The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
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The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
Ep. 94 - Silicon Valley Meets Small Town: Global Innovation in Bentonville
Bentonville, Arkansas has become an unexpected hub for global supply chain innovation. At the Plug and Play event downtown, innovators, corporate leaders, and venture capitalists gather to tackle some of the industry's most pressing challenges.
Josh Saffran opens by explaining how Plug and Play connects corporations facing supply chain challenges with startups offering innovative solutions. With 400 attendees and keynote speaker Shelley Simpson of JB Hunt, the atmosphere buzzes with possibility as entrepreneurs and industry giants share a single space.
The conversations throughout the day reveal a common thread - artificial intelligence is transforming supply chain from warehouse floors to corporate boardrooms.
We meet Devin Bhushan from Squint AI, whose technology lets companies record factory operations on video and automatically generate step-by-step guides with augmented reality assistance.
Kate Powell shares how Tyson Ventures is seeking AI innovations through their annual Demo Day competition, while international investor Meir from Maniv VC hunts for entrepreneurs with fresh approaches to breaking into fragmented markets.
Perhaps most memorably, supply chain expert Dr. Matt Waller describes his "Supply Chain Hot Wings Challenge," where executives from JB Hunt and Tyson Foods answer technical questions while consuming increasingly spicy chicken wings. As he puts it, both supply chain management and hot wings "require strategy, resilience, and a willingness to cry in front of other people."
Despite the technological focus, every speaker emphasizes the continued importance of human expertise.
Alex Rhodeen from Georgia Tech's ATDC reminds us that while AI brings tremendous value, "supply chains are still going to be human-dependent." The future isn't about replacement but enhancement - making complex jobs easier through thoughtful innovation.
Dive into these back-to-back snippet interviews with attendees, and enjoy yhr special on-site bonus epsiode from DBB!
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in Bentonville. I'm Andy Wilson and I've got a special guest with me today, josh Stafford. Welcome to Doing Business in Bentonville. Thank you for calling me special guest. I do appreciate that You're welcome. You know we're really excited because we're broadcasting from downtown Bentonville and you have got a great event planned for Plug and Play. Thank you very much for inviting doing business in Bentonville. Here and today we're going to be interviewing some of your great guests that you have here, but tell all of our viewers what you have planned for today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm real excited. We've been doing these expo trend type events for five years, and about three years ago we decided to partner with the University of Arkansas, who does such an amazing job in the supply chain space, and so we combined forces, had some cost savings, obviously, in doing that, but, more importantly, brought together both sets of folks within our networks, and so this is our third year of partnering with them. We had 400 people sign up. We had Shelley Simpson. We're going to have Shelley Simpson as keynote speaker for the event, so that was wonderfully planned and it's all about innovation supply chain. We're going to have great panelists. Today we're bringing in the Hot Ones panel for year two, where Matt Waller is going to eat spicy wings and talk supply chain. So I'm really excited. A lot of innovation, great startups, great panelists and, more importantly, being able to do this here in Northwest Arkansas with 400 people signing up is very exciting.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a wonderful event and you know, josh, you've had great success here with your previous events and we want to thank everyone for coming and participating. Now talk a bit about Play. Play and it's a global company, worldwide. There's events all over the world. So talk about the company and the major. What does the company focus on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've been here since 2019. We're a Silicon Valley-based venture capital and our team focuses specifically on supply chain, but we have 23 other we call them verticals or teams that focus on things like fintech or crypto or insurtech or health tech and things of that nature, and so supply chain makes a ton of sense here for everything going on with Walmart, tyson, jb Hunt, arcbest and others, and so what we do is we introduce innovation solutions via startup introductions to corporate partners. So a corporation has a challenge within the supply chain that they're trying to solve. They can't build it or don't want to build it internally. We're connected to over 80,000 startups in our global database and we will source and vet these startups and then introduce them to corporations that will then have meetings with them where they will decide do we want to buy this technology? Do we want to borrow it? Do we want to build it ourself? And, end of the day, through that process, they will hopefully have pilots and then commercialize the end result Josh.
Speaker 1:Again, thank you so much for the opportunity. Now, as we think about today, what are you expecting? What would be the great outcomes? Because I know you and your team have worked very, very hard, so talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is the third year that we've done this event in collaboration with the University of Arkansas and we get to see the partnership and collaboration focused on supply chain, which has been great. What we do is really interesting in the community and obviously what they're doing is fantastic over at the university. We had almost 400 people sign up. So when we show up this morning, I'm so excited looking around the room at the number of attendees that we have here, and we invited fantastic founders, wonderful corporate partners, investors. So I think today, what you'll see coming out of this is tremendous amount of networking, tremendous amount of introductions and hopefully, a lot of deals get made and I'm not talking about necessarily investment deals, but companies that could use help from startup technology being able to work with some of these folks going into pilot. So when you look around at the setup in the room and the number of chairs, I'm expecting a full house and I'm really excited to see how the event goes today.
Speaker 1:Well, wonderful and we're excited to be here again. Thank you so much. Thank you, hi everyone. I'm Andy Wilson and I am recording at the plug and play event downtown bentonville, arkansas. And you won't believe who just walked up matt waller.
Speaker 1:dr matt waller, welcome andy great to see you thanks for talking to me oh listen, you know you're the world renowned matt waller, so of course you know you walk by. I had to grab you because, like I could, you know I see you from a distance all the time and it's usually on LinkedIn or somewhere you know, and you're doing great things around the world at the University of Arkansas.
Speaker 3:So congratulations for all that you're doing Well you know, here today I want to tell you about a panel I'm facilitating. Okay, it's really fun. It's the second year we've done it. It's called the Supply Chain Hot Wings Challenge and, for those listening that are not familiar with the concept, we're combining two of humanity's greatest challenges solving supply chain problems and eating hot, spicy chicken wings, eating hot, spicy chicken weights and one thing that they both have in common is they both require strategy, resilience and a willingness to cry in front of other people.
Speaker 3:But today on my panel I have the Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Management from Tyson, jeff Lowe, and senior vice president, executive vice president from JB Hunt, spencer Frazier, and you know they're both supply chain experts, but I want to see how their logistic skills hold up in managing this one supply chain today, which is getting increasingly spicy chicken wings in their mouth. But, in all honesty, we actually have real questions that have to do with supply chain management and they will be eating these really hot and spicy chicken wings while they're answering questions. But I like to say this is where supply chain meets Scoville index and you know, I don't know if that's ever happened before.
Speaker 1:You know, I know this. I will be attending that event. Oh, thank you, I will be there for sure, because I want to see this and I may try to get some video of this. Okay, you know that we can post when we're having, when we release this podcast, because I think what this is is world-renowned, as you said, I would have to say so, you know, and see, you're just such, you have such talent. You know, I mean to pull this off.
Speaker 3:Well, speaking of talent, let me tell you what happened last year. So I'm sitting there it's a different panel, but it's the same concept and they have these hot sauces lined up in front of me, these hot sauces lined up in front of me, and they say, okay, this is the mildest and this is the hottest. Okay, and so go from mildest to hottest. I said, okay, well, I got the order confused. Of course you did purposely, right? No?
Speaker 1:no, you didn't.
Speaker 3:Oh, and so I put a bunch of the hottest hot sauce on the first wing. I took a bite and I could barely breathe. Oh my goodness, I thought we were going to have to call an ambulance Now. Fortunately we didn't, and I did survive. As you can see, I love it.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, the only other person I could think of that you should do this is you should put our friend Josh in plug and play in that, oh my gosh. I mean really, I mean this is his event, we should just do it. I mean you should do it because it couldn't happen to a better guy really, and I think you should reverse the sauces again.
Speaker 3:Well, what we thought about doing was next year instead of, we always have a bunch of milk, big glasses of milk, because that's supposed to help in water, but next time we're not going to have milk or water, we're going to have bourbon. So I think Josh would really like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think it is next year. Josh seems to be have bourbon, so I think Josh would really like that. Josh, okay, I think it is next year. Josh seems to be the bourbon guy, right, exactly, exactly. Oh, matt, it's always great to see you, and one of the things that we were chatting about I want our viewers to know is that we're going to have you back on doing business in Bentonville. Oh, good, and we are celebrating. We have just reached a new milestone doing business in Bentonville. We're now viewed in a hundred countries.
Speaker 3:Are you serious, I am Congratulations. Thank you, andy. Given your leadership and your background, I am not the least bit surprised.
Speaker 1:It's all for the team. You know, the team just told me that. Actually, they told me like 15 minutes ago we were, we were around the 90, uh, 90, 90 countries and and, uh, you know, we were just chatting about it and they went. Oh, we forgot to tell you, you know, because that tells you they do all the work. You know they're, they're, they know it. I didn't know it and I give them all the credit, but it is it, it is, and and we I just want to say to all of our viewers and listeners now around the world, we say thank you. You know, we live, and I want to just talk to you about this just for a moment. But we live in an incredible place, don't we? Northwest Arkansas, oh my goodness.
Speaker 3:We live in the greatest place. I mean, you know the retail value chain. This is the heartbeat of the retail value chain. Yes, it is the heartbeat. And you think about Walmart. You know every a Walmart is like within a 10 minute drive of 90% of the country, right, but at the same time, walmart's ramping up e-commerce. You know, pickup delivering, home, drone delivery. This stuff is being conceptualized here and rolled out here. It's quite remarkable.
Speaker 1:It is remarkable I was reading this morning actually, that Walmart's growth in grocery is 60% of their business today. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, and so it's phenomenal. And I remember this and it's going to date me a bit back and for years I've spent almost 30 years at Walmart and I remember this when Sam Walton brought David Glass in as CFO, and David Glass came from the food background, as you know, when he came, I remember Sam Walton saying this he said the future is food. We did not sell one grocery. Well, we sold a few grocery items, but in our candy department, if you will. But Sam Walton said it and he said and David Glass will help us get there. David Glass, thank you for your vision, because he really was a visionary he was a visionary and now for them to do Walmart, and I thought that was such a milestone.
Speaker 1:I read this morning and I was so happy for what's taking place, but you're right, but what Walmart has accomplished but not only is Walmart here all the support organizations and what you all are doing at the University of Arkansas, matt, and we'll get into that on our podcast and what you all are doing at the University of Arkansas, matt, and we'll get into that on our podcast what you all are doing around supply chain and other things at University of Arkansas it's phenomenal. So thank you for that.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, you know. One other thing about Walmart I wanted to say, because a lot of people don't know this Walmart was the first company in the world to have a private satellite network. You know, sam Walton wanted to be able to provide the home office with POS and store information on a daily basis. Right, and to do that they had to put in a satellite network, which was a big, big idea back in the 80s. Oh, back in the 80s.
Speaker 1:Oh, back in the 80s exactly, Gosh.
Speaker 3:But then you know, sam Walton could speak on the intercom of any store in the country, right, in fact, if you go in the renovated Walmart museum in Bentonville they have his desk with the microphone on it. Right Through that satellite network he can connect to any store in the country and communicate. The reason I think that's interesting is, I think in any business communication is one of the most important variables.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. It is critical and you know, walmart did a great job of communicating. They still do a great job of communicating. I think Doug and his team does a great job of communicating not only to the associates around the world, but also to everyone else about what's happening and the opportunities and where they're going to go. They do, they create and, to your point, great communications create clarity, and clarity creates execution in the organization and individuals.
Speaker 3:So it works, it does, it does and you know even the concept of having an electronic POS system, yeah, in the 80s. Yeah, how to use RFID in retail. I mean, the list just goes on and on. And I was thinking, with all of the potential cost increases associated with the tariffs and everything, I think Walmart will gain market share. Oh, definitely Right, definitely Because of ED share. Oh, definitely Right, definitely Because of EDLP. Oh, yeah, and you know I was. It's amazing that the concept of EDLP really was pushed by Jack Schumann. It was, I remember Jack.
Speaker 1:Great job.
Speaker 3:And you know, throughout the years Walmart has had pressure to move away from EDLP and for those listening I know it stands for Everyday Low Price. But I really it's very clear that the closer they've stuck to it, the more they've won.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you know too what happened with the transformation. And back when Jack was the president and CEO of Walmart I was the store manager and district manager and when he you know, we're going to stop advertising because we were driven by weekly ads or monthly ads and when he said that I thought that's not possible but yet it worked. And then, as you know, it transferred to the suppliers' everyday low cost now yes, know it transferred to the suppliers everyday low cost, now yes. And that when they got it, when the suppliers got it and they seen what would happen with sales and margins, they got on board and that's. And and I think to your point, I think that's you know, through this whole margins conversation, that the world is happening today um, I think Walmart will continue to win.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, a lot of times the mainstream media is critical of Walmart, but they don't realize all the innovation that's driven in our country. It's buffer against inflation, I mean. It's done so much good, and even amongst suppliers. One of the things I noticed when I moved here 30 years ago was how, with Walmart giving them all this data and their ability to speak into category layout and strategy, it creates innovative competition, because these firms try to put their smartest people on these teams and then they compete for good ideas and innovation that drives innovation in their companies that actually benefits other retailers Absolutely. And I think of all these things, like even the idea of using distribution centers and retail that that was invented by Walmart, right. The idea of using backhaul the way they do, right. This list goes on and on. So, and you Right, we've got people like you who have been a part of creating these things and they're still here. So you're helping to drive innovation here through doing business in Bentonville, and there's other people too. It's just amazing.
Speaker 1:It is. It is Okay. So we're going to have you on the Doing Business in Bentonville podcast this fall. We're going to work that out because I can't wait to have you back on and the conversation is going to be so rich, so I want all of our viewers and listeners to be watching for you. One last thing Okay, back to the most important topic that we've talked about today is the hot wings. Yes, okay. So now, when is this going to take place? And I want to take some photos and we can get this done. What is okay? The Matt Waller Award.
Speaker 3:It's the Matt Waller Innovation Award. Oh, okay, excuse me, I like to say it's an oxymoron. They said who is the least innovative person we can name this after? No, it's.
Speaker 1:I don't know why they named it after me, but all right, I could give our viewers like a hundred reasons why?
Speaker 3:But really it's looking at people who are helping to drive innovation, not just in Northwest Arkansas but in the world, maybe starting here. Yeah, not just in Northwest Arkansas but in the world, maybe starting here. And so this year's awardee I can't announce right now, but it's a young lady and she has done a lot to drive innovation in our entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1:Well, when you announce that I'll try to get her on our program today, oh good, okay, let's get her here so she can talk about it and, uh, and and excellent.
Speaker 3:Okay, you'll love her.
Speaker 1:She's very easy to talk to okay, brilliant young lady, we're, we're in there. That's going to happen. Well, dr waller, my friend, it's always great to see you.
Speaker 3:Good to see you, buddy. Thanks for all you're doing.
Speaker 1:No, thank you for what you're doing and I look forward to spending more time together.
Speaker 3:I look forward to it, okay.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you, Matt. Hello everyone, I'm Andy Wilson and we're broadcasting from the Plug and Play event in downtown Bentonville, Arkansas, and my guest just showed up and Devin welcome to Doing Business in Bentonville.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having me, okay.
Speaker 1:Second time now. Yeah, you were on with Josh, right? Yep, that's right, and your podcast has done really well. Thank you for being on it. And today, what we're doing, we're putting together a whole host of guests in and out today to get a flavor of what's going on here. Guests in and out today to get a flavor of what's going on here, so we can share this experience around the world with our viewers and listeners. So, okay, so talk to us about your company, squip. So tell us what is it, what do you do, where are you located? Tell us all about your company.
Speaker 4:So we're a series A startup 're based out of san francisco, california, and we make ai software for, uh, industrial companies so manufacturers, um, supply chain companies, logistics, um, things like that. Um, I'll give you maybe the one liner of how it works. Okay, which is, um, with squint, you can go record a video of a factory operator doing any task and our ai will watch that video and it will write a step-by-step guide of what it saw, such that someone else can now perform that task like an expert. And then it actually becomes a tablet or phone app that new operators can use, and it uses augmented reality, so it uses the camera and it guides people step-by-step through what they're supposed to do. And all of that content is auto-generated using AI. And then, because we have the camera on, we can actually check to see if people did the work correctly. And before they do something really wrong or hurt themselves, we can stop them and say, hey, you did step 17 wrong, because now we know what it looks like and how it's supposed to work.
Speaker 1:Okay that's so exciting and we are going to have sessions here at this event about AI and we had Shelly Simpson, the CEO of JB Hunt, was talking about the advancement of the AI at JB Hunt and it's such a wonderful, powerful topic. Today I go, I use AI. I have to tell you you, it has saved me so much time in my work here at the, at doing business in bentonville. So now, who are? If you can tell us who are some of your customers that use this?
Speaker 4:um, we work with, uh, basically like large enterprise manufacturing companies. Um. So some examples would be michelin, um, siemens, continental Tires, some food and beverage companies. So I think the common thread that I've seen with manufacturing companies is they're all struggling with workforce turnover right now, and so it actually doesn't matter what you're building or what you're making. Wow, they all have the same issue and it's going to help with that, okay, or?
Speaker 1:what you're making. They all have the same issue and it's going to help with that. Okay, you know, when you were describing it in the detail earlier, the one-liner you mentioned when you were describing it you know what I thought about. I thought about the people on these assembly lines and I thought about the hazard that can take place in those. That's where my mind automatically went. So, okay, how did you get to here? Tell us a little bit about how you you came to develop this type of product.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, I mean, it's interesting. My background is actually computer vision and AI and I'm an I'm a software engineer originally. Okay, I have really no ties to manufacturing outside of the fact that I've now been immersed in it for three and a half years, right. But when I started the company I had in my previous job I'd worked with some customers that were industrial, and the thing I kept hearing was, when we're out in the field or out on the floor, we really don't have easy access to the information that we need to do the job right, and that leads to a lot of guessing, and I don't like to guess in my job. I don't think anyone likes to guess at their job, and yet it seems like that's been the status quo for three, four decades now in manufacturing, and so we built the business to solve that problem and to bring people the right information at the right time on the job at their fingertips. Wonderful.
Speaker 1:So what are the benefits? What are some that you have measured through this process? I'm sure you measured all these benefits and looked at it, and so tell us some of the outcomes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. I think, ultimately, squint helps with kind of two main outcomes. One is downtime reduction in a manufacturing environment, another one is kind of an increase in quality, and both of those are really stemming from the same thing, which is human mistake, causing, you know, a bad outcome. And so some examples would be. I was actually just I was at a factory a couple of weeks ago One of our customers and the quality manager came up to me and they were like hey, we just measured the results with squint and I had to count three times because it didn't make sense. But he said we went from having 12 mistakes per shift to zero post squint. And he was like we just don't have human error anymore and the impact that makes to a manufacturing company's bottom line is massive. Right, it's massive.
Speaker 1:The margins is where we live it's massive yeah, and not only for productivity, but for safety. You mentioned earlier is safety, but productivity is critical to any organization, and then the people that have also. They can learn to do that job more efficient because of what you're doing, and the better they become, uh, the more efficient organizations become. So it's so people that are listening to this around the world. How do they get in touch with you?
Speaker 4:okay, yeah, well, I mean, the the great thing about today is you can go to our website. Yeah, yeah, so you can find us there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what is your website? What's your address?
Speaker 4:Squintai. Okay, so you can find us online and then we'd be happy to set folks up with either a pilot or a demo and you can actually try Squint for yourself. The easiest and coolest thing I would recommend is, when you talk to someone on our team, send them a video of work that happens on your floor and they'll instantly turn it into an AI-generated SOP. Okay.
Speaker 1:Are you in Northwest Arkansas often?
Speaker 4:I've been here a couple times this year. Okay, we have some customers in the area. Okay, happy to come here more.
Speaker 1:Okay, here's what I want to do. I want to have you on our doing business in Bentonville podcasts, and, and uh, we can remote you in from California. If you're in Northwest Arkansas, uh, you can come to our studio. Because what you're doing, I think, is we is so critical to to productivity in this whole space, and safety, and, and, and people learning their jobs, and I think you're onto something incredible here and now.
Speaker 1:What I'd like to do is have you back in and let's spend 30 40 minutes together really laying this out, and then we post the video. We can put links to your organization. We can even show some uh, you know video or whatever, but I, I am intrigued by this and I want to talk more with you and learn more about your company and get you uh, get you out to um, we, we have about a uh, we have about viewed in about I was just told, 100 countries now, and so let's get you out there and so people can get and learn this and get more productive and and uh in the organization. So what do you? Will you come back, of course, okay okay, all right I'm gonna give you my, my card.
Speaker 1:I want you to come back. This is so exciting. Uh, I'm so glad you stopped by the booth. Thank you for doing that and I just wish you all the luck in your organization. Thanks so much. All right, thank you, been great to visit with you. Okay, hello everyone. My name is Andy Wilson and I'm with Doing Business in Bentonville, and we're so excited because we're broadcasting from a great event with Plug and Play downtown Bentonville, arkansas, and I need to throw in for all my cycling friends the mountain bike capital of the world. So here we are. We want to get straight to my guest though Kate Powell Welcome.
Speaker 5:Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is so exciting because we're going to get to talk about some. One of my favorite companies in Northwest Arkansas, of course, is Tyson Foods, but you also work. Tell us what you do with the Tyson brand. I guess we could say right.
Speaker 5:Absolutely so. I work for Tyson Ventures, which is the corporate venture capital arm of Tyson Foods, so we invest in really exciting startups that have innovations in emerging proteins, technology enablers and what we call people planet and agriculture, so it's a really exciting space to be in where we really act as a catalyst of innovation for Tyson Foods.
Speaker 1:Okay, are you working on anything exciting that you can tell our folks about?
Speaker 5:I am. So I'm working on I call it our Tyson version of Shark Tank, if you will. So we host Tyson Demo Day every year. We're in our fourth year right now. Applications are open until May 2nd for startups to apply, and then we host in person at World Headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas, on July 9th. We change topics year to year. So we've done sustainability, we've done upcycling. Last year we did supply chain tech, which is why we're here at Plug and Play's event today, and then this year we're focusing on what we're calling AI, from concept to consumer, brand engagement and innovation. So it's really exciting spot where we're looking at startups that are innovating with artificial intelligence and consumer insights, product innovation, how we connect with our customers and consumers. So a really exciting space.
Speaker 1:Well, that is exciting and I love what's going on at Tyson Foods right now and all the creative things that Tyson is doing, the new products they're doing, the way that you all are upgrading your facilities and it's just so. I think it. I would say it appears from outside, looking in. It would be a great time to be at Tyson.
Speaker 5:Absolutely. I love working at Tyson. It is a great place to be and we really are focused on innovation in so many different areas, like you said, from our facilities to our supply chain to our actual portfolio of products. So we have one of the largest innovation portfolio that we've ever had at Tyson Foods right now, so it's very exciting. You've probably seen our Razorback Nuggets, our Cowboys Nuggets, so there's a lot of really exciting things that are coming out of Tyson right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, I got to come real here. Okay, I bought the Tyson the Razorback Nuggets. Okay, I had to do it. Right, absolutely. I mean, with all the stuff that happened with our great local Razorback, especially with basketball most recently. Right, we had to do it. I love that. So what else is going on that you can share with us?
Speaker 5:Sure. So Tyson Demo Day is really our biggest focus right now, for my department, for Tyson Ventures, other things that are going on. You know we're always focused on innovations in our supply chain, innovations that we can focus for operational excellence, customer and consumer obsession, what we call data and digital delivery our team members as well. So we're really focused on the future of Tyson.
Speaker 1:That is so exciting. You know, one of the things that we get the opportunity to live in Northwest Arkansas, absolutely, and we get to emerge ourselves in all the innovation that's taken place, just like today at Plug and Play event.
Speaker 7:Yes.
Speaker 1:And we just had Shelly Simpson, you know, CEO.
Speaker 5:She was incredible. She's a great speaker, oh my goodness, didn't she do great.
Speaker 1:You know Shelly. I've known Shelly for years. She's been on doing business in Bentonville before. I just had one of her colleagues on and you know she talked about innovation. Yeah, mainly, especially in the technology space and all the things they're doing to, you know, to help their truck drivers be safer. Isn't that a phenomenal focus within Absolutely so. I know you mentioned earlier you've done several things around innovation. Anything there you want to visit about?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so you might have heard Donnie King so our CEO chat about and I'll make a little plug in there. So I actually work as a program manager as well for our investor relations team. So in our last earnings call we really focused on our data and digital delivery and how we're using innovations and how we use our data, how we connect with our customers, how we can meet customers where they're at. So Donnie likes to say that you know, continuous improvement is continuous improvement. We're constantly improving upon what we're doing.
Speaker 1:You know, I think you're right. I think Donnie King's another one of those leaders and I know him personally that he has brought that when he came to the company back to the company. I guess we should say when he came back. You know he had this. I could tell from again, from listening and watching him, this termination to even make Tyson a greater organization, absolutely, and I see that that you all are doing that and congratulations to you on that. It's wonderful what's going on.
Speaker 5:Definitely. And you know Donnie started as a night shift plant manager with Tyson Foods, so I really love his story about how you know he's really started at a plant and now he's our CEO and he really has an eye for our frontline team members and what it means to talk to our customers, so we have a really good eye for innovation from that perspective.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Well, it's so great to have you on and I want to give you an opportunity again to say anything else about Tyson Ventures or about the organization, anything else you would like to add for our viewers and listeners? Absolutely, I will make, would like to add for our viewers and listeners, absolutely.
Speaker 5:I will make another call to action for Tyson Demo Day. So our applications are open through May 2nd and then we let startups know if they've been selected mid-June and then we host at World Headquarters in Springdale, arkansas, on July 9th. So if you'd like to apply, visit our Tyson Ventures LinkedIn page.
Speaker 1:It has all the information, all the links that you need to find there and I'll tell you, if you will love, after this, we can download your information, your link or whatever for people so you can go to our website Doing Business in Bentonville and you can check out. We're going to be posting this podcast on our website and we can add that link to people that are interested. That would be wonderful. We're glad to do that. We'll grab that information afterwards. Well, thank you so much for being here. It's okay, I'm glad I've got to meet you. The best to you and all in your team of what you're doing. I hope you're, I hope you have a just a phenomenal year at Tyson Foods.
Speaker 5:Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right, thank you All right, thank you Well, hello much I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me All right, thank you. Hello everyone. I'm Andy Wilson. I'm broadcasting live down at the Plug and Play event downtown Bentonville, arkansas, and I will tell you I have just met the most interesting person. I'm just going to tell you you've got to lean in on this. This is just going to be great, mir. Welcome to Doing Business in Bentonville. It's so good to be here. Thank you, wow, you know I'm. We got. We met uh on the way to lunch, I think right, and uh, you and your uh, a partner from uh new york, I believe, in new jersey, new york, we together, and so we had a nice little chat and thank you for taking a few minutes to speak with us today about your wonderful company and about your country. I think you have come the furthest to Arkansas all the way from Tel Aviv yeah, you don't get here by accident. I have met people from Tel Aviv before, but I've never met them in Northwest Arkansas. So welcome to Northwest.
Speaker 6:Arkansas. Thank you, it's my first time here and it's been surprising and wonderful, Right?
Speaker 1:You know we have a very unique corner of the world here and the wonderful thing is people found out about it and we continue to grow and we just love how the whole area is growing. Well, We've got just a beautiful community here.
Speaker 6:So I put a plug in for northwest arkansas I'll second your plug which is sometimes you have to come from the outside to notice some of this stuff. Yeah, what's happening here is really amazing, but I have fortune.
Speaker 1:I've been here over 30 years and and um, and and my career was with walmart before I started in podcasts and and uh, so, um, it's wonderful, raised our daughter here and she has a family here now settled in. It's a beautiful place, and so, um, it's just great, uh, it's just got a great feel to it all. Right now, let's get in and talk about your company, what you do, and we'll just navigate through some wonderful conversation for sure.
Speaker 6:So I'm with manev. It's an early stage venture capital fund. Our rule of thumb is if you heard of the company, it's too late for us. We invest in a founder and a debt. I love that. Earliest possible stages, only in the building blocks of the physical economy. So we'll invest into the movement of people, in goods. We'll invest into manufacturing, uh, into supply chain, uh into transportation. We're backed by some of the biggest players in industry in that space, alongside financial investors. And we're we're based out of Tel Aviv in New York, which can be a little surprising for people.
Speaker 6:It's not an obvious place to run this from, but it allows us to take kind of a zoomed out view where you can start seeing problems on a global scale. You start seeing a startup in Europe and a startup in India and a startup in the US and a startup in Israel that are all tackling a similar problem. Some are tackling it in really different ways. Sometimes that means one of them has an advantage over the other. Sometimes it just means, hey, there are four ways to view this problem. There are a lot of ways to tackle this problem and they might be relevant in different ways or in different contexts. So that's how we're thinking about this. These problems start to rhyme. They start to rhyme across industries, they start to rhyme across geographies and if you can take that view and start trying to make sense of some of the big problems in the physical economy, Well, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1:I like your philosophy of investing. It sounds like you've got a great philosophy of that. Tell us about the company how old is the company? And then we'll circle back, because I've got a couple other questions. But tell us about the company first.
Speaker 6:So we've been investing. It's our third fund now. We've been investing for about seven or eight years. Okay, and our DNA is automotive. Okay. The founding partner, my partner, mike.
Speaker 6:He actually was the first investor into a company called Better Place, which was this wild bet and if you have time to Google it, look it up on Wikipedia. It was a wild bet. They raised a billion dollars. They managed to lose it all, which is not ideal, yeah, uh, but it was a wild swing in 2006 to try and electrify entire countries. Uh, transportation was a swap network with renault cars that could be robotically swapped out, the batteries robotically swapped out, and what it would allow you to do is, once you had the infrastructure in place, you could sell a $20,000 EV at cost parity with the gas vehicle and, instead of charging, just drive into the gas station, which was a robotic swap station, swap out the battery, keep driving. And so they came quite close. If you go to Israel, you can still see old, better-placed swap stations that are now, unfortunately, carcasses.
Speaker 6:They deployed across a couple countries, ran out of cash and died spectacularly, and Moneve kind of emerged from the ashes of that, where we started to see all of a sudden, first in Israel, all of these interesting companies that were trying to access automotive and other legacy industries, all these startups that had no access to legacy industry in the physical world, and so we started fund one.
Speaker 6:It's a small fund focused on Israel, mostly automotive. When we went out to raise fund two, all of a sudden, other kinds of solutions and startups became available to us and started popping up, touching not just automotive and transportation, but logistics supply chain. We started to see the early, early AI solutions and so and we also started to see this all over the world, not just in Israel. So we expanded our focus and now we're investing in our third fund and we truly have a global view. We have about 40 portfolio portfolio companies across nine countries, mostly the US, israel and the EU, probably in that order, but we have an investment or two in India, brazil, mexico, and our philosophy is let the best ideas come from wherever they come from. The important thing is to understand the problem set and understand that the access point into industry Right.
Speaker 1:So how do you? That's fascinating, by the way. I thank you for sharing that, because I think you painted a beautiful photo, a picture, if you will, of your company and your beginning. Now, if our viewers or listeners are interested, how do they contact you? Or do you contact them? How does your process work?
Speaker 6:Oh, absolutely, we're. We are probably one of the few VC funds that religiously um, read inbound emails, um, and we have a contact form at manevecom. Slash contact or just click contact. I don't know if that's the right url, but please, yeah, if you're reaching out. Some of our best investments came from entrepreneurs who reached out on our website.
Speaker 1:We read them well, you know you sound like you do, because one of the things that got me excited when you were talking was that that you, that you deal with smaller startups or smaller entrepreneurs and and a lot of times you know that group is hard for them to penetrate an investor fund. Yeah, but it sounds like that's what you you do and that's exciting.
Speaker 6:Yeah, we love talking to entrepreneurs with good ideas and, by the way, it cuts both ways. It's not just that the entrepreneurs can't find us, it's that these young entrepreneurs and industry can't necessarily connect. Yeah, it's a really hard kind of two-sided problem here, and what we say is we would be doing this without a fund. It's just no one cares until you have one. So we're transportation geeks. We would love to talk to people with good ideas.
Speaker 1:It just ends up until you have a fund, no one cares. Okay, now, so is that why you're here at this event? Because, uh, uh, this is a smaller, a small event? Or tell us why you're here. What's your?
Speaker 6:purpose so we, we have a couple of friends, um, in the uh supply chain space in the area that we've been looking for an excuse to come and meet in person. Okay, now, it's amazing what you can do by video, but it's not the same, all right, and we saw this event and we thought, you know, this is the excuse. Yeah, first of all, to meet the players in Bentonville. I mean to hear the speakers here. It's been really interesting, right. But also, I think it's good to see some of our friends that we hadn't seen in a long time. Wonderful, so it's a package deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, we're glad you're here in Northwest Arkansas. You know you mentioned Israel. I've been to Israel a few times and I will tell you it's such a wonderful country and I enjoy my visits there and the history and the learning is spectacular, my visits there and the history and the learning is spectacular, and so, uh, as you were talking about israel, I quickly had flashbacks of wonderful visits there and the people it's this country of wonderful paradoxes ancient, new, innovative and strangely traditional.
Speaker 6:It's, it's great, it is it really is.
Speaker 1:It is such a great country. Okay, what, what else? What else? As you look at the landscape and from your point of view, what are some things you're working on in either supply chain space or other spaces that are just creative, they're new and they're things that you're really excited about.
Speaker 6:Can I use this as a call out to entrepreneurs? Yes, something that I've been ruminating about in my mind that I want someone to come and solve. Come talk to me if you have a solution. You know, this industry is the strangest combination of concentrated and crazy fragmented, and you know, I would love to speak to startups that have interesting ideas about how do you break into this space. You know, I think we've seen this huge wave of entrepreneurship and innovation in the supply chain, particularly when freight rates were high. Yes, you know, you look at logistics tech investment for this 2019 to 2021, and it was. It was a bonanza. Yes, absolutely. And then freight rates fell.
Speaker 1:We heard Shelly Simpson, ceo of JB Hunt. We heard Shelley Simpson, ceo of JB Hunt, talk about that right.
Speaker 6:And it's hard and the JB Hunts of the world probably felt the pain If you're a startup that came into that with six months of runway.
Speaker 6:It's really hard, and so we're looking for startups that have innovative ideas, but also really innovative ideas of how do you crack this market, either how do you grab the attention of a JB Hunt, or is there a way to reach all these mom and pop truckers. Is there a way to do that as a startup? How do you lower the cost of entry? How do you ease the way into a market that simultaneously has these huge players ahead of the market, such a long tail on the back?
Speaker 1:end. So here's their opportunity right To reach out to you. Please, and if you think I'm wrong for asking the question, tell me that too. I'd love to hear why I'm wrong. Okay, anything else that you're really hot about right now from the future.
Speaker 6:You know, I think that we're at a moment now where everyone's talking about it and it's cheap to do so, but I think if you dig two or three layers deeper, there's actually a much more complicated story where I think we can call the game. On the IT side, inside the computer itself, we can call the game. It's going to take a while for the digital world to fully embrace and integrate AI, right, but we see how it's useful. You see how it's being used in coding, how it's being used in searching and query and database.
Speaker 1:It's just a matter of time until it finds its place in the digital world. I think you're right. In fact, I've spoke with several of the guests today and they've all talked about AI. I spoke with several of the guests today and they've all talked about AI, and each of them it's a common thread and they just talked about how AI would help people be more efficient, more productive. It's not about replacing people, is what they're telling me. It's more about creating efficiencies, safety, even, and things. So I think you're right.
Speaker 6:I think it's by this place, but I think there's a complicating factor, which is there's a gap between the digital world and the physical world, and I don't think it's a finished story yet Exactly how AI interacts with the real world. Yeah, that leap. It's not so simple, right? I can tell you right now call the game. Ai can write code. But can I tell you that the current wave of robotics, enabled by the current wave of AI, can really be useful in a factory.
Speaker 1:Yet they said it's going to be better.
Speaker 6:It's borderline, yeah, and that frontier. That's where the startups come to play.
Speaker 1:Right? Well, mir, I think you're so interesting and something I'd like to just I think we could really go down on the subject. I really like it and I would love to talk to you. So here's what I'm going to do I want to invite you back on Doing Business in Bentonville and we can remote you in from Tel Aviv. Okay, you don't have to come. And if you want to come back to Sarcastown, we have a beautiful studio here, but if not, we could remote you in. And I would love to go deeper on some of the things you're working on in your company. I'd like to even go deep around. Let's getting this out to more entrepreneurs, what you're doing, and if we can help you do that through our network, we'd love to help you do that, because I believe the future in so many things are these entrepreneurs and then your company Come Back Home and supporting those that you choose to. I think it creates a whole new ecosystem.
Speaker 6:So I'd like to welcome you back. I'd be honored, and if you want to convince the travel team on my staff that I have to come back to Bentonville to do it, I wouldn't argue.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, we'd love to have you come back.
Speaker 6:Cut off the remote option.
Speaker 1:Well, we'd love to have you come back. It's been great to meet you. I'm glad we got to spend a few moments together, but I want to wish you the best, you, your company and the best, and I'm just so happy to have met, you, to have, and that you're visiting northwest arkansas.
Speaker 6:Thank you okay, thank you for talking. First talking to a stranger a couple minutes ago, I know I know, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure and I hope we can visit again. Would love that, okay. Thank you all. Right, thank you, okay. Hello everyone. I'm andy wilson and we are broadcasting from the plug and play event in downtown Bentonville, arkansas. What a great day we're having. We had so many wonderful guests in, and there's another guest I'd like to introduce you to, alex Rodin, welcome. Thank you, andy. It's so great to have you Now you're from the state of Georgia and tell everyone what you do.
Speaker 7:So I work for ATDC, which is the state of georgia's tech incubator, and I run the supply chain vertical wonderful. So we're sponsored by the home depot. Uh, great georgia company, great company, it is great company.
Speaker 1:It's incredible. Oh man, I got a story on home depot. I I have to say it all right, okay, but I guess we should move on. But I, you know being my career, was at walmart, so of course, walmart and Home Depot, we were such great friends, and the founder of Walmart and Sam Walton and founder of Home Depot were great friends and so, anyway, what a great company and what a great state. It's a great state as is Arkansas.
Speaker 7:The ecosystem here is incredible. I can't get back to Northwest Arkansas enough. Well, we're glad you're here.
Speaker 1:Okay, so welcome, welcome Now. As we had our previous guests on and talked about supply chain at the University of Arkansas, so you do the same thing for Georgia Tech then? Right, that's correct. So talk about that with us what you do.
Speaker 7:So I'm working with early stage technology founders focused on supply chain solutions. We're housed at Georgia Tech, but we're for the whole state. As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time in Savannah. I'm an army veteran, so a lot of time visiting Columbus and Augusta and the military installations around the state working with service members who are moving to the civilian side, and they've got a lot of experience in supply chain Right. So thinking about what those solutions can look like Two-time co -founder, big believer in entrepreneurship, is a great path for service members.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful. Well, you know, I would tell you, supply chain is so critical, as we know.
Speaker 4:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And you know we'll talk a bit about that. In fact, you know I'm sure you heard Shelley Simpson, CEO of JB Hunt yes, and she's been doing business in Bentonville before a few times and she said, hey, I'm going to come back on, I'd love to have her, but she gave a great talk about supply chain.
Speaker 7:Your takeaway from some of the things that Shelley said Well, supply chain is so complex and so challenging and obviously we're dealing with a lot of news coming out about tariffs and what that impact might be. But the point is just about supply chain is so critical and even businesses for example, I'm working with health systems in Georgia After Hurricane Helene came through, there was a recognition that they had to better understand their supply chain Right, Because you can't stop providing care even when there's an emergency, and so the understanding and embracing of supply chain is just critical and I think people more and more are understanding the impact it has and it needs to be done well.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, covid taught us that Absolutely. You knowata is such a date. Now we talk before, we talk after, yes, and we talk about the and a great thing that that I'm sure you did and I'd like to know did you? What does some of what? You'd learn some significant things after kovat that you're applying today to supply chain anything significant there?
Speaker 7:absolutely so. One is just. I mean literally. We had a situation where a container ship got sideways in the Suez Canal and disrupted global trade for weeks. So that's the fragility of supply chain, but also what COVID taught us is the need to have a resilient supply chain and to think about all aspects of it. I think a lot of companies knew that they were somehow involved with supply chain.
Speaker 1:They didn't understand their supply chain as well as they do now, right, what are some of the things if you can share with us that, at Georgia Tech, you're working on?
Speaker 7:So obviously, everyone's talking about AI these days, right, and for me, when you think about the supply chain space, I'm very focused on solutions utilizing AI that take a job that's not easy and make it easier. So, if you think predictive analytics, so if you're managing a million square foot facility, you've got machines operating all over it. If AI can help, you know to go look at machine 14 as part of your PMCS process and fix something before it's broken, that's invaluable.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, shirley talked about AI and the work that JB Hunt is doing in the supply chain space, plus even their truck drivers and keeping them safe, and she talked about the theft. I'm surprised you know about that, so you're really focused and that's the great thing that's happening. In fact, I had guests on earlier and that's what they do is AI? Yes.
Speaker 7:And candidly. At the end of the day, supply chains are still going to be human-dependent. Ai has a role to play, it has value to bring, but at the end of the day, if you're doing a delivery, that truck driver is the source of truth for that delivery. Right, they can tell you I'm stuck in traffic, uh, there's no gate code and I can't get in. Yeah, they've got that information. So anything we can do to support the human in the loop who's making the delivery as one example within supply chain is critical. That's that's.
Speaker 1:that's wonderful that you know from where we've come on supply chain since COVID. If that's the day forward, it's amazing what's happened in supply chain and, based on what you're telling us, the future around AI is only getting more impactful right, Without question.
Speaker 7:But humans will not be replaced.
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely no. No, we're not. We'll be enhanced and do our jobs more efficient, I believe because of AI.
Speaker 7:Agreed. So embracing AI and understanding how it can make your job easier is, I think, the right way to consider it.
Speaker 1:Well, Alex, anything else you want to share about this great state of Georgia and the things that you're working?
Speaker 7:on, as is the case in Arkansas as well, and across the entire southeast Georgia has a real commitment to economic development, supporting entrepreneurs. I know that's the case here in Arkansas, which I really appreciate. One of the great things I want is strong ecosystems all around the United States. Entrepreneurs are going to be everywhere. I'm obviously partial to Georgia, but I want entrepreneurs in Northwest Arkansas or Little Rock or anywhere else in the great state of Arkansas to know they've got a resource. And that's what's incredible about the University of Arkansas the work they're doing, what's taking place with Plug and Play. So it's really great that they welcomed me into the ecosystem Well welcome to North Arkansas.
Speaker 1:We're glad you're here. If you haven't grabbed a bike since you've been here and have time, you've got to go on the bike. This is the mountain bike capital of the world. The reason I'm saying that I ride mountain bikes and I live out here and it's phenomenal and we have people all over the world that visit this great state. So I give Arkansas a little plug there, but you have a great state also and it's a wonderful state. I had an opportunity to spend a lot of time in Georgia and I tell you all those wonderful associates that work in those Walmart stores in Georgia, I just want to give them and say thank you for what they do, Absolutely Because they do a great job also at the state. So, Alex, it's been wonderful having you on. Andy, thank you so much and thank you for stopping by. It's been a few minutes. I want to wish you all the best in what you're doing. And the other thing, thank you for your service to our country. Thank you, Thank you for that. And where did you?
Speaker 7:serve. Well, I went through basic training at Fort Leonard Wood Okay, so that's when. The first time I got exposed to Northwest Arkansas was when we would get some leave, and so I was a military police officer and then was a drill sergeant and for me, being an entrepreneur, I found a lot when I left active duty that resonated in the startup ecosystem. Things that I enjoyed about being in service crossed over to being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:And I'm very grateful for that. Well, again, I want to wish you the best.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:And then I hope to see you again, absolutely Okay, thank you.
Speaker 7:Thanks so much for your time, Andy. It's been a pleasure. Great to see you All right have a great, great event.
Speaker 1:Thank you.