IA advisor Jeff Amerine, IA client John James of Acumen Brands and ARK Challenge director Jeannette Balleza have been named to the Arkansas Times’ Influential Arkansans list.
(Hmmmm. An Influential Arkies list…sounds familiar.)
Some nice recognition for three folks who truly are helping place Arkansas on the national startup map. Here’s a little of what AT had to say about the Techpreneur:
He teaches an entrepreneurship course at the Walton College of Business. He’s an advisor with Innovate Arkansas, a non-profit funded by Winrock International and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission that tries to help tech start-ups become viable businesses. He was one of the early forces in organizing Gravity Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests in and, perhaps more importantly, provides guidance to mostly fledgling Arkansas tech start-ups. He’s a mentor with ARK Challenge, the Fayetteville tech accelerator (see Jeannette Balleza). He’s also behind Gone in 60 Seconds, an elevator pitch competition for young entrepreneurs that’s made stops in Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Rogers, Little Rock and El Dorado. “The secret sauce of this place is that people really genuinely want to help,” he said by way of explaining Northwest Arkansas’s success in fostering a start-up culture. Perhaps no one is a better purveyor of that ethos than Amerine himself.
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