The INOV8 blog tracks the latest news and trends in technology and innovation throughout the world
Arkansas as a hotbed for innovation? It could happen. Jeff Amerine thinks it could happen.
The most recent issue of Arkansas Business included a special supplement called Arkansas Innovation that highlights several reports from state organizations and firms that are helping foster an environment for growth in the “innovation industry.”
Amerine, IA advisor, University of Arkansas Technology Licensing Officer and INOV8 contributor, lent his expertise to an article on the state of innovation in Arkansas and how it seems poised to emerge on the national radar.
Amerine is not a former Marine, by the way, as noted in the print version. And we may have shortchanged him. He is among a select few who are both Navy and Air Force, having been commissioned into the Air Force after his graduation from the Naval Academy.
Jeff served as an ICBM Missile Launch Officer (Minuteman III and Peacekeeper) for four-plus years, was selected for special ops – Air Force Combat Control (but was injured in training), and finished his military career as an Air Force R&D program manager for defense communications systems.
That last assignment set his commercial/industrial career into motion, leading to Westinghouse and ultimately to Silicon Valley. He has held senior leadership positions in seven startup ventures and three Fortune 500 companies.
Jeff knows what he’s talking about. As most INOV8 regulars know, he is author of the soon-to-be renowned (it’s still too new to be fully renowned) Techpreneurship series that appears in INOV8 each Thursday. He got pulled away unexpectedly last week, but he’s back.
Look for a new installment this week. In the meantime, Jeff’s last post about Y Combinator and whether its model could work in Arkansas has elicited some great commentary.
Great article. It really helps set the scene… With the right components, Arkansas could be on the brink of something great. You see it in the development of LR, NWA. They are both becoming objectively exciting places to watch grow and develop.
You’ve got something going here, too. Great job, IA.
I have a friend at UA who heavily participates in those b-plan competitions (and tried to get me in on one). The culture of innovation/enterprise is surely forming in NWA, and to a similar extent central Ark.
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” – Greek proverb
Keep going.
John–
Thanks for all your great comments and for your support of the INOV8 blog. It really helps establish it. I agree with you all the way. Arkansas could be on the brink…..man, that would have been a better headline….oh well.
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