A Golden Opportunity for Supply Chain Startups

Fuel is a 16-week, collaborative program for growth-stage, supply chain-focused startups who are serving enterprise clients. Fuel’s focus is on education, mentorship, and growing business relationships with enterprise partners.

BENTONVILLE, AR – A new opportunity for supply chain innovation companies opens in Northwest Arkansas. Fuel is designed to help these startups prepare to serve large enterprise customers – and connect them with those potential customers. The program is hosted by RevUnit, facilitated by Startup Junkie, and funded by the Arkansas EDC, and does not follow a traditional accelerator model. The focus is on education, mentorship, and growing business relationships with key corporate partners looking for solutions to some of the industry’s biggest supply chain & logistics challenges.

The program is built for Seed-Series A companies – startups that have a product much further along than a drawing on the back of a napkin. The program does not invest in the companies on the front-end, and there is not a capital guarantee on the back-end of the program. Access to capital will be facilitated for participants that are seeking investment, however the real financial emphasis of the program is to get companies ready for commercial agreements with larger institutions so that they can use customer money to fund their growth. The belief is that access to customers is more important than access to capital – and it makes the ladder much easier.

Participants will be immersed in a rigorous business-building curriculum, and they’ll leave with a better understanding of supply chain from product creation to customer ownership. The companies will be matched with highly experienced mentors, as well as coaching and connections to create actionable business outcomes with new partners and customers. Industry partners include Walmart’s Supply Chain Innovation team, the Technology leadership from Tyson Foods, UniGroup, CaseStack, the University of Arkansas, i2i Labs, and mentors representing Fortune 500 leadership, tech founders, VC firms.

More information about Fuel can be found at www.fuelaccelerator.com and applications can be submitted via f6s at https://www.f6s.com/fuelaccelerator/apply.