ARK Challenge Opens in Downtown Little Rock
The ARK Challenge began its fourth installment and its first run in Little Rock Monday, breaking in about 8,000-SF of ground floor space in the Block 2 Lofts building on East Markham.
The space, leased from the Little Rock Chamber, is directly across the street from the Statehouse Convention Center.
The Innovate page in this week's issue of Arkansas Business includes a story on ARK 4.
A sample:
Jordan Carlisle, the new director for entrepreneurship and innovation at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, believes the presence of the ARK Challenge in central Arkansas will boost recent entrepreneurial progress that includes the launches of the Innovation Hub and the Arkansas Venture Center plus the planned placement of the Little Rock tech park along Main Street downtown.
“In the past, the ARK Challenge has built excitement and momentum in NWA, but most importantly, it has created a platform that encourages people to start new ventures with support from the surrounding community,” he said. “I strongly believe the ARK 4 will help fuel that same mindset in central Arkansas, which energizes other initiatives like Startup Weekends, 1 Million Cups, BarCamps, Made by Few, TEDx, the Innovation Hub and the Venture Center. Moreover, all of the innovative inertia spiraling out of the ARK will likely lead to a stronger community of entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs thrive, ultimately leading to successful companies.”
Most of the furnishings for the accelerator have yet to be delivered, but ARK participants have a kitchen, five furnished conference rooms, work space, wifi and even a pingpong table to tide them over.
Contracts remain to be signed (that goes for ARK 3 currently underway in NWA and ARK 4), so we can't yet divulge the names of the teams, but ARK 4 will include some local tech entrepreneurial all-stars.
The ARK, administered by Innovate Arkansas, is scheduled to run for three months after which time the space will transfer to the Arkansas Venture Center.