The State Of Tech Startups in Northwest Arkansas
According to PwC’s MoneyTree tool, Arkansas startups have raised in excess of $60 million in funding between Q1 2014 and Q4 2017.
DataRank, a Fayetteville-based social analytics company founded by 20-somethings, made a splash when it was acquired by Simply Measured in 2015.
Other successful startup companies in Northwest Arkansas include Collective Bias, acquired by Inmar in 2016, and RevUnit named in the Inc 5000 (2017) as the fourth-fastest growing in Arkansas.
Together these companies created teams of innovation-driven software developers, designers, and I.T. professionals.
Strong Community Support
While businesses are creating job opportunities in Northwest Arkansas, it’s the supportive and diverse community of tech professionals who are keeping talent local.
An active calendar of meetups and conferences can be found throughout the region.
Meetups
This Meetup group draws a sizeable crowd of developers who teach each other about Javascript technologies. Anyone in the community can volunteer to speak and networking is encouraged. With over 500 members, the group is notable for connecting like-minded professionals eventuating in job opportunities.
Northwest Arkansas Developers Group
This non-profit organization dedicates itself to the promotion, education, and adoption of technologies to develop applications and websites. They strive to provide an environment for professionals to network in Northwest Arkansas and foster the free exchange of ideas and information.
This Meetup is made up of over 390 developers of all experience levels in all fields; from student web developers and veteran SciPy fanatics to those simply interested in learning more about programming with Python. They get together at least once a month to discuss Python in business, academia, and the web!
Conferences
A technology conference in Fayetteville that brings together 350 people in the local tech community for a day of learning and networking. In its 6th year, NWA TechFest featured a variety of speakers including local developers, makers and educators.
NWA Tech Summit held in Bentonville, drew over 1500 attendees in 2017. Content focuses on how innovative technology solutions are powering change in business. The 3-day event includes a full day dedicated to Women In Technology.
A one day, pure-tech conference for engineers, hackers, and makers in the heart of Northwest Arkansas. Local and national speakers talk about the state of tech, software engineering, machine learning and more.
Other Events
TechStars Startup Weekend is the place to look for a team, create a prototype of your idea, validate your business idea, and receive feedback from experienced entrepreneurs, all in one weekend
GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where technology professionals from designers, developers and database administrators to marketers and web strategists donate their time to provide solutions for non-profit organizations.
