Nelson Peacock is hopeful that the arrival of a global innovation company will help spur northwest Arkansas’ business ecosystem and solve some nagging logistical problems.
Plug & Play Tech Center of Sunnyvale, California, announced Tuesday that it would open an accelerator program in northwest Arkansas this summer. The program will tackle logistics and supply chain issues and will be in cooperation with three of the area’s most successful companies: Walmart Inc. of Bentonville, Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale and J.B. Hunt Transport Services of Lowell. The Walton Family Foundation and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission are also supporting the endeavor.
Plug & Play, in its news release announcing the project, said its Supply Chain & Logistics Innovation platform is the world’s largest and can attack all sorts of issues ranging from last-mile delivery to predictive analytics to machine learning. Peacock, the CEO of the nonprofit Northwest Arkansas Council, said the project will start by having the “big three” founding companies — Walmart, Tyson and J.B. Hunt — narrow the focus of the accelerator to a few specific issues.
Plug & Play executives will then scour the country for startup companies that have expertise in those focus areas and bring them to northwest Arkansas to work with the companies on possible solutions. Peacock said 20 startups would locate to northwest Arkansas for three-month work periods.
Peacock said the Plug & Play program dovetails perfectly with the council’s recent strategy to increase the area’s innovation, diversity and venture capital. The council is an organization composed of northwest Arkansas’ business, community and academic leaders.
“This allows us to do all three things by attracting the best startups in the country to come here and work with our companies,” Peacock said. “Ideally, they will strike up business relationships and relocate here.”
Plug & Play’s website says it has helped 2,000 startups and has 750 portfolio companies that have raised more than $7 billion in funding. Peacock said Plug & Play’s prestige will help highlight northwest Arkansas’ growing business environment.
“The real important thing is any company can join the Plug & Play accelerator, and the beauty here is we’re going to be bringing them to us,” Peacock said. “It will expand as we go forward. There will be a little trial and error. There are a lot of different ways it will work out.”
Peacock said one of the aspects of the accelerator program is its strategy of putting startup minds in a room with established business minds. Much like the growing popularity of co-working spaces such as WeWork, the brainstorm mix can be beneficial to both participating sides.
“Areas that are more developed than us, they have a lot of co-working spaces,” Peacock said. “Those collisions of smart people with good ideas, that’s the idea.”
The accelerator program certainly is making a strong debut with the backing of heavyweights like Walmart, Tyson and J.B. Hunt. Those three companies all have clear and vested interests in better innovation and success in supply chain logistics.
“It is going to open up a more innovative ecosystem where our big companies work better with smaller companies,” Peacock said.
Even J.B. Hunt’s media-reluctant CEO John Roberts commented on the Plug & Play project. J.B. Hunt has been active in boosting its logistics and last-mile services, and Walmart recently announced a next-day delivery service.
“Technology is changing the way we move freight, and collaborating with Plug & Play gives us the opportunity to team up with leading startups on solutions that will help our customers,” Roberts said. “Bringing the Supply Chain & Logistics Accelerator program to northwest Arkansas will also showcase the region’s status as an innovation hub, and we look forward to working with these startups on the next big idea.”
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