Startup Talk: TB&P Launches Technology, Startup Microsite

Editor’s note: Each Thursday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Startup Talk,” a round-up of startup, technology and entrepreneurial news in our email newsletter, which you can sign up to receive daily for free here.

TALK BUSINESS & POLITICS LAUNCHES TECHNOLOGY, STARTUP MICROSITE
Talk Business & Politics has launched a new microsite aimed at the Arkansas technology, entrepreneurial and startup communities. First Security Bank has partnered with TB&P on this new endeavor as a lead underwriter.

The new sites can be accessed at TalkBusiness.net/Startup or TalkBusiness.net/Tech.

The site features a combination of local, state and national news; opinion and analysis from experts in the field; videos and interviews with state and national entrepreneurial leaders; a calendar of events of activities across the state; and Arkansas resources for startup companies.

Content on the site will appeal to general business readers, but there will also be much richer content aimed at business leaders and policy makers in the entrepreneurial field from budding startup companies to the most well-established success stories. Read more about this new endeavor here.

FRED WILSON: WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
Venture capitalist and blogger extraordinaire Fred Wilson takes a look back at some of the technology developments of the past year in an effort to make sense of the disruptions in the economy. Hat tip to Jordan Carlisle, entrepreneurship and innovation programming for the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, for bringing Wilson’s column to our attention.

Two of Wilson’s ten takeaways:

3/ the “sharing economy” was outed as the “rental economy.” nobody is sharing anything. people are making money, plain and simple. technology has made renting things (even in real time) as simple as it made buying things a decade ago. Uber and Airbnb are the big winners in this category but there are and will be others.

4/ the capital markets have moved to the internet. we call it crowdfunding but what is really going on is raising money is a great application of a global platform that connects billions of people in real time. i don’t know the total amount of capital that was raised on the internet across all sectors (equity, debt, creative projects, charity, helping a person in need, real estate, energy, etc, etc) in 2014 but i am sure it is in the tens of billions.

Read his full take at this link.

1 MILLION CUPS REFILLS ON JAN. 14
The buzzworthy and successful 1 Million Cups in Little Rock has been on a holiday hiatus, but the networking group will restart its weekly ritual on Wednesday, Jan. 14.

The group meets for an hour at the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce on Wednesdays at 9 a.m. every week to hear pitches from beginner and seasoned entrepreneurs. The forum allows for Q&A to share experiences. The coffee is free and so is the programming and networking.

At next Wednesday’s event, Alese Stroud, founder of Merger Match, is the featured speaker. Merger Match grades potential acquisitions using a proprietary predictive organizational assessment tool. Its goal is to improve long-term success of merged companies through the use of better data. For more information, click here.

JEFF AMERINE LEAVES UA POST, WILL DEVOTE MORE TIME TO STARTUP JUNKIE
One of Arkansas’ most respected entrepreneurial leaders, Jeff Amerine, stepped down from his post with the University of Arkansas to devote more time to a startup consulting business that he says is poised for bigger growth.

In a planned transition, Amerine stepped down from his post as associate vice provost for research and economic development and as the director of Technology Ventures at UA at the end of 2014. He says he will continue to work closely with the university and will continue to teach entrepreneurship at the state’s flagship school while applying much more of his time to his consulting firm, Startup Junkie Consulting. Read more here.