The Startup Junkies Podcast

Skylar Wallace and Tyler Scantlan join the show from Arthur Dent’s, a new type of tea. They create a story and experience around one of the world’s favorite beverages, and are utilizing some of the best equipment in the world to craft your cup of tea. In this episode we learn about their inspiring story, which is a combination of determination, hard work, and an inclination to strike when an oppor...

Seth Kaffka dives into the (admittedly unsexy) topic of selling commodities, and brings more enthusiasm than some people take to a professional sporting event. He shares the story of what started in 2006 as Blackhive Corp buying and selling a truckload of sugar packets, that eventually grew into a diversified portfolio of activities that spans from canned asparagus to branding some of the most inn...

“Bucket the Change” might not be a part of your daily vocabulary today, but it will be soon! Bucket Technologies is an emerging company in Northwest Arkansas and in this episode we sit down with Francis Hwang, CEO to discuss their plans to remove coin change from cash retail transactions. You can learn more at www.buckettechnologies.com or say hello at @bucketthechange on twitter, instagram, and f...

Kyle Tabor is the founder of Blue Sail Coffee, with three Central Arkansas locations, and a thriving in-house coffee roastery. Kyle walks us through his journey of starting with a few thousand dollars and sleeping on a military cot in the back of his first location, to creating an omnichannel coffee company with an incredible culture and brand. Kyle recommends Common Grounds: An Entrepreneurial Gu...

This is Part Two of our conversation with Oscar winning digital artist, David Kersey. If you haven’t checked out Part One, then we would recommend starting there to learn about all of his experience in Hollywood. Part Two picks up with David’s move back to Arkansas in 2015. We discuss the New Design School, and all the efforts they are putting towards educating the next generation of creative prof...

David Kersey is an Oscar winning digital artist, now building the animation program at the New Design School in Northwest Arkansas. In Part One of our conversation with David, we learn about his early interest in the arts, how he fell in love with animation, and the stories of working with Sony and Disney on movies like Polar Express, Tangled, Ratatouille, and eventually winning an Oscar with Froz...

SCREEMO helps brick and mortar marketers to connect physical customers to the omnichannel using digital gamified experiences in-store to create a call to action on the consumer's mobile and enhance the customer experience. Shai Bargil , who leads operations for SCREEMO, and Adir Zimerman CEO, join us to share more on their innovative platform to bring advertising to life. The founder team started...

The Arkansas Fellowship is a 2-year program that is aimed at getting some of the top Arkansas graduates integrated into the most entrepreneurial companies in the state. This episode we meet some of the Fellows, learn about their experience with the host companies, and dive into the future of the Fellowship. Our guests this week are: Jackson Fitzgibbon & Anna McCorquodale – Collective Bias Chri...

Kevin and Aaron Higgins are cousins, business partners in four successful companies, and as their customers describe them, they're two "rigid, get-it-done dudes." With a wealth of international, cross-disciplinary experience, Kevin and Aaron share their story of teaming up to create four ventures over the last decade. Nu Fangled Images can digitize your VHS home movies. FTown Longboards is the num...

This episode is the countdown to the AR Startup Crawl which will be on Friday, September 29th in Downtown Fayetteville! Haley Allgood and Megan Frohardt join Jeff to talk about all of the music, bands, and startups that will be out showcasing the growing Arkansas startup and technology scene. Sign up here! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/startup-crawl-tickets-36490104886 If you have any questions vis...

This week we have a roundtable discussion in Conway with the AR Conductor team, and our friends at the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. Jeff Moore and Clark Cogbill are leading the marketing efforts for the AEDC, and have a long collective history working with some of the largest marketing firms in the state and in the region. Get in touch at http://www.arkansasedc.com/ Jeff Standridge an...

Two students from the University of Arkansas join the podcast to discuss their entrepreneurial journey and the resources that all students should know about! Andrew Miles is CEO of Grox Industries and has won numerous awards and challenges through university competitions. Laura Wasson won the Design Solution Challenge by solving a problem at a local non-profit called “Seeds That Feed”. Don’t miss...

It's the 100th episode of the Startup Junkies Podcast! Thank you to everyone who has listened over the years and helped us achieve this incredible milestone. This episode, the original hosts of the show, Jon Cadieux and Jeff Amerine, take over and reminisce on the best moments from the show. Hear the lessons both have learned over the years and how the podcast has brought attention to some of the...

Yoon Kim is the founder of the media startup Blogs For Brands, a full service content marketing agency with an award-winning design team that manages blogs, social media, email, and ads for brands. With a team of over 10 people based in Siloam Springs, Yoon tells his story of how they are changing the game of digital marketing. He also created the Outdoor Blogger Summit, a summit designed for jour...

Mayor Lioneld Jordan and Devin Howland join the Startup Junkies Podcast to discuss all things Fayetteville! Mayor Jordan has been the mayor of Fayetteville since 2009, and Devin Howland is the new Economic Vitality director for the city of Fayetteville. We chat about their perspectives on Fayetteville and what makes the city primed for incredible growth. Learn how the public sector can support ent...

Tim McFarland and Ed Nicholson from Elevate Performance join the podcast to discuss how they help bring out the best in leaders, and how good leaders can bring out the best of an organization. Elevate Performance is a consulting firm in Fayetteville, AR that assists leaders with personal coaching, peer advisory forums, and business advisory services. They help them with their greatest opportunitie...

Famous local artist Kenneth Siemens joins us to talk about his incredible story.  Learn how Kenneth went from working an 8-to-5 corporate job to starting his own design business, Kerplunk Creative. Kerplunk Creative, LLC is a nimble agency specializing in bringing entertainment and excitement to product and retail. He now has art all over the state of Arkansas and works with some of the biggest co...

Welcome to the Startup Junkie Social! This is a round table chat with a few of the Startup Junkies. We’ll discuss important events happening around the world and in our own community related to entrepreneurship, and any other interesting topics that may arise.  We have some exciting upcoming Startup Junkie events! Find the link to them below. Learn more about the Natural State Angel Association ev...

If you like engineering, then you're going to love this one! This week we welcome Matt & Jim from Ozark IC. We discuss their work with semiconductors, and how the future is powered by engineering. Their company has received grants from NASA, so they know what they're talking about. Don’t miss a single episode of the Startup Junkies Podcast. Be sure and “Subscribe” to us on the Podcasts app, as...

The future of everything! Listen as Jeff & Michael discuss a wide range of entrepreneurial topics, including accelerators, posers vs. players, and Jeff’s “revolutionary” idea for beer currency.  Don’t miss a single episode of the Startup Junkies Podcast.  Be sure and “Subscribe” to us on the Podcasts app, as well as follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @startup_junkie Hosts: jeff@startupjunkiec...

We were honored to welcome Cindi Marsiglio and Latriece Watkins to the show - representing the company that knows scale better than any other: Walmart. We visited during their Open Call event which Cindi emceed and was kicked off with speeches from Asa Hutchinson (Arkansas Gov.), Doug McMillion (CEO) and other Walmart leadership. The audience was 500 different US product manufacturers looking to g...

Gan Nunnally is an incredible businessman who runs George Nunnally Chevrolet in Bentonville, Arkansas. He won Dealer of the Year in Arkansas for 2017. Right now, he's up for TIME Dealer of the Year. He joins us to chat about running a successful family-owned business and treating customers right.  He is also a part of the "Fireball Run" series on Amazon!  You don't want to miss hearing out on how...

Nancy Gray, Ph. D., is the head of BioVentures, the technology licensing office and business incubator for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).  You don’t want to miss out hearing Nancy tell us about her incredible career.  She has worked all over the country in countless roles in the both the entrepreneurial and pharmaceutical fields.  She is currently helping oversee the Healt...

The Startup Junkie podcast comes to you from Conway, AR this week!  Dr. Jeff Standridge drops by to tell us about the new Health Sciences Entrepreneurship Bootcamp.  This amazing new camp teaches students the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and gives them the opportunity to formulate new health science ventures.  Dr. Jeff Standridge is the team leader of The Conductor, a public-private partnershi...

We're joined by Steve McBee (CEO of Creative - creative.promo) and the leadership team from Tango Press, Steve Toth and John Ballentine ( tango-press.com ) to talk about a recent project that they collaborated on to surprise and delight a company on a large scale. They share the thought that goes into each element of packaging from the consumers experience, and insights on how to work with people...