Pitch to Pro
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United FC. This will be our platform to tell our story about the club and the special place that we call home, Northwest Arkansas. This is a journey. We want to bring you along for the ride. We'll share what's going on behind the curtain, help educate the community at large about soccer, Our league, and give updates on the progress of the club along the way.
Together, we'll explore and unpack our journey to professional soccer, the magic that is NWA, our community, and talk all things soccer from on the pitch to behind the scenes, telling the story of our club.
Pitch to Pro
Ep. 45 - An Investor’s Vision for NWA
Ever wonder what happens when entrepreneurial vision meets professional sports? Join us for an engaging conversation with Ross Cully, founder and CEO of Harvest Group and investor in Ozark United FC, as he shares his two-decade journey in Northwest Arkansas.
Ross takes us back to his first encounter with NWA at Nolan Richardson's basketball camp, through his arrival with Procter & Gamble, to his decision to plant roots and build a thriving business in the region. What began as qualities like natural beauty and genuine relationships has evolved into a place now nationally recognized for its cultural amenities, outdoor recreation, and growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The transformation is stunning. Where Ross once had to explain where Northwest Arkansas was located during his business travels, he now meets people who enthusiastically share their experiences visiting Crystal Bridges or riding the region's world-class bike trails. This evolution mirrors the changing competitive landscape for NWA, which now benchmarks itself against larger markets across the country.
Drawing from his experience building Harvest Group from scratch, Ross provides invaluable insights into the entrepreneurial journey. He walks us through the distinct phases—from the scrappy survival mode of early days, through explosive growth periods, to the current challenges of scaling operations. These lessons directly apply to building Ozark United FC, reminding us that setbacks and pivots are natural parts of creating something meaningful.
Perhaps most compelling is Ross's perspective on the entrepreneurial ecosystem developing in Northwest Arkansas. Like Silicon Valley's cycle of success and reinvestment, NWA is seeing successful entrepreneurs who are now giving back and reinvesting in the next wave of regional growth—including professional soccer.
Ready to understand how sports, business, and community development intersect? Subscribe to Pitch to Pro and join the conversation about Northwest Arkansas's exciting journey to professional soccer!
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United FC.
Speaker 3:This will be our platform to tell our story about the club and the special place that we call home Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2:This is a journey we want to bring you along for the ride. We'll share what's going on behind the curtain.
Speaker 3:help educate the community at large about soccer, our league, and give updates on the progress of the club along the way. Together we'll explore and unpack our journey to professional soccer, the magic that is NWA, our community, and talk all things soccer from on the pitch to behind the scenes, telling the story of our club.
Speaker 2:Pitch to Pro Podcast is proudly sponsored by PodcastVideoscom by PodcastVideoscom. Podcastvideoscom is Northwest Arkansas' premier podcast recording studio.
Speaker 3:Equipped with industry-leading equipment, the recording studio and services save you time, money and hassle.
Speaker 2:They are dedicated to helping you create, record and publish high-quality podcasts for your audience. Be sure to check them out today at podcastvideoscom.
Speaker 3:Hello everybody and welcome back to the Pitch to Pro podcast. I'm your host, managing Director Wes Harris for Ozark United FC Northwest Arkansas' professional soccer club playing in the United Soccer League. Today, I'm joined by a really awesome and special guest, founder and CEO of Harvest Group and Ozark United investor, mr Ross Culley Ross. Welcome and thank you so much for joining me today, man.
Speaker 1:Hey, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Well, ross, you are a longtime NWA resident We'll get into it in a little bit and have done a lot of incredible things in your industry and have done a lot of incredible things in your industry in the community and have been around for a while to be able to have seen NWA kind of morph into and evolve into kind of what it is, and have some strong opinions about what it's going to become and what that evolution looks like. So before we get into that, let's just talk a little bit about you know your background, how you got to NWA, um, and get, get you know, give people the opportunity a chance to get to know you. Just a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, actually the first time I came to Northwest Arkansas was through sports. So, uh, I was in high school, uh, a basketball player during the nineties and came down to Nolan Richardson's basketball camp after they won the national championship. So that was a little bit of a precursor to me. You know, now living here 20 plus years and calling it home. But yeah, as I fast forward past, that first experience came down here with Procter Gamble to call on Walmart and Sam's Club Kind of a familiar story for a lot of us that found ourselves here. It was really supporting one of the big companies here in Northwest Arkansas and so, after coming here for what I thought was going to be a couple years, my wife and I were engaged, then got married and decided to call this home, and that's what it's become. We've had all four kids here, built a business here, um and uh, it's changed a ton, uh, but we absolutely love living here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's, it's absolutely changed. I mean I'm, you've been here, uh, pretty much double what I've, what I've uh got to claim uh to my name. I'm a bit of a boomerang. So we were here for a little bit of a time, moved to Minneapolis you know why? Yes, sold drugs to Walmart and then switched that to selling drugs to Target legally.
Speaker 1:Legally.
Speaker 3:I was going to say yeah, yeah, legally Zyrtec and Tylenol and all those fun ones and Listerine and all the fun things that change.
Speaker 3:they now can view they spun off and anyway, I digress yes uh, but what in your mind has kind of really changed within NWA? How have you seen it ground so much? I mean, I always love to ask this question, especially for people who have been here to give perspective, and it's always interesting to hear different takes. Um, but talk a little bit about, if you would, kind of your experience through the lens of the growth of the area and, within that, found your journey into entrepreneurship as a part of that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure, yeah. I think, when I think about the area, one of the reasons that we wanted to stay was the relationships we had. The quality of people and the culture of northwest Arkansas was a place that we just we didn't want to leave. Our friends, our friends had become like family in our early years. It was a place we wanted to raise kids and we loved the natural beauty. We enjoy getting outside as a family, and so that was, I think, beyond the people, one of the big assets, um, from a quality of life standpoint. Uh, and then, uh, my entrepreneurial journey obviously uh took off and was based here, and so that's another reason that we stayed.
Speaker 1:I think, when I think about how the area has changed, um, the reasons to move here, the reasons to stay, that list has gotten longer, uh than the list that we had, um, and so, uh, there's been so much development, um and and addition of different amenities, um that uh, that are added to the quality of people and the natural beauty, uh, that, that that are reasons why we love being here.
Speaker 1:So, whether that's crystal bridges or some of the other uh, you know, museums and things that have been built, um, the quality of education, uh, the cost of living. There's just a bunch of things that that that have kept us here. But, um, but, yeah for sure, for my personal story ended up starting a business co-founded a business almost 20 years ago, working with small and mid-sized manufacturers that sell their products to big retailers, and obviously here in Northwest Arkansas we have a big one with Walmart and Sam's Club, and so that's really what we started at the kitchen table bootstrap entrepreneurs, helping those small companies sell their products to get on the shelf at the time, largely, and now we do that, both the physical shelf and the digital shelf.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was a whole boom and also a new thing to figure out. And it's still a thing to figure out because it continues to evolve, yes, almost daily, but it seems like yeah, retail has been one of those industries.
Speaker 1:That is, it's constantly changing, but it's gone through an intense amount of change last five, ten years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think you know I mean not to go into a retail podcast, but I think a lot of that too is, as it's kind of on on this, like hockey stick evolution of as tech changes and the way that consumers interact with that. So to do the changes that suppliers and retailers need to engage in change and capability and all of that. It's almost like this uh, and becoming even more challenging, but also reinforcing the need to be adaptable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, yeah. So I think, when I think of Northwest Arkansas, another thing that I would say has changed is, you know, it used to be when I would travel for business or personal and say where I was from, a lot of people had never heard of it. And more recently, my wife and I were in the Northeast and the person said and more recently my wife and I were in the Northeast, and the person said, oh, I was just there, you know, in Crystal Bridges and the bike trails and it's so beautiful. And so I think this, the secret has gotten out quite a bit in terms of people either from business coming here for you know, really Wall Street sized business in in a Main Street-sized town, or for pleasure, with the many things that have happened and been built here over the last five years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's another big one too. Even in the short time that I've, well, I guess I can call myself a local. Now the majority of folks are between three to five and I'm over a decade now, but even in that time I would wholeheartedly agree. I mean, you almost were readying yourself for the reaction of where, why would you live there? Versus now, oh, I've heard about that, or I've been there and it's beautiful, or you know, oh, yeah, isn't that where the University of Arkansas is, or Walmart is, or whatever it is you know? So I think the conversation and narrative there has definitely changed, especially, I would say, in the last five years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had one cool experience, uh, in Alaska two years ago. We went there as a family Uh, it was, uh, uh, my 50th state to uh to visit. We traveled a lot as a family, camped, as a family growing up, and I was in a coffee shop and somebody saw an Arkansas shirt that I had on and they said, oh, where in Arkansas do you live, you know? I said Northwest Arkansas. I said isn't that the home of Onyx coffee? Oh, wow, and bearded goat apparel?
Speaker 1:and I was like, yes, it is but you know, usually you know it's isn't that where walmart is? Or university of art, yeah, tyson jv and uh. So it's just cool to see, um, the various companies of various sizes that are making their mark, and I think that's one of the reasons I'm excited about being involved with Ozark United is, I think we have yet another way to put our area on the map.
Speaker 3:I think that's spot on too and part of kind of you know a lot of it is you know why soccer, why OZFC, why Northwest Arkansas is a lot of it's timing in terms of where soccer is, where you know the area is, and we'll get into that in a bit. But I think that that's also kind of a where Northwest Arkansas is as it competes on. Now that you're, you are in competition but you're not right with with other markets for resources, talent, um, you know different attractions or, or you know, in some cases, especially when you get to the um, you know the sports world. Sometimes there's competing markets for expansion teams, uh, and things like that we just saw. Yeah, I think the NWSL is expanding into Clevelandveland, detroit and philly or maybe one, maybe that's it. I think those three uh or wnba, that was it. Wnba just announced three more expansions. Okay, um, caitlin clark effect.
Speaker 3:Anyway, I'm all over the place here, but I think a lot of that too is is where northwest arkansas is on the stage and what markets it's competing against, and that has grown beyond the regional or typical players that we benchmarked ourself against. I had a different guest, mervyn Jebaraj of the University of Arkansas Economic Center for Research and Development of Arkansas Economic Center for Research and Development, and they've actually had to change their countries of benchmark, you know, with the NWA Council and all of that, because we kind of had surpassed a lot of it and it made us look really good and we were kind of patting ourselves on the back and it was like, ok, our comparable markets now have shifted and changed and we need to set our sights higher. And I think that is a definite moment where it's a signifier of kind of the growth and development of NWA and kind of where it's at.
Speaker 1:For sure. Yeah, and I think you know what you're talking to in essence is vision and something, as an entrepreneur, that I've had to learn a lot about and experience, and I think when we think about our area that's growing and changing, that's another important thing for us to have. Many of us who've lived here a long time have grumbled about the change. You know, ah, it's more traffic. Yeah, it's this, it's that. You know, ah, it's more traffic. Yeah, it's this, it's that.
Speaker 1:Um, the other way to look at that is to look forward with vision, uh, of of the good things that that are coming.
Speaker 1:I think this enterprise those are united is is is really one that takes vision, uh, to see not what we have been as an area, uh, not even, maybe, where we are, but where are we going?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and uh, and and to see that and get ahead of that and, as an investor, having vision and spotting trends and hitting that timing. You know the point you just made are critical and, um, uh, you've you've spoken about this before on the podcast, but when you think about professional sports, you know a lot of people look up at, uh, headline grabbing, valuations of beat the lakers or right, uh, all the different transactions that happen celtics, mavericks, uh, and say kind of duh, like I would have made that move. Um, if I had the opportunity, but if you, if you rewind and you read the whole story, a lot of the people when they got in to those teams it was not a no-brainer. I mean there was a lot of laughing and naysaying and eyebrow-raising when they got into professional sports. But when you spot trends, when you have vision and you hit the right timing, that's when sometimes magic can happen.
Speaker 3:And I think you're spot on and we'll dive a little bit more into that, into soccer specifically and NWA and the league. You obviously had some vision and some grit uh to. You know, get to where you are now with harvest group. Uh, talk a little bit about you know that journey and lessons learned and maybe some parallels that you might be able to to draw for any entrepreneurs out there listening or or you know folks thinking about vision and NWA and I mean there's there's some intense um.
Speaker 3:You know I had Nelson Peacock on the on the podcast early early days and some of the decision makers for the area. You know I had Nelson Peacock on the on the podcast early early days and some of the decision makers for the area. You start thinking about things that impact people's lives as an entrepreneur and a CEO, impacting the people's lives of your company based on decisions that you make. It's a heavy burden, um, and not something to take lightly right, and having vision and foresight to do the best that you can with the information that you have. That was something that hit home for me in planning city infrastructure and who do we want to be in 20 years? You have to start planning for that now. Talk more about that from your lens as a as a builder and a entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, you know, my harvest group journey has been a 20 year journey and so there's several chapters. At this point and, uh, and I think that's helpful, um, as we think about building the club here as well but, um, in the, in the early days, you're just scrapping and you're trying to survive, you're figuring it out as you go, you're hopefully surrounding yourselves with as much wisdom and counsel as you can, but it takes some people to see that vision and take a leap of faith, to take a chance to believe what they can't see, to have the same vision that you have. And so, for us, that was early clients, early employees that decided to, you know, believe in us, even though we had no office, you know, um, we had no income, you know, you know, obviously, at the start. And so, um, those early days, um, uh, each stage has exciting parts to it and hard parts, and sometimes we can look back and with nostalgia and it becomes mythology. But those early days can be really, really hard. At the same time. They're so exciting because it feels like every little inch you take is a huge celebration, it's a big accomplishment. And you also have setbacks, and you talked about pivots being agile. Um, it's a big part, uh, and so as a club, we've had that, you know, with land, um, with timelines and as an entrepreneur, um, I remember you know people being naysayers.
Speaker 1:You know, as I started harvest group and manage you make the right decision. You know people being naysayers. You know, as I started Harvest Group and man, did you make the right decision. You know to to leave and um, and shaking heads and you know not believing and and you have to push through that. You know to believe in that vision and just keep taking those steps forward.
Speaker 1:And so that that was the early years. Then you know, thankfully we were able to hire some amazing people. And thankfully we were able to hire some amazing people, we work with phenomenal retail partners and wonderful clients and you begin to get some momentum. And so then you kind of enter the growth phase and that's incredibly exciting because it usually comes with expansion and improvements and adding more people to the team and just it's a lot of fun. But then things start to break, you know, and you have to build more things and figure out different things. And, uh and so where we're at Harvest Group now, I think I would describe as in the scale phase where, um, we've been able to push through a lot of that growth, um, and now we're figuring out you know how do we repeat that?
Speaker 1:at scale, and and so again, each, each part of my journey has been fun. It has its own different set of challenges and excitements, but I've learned a ton about myself along the way, and and and the team that the sport that I play a horse group is a team sport. I have a phenomenal team, and so, as we build the team here at Ozzark fc, I think that's a key learning is every, every member of the team matters um and uh, and then and then that pivoting and agility is something that you got to stick with through all the different stages yeah it's, it's great insight and, to your point, we've experienced a lot.
Speaker 3:I'm I'm sitting here to myself. You know you're you're scrapping'm sitting here to myself. You know you're you're scrapping, you're trying to just survive. You're getting through like we are in those early days, you know, um, and surrounding yourself with wisdom. We have Warren on the project right. We have a bunch of his contacts that we all talk to, um, you know that people, just they don't see a lot of that right In in terms of the early days and don't you know they don't see a lot of the behind the scenes things. We share, what we can, um, but there's so much that goes on behind it and it's it's such a big undertaking. They take a village, they take a long time, they are hard, um, and I think, as someone who has done that an entrepreneur like yourself that has built something from nothing, having gone through that you can appreciate what we're going through now Absolutely Like a different way than maybe an average fan might.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these things take time and patience, patience and um, and yeah, you're gonna hit roadblocks, and if you aren't up for that, then don't go start something, because it's gonna happen. And so, you know, I've heard in the community from time to time like, hey, I thought it was, like, you know, I thought that was dead in the water. You know, I didn't hear anything about that, or didn't they, you know, lose the land, you know, and um, and so, again, those kind of rumors aren't helpful when they're not based in fact, but, um, they're reflective of somebody that that maybe doesn't quite understand the entrepreneurial journey. Um, and so study any successful enterprise and it wasn't just up and to the right, and uh, and, and not people that get the best return on their investment. The people that you know are celebrated, you know, for building something, usually aren't the people that that jump in when it's just a no brainer. Um, it's the people that took risk, that took chances and caught the vision.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they and the journeys aren't linear. You know it's's, it's all kinds of squiggles and, and, to your point, things that you got to navigate and jump around or jump through and get counsel on and just find your way. Um, and you know we're, we're working through those things now and and continue every time. You know you think you're you're coming up against something and then something clicks and happens and you have some more momentum and continues to just reaffirm yes, this is the right thing, let's go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and our area has phenomenal business stories, the big three companies. We have phenomenal entrepreneur stories. I mentioned Onyx. If you study all of those companies, they had pivots. Yeah, they had early investors that took a chance, that had no idea what was going to happen.
Speaker 1:and you think about sam wall in his first story and he bore arthur, like you see, he had to pivot land to here, um and uh, and so everything that we're going through at Ozark FC, it's all normal for a company or a venture that's in this life stage and uh, I'm just, I'm excited to go on that journey again with you guys.
Speaker 3:I think that's you. You hit on something too in in a way that I think the area has changed too, is it's kind of become almost a hotbed for uh and this incubator for entrepreneurship, uh, within a bunch of different industries. Obviously, a lot of them have related back to kind of CPG and retail and and or supporting you know uh, either technology or agencies or whatever it is, um, but I think that that's another area, especially within the last five to seven years that I've seen the area grow. I know we kind of we moved off that and then we're back onto it.
Speaker 3:But you hit on that and I think that that's a key point too, because I think I read somewhere there were it was like an index or something like that, or a heat map that you could look at on ways that they measure entrepreneurship, and it was like patents per capita or something like that and or number of patents that were filed, uh, in a rolling period or whatever.
Speaker 3:And you know it shouldn't surprise me, but NWA, it was like popped up there, as you know, one of the top 20 or fastest growing in the country, or whatever it was. So I think that that's another. You know, one of the top 20 or fastest growing in the country or whatever it was. So I think that that's another you know way in which the area has grown in the business world as well. It's not just to your point. You know. It was great in your example with within Alaska and the story there on Onyx and, and it's yes, we would not be here without Walmart and JB Hunt and Tyson and the area wouldn't be what it is. But I think it's this new wave of you know other examples of driving forces within the market that are kind of taking us to that next level, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 1:It does. Yeah, and I think, as you study ecosystems of communities, think of Silicon Valley, what you see there is this cycle of an entrepreneur watching out, having success, having a financial event, whether that's going public or having an exit, and in Silicon Valley there's this culture of once that happened, they then looked back and invested in the next wave of startups and entrepreneurs, and so you see the cycle of investment, reinvestment there. I think in Northwest Arkansas we've obviously had a tremendous amount of success with our major companies and I think there's you know an economist, you know Marvin could tell us what wave we're in but I think there's a wave of entrepreneurs like myself that have started businesses here over the last 20 years that had some success, that are now looking to reinvest in the area and give back in a way, and and uh, and. So I do think that there's a cycle of entrepreneurship that, um, I continue to see a lot of promise with, with startups here in the area.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think, I think you're spot on and yeah, he did talk about, uh, the different waves of of growth. Yeah, shout out to Mervin Um. But you know, ross, you, you, you provided some incredible insight and I think we're going to call it for that episode, uh, but we are going to have you back, so stay tuned to everybody. Thank you so much, Ross, for joining us on this uh, uh episode of pitch to pro. Uh, we will have you back, uh, and just really appreciate your insight and your time in. Absolutely Thanks for having me. That's it for this episode of Pitch the Pro. We hope you guys enjoyed it. Be sure to catch all of our episodes on pitchtheprocom or look for Pitch the Pro on YouTube, spotify, apple, wherever you get your podcast guys for more content Until next time. Cheers Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2:Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Pitch to Pro podcast. Be sure to tune in again in two weeks for the next installment and check out the stoppage time series for a recap of today's episode. Be sure to find us at Pitch to Pro on YouTube, instagram and everywhere you get your podcasts. Until next time, northwest Arkansas Cheers.