Big Week for Venture Center, Research Alliance as Puzzle Pieces Put in Place
It's been a big week for the Arkansas Venture Center and the Arkansas Research Alliance as pieces to the Arkansas techpreneur ecosystem puzzle come together.
The ARA, the nonprofit curator of Arkansas-based research, announced that it had received further FDA funding that will extend its research collaboration with NCTR in Jefferson County.
Plus, the AVC hosted its first Pre-Flight Pitch Day and got the green light to move into the old ARK Challenge space in downtown Little Rock in January.
But first, ARA. Its research partnership with the FDA to oversee research collaboration into graphene between NCTR, the FDA's primary research lab, and the state's research universities (The UA, UAMS, UALR and UAPB), will continue for another couple of years.
Here's more from Arkansas Business:
The research is focused specifically on the safety and toxicity of graphene and its impact on public health, according to the ARA. Graphene, a common carbon nanomaterial used in electronics and renewable energy devices, was first isolated in 2004 and is the subject of significant research into its uses in pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
The contract announced Wednesday extends collaborative research launched in 2013 when ARA partnered with FDA to commercialize technology produced by the National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson (Jefferson County), the FDA's primary research facility.
The Venture Center, meanwhile, is hoppin'. On Tuesday, it hosted its first Pre-Flight Pitch Day. Pre-Flight is a 14-week pre-accelerator program licensed from the Nashville Entrepreneur Center designed to place early-stage startup ideas on the fast track to market.
Here's more from Arkansas Business:
Mentors providing feedback to each startup on Tuesday night were AVC board member, former Accelerate Arkansas chair and Arkansas Systems co-founder James Hendren; Carole Smith, senior vice president with Simmons First National Bank; and John Murdock, director of education for the Nashville Entrepreneur Center and co-creator of the Pre-Flight program.
Murdock worked remotely with the Pre-Flight teams each week over the course of the program. Tuesday marked his fist time to see them explain their idea in person.
"The first time we launched this in Nashville, the presentations weren't this good," Murdock said. "Kudos to the teams. Seeing the teams present in person and present with such poise ... I'm proud of Arkansas."
Not only were the presentations polished and certainly reminiscent of those delivered at full-blown accelerators such as the ARK, the ventures were sound. Perhaps the most impressive thing to come out of Pitch Day was Jordan King's acknowledgement during his presentation that the timing wasn't right for his venture, peer-to-peer camping marketplace Leantoo Outfitters.
Six of 15 teams that began the course qualified to make it through to Pitch Day, King included. But based on what he learned in Pre-Flight, he recognized the time wasn't right for Leantoo and vowed that he and his team would wait for the right opportunity.
Sometimes you move forward by taking a step back. King learned that at Pre-Flight.
Then on Wednesday, the Little Rock tech park board approved a deal that would see the AVC and tech park director Brent Birch take over the former ARK space, leased by the board, at 107 East Markham in downtown Little Rock.
More from Arkansas Business here.
The move will give both the AVC and the tech park a true home. Both had been operating out of donated space at the Little Rock Chamber.
Birch said the move would legitimize the park and represent concrete forward momentum as it coninues the process of acquiring property along Main Street in Little Rock for its future home. AVC will help with the 2015 lease plus provide services to future teck park tenants. And, it hopes to help create some itself as well.
For Lee Watson and the AVC, it means room to operate -- function, even -- without playing Twister with the Chamber.
The giant puzzle that is the Arkansas tech-based startup ecosystem is taking shape. Significant pieces are being put in place. We've come from what could almost be described as an empty table top a decade ago to one full of puzzle pieces, just waiting to be connected.
Can't wait to see what that table top looks like in five years.