The Startup Junkies Podcast

Casey Kinsey joins us from Lofty Labs, a value added tech consultancy that thrives at the intersection of Web Development and Data Analytics. Casey shares some of his entrepreneurial journey, including the tipping point was when he realized he'd never work for someone else again, accidentally growing Lofty Labs to something larger than himself, and advice for startups who need to hire outside tech...

Kirsten Blowers and Anna Morrison join us to share their experiences about starting and growing a business in Northwest Arkansas.  Kirsten started Riffraff seven years ago, starting with only $100 and growing a business now worth over a million dollars.  Kirsten was recently named to Forbes 30 under 30 for retail entrepreneurship and Riffraff has nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram.  Anna Morris...

The NWA Venture MashUp is held around Northwest Arkansas to bring the entrepreneurial community together and celebrate a local success story. We had the opportunity to learn from Kenny Tomlin, who has been a technology leader, startup founder, investor and more over his career. Most notably in our local startup scene, Kenny started Rockfish Digital which grew (without ever raising capital)  to be...

Raj Suresh joins us to talk about growing his comedy career, his work in opening and booking the Grove Comedy Club in Bentonville, AR, and shares his entrepreneurial path that started while attending grade school in India. Pardon any background noise in this episode. We were recording in Bike Rack Brewing Co. on the first night of pouring beer in their new location in the Bentonville 8th Street Ma...

This episode is going to be a little different than our normal format. By way of a connection at Walmart we were introduced to Andrew Berkowitz who runs the Global Startup Movement. He’s interviewed entrepreneurs, investors, and support organizations like Startup Junkie all over the globe – Seriously – Africa, Australia, Silicon Valley, Hong Kong and many more. In this episode, Andrew plays the ho...

Permjot Valia is a world-class heckler. He also has a strong, diverse background in sales, early stage investing, startups, and mentoring. We were able to get him to the microphone for this short episode during his last visit to Northwest Arkansas – it’s backed with humor, sales psychology, pitch advice and much more. Enjoy! Hosts: Jeff@startupjunkieconsulting.com Michael@startupjunkieconsulting.c...

Haley Allgood & Michael Iseman from the Startup Junkie team share their lessons learned and takeaways from visiting South by Southwest in Austin and we discuss launching IdeaFame, an idea sharing platform for innvoators and entrepreneurs to gather customer feedback and win $10,000+ to jump start their idea! We’d also filmed the promo video for IdeaFame staring Michael, and we get an insight in...

Jeff Charlson, former Walmart VP, and current Bike Rack Brewing Co. CEO joins the Startup Junkie Consulting team as the Senior Entrepreneur in Residence! In this episode we welcome him to the team, talk about his learnings from a career in Fortune 500 companies, get an update on the brewery, and down a couple of delicious beers. Jeff is a rockstar. You can find him at: Jeffs@startupjunkieconsultin...

This episode we welcome Jeff back to the microphone after a brief hiatus, and the conversation couldn’t be confined to one episode, so it’s broken into two. We’re also happy to have Lance Stokes, founder of Lauren James with us for a conversation that covers many topics, including: Lessons learned and planning for the next B2F Square2Square Run, Walk, & (pub)Crawl (30+ miles of running, walkin...

This episode we welcome Jeff back to the microphone after a brief hiatus, and the conversation couldn’t be confined to one episode, so it’s broken into two. We’re also happy to have Lance Stokes, founder of Lauren James with us for a conversation that covers many topics, including: Lessons learned and planning for the next B2F Square2Square Run, Walk, & (pub)Crawl (30+ miles of running, walkin...

Our guest this episode is Caroline Gschwend who is the most recent victor of the Congressional App Challenge for District AR 03 with her app "defendUS". She shares her story of a growing interest in computer science, building the winning app, and the tools that she used to win. Check out her App: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjBe90OEInA Her Tools: http://stackoverflow.com/ http://www.fotor.com/...

Rolf Wilkin, founder of Eureka Pizza, Local Trade Partners, and the original RazorBucks joins the podcast to share stories and lessons learned from growing multiple businesses by being opportunistic and sticking to his core values. Rolf see’s opportunity where other’s see risk or potential failure. He is a genius promoter, and remains a student. Some of his book recommendations include: Guerilla M...

Lifetime entrepreneur, Bill Beyer is our guest this episode. He and his family are building a world-class tea company. Savoy Tea is the third venture that Bill has started, and he’s on his way to creating one of the first billion dollar brands without raising a dollar of capital. Savoy Tea has 3 (soon to be 5), locations where they create a customer-centric atmosphere and serve their house-blended...

Eric Hinson, CEO and Founder of Explainify joins us to share his story of building a great culture in a great company. Explainify is a company that can “find the diamond in the haystack” in helping brands clearly understand the value that they deliver to customers – and how to communicate it effectively. Eric is currently publishing his first book from his lessons and experience at Explainify: “Di...

We are joined by the professionals from SCORE, the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Center, and the regional SBA office to discuss the services available to small businesses around the nation, and particularly in Northwest Arkansas. If you’re interested in reaching out to utilize any of these services, you can reach out to our guests below: Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development...

We are joined by Will Hurst from AT&T as well as the team from Little Bird Systems - Bryon Western, Edgar Cilio, and Jim Lewis. The conversation leads us through an entertaining deep dive on the Internet of Things - both what it is and how it will have an increasing effect on our lives going forward. http://www.littlebirdsystems.com/ Hosts: Jeff@startupjunkieconsulting.com Michael@startupjunki...

James Smith joins us from James + James Furniture, a business that he started in his garage and grew to a nation-wide furniture and logistics company that's currently hiring if you like what you hear: Check out their showroom in Fayetteville or their online show room here: https://carpenterjames.com/ Hosts: Jeff@startupjunkieconsulting.com Michael@startupjunkieconsulting.com

Elise Mitchell is the founder of Mitchell Communications and most recently the author of Leading Through the Turn, which details her story of how a journey mindset can help leaders find success. In this episode, we learn how Elise took her interest and skill set and built it into an international strategic communications firm. We also discuss her brand-new book: Leading Through the Turn, which is...

Jeff and Michael dive into the intricacies of Kickstarter, and the recent successful campaign that Michael and his business partner Jay Clark had for FML! The Game. You can find out more about their project by viewing the updates to their campaign, and look for games to be available early 2017. Kickstarter: http://kck.st/2fdIBAL Michael@startupjunkieconsulting.com Host: Jeff@startupjunkieconsultin...

Jeff is joined by Bob Pelley with Innovacorp, and Darren MacDonald from Cape Breton University. During Global Entrepreneurship Week they set up shop at the Navigate Startup House in Cape Breton - all the way in North Atlantic Canada. In this episode discuss the incredible work that is going on there to build the entrepreneurial ecosystem and share perspective on what it takes to lift up a region....

Ashton McCombs and Jeff are both Naval Academy graduates who took a successful plunge into entrepreneurship. In this episode, Ashton shares stories about the path that led he and two colleagues to leave corporate careers and start Phigenics, a smart water management company in 2004. It has been over a decade, and Ashton shares stories, lessons learned and advice to future entrepreneurs. www.phigen...

We sit down with Jason and Justin to discuss retail technology and everything that the Skosay team has to offer. These entrepreneurs have been working and innovating in the CPG space for their entire adult lives, and have created a new product that is beginning to gain traction. Find out more at: www.skosay.com Hosts: Jeff@startupjunkieconsulting.com Michael@startupjunkieconsulting.com

In our final episode from the Tinkerfest at the Amazeum with co-host Jon Cadieux we speak with Adam Tobin and Sam Bell from the Chabot Space & Science Center. This conversation covers Adam's two previous toy companies, the museum they run in the bay area, cycling, education, hiring, and even dumpster diving! This is a fun one! Chabot Space & Science Center @ChabotSpace Hosts: Jeff@startupj...

In this episode Jeff is joined by Jon Cadieux and two fantastic guests. First is Carrie Beach, who is a veteran teacher at Washington Junior High in Bentonville. She runs the cardboard construction at the Tinkerfest, and created a Fab Lab in her classroom to help mold the creative minds of the students that she works with every day. At 11:50 we shift to speak with London Kaye who hails from New Yo...

With guest host, Jon Cadieux, Jeff talks with Joel Gordon of the Arkansas Innovation Hub, one of the founders of Tinkerfest. He shares stores of makers, maker faires, making, and education. Find out more at: www.arhub.org Hosts: jeff@startupjunkieconsulting.com Jon@455mediagroup.com