BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program (GORP) has accepted seven startups for the fall 2024 cohort. The program will help support entrepreneurs in building their products and services in the outdoor recreation industry. The program has helped startups since 2021.
"It's really been a delight to be part of this overall statewide initiative to promote the outdoor economy and to establish Arkansas as a top destination, not only for outdoor recreation enthusiasts but also outdoor business owners," said Zoe Buonaiuto, Business Incubation Director at the University of Arkansas.
Buonaiuto said in 2023, the program received $1.2 million from the U.S. Economic Development Agency. The funds were matched with another $1 million by the state of Arkansas. It's helped spread the program statewide and continue giving entrepreneurs $15,000 in "non-dilutive seed funding."
"It's so valuable because it allows founders to maintain ownership of their business and the potential upside of their business, while still receiving the financial assistance in those early months, early years, to help them grow," Buonaiuto said.
One of the seven startups in this fall's cohort is Hunt Nosari whose working on modular storage for outdoor enthusiasts. His Ozark Technical Products was created after the mechanical engineering graduate fell in love with the outdoors.
"A key thing with the way I've designed this is it kind of has a modular extrusion backbone in it, which means you're not just limited to this brand of boxes," Nosari said. "I have some brackets that adapt to another brand of boxes, and you can also mount whatever you want to it."
Collin Whittington is working as the co-founder of Coffee Campfire Starter, his second project with GORP. According to a press release, Coffee Campfire Starter "combines upcycled coffee waste with all-natural materials to produce a fire starter that eliminates plastic and petroleum, providing an effective and eco-friendly option great for camping, fireplaces, backyard grilling, and more."
"It's an untapped market," Whittington said. "No one else is utilizing all the waste that's being wasted by these coffee shops."
The program will help entrepreneurs like Whittington and Nosari through workshop training, team mentoring, and business development consulting them to scale.
"I know you do really intensive product development while you're in there, so I'm really excited for that, just to really pick apart all the stuff that we know, and test our assumptions essentially," Whittington said.
"It definitely is going to be an opportunity, not only for me to grow my company but also to grow personally," Nosari said.
Buonaiuto said the University of Arkansas is seeking to further help entrepreneurs. They're looking to start an accelerator program that would continue helping entrepreneurs past the ideation stage.
"We really want to find the funding to programmatically offer an accelerator that's targeted on these founders that are already in the marketplace and are really looking for that increased traction and revenue scaling," Buonaiuto said.
The 12-week program will be overseen by leaders at the U of A's Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. They'll start Aug. 27 and end with a Demo night on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at the Meteor Guitar Gallery in Bentonville. Members of the public are welcome to attend this free event. Registration is available here.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.