Momentum on Side of Max Farrell’s Latest, WorkHound

Max Farrell of Create Reason spoke to members of the Arkansas Trucking Association about how to attract millennials to the industry.

Little Rock native Max Farrell has some momentum behind his latest startup, WorkHound.

Farrell splits his time between his hometown and Des Moines, Iowa, where he co-founded the trucking industry app with Andrew Kirpalani. Despite his Iowa connections — Farrell attended college at Grinnell and wound up staying there when he got a job with Des Moines mobile payment startup Dwolla — he remained firmly attached to his home state, still calling the Hogs with fervor. His mom (Arkansas Business Publishing Group Chairman and CEO Olivia Farrell), for one, is glad he did.

The Arkansas tech startup community is, too. Farrell has been involved with several startup ventures splitting time between Little Rock and Des Moines, and he championed efforts to build the foundation of a bona fide tech startup ecosystem in central and northwest Arkansas including organizing the state’s first official Startup Weekend events.

His latest venture is WorkHound, which has developed a driver retention tool for the trucking industry that enables drivers to share feedback about their company and includes an app that aggregates driver data. Farrell was hooked by the trucking industry when the Arkansas Truckers Association earlier this year hired another of his startups, corporate innovation consulting firm Create Reason.

WorkHound, meanwhile, is working with several Midwestern trucking firms to fine tune the product and plans a public launch later this year. Momentum is on its side. The startup is coming off a win at the Shark Tank-styled “Truck Tank” contest at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, attended by more than 50,000 trucking industry representatives.

“The trucking industry has an annual turnover rate of 97 percent, and a big reason for that is the disconnect between the drivers and the companies,” Farrell said. “Winning this competition is huge validation that we’re building something extremely valuable for the trucking industry.”

Next up for WorkHound is Demo Day for the Straight Shot startup accelerator in Omaha, Nebraska.