Episode 256

full
Published on:

13th Dec 2023

Exploring the Startup and Venture Studio Model with Josh Stanley and Fahad Siddiqui

In this week's episode of the Be Epic Podcast, Brent converses with Josh Stanley, CEO of Cartwheel Studios, and Fahad Siddiqui, Principal and Senior Vice President at SSI. They delve into their unique career transitions from corporate roles to entrepreneurship, their individual contributions in the thriving ecosystem of Northwest Arkansas, and the dynamics of the startup studio and venture studio models. This episode offers valuable insights into the world of startups, making it a must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs and business enthusiasts.

Transcript
Josh Stanley:

When you're a startup and you need capital,

Josh Stanley:

right capital is just an ingredient to your success

Josh Stanley:

story. It's the fuel to your ship that you've built. Like

Josh Stanley:

your as a startup, you're always kind of seeking you're hopeful

Josh Stanley:

for smart money.

Brent Williams:

Welcome to the Be Epic Podcast, brought to you

Brent Williams:

by the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of

Brent Williams:

Arkansas. I'm your host, Brent Williams. Together, we'll

Brent Williams:

explore the dynamic landscape of business and uncover the

Brent Williams:

strategies, insights and stories that drive business today. Well,

Brent Williams:

today, I'm fortunate to have with me two guests. I have Josh

Brent Williams:

Stanley, who is CEO of Cartwheel Studios. And also have Fahad

Brent Williams:

Siddiqui, who is Principal and Senior Vice President at SSI.

Brent Williams:

We'll tell you a little bit more about both of them about SSI and

Brent Williams:

Cartwheel what they do. And the unique partnership they're

Brent Williams:

forming in Northwest Arkansas. But maybe before I do that, let

Brent Williams:

me ask each of you to tell us just a little bit about you and

Brent Williams:

your background. Josh, I'll start with you. Fahad come to

Brent Williams:

you next. And then Josh will kind of come back and talk about

Brent Williams:

Cartwheel.

Josh Stanley:

Okay, sure. Yeah. Yeah, my background. And I would

Josh Stanley:

say professionally, I came up in product management and project

Josh Stanley:

management, have kind of run teams on both sides of that kind

Josh Stanley:

of technology facilitation role and got into entrepreneurship

Josh Stanley:

after spending years at 1-800 Contacts, which is the contact

Josh Stanley:

lens business. And then Backcountry.com, and then

Josh Stanley:

ultimately, Zappos. So I spent a long, basically 12 years in E

Josh Stanley:

commerce doing those roles, and then took the leap of faith that

Josh Stanley:

a lot, or I shouldn't say a lot, but some, some corporate people

Josh Stanley:

take into entrepreneurship. Did that after kind of fighting

Josh Stanley:

through this, like, how am I going to become an entrepreneur,

Josh Stanley:

I went through a period of feeling like I needed the

Josh Stanley:

perfect idea. And then I ultimately ultimately landed on

Josh Stanley:

this concept of like, no, I should just do what I'm good at.

Josh Stanley:

Like, I could do that as a consultant, as a contractor. And

Josh Stanley:

that's how I started and then kind of eventually ended up

Josh Stanley:

working with some friends to build an agency out of Las Vegas

Josh Stanley:

that served product development. So we were a product development

Josh Stanley:

agency that did software development, but kind of

Josh Stanley:

holistically covered the spectrum of product management,

Josh Stanley:

design, and software development so that we could, you know, in

Josh Stanley:

isolation, kind of go off and build build a product for a

Josh Stanley:

client, for the Fortune 500 clients that we worked with. And

Josh Stanley:

then I mean I'll include how I got to Northwest Arkansas,

Josh Stanley:

because that's it's at the heart of I think a lot of what we want

Josh Stanley:

to talk about today. And that's, yeah, in that, running that

Josh Stanley:

agency for about two years and growing that to a couple million

Josh Stanley:

bucks in revenue. We got acquired by a larger agency out

Josh Stanley:

of Northwest Arkansas called RevUnit, which I think many in

Josh Stanley:

the region know. But yeah, just a larger software development

Josh Stanley:

firm or product development firm. And ended up running that

Josh Stanley:

for about two years and then exited, exited that or helped to

Josh Stanley:

help RevUnit go through a private equity transaction in

Josh Stanley:

2019. But yeah, so I've co founded I think six companies.

Josh Stanley:

Now I'm kind of skipping over some of the details of how those

Josh Stanley:

happened. But it had been through a few exits as well. So

Josh Stanley:

it's been a it's been a fun journey and now based in

Josh Stanley:

basically Bentonville, I live in Little Flock just outside of

Josh Stanley:

Bentonville, but our office is in Bentonville.

Brent Williams:

All right, wonderful. Well, Fahad, how

Brent Williams:

about a little bit about your background?

Fahad Siddiqui:

It's hard to follow Josh on this one,

Fahad Siddiqui:

Certainly less exciting career. But I spent I

Brent Williams:

It is.

Brent Williams:

started in the telecom sector in New York, basically big

Brent Williams:

corporate, spent 10 years in telecom in different positions,

Brent Williams:

very corporate positions, corporate development, strategy

Brent Williams:

planning, little bit finance and strategy oriented and then

Brent Williams:

wanted to get closer to sales and marketing. Became head of

Brent Williams:

marketing for a b2b division, business services division. So

Brent Williams:

that was sort of the 10 years were planned out and then

Brent Williams:

decided, okay, let's do something more entrepreneurial

Brent Williams:

than try to set up own my E commerce startup. Now, I'm in

Brent Williams:

Chicago at this point, spent exactly a year and three months

Brent Williams:

doing that and burning all my cash, great experience, you

Brent Williams:

know, loved it, but didn't work out for me. And that's when I

Brent Williams:

ran into the founder of SSI in Chicago and decided to join

Brent Williams:

these guys to help grow this business. And I've been here now

Brent Williams:

nine years. It's been a fantastic journey. We've grown

Brent Williams:

this company from 50 to 550 in this period of time, so great

Brent Williams:

experience.

Brent Williams:

Well, incredible experience for both of you.

Brent Williams:

Josh, you're now you're in Northwest Arkansas and have

Brent Williams:

created and leading Cartwheel, cartwheel studios. And I would

Brent Williams:

tell us a little bit about Cartwheel I think maybe many

Brent Williams:

people aren't all that familiar with the venture studio model.

Josh Stanley:

Yeah, I definitely find that that's the case. I

Josh Stanley:

mean, it is kind of an emerging asset class of sorts. And so

Josh Stanley:

yeah, I can speak to Cartwheel, and this, this startup studio

Josh Stanley:

slash venture studio model. So we yeah Cartwheel started as a

Josh Stanley:

startup studio. And I'll talk about that transit, the

Josh Stanley:

transition, we're in the middle of right now kind of expanding

Josh Stanley:

that scope. But yeah, essentially, anybody who's

Josh Stanley:

founded a company before, knows how hard it is to get a company

Josh Stanley:

off the ground, to start from scratch, to build from zero to

Josh Stanley:

get even to a million dollars in revenue was a big accomplishment

Josh Stanley:

and requires blood, sweat, and tears. And I think another

Josh Stanley:

another thing that I think most people know about startups is

Josh Stanley:

90% of them fail, like that's a fairly well known stat that gets

Josh Stanley:

thrown around. So I think the startup studio model and the

Josh Stanley:

venture studio model, and I'll talk about the differences in a

Josh Stanley:

minute, or they're very nuanced differences between the two,

Josh Stanley:

they're relatively the same. But the model itself is like how do

Josh Stanley:

we improve that 90% failure rate? How do we pull forward the

Josh Stanley:

failure rate? How do we do it early on before significant

Josh Stanley:

investments of people's time, talent and resources. And so

Josh Stanley:

that's really what the startup studio model is striving to do.

Josh Stanley:

It is not an incubator, which a lot of people start translating,

Josh Stanley:

you know, startup studio into incubator or it's not an

Josh Stanley:

accelerator, either. Both of those models go out and seek

Josh Stanley:

either a founder or co founding team, or an established startup

Josh Stanley:

to help accelerate their growth, right? Like those models are

Josh Stanley:

great models, and nothing wrong with them. But they are built to

Josh Stanley:

kind of take an established person or team and startup, pull

Josh Stanley:

it in, and help accelerate it in some capacity, where the startup

Josh Stanley:

studio venture studio model is more about, let's go identify

Josh Stanley:

the white space that exists the blue ocean opportunities in

Josh Stanley:

different markets. So you tend to focus on a certain thesis. If

Josh Stanley:

you're running a studio, like for us, it's the retail value

Josh Stanley:

chain, which I know is near and dear to you, Brent. And that

Josh Stanley:

that idea of focusing on retail value chain for us, it's like,

Josh Stanley:

okay, let's go identify where where are there opportunities in

Josh Stanley:

the retail value chain for us, where we can come up with new

Josh Stanley:

business concepts. And we tend to try to have affinity mapping

Josh Stanley:

around those business concepts. And by that, I mean, hey, this

Josh Stanley:

next cohort of concepts is all gonna be focused on supply

Josh Stanley:

chain. So we're gonna go identify 20 concepts,

Josh Stanley:

potentially viable business concepts in the in the supply

Josh Stanley:

chain space, and we'll vet that will validate, we'll do

Josh Stanley:

business, subject matter expert, or operator or corporate

Josh Stanley:

interviews, where we're helping to identify assumptions that

Josh Stanley:

we've made about those concepts, like what are the most critical

Josh Stanley:

assumptions we have about that concept that we have the least

Josh Stanley:

amount of confidence in. And so we'll go out into the market,

Josh Stanley:

we'll do market analysis, competitive analysis, and

Josh Stanley:

interviews, that allow us to kind of validate and vet what

Josh Stanley:

assumptions might be true and what assumptions are, are

Josh Stanley:

clearly false. So with that in mind, we actually start with a

Josh Stanley:

large number of concepts, and then whittle down to say, two to

Josh Stanley:

three concepts by the end, that we can feel the viable

Josh Stanley:

businesses that have been vetted and validated, that allow us to

Josh Stanley:

then hopefully, find a co-founder. So we go out into

Josh Stanley:

the market, and seek to identify an individual has a unique

Josh Stanley:

advantage in that business concept. And we attach them to

Josh Stanley:

that concept to go over the last kind of stage gate to forming

Josh Stanley:

and funding a company. So that's the startup studio. That's how

Josh Stanley:

it's different from an incubator and accelerator. And it's,

Josh Stanley:

hopefully, a higher probability of success than just starting

Josh Stanley:

from scratch what we see when we look at and help and try to help

Josh Stanley:

startup founders that might exist out in the community,

Josh Stanley:

because we see a lot of confirmation bias, we see people

Josh Stanley:

that seek out data that that validates the assumptions

Josh Stanley:

they've made up front, we see emotional attachment. Maybe like

Josh Stanley:

you're you're really attached to this thing, and it just doesn't

Josh Stanley:

have the legs. And so what we believe is that the startup

Josh Stanley:

concept really allows for the separation or startup studio

Josh Stanley:

concept really around allows for that separation, because if we

Josh Stanley:

don't, if an idea isn't working, like we're not emotionally

Josh Stanley:

attached, like we will take it out behind the barn and shoot it

Josh Stanley:

like we will, we will put that idea down if it doesn't have

Josh Stanley:

legs, and in a way that allows us to really get to the heart of

Josh Stanley:

what has the highest probability of success. So that's, in a

Josh Stanley:

nutshell, that's the model of venture and just to say at

Josh Stanley:

startup studio, venture studio, venture studio looks exactly the

Josh Stanley:

same as what I just described. The only addition I would add is

Josh Stanley:

it typically has a sidecar fund. So it has what looks like a

Josh Stanley:

traditional venture fund attached to it, where it can do

Josh Stanley:

follow on investments into those startups as they kind of

Josh Stanley:

continue up the lifecycle into later stages. And later

Josh Stanley:

fundraising. Fundraising rounds.

Brent Williams:

Totally makes sense. And Fahad, you have you

Brent Williams:

and SSI have gotten engaged, I think maybe was the initial

Brent Williams:

partnership around the Pocket Factory product?

Fahad Siddiqui:

Yeah, so I can give you some backdrop of that.

Fahad Siddiqui:

So over a period of time, we've actually built some products

Fahad Siddiqui:

with some entrepreneurs and launched them as separate

Fahad Siddiqui:

entities. And Pocket Factory is one of those products, which is

Fahad Siddiqui:

a Industrial Internet of Things, industrial IoT platform, focused

Fahad Siddiqui:

on the bottling sector. So take, you know, bottling like Coca

Fahad Siddiqui:

Cola, Pepsi, Heineken, whoever it may be. So, to the platform

Fahad Siddiqui:

is, you know, it's applied to the manufacturing facilities,

Fahad Siddiqui:

cleanse data and give them predictive maintenance and give

Fahad Siddiqui:

them a health check on their manufacturing facilities. So we

Fahad Siddiqui:

decided we needed a platform to scale this startup. And that's

Fahad Siddiqui:

when we ran into Josh and team and found that Cartwheel to be

Fahad Siddiqui:

an impressive platform. And we thought this startup could, you

Fahad Siddiqui:

know, learn in and scale, basically. So that's how we

Fahad Siddiqui:

started this partnership. And now that partnership is much

Fahad Siddiqui:

broader than larger than maybe started off.

Brent Williams:

Well, these are, these are sort of Josh's words,

Brent Williams:

not yours. Exactly. But you know, when he described SSI to

Brent Williams:

me, you know, he said, you guys are a little little unique in

Brent Williams:

that, you know, you're high quality, you're fast, you work

Brent Williams:

well with startups. And then you also have a fund where you do

Brent Williams:

invest in maybe some of those startups. Tell us a little bit

Brent Williams:

about just SSI and kind of was Josh right? Is that? Is that the

Brent Williams:

right description?

Fahad Siddiqui:

I hope he is. Well, all I can say is that

Fahad Siddiqui:

we've got a good track record. You know, we we're currently

Fahad Siddiqui:

engaged with, like 40 plus tech companies, out of which most of

Fahad Siddiqui:

them are startups, happen to be startup or are co-funded

Fahad Siddiqui:

startups, few are idea stage companies. The rest of our

Fahad Siddiqui:

clients are more enterprise or let's say publicly traded

Fahad Siddiqui:

companies where we're doing multi year sort of projects. But

Fahad Siddiqui:

in terms of the number of customers, most of our work is

Fahad Siddiqui:

in the tech space. And out of that portfolio, it's mostly tech

Fahad Siddiqui:

startups. And I think where we have been successful is our

Fahad Siddiqui:

average client relationship goes about five years. And for the

Fahad Siddiqui:

top 10 clients, it's about eight years, which is not typical in

Fahad Siddiqui:

the sector. And really, I think the reason for this is because

Fahad Siddiqui:

we have such a great model of engagement, where we can

Fahad Siddiqui:

understand the needs of an early stage firm, which are very

Fahad Siddiqui:

different from when they scale to a growth stage, and then to

Fahad Siddiqui:

maturity. And we work with all size and stage firms and build a

Fahad Siddiqui:

very flexible model that can take them from that idea all the

Fahad Siddiqui:

way to market to scale. And then beyond and in our team of you

Fahad Siddiqui:

know, technical architects to developers, etc. That team kind

Fahad Siddiqui:

of evolves as their majority evolves. And so I think that

Fahad Siddiqui:

model has really worked for us. And it's been successful. We've

Fahad Siddiqui:

been lucky. Also, we work with some really amazing startup

Fahad Siddiqui:

founders and startups that started with you know really two

Fahad Siddiqui:

guys and two dogs that came to us with an idea and exited for

Fahad Siddiqui:

$400,000,000 2 years later and built, and all those platforms

Fahad Siddiqui:

have been built by us. And, you know, since that happened, you

Fahad Siddiqui:

know, we set up our own fund because we were like, okay, we

Fahad Siddiqui:

didn't have any skin in that game. You know, they had a great

Fahad Siddiqui:

exit and we've been their partners, and even today with

Fahad Siddiqui:

the startups. They're not a startup anymore. They've been

Fahad Siddiqui:

acquired by a publicly listed company. So so we set up our own

Fahad Siddiqui:

fund. Take, you know, basically, we invested in this fund. And

Fahad Siddiqui:

the idea is, again, on a case by case basis, where there's a good

Fahad Siddiqui:

match in terms of domain or industry knowledge and

Fahad Siddiqui:

expertise, and we can bring something to the table, other

Fahad Siddiqui:

than just pure development capabilities. And we see a good

Fahad Siddiqui:

match with the founders will typically participate in their

Fahad Siddiqui:

capital raise and invest and you know, and it's a win win for

Fahad Siddiqui:

everyone because you know, our personal money our company's

Fahad Siddiqui:

money is tied into their success. And so everybody wins

Fahad Siddiqui:

and we make sure that they're successful. So try to make sure

Fahad Siddiqui:

as much as possible.

Josh Stanley:

Yes. Just to jump in here, like, it's not possible

Josh Stanley:

that every vendor on the planet can do what what SSI can do. But

Josh Stanley:

like when you're when you're a startup, and you need capital,

Josh Stanley:

right capital is just an ingredient to your success

Josh Stanley:

story. It's the fuel to your ship that you've built, that

Josh Stanley:

you're hoping to take, you know, Exit, Exit, Exit, the

Josh Stanley:

gravitational force of kind of just creating a company with and

Josh Stanley:

like to have a partner that also has the ability to invest in

Josh Stanley:

your startup, like your, as a startup, you're always kind of

Josh Stanley:

seeking, you're hopeful for smart money, right? You're

Josh Stanley:

hopeful that along with that capital, that ingredient that

Josh Stanley:

fuel to your ship, you can also get someone in partnership with

Josh Stanley:

you, that has aligned incentives that can bring more value to the

Josh Stanley:

table and man to have your technology team have that

Josh Stanley:

capability to also be kind of a contributor to that fuel. I

Josh Stanley:

don't know there's a lot of power, I'd love to see more. I

Josh Stanley:

would love to see more companies that provide services to

Josh Stanley:

startups that are always asking for payments, right? Like

Josh Stanley:

they're selling, selling into startups or selling into series

Josh Stanley:

A Series B companies wanting they're wanting their cash that

Josh Stanley:

they've raised in exchange for services, but also to be able to

Josh Stanley:

contribute back, not in all instances, but when it when you

Josh Stanley:

know, interests are aligned. Like when you can create a line

Josh Stanley:

incentive relationships with vendor partner vendors. I think

Josh Stanley:

that's where some of the best outcomes come from when

Josh Stanley:

everybody's invested. He's like, no, we need this to work. Let's

Josh Stanley:

make sure we're coming up with the best concepts, delivering

Josh Stanley:

the best possible solution. I think that's interesting for me.

Brent Williams:

Absolutely. You know, and and Fahad, well, you

Brent Williams:

know, I'm, I'm a big believer in the state of Arkansas and

Brent Williams:

Northwest Arkansas. Clearly, I've spent much of my life and

Brent Williams:

career here and get a chance to lead the Sam M. Walton College

Brent Williams:

of Business, which is quite an honor, as you can imagine. But

Brent Williams:

my understanding is that you are working on opening an office

Brent Williams:

here in Bentonville. And so you must see, at least some degree

Brent Williams:

what we're seeing, I think.

Fahad Siddiqui:

So again, I'll give a lot of credit to Josh and

Fahad Siddiqui:

team. They basically, they invited us to Northwest Arkansas

Fahad Siddiqui:

to take a look at the ecosystem that all of you are building

Fahad Siddiqui:

actually together. We were very impressed, we're pretty active

Fahad Siddiqui:

in the Chicago sort of surrounding between Chicago,

Fahad Siddiqui:

Milwaukee, Detroit, sort of the broader technical system,

Fahad Siddiqui:

incubators, accelerators, venture capital funds, we've

Fahad Siddiqui:

invested in a bunch of funds ourselves as well. So we stay

Fahad Siddiqui:

engaged in that ecosystem. And when we came, visited your

Fahad Siddiqui:

region, we found the region which is developing fairly

Fahad Siddiqui:

quickly, great concentration of you know, Fortune 100, great

Fahad Siddiqui:

activity overall, we felt that this could be a place would be

Fahad Siddiqui:

to be should invest and get engaged in the tech ecosystem,

Fahad Siddiqui:

and try to be an active contributor. So we decided to

Fahad Siddiqui:

partner so we signed a partnership with Cartwheel as

Fahad Siddiqui:

well, broader partnership. And then as part of that, we will

Fahad Siddiqui:

set up an office and we're in the process of setting up an

Fahad Siddiqui:

office there and hiring a couple of key people to be engaged in

Fahad Siddiqui:

activity, that ecosystem. Also, I noticed you guys were ranked

Fahad Siddiqui:

on the Wall Street Journal's List of cities, that was just

Fahad Siddiqui:

what two days ago, I saw that you guys were ranked number two,

Fahad Siddiqui:

and that's sort of the mid size or small size regions that have

Fahad Siddiqui:

gotten highest concentration of tech skilled tech workers. So

Fahad Siddiqui:

congratulations. That's amazing.

Brent Williams:

Well, this, this region is rapidly developing in

Brent Williams:

that respect, and certainly is exciting. And I'm excited you

Brent Williams:

and your team will be here and be engaged in the ecosystem. You

Brent Williams:

know, Josh, I want to go back to a point when you were describing

Brent Williams:

Cartwheel you that I think is probably really important. I

Brent Williams:

know it's one of the things that really excited me is that you've

Brent Williams:

got to you've got a strong focus on the retail value chain. Why

Brent Williams:

is that important? I mean, I'm sure there's some probably some

Brent Williams:

obvious reasons, but there's probably some nuances to why

Brent Williams:

that's important as well.

Josh Stanley:

Yeah, I mean, I think you know, this as well as

Josh Stanley:

anybody else in the region that we've got tremendous activity in

Josh Stanley:

the ecosystem. We got tremendous contributors in the kind of

Josh Stanley:

entrepreneurial support organization network here, a lot

Josh Stanley:

of it. And we and we have amazing philanthropic families

Josh Stanley:

here that contribute to a lot of activity and kind of the growth

Josh Stanley:

that we're all experiencing and loving, I think. But you have

Josh Stanley:

the investments that have been made in in health tech and

Josh Stanley:

health care, which I think need to continue to be made. We have

Josh Stanley:

investments in, I would call Air Mobility or mobility in like the

Josh Stanley:

up summit that's taking that has taken place here. We've had

Josh Stanley:

investments in outdoor rec, obviously, GORP that runs, you

Josh Stanley:

know, out of your programming at the university that really is

Josh Stanley:

meant to be an incubator, to outdoor rec companies and

Josh Stanley:

startups. So we have these kinds of interesting capabilities

Josh Stanley:

being established and built here. But when you take a step

Josh Stanley:

back, and you say, well, that's a lot of there's a lot of

Josh Stanley:

activity and a lot of different places. Not all of those

Josh Stanley:

activities are built around established capabilities, like

Josh Stanley:

true mature capabilities. And by that I mean, think advanced

Josh Stanley:

subject matter experts, people that have a depth of knowledge

Josh Stanley:

in a particular area. We don't have the concentration of that

Josh Stanley:

in healthcare yet, or health tech or biotech, we don't have

Josh Stanley:

the concentration of that yet in Air Mobility. There's a lot of

Josh Stanley:

great work happening with drones and all these different areas,

Josh Stanley:

but it's just not mature and established. But when you look

Josh Stanley:

at the retail value chain, when you ask yourself, where what do

Josh Stanley:

we have a unique advantage in, an unfair advantage in which I

Josh Stanley:

think from a startup perspective, it is critical to

Josh Stanley:

assess, and then where do we have a depth of subject matter

Josh Stanley:

expertise? Where do we have established anchored kind of

Josh Stanley:

incumbents that are industry leaders, and its retail value

Josh Stanley:

chain all day, we have Walmart, we have Sam's Club, yes, that's

Josh Stanley:

what this region I think is most known for, is being the

Josh Stanley:

headquarters to those those major, you know, Fortune One

Josh Stanley:

companies, or fortune one company, and but we have Tyson

Josh Stanley:

Foods, we have Simmons, we have George's, we have JB Hunt, we

Josh Stanley:

have Arcbest. And the list goes on. Like, we never include the

Josh Stanley:

other billion dollar companies that are here in this region

Josh Stanley:

that are all really ultimately connected through the retail

Josh Stanley:

value chain from getting a product created, to getting it

Josh Stanley:

into the hands of the consumer. So that to us. And actually,

Josh Stanley:

before I do, I'm gonna give credit where credit's due. And

Josh Stanley:

we have a university that has a top ranked supply chain school,

Josh Stanley:

in in in the country, if not the world. So, you know, we have

Josh Stanley:

this great mix of emerging talent established capabilities,

Josh Stanley:

deep domain knowledge, talent, like how do we take this amazing

Josh Stanley:

combination of resources and global reach really, with the

Josh Stanley:

companies we have here and leverage it into emerging

Josh Stanley:

companies? Like how do we take emerging technology and combine

Josh Stanley:

it with subject matter expertise to disrupt the industries that

Josh Stanley:

are aligned with the retail value chain like we can out of

Josh Stanley:

this region, build startups that are the next Walmart, Sam's

Josh Stanley:

Club, build startups, the next JB Hunt and Tyson, like, we can

Josh Stanley:

build those kinds of technology companies here. And it's going

Josh Stanley:

to be because we have an amazing university program that produces

Josh Stanley:

young talent focused in that in those areas, it's going to be

Josh Stanley:

because we have amazing anchor corporates in this region that

Josh Stanley:

attract that kind of talent. And it's going to be because we have

Josh Stanley:

an amazing ecosystem, and the right kind of support from

Josh Stanley:

different angles that allow us to create new businesses and

Josh Stanley:

help them thrive here. So there's more work to be done.

Josh Stanley:

It's not perfect, there are gaps in our in our ecosystem. But

Josh Stanley:

yeah, when we when we took a step back and just ask

Josh Stanley:

ourselves, where do we have a right to win? It's like this

Josh Stanley:

retail value chain all day. Like, if we're not building

Josh Stanley:

companies in that space. It's, it's, it's shame on us is this

Josh Stanley:

kind of how we feel like if we're not willing to partner

Josh Stanley:

with with you and your team and the University programming, and

Josh Stanley:

corporates here, and kind of all work together to help build new

Josh Stanley:

tech companies in that space. We're missing out on being the

Josh Stanley:

kind of global leaders in the future, like the leadership we

Josh Stanley:

have today is as fleeting as anything like the s&p 500 is the

Josh Stanley:

stat we always point to have like the average lifespan of a

Josh Stanley:

company in the s&p 500. If you go back to the 1960s, it was

Josh Stanley:

some 60 some odd years that the average lifespan of a company

Josh Stanley:

existed in the s&p 500 had been around you go to today, and the

Josh Stanley:

average lifespan is 15 years. So what that tells you is that more

Josh Stanley:

early stage companies are taking over in the s&p 500 that

Josh Stanley:

incumbents have been disrupted by challengers. And that is a

Josh Stanley:

continued pattern that the lifespan is shrinking. We're

Josh Stanley:

going to see more of that. So we need to be building those

Josh Stanley:

companies. We need to have a shot at continuing to be the

Josh Stanley:

leader in that space for the next 10, 20 30, 40 50 years and

Josh Stanley:

beyond. Like that's the kind of vision we need to we need to

Josh Stanley:

start taking as we as we look at what's possible in Northwest

Josh Stanley:

Arkansas. That's my rant for the day.

Brent Williams:

I couldn't agree more and probably could not have

Brent Williams:

said it better. And it is exciting to be here at this

Brent Williams:

time. Because you know, I do believe that, that all the

Brent Williams:

ingredients are here for, you know, the next wave of

Brent Williams:

innovative companies to be built right here that will impact the

Brent Williams:

retail value chain for many, many decades to come. And, and I

Brent Williams:

think both of you are important pieces of those ingredients. So

Brent Williams:

Fahad looking forward to getting to see you more, as you're in

Brent Williams:

Northwest Arkansas more and excited that SSI is joining our

Brent Williams:

region. And Josh, really excited about what you are doing at

Brent Williams:

Cartwheel and excited about the startup studio model. I want to

Brent Williams:

say both of you, thank you for partnering with the Walton

Brent Williams:

College of Business. And thanks for being willing to join today.

Fahad Siddiqui:

My pleasure.

Josh Stanley:

Yeah, appreciate you. Thank you for having us on.

Josh Stanley:

Thank you for being so supportive of all the programs.

Josh Stanley:

And I mean, I'd be I would feel maybe missed if I didn't at

Josh Stanley:

least bring up hey, we've got bounds accelerator, and I don't

Josh Stanley:

know when this podcast is gonna go live, but I'm gonna do it

Josh Stanley:

anyway. So we're working with with, Cartwheel's working with

Josh Stanley:

the University of Arkansas, and really your your team on bounds

Josh Stanley:

accelerator, which is launching in January. So if this happens

Josh Stanley:

to get out before November 3, we are still accepting

Josh Stanley:

applications. And these are interest. This is for traction,

Josh Stanley:

or startups that have traction that have some revenue post

Josh Stanley:

revenue in the emerging tech space applied to retail value

Josh Stanley:

chain. So if anything you're doing in the startup space has

Josh Stanley:

any application to the retail value chain, please apply to the

Josh Stanley:

bounds accelerator, you can reach it

Josh Stanley:

bounds.cartwheel.studio, and again, that's in partnership

Josh Stanley:

with the University of Arkansas and many corporate sponsors

Josh Stanley:

along with Han Ventures, Coin Base, and AI Foundation. So

Josh Stanley:

we're bringing a great collection of established

Josh Stanley:

emerging tech companies in alongside the established retail

Josh Stanley:

value chain companies and in partnership with the University,

Josh Stanley:

I think it's gonna be a great program excited about it.

Brent Williams:

Yeah, as you know, super excited about that

Brent Williams:

partnership, all the different partners that have come together

Brent Williams:

to make that happen. Josh, you, your team, other partners. From

Brent Williams:

from our standpoint, you know, I have to mention Sarah Goforth,

Brent Williams:

who leads our Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Brent Williams:

That's really been the key driver from the University of

Brent Williams:

Arkansas side in in this effort and many more to build this

Brent Williams:

ecosystem. So excited about the partnership. Thank you both for

Brent Williams:

being here today.

Josh Stanley:

Thank you.

Fahad Siddiqui:

Thank you for having me. Thank you.

Brent Williams:

On behalf of the Walton College thank you for

Brent Williams:

joining us for this captivating conversation. To stay connected

Brent Williams:

and never miss an episode, simply search for Be Epic on

Brent Williams:

your preferred podcast service.

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About the Podcast

Be EPIC Podcast
Welcome to the Be Epic Podcast featuring Brent Williams, interim dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. In each episode, you will hear from guests that will inspire you to be epic. As experts in their field, they will emphasize strategy, leadership, and entrepreneurship. This programming will highlight innovation and cutting-edge information that will leave you wanting more. Be sure to connect with Brent Williams on LinkedIn to join the conversation, access show notes and discover fantastic bonus content.