focused on developing education programming and providing a place to work for advanced manufacturing efforts.
Together they'll develop new facilities, events and programs that are focused on helping Arkansas-based startups prosper.
"We think the network model is a lot stronger than a bunch of disparate fiefdoms," Amerine said. "It seemed like a hand-in-glove match. It's a more intentional way to glue the regions of the state together."
Amerine's comment reminds me of a conversation Sabin and I had last fall. We were visiting for a story on the rivalry that tends to pop up between the two regions from time to time.
A state of 3 million people, Sabin said then, isn't big enough to compete nationally for jobs and resources if it's preoccupied with in-fighting or an every-man-for-himself approach. Each region has its own strengths, and combining forces is the best bet for growing those strengths while creating long-term success stories in the state.
"We are blessed with a diversity of resources across the state, whether it's Northwest Arkansas or central Arkansas or northeast Arkansas and the Delta," Sabin said at the time. "We're really shooting ourselves in the foot when we don't work together."
Whether he envisioned this particular collaboration when offering those thoughts late last year isn't clear. But Sabin clearly saw the benefit to the four corners of the state working collaboratively.
Amerine said conversations about collaboration began months ago. They've worked together on expanding the ARK Challenge, a startup challenge for technology-focused businesses, and on some behind-the-scenes projects.
"We're better together than we are separate," Sabin said. "We already knew that and were working together anyway. Personally, I really like the idea of us leading by example and showing that central Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas can work together for the betterment of our state. I know that there are a lot of people who feel that way, but we can actually lead by example, demonstrate the tangible benefits of doing that."
Reading between the lines after speaking with Sabin and Amerine, and being familiar with their individual success stories, the best guess here is this is just one in a series of announcements. Both talked of their desires to expand their efforts statewide.
Could that include Innovation Hubs in Fayetteville, Conway, Bentonville, Jonesboro, El Dorado and/or Fort Smith?
Don't be surprised if the first such announcement comes before the end of the month.
SundayMonday Business on 06/21/2015