Innovate Arkansas Hosts U.S. Rep. French Hill

Innovate Arkansas recently launched a new webcast to assist startups and founders with actionable information to help them navigate the coronavirus-induced economic crisis.

In this webcast, Innovate Arkansas Director David Sanders speaks with U.S. Representative French Hill about how the recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act can help sustain small and medium-sized businesses and the self-employed, including startup founders, independent contractors and gig workers.

“There’s a lot of tools in the CARES Act that entrepreneurs, startup companies, self-employed people should take a look at to see if it helps them weather the storm over the next two months,” said Congressman Hill. “For the first time that I can think of in an economic package, self-employed independent contractors and gig workers are covered by both small business credit opportunities and unemployment compensation.”

“The nature of our work is to identify barriers and work through barriers that startup founders have growing businesses,” says Innovate Arkansas Director David Sanders. “So not only has our work continued, but given the situation we face it’s picked up, as people try to make sense of things.” For instance, Innovator Health, an Innovate Arkansas client that promotes remote telemedicine, has created a plug-and-play model to give patients in rural communities more access to doctors.

“Entrepreneurs often find a path when there is no path. That’s what makes them entrepreneurial,” said Sanders. “Across the 130+ companies that Innovate Arkansas serves, there are solutions that are being developed. There are new business models being made and tested and now executed on that I think are going to help some companies not only survive this but actually thrive.”

Innovate Arkansas is administered by Winrock International and funded by the State of Arkansas. Innovate Arkansas helps scale promising Arkansas technology ventures.