Six NWA entrepreneurs create 479 Founders Forum
by October 18, 2016 3:06 pm 626 views
Some of the region’s most creative and resourceful people have joined forces to promote community development in Northwest Arkansas through the 479 Founders Forum.
In the last few months, Justin Delaney, founder of online tuxedo rental company Menguin in Fayetteville, and Joe Saumweber, co-founder of Bentonville-based tech shop, RevUnit, decided to form the group, and it now consists of six area entrepreneurs who have found success in NWA and are looking for opportunities to help the community improve and grow.
In addition to Delaney and Saumweber, the group consists of Juan Camacho of Orchestra Works in Bentonville, Kourtney Barrett of Junk Brands in Bentonville, Lance Stokes of Lauren James in Fayetteville, Neil Greenhaw of Haxton Road Studios in Bentonville and Stephanie McCratic of Acorn in Bentonville.
Their businesses are “startups that are not really startups anymore — like, they have millions in revenue and fast growth.”
The group can serve as a reminder for the potential there is for businesses in Northwest Arkansas. Menguin, for instance, has grown from $15,000 in monthly revenue in May 2015, when it first moved to NWA, to now averaging $500,000 revenue per month. The company was founded June 2014. “It proves it can be done here,” Delaney said.
The idea for 479 Founders Forum came from similar programs, entrepreneurial support networks, in larger cities. However, while the forum also provides mutual support for its participants, the “warm welcome” Delaney received when he relocated his business to the area from Atlanta prompted the 479 Founders Forum to take on a community development bent.
Delaney believes the forum members are in a unique position to incite change.
“The way we see it, you have a lot of people that interested in developing Northwest Arkansas,” he said, pointing to established, successful corporations and families like the Waltons, the Tysons and the Hunts, who have a long history in the region, but are no longer on the ground level. “But we’re the ones in the thick of it. We feel the pains and joys of NWA most profoundly, so we think we’re in the right position to solve problems and make the community better.
“We’re in the trenches and can see the problems first. Then, hopefully, we can get with the right people, those with positions of power who might not always have a handle on the challenges that small- and mid-sized companies face,” Delaney added, pointing to tech talent acquisition as a key issue.
In order to do that, the 479 Founders Forum has hosted civic groups and nonprofits during its monthly meetings, looking for mission alignment and potential ideas.
“We’re all service-minded individuals. We haven’t figured out how we can make a difference yet, but we figured if we got all our brains in the same room together, we would be able to see that path clearer,” Delaney said.