Roby Brock: Welcome to this edition of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Report. I’m your host, Roby Brock. There’s a new company in Northwest Arkansas called Emeraude. The catch is it will be working with companies and their owners who’ve been around for generations, for the most part. I’ll sit down with one of the managing partners, Graham Cobb, former Bentonville Chamber executive director, to learn more on today’s Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Report.
Joining me now, Graham Cobb. He is managing partner for Emeraude, a new firm that we are going to learn a lot more about today. So Graham, thank you so much for being with us.
Graham Cobb: Roby, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Exciting times.
Brock: You got to tell me, first of all, what Emeraude does because I will butcher it if I try to describe it to people.
Cobb: Emeraude is, I think, a first-of-its-kind firm. Multidisciplinary. So think multi-family office is one of the paths. So we know that the nation is in the midst of a huge wealth transfer. And we know that with that comes generational legacy. So we will, we’re not going to handle investments. We won’t be an RIA, but we will help successful individuals as they, we’ll help them steward their wealth and their legacy. So it might be managing the businesses that they get involved in. Let’s say that they buy a small newspaper. We could run that business for them. Or it might be putting up some structure and some framework around their impact and what philanthropic efforts they want to endeavor in. Or it may simply be setting up governance in that family and making sure that the family’s functional. Right? I mean, we just want to help these individuals lead their best lives and then leave the legacy that they want to leave.
The second path is Jim Smith and Rebecca Hurst, two of our four partners. They have a ton of experience with businesses. Right? So they’ve bought businesses and sold businesses and merged businesses. And they understand what makes a good business. A lot of times you have a great product, you have a great service. You might not have the best business. So we prepare scaling companies to receive capital or act on capital so innovators can innovate. We handle the professionalization of all the other services.
And then finally, what I’ve been doing for the last year and a half, two years, or I guess 30-plus years, strategies to support regional priorities. So sometimes those are public entities, private entities or not-for-profit groups, strategic planning and other technical support to help folks be more efficient in their efforts in northwest Arkansas. Really, the way I look at it is, from a strategy side of things and from, I guess, all three, we’re directional signage for a region that, while seemingly on fire, hasn’t scratched the surface of where it’s going. So if you want to do big things in Northwest Arkansas, we strongly believe that Emeraude will be able to help you do that more efficiently, more effectively.
Brock: So the name Emeraude is not a household name, and it’s a word or name I’ve never heard of before. So what’s the origin of Emeraude?
Cobb: Well, I’ve been known to make stuff up, but this is not one of those situations. Emeraude is the French word for emerald, and it’s a nod to the Emerald City, a destination where we want to go for different reasons. And if you think about The Wizard of Oz, as you do when you live in northwest Arkansas, the path is not always a direct path. Oftentimes, the partners that help you on this journey are not expected partners, and not everybody has all the skills. But when you put everyone together, you get the job done. So that is where the term comes from. It is a nod to The Wizard of Oz.
And the last I checked, there is nothing but yellow brick roads up in northwest Arkansas.
Brock: So they’re paved with gold, aren’t they?
Cobb: We need more yellow brick roads. Have you seen the traffic? No, just kidding. Just kidding.
Brock: So tell me a little bit, without divulging clients, obviously, I’m sure there’s quite a bit of confidentiality with all of this, but just tell me, kind of give me some examples of some of the work that you’re doing for some existing clients right now.
Cobb: Sure. So we’ve got a public entity that we’re engaged in a regional strategy with, helping them understand how the services they offer align with the direction of northwest Arkansas. We’ve got a food- and beverage-based client that is exploring new lines and understanding how they can increase capacity. We have a nonprofit that we are helping, again, as they build capacity. And then we’ve got a family office client that’s figuring out their next steps and how to be, how to better manage all of the impact that they’re making on the for-profit and not-for-profit side of things.
Brock: All right. So extreme diversity here. It sounds pretty interesting. Tell me where you think this company will be in the next five to 10 years.
Cobb: Well, I think in the next five to 10 years, you’re going to see a company that has multiple families as clients, probably 10 to 12 families on the family office side of things. I think that will be the go-to for us. The companies that are either preparing to be acquired or are relocating to northwest Arkansas. I think we’ll be a company that has, you know, right now I think we have about 10 full- or part-time employees. Eight or 10. I think in five years, that could be 10 times that. We fully expect this to be a scaled, large player in northwest Arkansas, if not globally.
Brock: That’s Graham Cobb, managing partner with Emeraude, a new company formed in northwest Arkansas. You can read more about this new venture at nwabusinessjournal.com.
That’s all for this edition of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Report. I’m Roby Brock. We’ll see you next time.
Read more at nwabusinessjournal.com.
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