Summit explores startup future
Walmart exec: Leaders still key
BENTONVILLE — Of all the potential superpowers, a Walmart leader attending Friday’s Plug and Play Northwest Arkansas Supply Chain Summit said he would want the ability to identify disruptive, courageous leaders.
“The truth is we need disruption in our business, we need leaders who can … come forward and truly drive change,” David Guggina, Walmart’s senior vice president of supply chain, told attendees. He was the first to answer the moderator’s closing question and had his answer ready in seconds.
Panelist Stuart Scott, J.B. Hunt’s executive vice president and chief information officer, gave him a look and raised the microphone.
“You were way too quick with that answer,” he quipped. The room filled with laughter before Scott elaborated on the importance of data platforms over software products.
The crowd, gathered Friday for the event at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, watched and listened as the leaders of a dozen startup companies pitched their ideas.
The selected startups that recently completed
a three-month accelerator program in the state, hosted by Plug and Play, based in Silicon Valley. Their ideas employ emerging technologies such as automation and internet-of-things tracking to bring digital solutions to supply chains in the retail, food and transportation industries. One startup presented software that automates coding, another introduced sensors that can be placed inside tires to monitor their condition.
“We are really lucky to be part of their journey,” said Saeed Amidi, chief executive and founder of Plug and Play, a group that links investors, industry partners and mentors with startups around the world. Dropbox, PayPal and others have their roots in Plug and Play.
A company called Honey, for example, had a valuation of $2 million when it received its first seed-funding check of $50,000. Honey is an online browser-extension that aggregates and automatically applies coupons on e-commerce websites. Five years later there are 35 million active users who’ve downloaded the mobile app, and PayPal recently purchased Honey for $4 billion.
“What we hope to do in Northwest Arkansas is to help about 60 startups per year … we would like to invest in 20 of them and love to possibly seed-round the next Walmart or the next J.B. Hunt,” Amidi said. Last year Plug and Play set up a regional office in Northwest Arkansas, its fifth in the Western Hemisphere, so it could be closer to the region’s business community.
“We want to grow the tech economy here in our state,” said Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Arkansas spends about $1 million a year on accelerator programs to help draw talented startup companies.
“Why do we do this?” Hutchinson said. “Because we want these companies to say ‘Arkansas is the right place to do business, Arkansas is a good place to have a tech company.’”
Soon after Hutchinson was elected, Arkansas became the first state to mandate computer science or coding classes at every high school. Last year, enrollment increased from 8,000 to 9,800 students, Hutchinson said.
When asked what superpower they wanted, some panelists wished they could be faster or resilient to failure.
Moderator Michelle Sourie Robinson, president and chief executive of the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council, said she wants companies to be totally diverse and inclusive.
“We will never find the best innovative technology and solutions until we include everyone in the process,” Robinson said. “Where are the women, where are the minorities, where is anyone that might have a solution? And we need to help them get to the table.”
The summit was funded in part by Walmart, Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt, the Walton Family Foundation, the Northwest Arkansas Council, the University of Arkansas, Georgia-Pacific and Crowley Maritime.