The Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program, or GORP, has been a relatively successful endeavor.
“We've had 31 companies finish the incubator cohort program, and 90% of them are still active and still in business.”
That’s Zoe Buonaiuto. She’s the director of business incubation for The University of Arkansas’ Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She manages programs that develop startups and small businesses– which, for GORP– means companies creating products and services specifically within the outdoor recreation industry.
Buonaiuto has been with the office as an associate director since Fall 2023. She said she’s witnessed the program grow, just like the entrepreneurs it fosters.
“What's been really exciting over the past year– year and a half, is that we've been able to have larger cohorts,” Buonaiuto said. “So in the fall of 2023, we had eight cohort companies. In the spring of 2024, we had seven companies in the cohort. And then for this current fall 2024 cohort, we have again, seven companies. So that's the difference. We've been able to grow the program and expand and broaden the base of founders that we've been able to work with. The way that maybe this fall 2024, cohort is a little bit different is that we have a lot of product-based businesses.”
GORP’s product-based startups create goods like apparel and equipment. Most businesses in a cohort are either product-based or service-oriented, like an outfitter.
Buonaiuto said this shift to a more product-heavy cohort is a direct response to the growth of Arkansas’ outdoor recreation industry. And the state’s pre-existing infrastructure providing access to natural beauty has made it easy for small businesses to fill in the gaps.
“We're now kind of going up that hierarchy of needs in terms of having that self-actualization enjoyment of the outdoors by these little additions that enhance the outdoor experience,” she said. “We have kind of that solid foundational layer available to us and that we have infrastructure in place, and these improved products that again, enhance our experience or make our experience better, just signals that we have a really healthy and vibrant community of outdoor recreation enthusiasts here.”
She said GORP is a driver for Arkansas’ outdoor industry, but the program wouldn’t be as productive without the northwest region’s inviting landscape.
“We are one of the few specific programs that outdoor recreation founders can come to to get consulting for their business,” Buonaiuto said. “Or participate in workshops that are related to growing their business, or get funding and go through the formal cohort, incubator cohort model we are, I guess, that that real nexus of industry community here in Arkansas that said, you know, it's kind of like a chicken or the egg question. We already have such a vibrant we're known as being a really wonderful place to enjoy the outdoors. So people come here to do that. Those are the people that are likely going to have the new ideas and the innovations anyway.”
As Buonaiuto mentioned, most companies that went through GORP are still in business. Notable mentions include economically circular, e-assisted cargo bike manufacturer Gnargo Bike Company. Another is PADDL, which made an app offering a route database like AllTrails but for navigating kayaks and canoes through river systems. And SlapChalks is a company that was born in the mind of a high schooler and innovated athletic chalking by weaving it into the fabric of gym shorts.
“SlapChalks was founded by a young founder, Joseph Rouse,” she said. “He's effectively made these really useful shorts that have mesh pockets where you can put chalk. So this is not just for rock climbers, but weight lifters, or anyone that needs to kind of have some kind of grip in their hands if they're doing anything that where their hands need to be sort of unslipped, so to speak. He's been really inspiring to me, just simply because he came up with this idea as a high school student, and to see the way that he has sort of scaled the business over the past year, since he was in the fall 2023 cohort has been incredible, thinking through different suppliers and producers for this product.”
A new group of seven companies is currently participating in the GORP program. Among the business leaders is Maddy Gabe, a junior at the Thaden School who, with the help of two GORP alums, created Open Access Bike Library.
“This idea was one of my teammates, Zach Springer's idea,” Gabe said. “We came across across it on a podcast and was like, ‘Hey, this is a super cool idea.’ And we all work at Gnargo, which is in Bella Vista or Bentonville- Bella Vista area near Pedal It Forward. And we all came up. We all were like, ‘Hey, this is a really cool idea.’ We work at an e-bike company, and so we wanted to share this idea with other people. And so Zach had gone through GORP before, and so we applied and got in, so.”
With Open Access Bike Library, Gabe aims to provide easily accessible e-bikes for people to rent.
“A bike library is like a library, but it's with bikes and not books,” Gabe said. “So you will be able to test bikes or to see if they work in your daily life before making an investment, if you want to buy one, or if you just want to ride one around for the day or a few days and just use it to get your groceries or use it to commute to places. You can do that too. You would check it out, just like you would a book, and then you'd check it back in, and you'd be able to borrow that bike for a certain amount of time.”
Gabe said she’s interested in business, but her love of bikes is what drew her to this project. She wants everyone to be able to use an e-bike because they’re more user-friendly than an analog bicycle.
“I'm a commuter, and I see this firsthand,” she said. “And there's a lack of ways for people to test these bikes or just to use them for a few days, and I think that would be extremely helpful to anyone my age, so I think that or anyone in general. But I think that definitely helps drive me to create, to start this.”
Open Access Bike Library is still very much in the idea phase. And that’s okay because GORP was created to turn ideas into reality. But Buonaituo also has her attention turned toward companies past the start-up stage of development.
“Think of Gorp as an umbrella,” Buonaiuto said. “The incubator cohort is one branch. Our work in expanding GORP around the state– You might have heard of that initiative. We received federal funding to expand some of the GORP programs resources across the entire state of Arkansas, right? That's another branch, okay? And I'm thinking that this accelerator model, could be a logical third branch that will allow us to support more founders that, again, they're past that incubation stage. They have their idea. In fact, they've, they've found some product market fit, but they need to really scale and expand their growth.”
That accelerator support could come in the form of fine-tuning marketing strategies or making connections between companies and investors. Nothing is official yet, but Buonaiuto said she’ll spend the next semester guiding current program participants while also thinking about what’s next.
You can witness the fruits of this semester’s GORP labors in November. On Nov. 12 from 5-8 p.m. the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation will host a free demo night at the Meteor Guitar Gallery in Bentonville. During the event, the cohort’s start-ups will get a chance to display their products and services to the northwest Arkansas community.
Northwest Arkansas will continue to witness the outdoor industry change as GORP progresses under Buonaiuto’s new leadership. The program continues to support Arkansas' outdoor industry, with thriving, new companies emerging from each cohort- and this semester’s is no different.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The authoritative record of KUAF programming is the audio record.
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