Thrive Capital co-founder to be keynote speaker at Onward FX

More than 600 people and over 90 investors are expected to attend Onward FX on April 21 at Ledger in Bentonville. Jared Weinstein, co-founder of New York-based venture capital firm Thrive Capital and founder of The Overton Project, will be keynote speaker.

Startup NWA, an initiative of the Northwest Arkansas Council, and Arkansas Economic Development Commission are hosting the event, which aims to help startup founders seeking capital. Since launching in 2024, Onward FX has facilitated more than 500 founder-funder meetings and helped startups secure millions in venture capital investments nationwide. It expanded statewide last year.

Onward FX returns to Bentonville with programs from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 21. Pre-scheduled founder-funder meetings will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. Attendees will include more than 140 companies, and investors comprise venture firms, family offices and angels. The companies from across the country were selected from among 900 applications submitted in February. More than 500 meetings have been requested, matching the aggregate of all the previous Onward FX programs.

The event opens with Unscripted, in which founders vote on the topics they want investors to address. There’s no prepared remarks or predetermined agenda. Investors take the stage and answer for what founders want to know about. Registered attendees can vote through Friday (April 10). The results determine the breakout agenda.

The Unscripted keynote, “Scaling Deep,” features Weinstein in conversation with Steve Nelson, co-founder and former CEO of Carbon.

Thrive Capital has grown from $40 million in assets to more than $50 billion under management, backing OpenAI, Warby Parker, Figma, and 39 unicorns in total. Before Thrive, Weinstein spent seven years in the White House, the last three as personal aide to President George W. Bush. Weinstein founded The Overton Project in 2013 as a social investment platform focused on scaling organizations to Birmingham, Ala. — specifically Breakthrough Collaborative, Venture for America, and Microsoft’s TEALS computer science program.

Carbon is a Silicon Valley-based digital manufacturing company that has raised more than $700 million from Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake, and Google Ventures.

Onward FX is sponsored by ACC Capital, Walmart, Visit Bentonville, First Security Bank, Fulcrum Collective, HoganTaylor, Alex Brown Raymond James, Arkade, Scarlet Letter Beverage Co., The Alternative Board, and The Venture Center.