Acumen founder is interviewed by Pando and Arkansas is re-located on the coast

I get fired up about Arkansas. You know, I am a big fan of Arkansas and her people. For such a small state, we have accomplished some impressive stuff.

So, it caught my attention when there was an article about an interview with Acumen founder John James in Pando Daily.

As you can see, Arkansas isn’t near the East Coast | Screenshot from Google Maps

Apparently, Pando is hosting a conference called Southland Conference, which is discussing the topics of Southern Culture and Technology.  The conference is being held in Tennessee, the home state of Al Gore who is also speaking at the conference.

This is totally awesome, and, maybe, next year it can be in Arkansas. What do you think? I want to introduce them to a bunch of cool startups  like Bourbon & Boots, Treatsie, Overwatch, PBX, and many, many more!

During one of the interviews, Pando Co-Founder Sarah Lacy (btw, I loved her boots!) interviewed John James about his company, Acumen Holdings.

We get a lot of nuggets of awesomeness in the interview as reported by Nathaniel Mott.

However, the article had a couple of curious things.

That’s the guiding principle that allowed Acumen Brands to build a sustainable e-commerce agency and raise $93 million despite being about as far from Silicon Valley as you can get before leaving the United States. (emphasis added)

What?

Did he say ” . . . about as far from Silicon Valley as you can get before leaving the United states.”?

Really?

Not quite sure about that. It seems that people still don’t know where Arkansas is located.

I’ve heard stories all my life, heck, I’ve even experienced a few of them, about Arkansans talking to folks from other parts of the country who simply think Arkansas is on the opposite coast from where they live. So, I’m not quite sure what Mr. Mott was thinking.  Maybe Arkansas is located somewhere between North and South Carolina?

Mr. Mott, you are welcome to visit Arkansas any time. You will find us just to the east of our friends in Oklahoma and just below Missouri. We will take you to Fayetteville in the Fall so you can see some of the prettiest countryside. While you are there, we’ll take you over to Bentonville where you can visit the headquarters of Walmart, the largest retailer in the world who turned a revenue of $473 billion in 2013. We’ve got a few other companies to introduce you to in Northwest Arkansas too.

From there, well, we will show you our hunting and fishing, our Rice, Soybean and Cotton fields, take you to the Delta for the King Biscut Blues Festival, swing by Little Rock so you can see our AR Innovation Hub (North Little Rock), Arkansas Venture Center and the Bill Clinton Presidential Library.

One thing you won’t find, however, is the East coast. Unfortunately, we are not located “. .  about as far from Silicon Valley as you can get before leaving the United States.”

This brings me to the second curious thing in the article.

James’ goal is to eventually expand these verticals to build a $1 billion e-commerce company… from Arkansas.

Now, here, I know that the issue is Google, and in a large part, Facebook. They are tilting the playing field back to their advantage. In short, the two have disrupted, or they are in the process of disrupting, the e-commerce industry in a major way. Essentially, these two websites, search engines, are responsible for the greatest amount of traffic to any website.

Nevertheless, it seems as Mr. Mott thinks that it isn’t possible to build a $1 billion business in Arkansas. Maybe, his disbelief is more about an e-commerce business. I really don’t know, but the fact remains, a $1 billion business has already been built in Arkansas (see above, Walmart).

Can someone from Arkansas possibly do this? Why not?

Maybe people need to take new look at Arkansas. We are a major player in several different industries, and it is just a matter of time before we become one in the tech sectors. We have talented students, and we have schools and businesses who are nurturing their skills and they will be unleashed to create.

We know how to do business.

Silicon Valley, well, they can come and watch. Maybe they can learn a thing or two from us Arkansans.

I love the Pando publication. I read it all the time. I would love to invite Ms. Lacy to host the Southland conference in Arkansas next year.  I think you will find us accommodating. I would love to introduce you to our talent, and some of the cool startups of the past few years.