Investing in Northwest Arkansas with Don Huffner

In this next iteration of the capital allocator series, Matt sits down with Don Huffner, Vice President at RZC Investments, which is a Bentonville, Arkansas, based multi-strategy investment firm focused on deploying capital into operating businesses at all stages from series A to buyout. It is owned by Steuart and Tom Walton. They start the discussion with a quick overview of RZC Investments including their focus when it comes to investing, although they are industry agnostic they do invest heavily in the outdoor industry and technology including investments in Eddyline Kayaks, Allied Cycle Works and AcreTrader. In general, their investments focus on strengthening and diversifying the economic fabric of Northwest Arkansas. They continue the discussion by diving into the decision making drivers when it comes to investing at various stages within a company's journey, especially the importance of getting to know founders and the people who are running a company that they are considering investment in. They also discuss total addressable market for a company and how RZC evaluates that metric for a company. They finish their discussion with an overview of Don's career journey and how he came to Northwest Arkansas and RZC.