The Startup Junkies Podcast

Our original co-host, Jon Cadieux rejoined the set this week with our guest, Sam Dean of the Scott Family Amazeum. We discuss the incredible children's museum in Northwest Arkansas and some other great initiatives like the Tinkerfest, and the local maker movement in Northwest Arkansas. Discover more here: www.amazeum.org Hosts: Jeff@startupjunkieconsulting.com jon@455mediagroup.com

Shannon Bedore joins us this week. We learn about her 20 year career in the retail world, a successful birthing center that she started and sold to a private equity group, and her most recent venture, Sightline Retail. Sightline optimizes the process of selling into major retailers for early stage product companies. Learn more at www.sightlineretail.com Hosts: jeff@startupjunkieconsulting.com mich...

We had an on-site visit to Power Technology, Inc. in Little Rock, AR and learned about the new advancements coming in the theater world with the transition from bulbs to lasers. Power Technology has been providing innovative laser solutions for over 40 years - they create military lasers, bioanalytical lasers, and other industrial applications. Find out more: http://www.powertechnology.com/ Host:...

Jeston George has been growing Apptegy for the past three years - what started in his living room is now occupying an entire floor of the Simmons building in Downtown Little Rock with nearly 50 employees. Apptegy is a constant contract tool for any schools and their communities, and their user base is growing rapidly with over 200 districts signed up. To learn more find them at www.apptegy.com or...

Arlton has been growing the Made by Few conference over the last five years, and will be holding the event in Northwest Arkansas for the first time on October 26-29. You can find more information about the conference, or register here:https://madebyfew.com/ The Made by Few vimeo account with recaps of former conferences: https://vimeo.com/workwithfew Arlton referenced another podcast that he has f...

This episode was recorded in Cape Breton, Canada at Breton Brewing just before the kickoff of Mentor Camp. www.mentorcamp.ca The first group was the founding team from TrapTap, the world’s simplest traffic indicator, and they were incredibly successful on Kickstarter, raising $370K on Kickstarter and even more on Indiegogo. Find out more: http://traptap.com/ hello@traptap.com April Dunford and Pat...

Omar Kasim graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Sam M. Walton College of Business in three years. He balanced the decision of starting a restaurant that he had been contemplating launching, or going to Law School. The entrepreneurial track seemed more intriguing, and now one year later he has a successful fusion taco fast-casual restaurant in Fayetteville, AR and plans to expand the brand. The Motiv...

Songcat makes top-notch music production feasible for musicians to access from their home studio. The service matches artists with other talented musicians online, and then produces a radio-ready song for $500. Described as the "Uber for Music Production," Songcat has been experience 2x user and revenue growth each of the last three months. The opportunistic founder team has made four moves across...

Mike Abb, Dr. BowtieTodd Jenkins, and Keaton Smith joined the show to discuss the upcoming Young Professional Summit in Northwest Arkansas - Ignite Your Passion. Conversation started with the background of these young community leaders. It flowed into some details about the upcoming summit, and why it is important to have a strong group of young people engaged in the community, and we discussed ho...

52nd Episode! Released weekly, this means we've lasted an entire year on the air! Pop the champagne? Nah. We went with hard cider from our friends at Black Apple Crossing. This week we were joined by Spencer Jones with LineGard Med, and exciting company that was founded by Spencer under two years ago when he was working as a registered nurse. He saw problems with the status quo in the hospitals he...

Joe Ehrhardt began his banking career in high school, and it has been his area of focus ever since. He combined that passion with his interest and skill in computer science to begin 3E Software, Inc. which has grown into a national software solution company for banks, headquartered in Northwest, AR. Joe Ehrhardt info@3esoftware.com http://www.3esoftware.com/ Hosts: Jeff@startupjunkieconsulting.com...

Mathew Scott joined us to share his interesting background - everything from a military background in psychological warfare to building medical sales teams, and his current venture, FEED. The Agency which helps with brand building for physicians and dentistry. accounts@feedtheagency.com http://feedtheagency.com/

Jeff visited the Island Sandbox at Cape Breton University for the Investor Readiness Bootcamp and ran through a number of exciting companies and investors. StuGig www.stugig.com www.phvpushing.com info@phvpushing.com Univfax www.univfax.com Collegio Technologies www.collegio.ca Mealworm Protien http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dalhousie-students-bugs-flour-1.3570880 Collin Deacon Bob Elly...

Our guest this week is Margie Raimondo, taped live from her winery in Mountain Home, AR. Margie is a third generation wine maker with Sicilian roots, and plenty of passion for her products - All 387 of them! In addition to wine, Raimondo Winery offers a wide variety of oils, vinegars, mustards, and other cooking supplies. Reach out to Margie: mywine64@gmail.com Visit the winery: 1406 Highway 62 We...

Tariq Abdullah is an entrepreneurial attorney who recently moved from Kansas City to Northwest Arkansas, and is now the Director of Legal Data & Analytics in the Legal Operations department with Walmart. Listen in for more information on an upcoming Hackathon that he is planning, some new legal technology that he has experienced, including the introduction of AI attorneys. Contact Tariq: Tariq...

Tameka Montgomery leads the Office of Entrepreneurial Development at the U.S. Small Business Administration. She spent 2 days touring Northwest Arkansas to learn more about our entrepreneurial community, and capped off her visit with a podcast recording at Bike Rack Brewing. Tameka shares more about the scope of her position with the SBA, her career that led to this presidentially appointed positi...

Corey Boelkens recently launched the app for his company, RaftUp, which is maximizing both fun and safety on the water. They increase location based communication in boater communities and have had a strong launch as the boating season is kicking off. Contact Corey: http://www.raftup.com/ contact@raftup.com https://www.instagram.com/theraftup/ https://www.facebook.com/theraftup

Kanat Bektemirov, currently an Engineer with CaseStack joins the show. He shares experiences with his incredible internships at Google and Amazon, gives advice to young developers seeking a successful career, and makes comparisons between the technology environment in Silicon Valley vs. Northwest Arkansas. Contact Kanat: LinkedIn: https://goo.gl/5tIyGN Email: bekt17@gmail.com Hosts: Jeff@startupju...

Part 2/2: Our typical host, Jeff Amerine has a long history of working with startup companies and holding leadership roles in the military and with fortune 500 companies. We thought our audience on the podcast would be interested in getting to know more about the host, and Jeff was willing to share. Part 1: Childhood, militarty experience & Family Part 2: Startups, Forune 500's, successes and...

Part 1/2: Our typical host, Jeff Amerine has a long history of working with startup companies and holding leadership roles in the military and with fortune 500 companies. We thought our audience on the podcast would be interested in getting to know more about the host, and Jeff was willing to share. Part 1: Childhood, militarty experience & Family Part 2: Startups, Forune 500's, successes and...

Our guest this week is Brent Hale of Big Sexy Food! He talks about how he got his start in the NWA food scene, and describes his model of utilizing popup restaurants with a creative twist on classic foods. His next event will be in Fayetteville on 5/20 and 5/21. Reservations are filling up quickly here: http://www.bigsexyfood.com/popup.html Contact: brentrhale@gmail.com www.bigsexyfood.com Hosts:...

Amy and Chris from Collective Bias shed light on the early days at collective bias, and how far they've come in their 7-year journey as an influencer marketing company. They also share how important it is to give back, and discuss GiveCamp NWA, an event they were hosting that weekend to develop a web presence for non-profit companies. Guest contact info: Amy Callahan amycallahan@collectivebias.com...

We were fortunate to have Matt Stevens, Manager of Strategic Initiatives in the Office of Entrepreneurial Development, and Edward Haddock, the Deputy District Director of the SBA in Arkansas on the show this week. We dive into the strategic initiatives of the SBA to help grow scalable ventures in the innovation economy. We discuss the overall initiatives, and how Startup Junkie has been leveraging...

Caleb Hamilton of Metova talks about growing the culture of a world-class development company that just opened a new location in Fayetteville, AR. They have a fantastic model to work with anyone from startups to Fortune 500 companies. They are always looking to bring on great talent. They have a flexible culture and well thought out training programs to help their employees grow within the company...

Michael makes the switch from co-host to the victim of Jeff's jokes on the other side of the table. Michael & Jeff dive into the making of FML! The Game, which is a board game parody of The Game of LIFE, marketed for young adults. As Jeff eloquantly describes it: "It's like cerebral beer pong" The project will be live on Kickstarter from April 12 - May 13. Preorder your game at: www.kickstarte...