ScaleUp Accelerator focuses on intimacy, impact of program

In April, nine high-growth companies were selected to participate in Endeavor Heartland’s ScaleUp Accelerator, a regional program designed to help established businesses navigate their next stage of growth.

Backed by matching funds from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the three-month program provides mentorship, strategic connections, and hands-on guidance to help companies scale. The nine companies are: Arvist, Black Paper Party, Dress It Up Dressing, Kigüi, MishiPay, Supply Veins, Swapt, Vantage 9 and Vizer.

Canem Arkan, managing director at Endeavor Heartland, and Shawn Morris, senior manager for entrepreneur experience at Endeavor Heartland, discussed the program and their firm’s efforts to help steer this latest cohort to success.

Roby Brock: What is Endeavor up to with ScaleUp?

Canem Arkan: Endeavor Heartland is a global organization, and we focus on the fastest-growing, highest job-creating, and biggest revenue-generating companies in all of our regions. Endeavor Heartland is specifically focused on sort of these middle-America states: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri. We’re doing a lot more in Texas and Alabama, too. The goal is to really support these series A, series B, in venture capital speak, stage founders to help them become the next million-dollar unicorn, hundred-million-dollar founder success stories…

Our goal to do that is through mentorship and funding and through programming. We noticed there’s a real gap in those series A and series B stage founders and the companies we’re seeing and the expertise we have in the region, and thus was born ScaleUp.

Shawn Morris: ScaleUp is really focused around retail tech or CPG [consumer packaged goods] companies both based in Arkansas but also based out of the state. It’s focused around the northwest part of the state, and a lot of resources here centered around retail because of Walmart, Tyson, J.B. Hunt and all the suppliers around them. ScaleUp is a multi-month program, but it really boils down to three in-person weeks where we’re plugging them into dozens of retail leaders, both at the largest enterprises to small entrepreneur broker agencies in order for them to see the resources that are available here. Everyone’s just one degree away from somebody that can really help transform and accelerate your business.

Brock: What are the types of companies that ScaleUp is hoping to help?

Morris: It is nine companies in total, two based here in the state and seven outside the state. It’s a mix of companies across industries, and they are all different. There are programs out there that really focus on one concentrated industry vertical, and I’ve seen some that say ‘let’s spread it out’ to a lot of different verticals because there’s stuff to be learned from each other. There’s just a lot of cross-pollinating that can happen. There’s overlaps in their networks, but there’s ways to then help each other out. That’s the cohort at large, and the hope is they walk away from the program going like, ‘Man, Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas is an important part of our business, and we need to invest more here.’

Arkan: These companies are coming not just from the U.S. but from around the world. We have a company coming in from London. We have a company coming in from Argentina. We have companies coming in from San Diego and Chicago and Boston. It’s really a national program, and people see the value of coming in here because they know they’re going to get to meet in person with decision makers and influencers in their industries. I think, (the program) gained some national recognition thanks to Shawn’s hard work.

Brock: Is this something to be replicated, or is it specific to Arkansas?

Morris: I’ve been in Endeavor four and a half years, and the ScaleUp part of my job is about a year and a half old now. The thing that’s worked really well with Endeavor is those curated, intimate connections with a mentor, an investor, a potential customer that can really have an impact on the business or just doing things that are really tailor-made to the founders. The program has evolved over the last year and a half, but … it’s really understanding once we’ve chosen the cohort and figured out, ‘OK, what stage are they at, what’s their priority, are they raising, and what are they doing in the state currently?’ We look at all that and then pull those people into design the programming and then fill in the gaps, and let’s really expand that out over the next three months. We want everyone in the program who walks away saying, ‘Hey, there’s clear ROI here. I got connected to people that understand my business or get my industry, and we’re able to help me accelerate.’

Brock: How big do you want this program to get?

Arkan: I think it has to stay in a certain range. I always love to say everything we do is about thinking big at Endeavor, but the key difference I think in terms of what we’re doing here is it’s just the intimacy of the relationships and the conversation. Anybody can come, and we’ll just have a bunch of networking with a lot of people in the room that you may or may not want to talk to. This is very targeted and specific, and luckily, I don’t think AI can ever take over our jobs because I don’t think you can make these kinds of targeted, specific introductions and get people to establish relationships on a bigger scale.

I really think where we are right now is once we continue to build on the success of this, I think we can grow a little bit, but it really has to be the intimacy of the program. I would argue once we start doing that, we’re going to become even more selective about the quality of the companies that can be here and that can take advantage of what we’re offering. So that’s a long-winded answer of saying I think we can grow. I don’t think this will ever be this huge program, but I think the impact it will have will be enormous.

And startup companies, even ones that are three to five years into their journey, can still fail. It happens a lot. So I do want to caveat to your question on that. These are all still very early-stage companies in the grand scheme of things, but I think what we’re doing here really ensures their longevity and their ability to grow and take advantage of the information and advice we’re getting them.

THE COMPANIES
The following nine companies in the spring cohort of ScaleUp Accelerator represent a diverse mix of industries, including retail technology and consumer brands.

Arvist: Warehouses lose 2% to 10% of revenue to claims from damaged goods, labeling errors, and short shipments because quality control is still manual, fragmented and error-prone. Arvist fixes this with a QC-in-a-box solution: a real-time QC and compliance platform that runs on the infrastructure warehouses already have. By connecting to cameras, WMS, and tablets, Arvist automates error detection, generates visual audit trails, and auto-builds claims packages. This reduces losses, speeds up delivery, and strengthens trust across the supply chain without disrupting operations.

Black Paper Party is a celebration brand creating culturally inspired party décor and paper goods that center Black joy and representation. We design bold, modern collections that make life’s biggest moments feel personal, vibrant and unforgettable.

Dress It Up Dressing: Dress It Up’s unique and premium dressings challenge category stalwarts by offering award-winning flavors made without compromise: no seed oils, no excess sugar, no gums or thickeners and no water. By using only pure, recognizable ingredients — including 100% olive oil, fresh garlic, Dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar — they create a product that reflects modern consumers’ preferences and tastes. Dress It Up is woman-owned and a Certified B Corporation.

Kigüi is an AI copilot that makes retail execution measurable, prioritizing store tasks, verifying real on-hand inventory, and ensuring promotion compliance. The result is higher sales and better margins.

MishiPay is a retail technology company transforming in-store shopping through AI-enabled, frictionless checkout solutions. Our platform delivers intelligent store technology and solutions for self-checkout kiosks, mPOS, RFID, scan, pay and leave, and POS integrations, eliminating queues, improving operational efficiency and enhancing customer experiences.

Supply Veins is an AI-native supply chain platform that transforms buyer-supplier procurement emails into reliable execution. We help purchasing teams improve supplier communication, automate email follow-ups, and track purchase orders in real time, saving our users four hours per day and reducing unnecessary defects by 30%.

Swapt is a marketplace retention and growth solution that gathers first-party data from marketplaces with QR codes, and brings customers back for more with email, SMS, and loyalty. Swapt helps brands significantly increase marketplace LTV and reviews for hundreds of brands.

Vantage 9 is redefining the intersection of agility and customization in logistics, having scaled its composable logistics platform in one of the most demanding retail environments in the world. Rather than forcing a choice between rigid legacy software and slow custom builds, they offer a third path: bespoke flexibility with the deployment speed of proven SaaS, backed by AI/ML built for real logistics teams. Its focus is moving the industry away from multi-year roadmaps, giving logistics teams a platform that conforms to their operations, not the other way around, and can be deployed and operational in months, not years.

Vizer helps CPG brands drive measurable retail sales by turning promotions into high-converting, data-driven growth levers.