Software and tech founders in Northwest Arkansas

Software in Northwest Arkansas had its customers before it had its investors. The largest retailer in the world is headquartered in Bentonville, its supplier community is within a half-hour drive, and the region moves an enormous amount of freight and inventory. So the obvious software to build here is software for retail, supply chain and the operations underneath them, and most of the guests on this page did exactly that.

Are Traasdahl runs Crisp, a data platform connecting consumer brands and retailers, from Springdale. Crisp was founded in 2017, has raised $127 million including a $26 million Series B1 in December 2025, and employs about 40 people locally. He also opened Arkade, a startup space in downtown Bentonville, in November 2025, a bet on the startup community here rather than on any one company. Tanner Green co-founded Ox in Bentonville in 2019 to put artificial intelligence and real-time data into warehouse operations, and has raised more than $16 million, including a $12.6 million Series A in 2023. Eric Howerton co-founded AdFury.ai, which he runs from Rogers, after selling his previous company, WhyteSpyder and SKU Ninja, to Ascential. He also owns the Doing Business in Bentonville media property.

The outlier is a different kind of technology company. Matt, Mitchell and Matthew Mawby run Professional Business Systems in Rogers, an office technology and managed IT firm founded in 1986 and owned by the Mawby family since 1996, now moving from one generation to the next. It's a reminder that much of the technology business in a region like this is installing, servicing and supporting other people's systems, not raising a Series A.

Four episodes make this the show's fourth-smallest industry group, which says something true about the region: venture-backed software here is still a short list. Traasdahl is the most venture-backed founder to appear on the show, and he's direct about why he builds in Arkansas. Green explains selling enterprise software to warehouse operators who have every reason to distrust it. Howerton has already been through an acquisition and talks about the second time around differently than the first. The Mawbys walk through the economics of a services business that has lasted through four decades of changing technology. The four conversations below run newest first.