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Startup Weekend Returns to Little Rock This Week

2 min read

The entrepreneurial juggernaut Startup Weekend returns to central Arkansas this week.

Startup Weekend Little Rock 2014 will start at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Acxiom’s River Market District corporate headquarters and run through Sunday night.

The global, grassroots event brings together entrepreneurs, aspiring and otherwise, to brainstorm ideas for startup ventures and form teams around those ideas. Teams spend the weekend developing their ideas and then pitch before a panel of judges on Sunday.

Teams compete for cash prizes, startup consulting services, and most importantly, awareness and momentum.

Cost to participate is $50. Register here.

An app called Simple Service, which evolved into current ARK Challenge startup Acorn Hours, won last year’s Startup Weekend Little Rock at the Clinton School of Public Service.

Judges for this weekend’s event are Olivia Farrell, CEO of Arkansas Business Publishing Group; Little Rock tech founder Rod Ford, former CEO of nGage Labs; Dana Robbins of Inuvo; and local tech founder James Hendren of Accelerate Arkansas. 

Jordan Carlise, director of entrepreneurship and innovation for the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, is again serving as a Startup Weekend organizer.

He sat down with startup lawyer Jamie Fugitt of Little Rock’s PPGMR Law, a Startup Weekend mentor, to discuss the upcoming event. Fugitt offered advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:

Carlisle: What is your best advice for early stage startup entrepreneurs working on a product or service?

Fugitt: Take all the mentoring and education you can get, but digest it and combine it with your won instincts.

Carlisle: What is your favorite book in the realm of technology, startups, and/or creativity?

Fugitt: Clayton Christensen’s original 2010 (short) version of How Will You Measure Your Life. There is now a book-length version available that expands on this 2010 speech, but I like that you can work through the speech version in a single sitting. I revisit it over and over (and re-read it again just now).

Carlisle: What is your favorite tool you would recommend to startup founders? 

Fugitt: Handshakes and in-person conversations; reputation for honoring commitments and over-delivering.

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