What sets this year’s Fuel Accelerator apart from accelerator programs across the state is that it focuses on sales instead of product development, with a top goal being the establishment of pilot projects that the accelerator companies and Arkansas companies can launch together.
The accelerator, in its second year, is led by Startup Junkie in Fayetteville and RevUnit in Bentonville. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission provides its $250,000 annual budget.
The 2020 Fuel Accelerator is also a first for Arkansas: It’s the state’s first artificial intelligence and machine learning accelerator. The 2019 Fuel Accelerator was for supply chain technology companies.
Fuel Accelerator Director Taylor Hasley, who also serves as executive director of the Startup Junkie Foundation, told Arkansas Business the accelerator’s goal is to “increase efficiencies for our enterprise partners, attract world-class talent to [northwest Arkansas], and ultimately to retain that talent and create additional jobs in our area.”
In addition, “We measure our success by the number of pilot contracts, or POCs, the [group of accelerator companies] gets, new revenue created, investment dollars raised, new job creation, and the ultimate win is when a company decides to relocate the operation” to the region, he said in an email.
Compared with the 2019 accelerator, the 2020 accelerator is more focused on sales than product development, because “companies with a developed product are more likely to get a pilot contract,” Hasley said. He said the companies will learn lessons like how to best position their brand to be accepted by an established company, how to navigate the corporate hierarchy of an established company, and how to structure a pilot project contract and price it out.
This year, the program has focused on how the accelerator companies’ technologies fit the needs of established companies instead of on developing the technologies, he said.
RevUnit helped build out this curriculum and its co-founder and CEO, Joe Saumweber, advises the companies throughout the accelerator. Hasley described the accelerator as “collaborative, not competitive” and said it’s “based on building relationships through our mentorship program.”
He said the Fuel Accelerator doesn’t invest in companies or ask for equity; the only requirement is that the companies move to northwest Arkansas for 12 weeks to go through intensive training Tuesday through Thursday on how to sell to large, established enterprises. The program was in progress when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, so it’s gone virtual.
Through the accelerator, the state and region gain exposure to innovative technologies, Hasley said. Accelerator companies could also set up satellite offices or hire people to manage pilot projects.
Last year, Fuel Accelerator alumnus Charu Thomas of Oculogx relocated her company from Atlanta to Bentonville. She now has an office in Fayetteville. Her company provides an augmented reality application that aims to make order picking, the process of extracting products from a warehouse, faster and more accurate for retailers. Truckish of Memphis, a 2020 company, has already decided to move its operations to the region. Truckish provides a comprehensive fleet management platform that integrates digital tools for the trucking industry into one system.
Hasley said the 2019 accelerator companies raised $700,000 in investment dollars, generated an additional $522,691 in revenue and created 14 jobs. At the end of the inaugural 2019 program, the eight accelerator companies had signed contracts to do four pilot projects with Arkansas companies and were discussing 23 other pilot projects, he said.
Fourteen companies in eight countries, eight states and Washington, D.C., were selected for the 2020 program. They offer technology ranging from food innovation to digital commerce, human resources, advertising, supply chain optimization, legal and more.
The 2020 companies had an average of $1 million in revenue and $1 million in funding. Most were on their second or third funding round, Hasley said.
The selection committee looked at how evolved the applicants’ technology was; their ability to identify as an AI company and tell their company’s story; how clearly explained their product or service was for application by an established business; whether they could pivot effectively if necessary; their vision; and their experience.
The accelerator will culminate in a virtual Demo Day set for 5:30 p.m. April 29. The demo day is a graduation of sorts where the companies pitch their products to prospective business partners, investors and others.
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