David Allan Wins Again at Startup Weekend Little Rock

A wall inside Acxiom's corporate headquarters served as a post-it bulletin board of ideas being brainstormed before teams officially were formed at the latest Startup Weekend Little Rock.

David Allan has this Startup Weekend thing down. 

Allan and his Kick It Little Rock team won the latest Startup Weekend Little Rock held at Acxiom’s corporate headquarters in the River Market.

The winning team won $1,000 and a package of startup consulting services. Startup Weekend is a global, grassroots event at which aspiring entrepreneurs brainstorm ideas and build teams around those ideas.

Allan was part of the Simple Service team that won the inaugural Startup Weekend Little Rock last year. Allan grew Simple Service into the Acorn Hours startup that currently is competing in the fourth installment of the ARK Challenge accelerator underway in downtown Little Rock.

Kick It Little Rock is an event list app that enables users to share events with members of their contact lists and the community at large.

Allan, who graduated from Hendrix College in Conway this past spring, said he went into the 54-hour event with the idea for an events app.

“It just grew from there,” he said.

Six teams were formed over the weekend including Kick It: Leantoo Outfitters, camper-to-camper gear rentals; Roommate Me, connecting roommates; Teamupp, an app that connects recreational athletes of similar interests and skills looking for a game; Behive Little Rock, a local online marketplace; and 2Roofs, dedicated to ending homelessness.  

Allan joked that his future plans include following Startup Weekend around the country and entering the competitions.

Judges for this weekend’s event were 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.