Thank You, Arkansas!

Like many people in this part of Arkansas, I wasn't born here. I grew up as a city kid in Montreal, Canada. When I moved to Fayetteville in 2008 for a two-year assignment as the Gillette marketing lead on P&G's Walmart sales team, I didn't really know what to expect. I was quickly blown away by the natural beauty of the Ozarks region and, even more so, by the people. Now our family calls this place "home" and we wouldn't have it any other way.

It was just 4 years ago that my wife Lisa and I gathered up the entirety of our life savings to start an eCommerce consultancy, Bold Strategies, Inc. It was a scary time - launching a startup at 46 years old with two children approaching college age isn't for the faint of heart.

Today the company celebrates a milestone – we've just been recognized as the #1 fastest-growing private company in Arkansas by Inc Magazine. While I'm incredibly proud of the team that got us to this point, this day is also about gratitude to the local community which supported us every step of the way. It’s only through the contributions of others that we’ve gotten here.

Before we made our first dollar, the team at Fayetteville's Startup Junkie Consulting helped us to draft (and then re-draft) our business plans. Scentations, an Arkansas-based candle company, was the first paying client crazy enough to take a chance on our unproven team. Our first office location was provided free of charge at the Bentonville Exchange, a local startup incubator.?Not long after we opened our doors, the University of Arkansas College of Business offered us a summer intern and we've had interns from the U of A every year since.

The COVID crisis hit our business hard in Q1 2020 - spending on services dried up and, as a result, much of our revenue did too. When we needed more short-term liquidity, Arvest Bank helped us to navigate SBA and other government programs. The State of Arkansas also came through with a number of smart programs that helped us to keep the lights on. We got through the darkest days and as 2020 came to an end, we were back to rapid growth. Because of the help we received, we didn't have to resort to layoffs or furloughs.

If you live here and are thinking of starting your own business, you can be confident that the community will support you. I know because it's been there for us and still is every single day. For that, I am deeply grateful.

Thank you, Arkansas!