This week on the podcast Matt continues the Capital Allocators series by talking with Clete Brewer, managing partner at New Road Capital Partners. During the episode, Clete walks through New Road Capital Partners and their investment verticals of supply chain, logistics, transportation and retail tech with a focus on opportunities for scale and growth. Matt and Clete go on to discuss the model at New Road that brings together both operators and investment experts when evaluating an investment. New Road’s operating partners include former leaders in logistics and tech for Walmart, Family Dollar, JB Hunt and more. They wrap up the discussion by talking about what Clete looks for in CEOs that they invest in as well as operating partners and members of their team. Learn more about New Road Capital Partners - https://newroadcp.com/

In this next iteration of the capital allocator series, Matt sits down with University of Arkansas and Walton College alum, Aaron Pierce. Aaron begins by outlining his experience at Walton College including what he was involved in on campus with the Business Communication Lab and SAKE along with his internships at Walmart and on Capitol Hill. He also touches on his involvement within the finance department as a student in the portfolio management class and Arvest fixed income class where he had the opportunity to manage millions in assets as a student. They then move on to discussing Aaron's current role with Perot Jain which is an early stage investment firm backed by the family office of Ross Perot, Jr. and Anurag Jain in Dallas. The firm focuses on investing into companies that are solving some of the world's biggest problems, typically investing in the seed or Series A stage. Aaron then dives into the strategy Perot Jain takes for their investments, leveraging their resources to support the companies that they invest in beyond just money including incubating new products and solutions. They wrap up the discussion with Aaron providing advice to entrepreneurs who are looking to raise funds on finding the best investor for your business and Aaron shares what he looks for in a company as an investor.

In this next iteration of the Capital Allocators series, Matt sits down with Brian Henley, Managing Partner of Recurring Capital Partners to discuss his business and the work that they do with SaaS (Software as a Service) companies. They begin by discussing Recurring Capital Partners and how they work with SaaS companies who are looking for growth capital. They then move into the business of SaaS and the massive changes in the industry that has taken place in the past decade. They also delve into how Recurring Capital Partners evaluates companies that they are considering for growth capital including looking at predictable recurring revenue, a sticky customer base and high growth margins. They finish the discussion on the topic of metrics, sales strategies utilized by software companies and when companies should take equity vs. debt capital.

As part of the Capital Allocators series, Matt sits down to discuss the ins and outs of capital allocation with Managing Partner of Natural Capital, Brad Henry. To begin, Brad goes into what Natural Capital is, moves along to the allocation of capital, and then discusses subjective variables Brad is interested in when looking to invest. Matt then poses the important question on how impactful, and to what degree, networking is in the business world. Metrics, profit margins, and revenue growths are then discussed, and Brad moves into how these variables connect to the real estate world. Brad finishes by giving advice to students interested in jobs dealing with capital allocation.

This week on the Be Epic podcast Matt sits down with Drew Buckley, Group President & Chief Operating Officer for Propagate Content. They discuss Drew’s journey in the entertainment and entrepreneurial space including roles at USA Today, AT&T, Yahoo and eventually founding his own company with Ben Silverman, former chairman of NBC. The independent content studio they founded together created CHOPPED, Running Wild with Bear Grylls, Jane the Virgin, and more. They go further into the episode discussing the dynamism of the digital revolution for entertainment content especially going from network television and prime time slots to Netflix and other streaming platforms where content is on demand. They finish by discussing how talent discovery has changed in the entertainment industry especially with the evolution of social media.

This week on the podcast Matt sits down with Ranu Jung, Founding Executive Director and Endowed Chair for the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research (I3R) at the University of Arkansas. In the episode they discuss what I3R is from the brand new building with an architectural design inspired by the forest around us to the innovation clusters that the institute is focused on. The institute will concentrate efforts in innovation in food and data science, biosciences and bioengineering of metabolism, material sciences and integrative systems neuroscience. The core mission of the institute is in problem solving to drive societal impact in these key areas with resources available to company partners including physical resources as well as advisory and commercialization resources. Learn more about I3R: https://i3r.uark.edu/

This week on the podcast Matt sits down with Matthew Ward, Director of the Fuel Accelerator and consultant at Startup Junkie. Fuel is a program where they connect growth stage AI and machine learning startups from around the world to enterprises and mentors in the Northwest Arkansas area. In the episode Matthew highlights how Fuel and Startup Junkie are recruiting early stage startups to the NWA area with opportunities to work with large enterprise partners in our region including Walmart, Tyson and J.B. Hunt. He also shares how large enterprises in the area are investing in AI through automation and how his own journey began with entrepreneurship, capital allocation and finance. Learn more about Fuel Accelerator here: https://www.fuelaccelerator.com

This week on the Be Epic podcast Matt sits down with Brendan Quirk, CEO and President of USA Cycling, for a very special episode on all things cycling leading into the Cyclocross World Cup, which will be hosted October 14-16, 2022 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They begin their discussion with Brendan recapping how his passion for cycling started at the age of 15, which led to him to open a small retail bike shop in Little Rock, Arkansas. The bike shop soon expanded thanks to their early foray into e-commerce and eventually it became the largest e-commerce cycling company in North America. The company was eventually acquired by backcountry.com. Following his experience in selling bikes, Brendan moved to the cycling apparel industry as the President of Rapha North America. He then transitioned to cycling program director at Runway Group to build the mountain biking trail and cycling ecosystem that we have in place in Northwest Arkansas today. Finally, he served as interim CEO of Allied Cycleworks on the cycling manufacturing side and then to his current role as Chief Executive Officer and President of USA Cycling, the non-profit governing body of the sport of bike racing in the United States.

As we move into the final few episodes of the Entrepreneur Series on the Be Epic Podcast, Matt sits down with Scott Holley, President of Eddyline Kayaks. In the episode they discuss how Scott came to Northwest Arkansas through serendipitous connects to grow Eddyline’s production capacity and obtain new investment in the company. They then dive deeper into Eddyline itself and discuss the various type of kayaks in the market and what sets Eddyline apart. They finish by discussing how Scott got interested in entrepreneurship in college as the first student director of the Pierre Lassonde Entrepreneurship Institute at the University of Utah and how that led him to the world of search funds and ultimately acquiring Eddyline Kayaks from the original founder. Learn more about Eddyline Kayaks: https://eddyline.com/

Continuing the Entrepreneur Series of the Be Epic podcast, Matt sits down with Stan Zylowski and April Seggebruch of Movista. To begin they discuss the start of Movista, which actually began in an MBA class at the Walton College. They then move on to discussing their technology pivot in the beginning of the company and how it effected their funding. They finish by discussing how they balance roles being co-founders for 12 years and the importance of building a strong culture and bringing in the right people to grow your organization. They also share advice for students on starting a company or entering into a startup.