More From 2015 MentorCamp NWA: Breaking It Down

July 30, 2015

Startup Junkie last week hosted the 2015 edition of MentorCamp NWA in Fayetteville, and the week-long event brought together international mentors, startup leaders and founders.

MentorCamp founder, global investor/entrepreneur and self-professed Arkansas goodwill ambassador Permjot Valia of London was on hand and of course, so was Startup Junkie founder and IA advisor Jeff Amerine.

Mentor bios are available here.  Mentors hailed from Arkansas, across the U.S., England and Canada and included IA client firm founders.

Jeff compiled a 2015 MentorCamp NWA "box score," which we shared in this space on Wednesday. 

He also put together a break down of each day, which we share below.

Good stuff. Enjoy:

Kick-Off, Tuesday, July 20
International mentors began arriving from 4 countries, a majority from Canada and England. These mentors were given a tour of the Walmart Museum and Downtown Bentonville before arriving at CROSSMARK Center for Collaboration in Bentonville for the official kick-off of MentorCamp NWA. (Above right, April Seggebruch of IA client firm Movista leads a discussion at the kick-off on Tuesday night.)

International mentors, as well as a select number of regional mentors, were invited to kick off MentorCamp NWA with 60-second pitches and a welcome dinner where mentors were the presenting companies were given a chance to network with the mentors.

Presenting companies included:

  • Gracie Furniture
  • Real Agent Guard 9an IA client)
  • Con Quesos
  • Lynxus
  • Boston Mountain Biotech (another IA client).

Watch 60-second pitches from Lynxus here.

MentorCamp Day 2, July 22
Day 2 consisted of a full day of presentations, mentoring, and networking. This portion of MentorCamp was held at the University of Arkansas and Hayseed Ventures.

Introduction and 5-minute pitches by companies including:

  • Portray Advertising
  • Zuni Learning Tree
  • Lauren James
  • Skosay (IA and ARK Challenge firm)
  • DataRank (IA firm)
  • Little Bird Systems
  • Apptegy
  • Menguin
  • Watt Glass

Mentoring sessions
A total of 8 companies were mentored by 38 mentors in groups of approximately 4 mentors at a time in 30-minute time blocks. The global insights and access the startup companies received in this time frame was invaluable.

Presentation by Joe Stump
Joe Stump is a seasoned technical leader and serial entrepreneur who has cofounded three venture-backed startups, www.simplegeo.com, www.attachments.me, www.sprint.ly, and was Lead Architect of Digg. Joes has invested in and advised dozens of companies. He presented at lunch on the practical lessons he has learned as a startup founder.

Natural State Angel Association
MentorCamp intentionally overlapped the bi-monthly Natural State Angel Association (NSAA) meeting. NSAA is an association of 400+ accredited angel investors across the region of Northwest Arkansas that meets once every other month over dinner to review investment pitches from invited entrepreneurs.

The investors provide feedback to the presenting companies, and interested investors collaborate in deals. From 2011-2015 NSAA members invested more than $2 million in early-stage ventures. At this meeting, 6 companies were given the chance to present and
receive feedback.

This was also an opportunity for the mentors and companies at MentorCamp to network with each other as well as the angel investors and major stakeholders in this region. The meeting was held at Hayseed Ventures and had approximately 90 attendees.

MentorCamp Day 3, July 23
Introduction and 5-minute pitches by companies including:

  • Cyclewood Solutions (IA firm)
  • RaftUp
  • Re:iimmune
  • Cause Signal
  • Ozark Integrated Circuits
  • Piltdown

Mentoring Sessions
On Day 3, 6 companies were mentored by 32 mentors in groups of approximately 5 mentors at a time in 20-minute time blocks. Again, the global insights and access the startup companies received in this time frame was invaluable.

Presentation by Rick Webb
Rick joined Walmart in January 2004 after more than 20 years of consulting in the retail industry.

He is currently the Senior Vice President of Global Business Processes, responsible for increasing associate and inventory productivity, while enhancing the customer shopping experience and increasing the effectiveness of the Walmart supply chain and home office operations around the world.

Prior to this assignment, he was Senior Vice President of Walmart U.S. Innovations. Rick is a board member for the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter and the Arkansas Research Alliance. He is very active in building the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Arkansas. He spoke on private economic development at MentorCamp NWA.

Presentation by Dr. Carol Reeves
Carol is the Associate Vice-Provost for Entrepreneurship as well as a Professor and holder of the Cecil and Gwendolyn Cupp Professorship in Entrepreneurship in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

Reeves has mentored over 70 interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate business plan teams, who have won more than $2.4 million in cash, started 18 high-growth businesses, and raised over $40 million to build their businesses. She hosts a very successful four-campus interdisciplinary faculty commercialization retreat that has led
to businesses, interdisciplinary research, and grants.

During her presentation at MentorCamp, she spoke about the future of entrepreneurship at the University of Arkansas.

Visit to Walmart Lab 415-C
MentorCamp tours the Walmart Lab 415-C, also known as the innovation lab. During this tour, we were honored to have Karenann Terrell, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Walmart Stores Inc., come speak with our group.

Mentor appreciation dinner at Dromborg Castle

MentorCamp Day 4, July 24
Tour of Crystal Bridges: International mentors were given the chance to visit Crystal Bridges before leaving Northwest Arkansas. They were given a group tour and even had the opportunity to visit the Andy Warhol exhibit.






 



 

 

Share this article