A Look Back at 2015 MentorCamp NWA
Entrepreneurial stars were out for the 2015 edition of MentorCamp NWA held last week in Fayetteville and hosted by Startup Junkie.
IA adviser Jeff Amerine and MentorCamp founder Permjot Valia (right) held court as startup mentors validated business models, prepared startups for future investment and made valuable introductions to help businesses thrive everywhere.
"This year’s event was very high impact and a huge success, which would not have been possible without the support from Innovate Arkansas," Amerine said.
Hark and Go Rogue were there, too. Look for upcoming video and podcasts from them.
Meantime, Amerine provided some highlights, testomonials and even some stats from the week:
MentorCamp numbers:
- Entrepreneurs confirmed to participate: 100
- Startup companies participating: 21
- VC/angel investors participating: 22
- VC/angel funds in attendance: 10
- Mentors participating: 45
- Countries represented: 4
- Sponsors and partners: 19
Highlights:
- Engagement with Karenann Terrell, Walmart Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, at the Walmart Lab 415-C; plus Walmart representation from Daniel Howell, Rick Webb and Jeff Charlson
- Mark Macleod, former CFO of the worlds leading ecommerce platform, Shopify, in attendance
- Mike Sikorsky, CEO of one of the fastest growing and most successful digital development firms in the world, Robots and Pencils, is considering opening an office in Arkansas now because of this trip
- VC partners with approximately $1B in assets under management in attendance: Noro-Moseley, TechOperators, Fulcrum
- Jan Lederman of Innovate Manitoba, one of Canada's leading and most successful economic development programs, in attendance.
Testimonials:
- “Thank you for the opportunity to meet, pitch, and get mentored over the past couple of days. I couldn't be happier with the results and the timing was perfect.” – Corey Boelkens, Founder and CEO, RaftUp LLC
- “Loved the energy and smarts at #mentorcamp and appreciate the opportunity to be a mentor.” – Stephanie McCratic, Founder, Acorn Influence
- “Exciting concepts and great people. It was fun. I felt very useful and helpful. Business opportunities for me, too. I really loved it!”
- “Great contacts. Great opportunities to hopefully help younger companies and make the connections to provide ongoing support. Loved the external activities....i.e Walmart visit and the various talks.”
- “Lots of great perspectives, nice, informal and productive.”
- “It's a great community of mentors and entrepreneurs.”
- “Good talk from Joe Stump on building a startup. Huge number of nuggets of wisdom crammed into a few short minutes.” – Michael Paladino of IA clients RevUnit and Overwatch
- “Pretty excited to work alongside such an impressive group at this year's MentorCamp.” – James Eldridge, Founder, Gracie Furniture
Obviously, an instructive and productive week on the Hill.
Tune in tomorrow for Part 2 on the big week that was 2015 MentorCamp NWA. We'll have a break down of activities -- so much room for activities! -- from each day.