All it takes to change the trajectory of your career is an idea and the willingness to take a risk – and the escalating success of Northwest Arkansas is more than enough proof. Each year, more and more small businesses place their roots in the region, seasoned businesses document another successful year and the Fortune 500 companies that call Northwest Arkansas home continue to reap the benefits they sewed several decades ago. These successful business ventures, no matter the scale of the establishment, all have one thing in common: a story to share. No success story comes without times of struggle or hardships, but it’s these particular moments that become learning experiences, not only for the business, but for entrepreneurs in all stages of life. Two lifelong Northwest Arkansas natives recognized this phenomena and decided to take their own leap of faith within their careers to give these business founders a platform to share these stories.
NWA Founders, a Fayetteville-based podcast, was founded by Cameron Clark, owner of CJC Development, and Nick Beyer, owner of Neat Commercial Cleaning, after decades of watching their hometowns in the region evolve into the booming business community its inhabitants know today.
“I grew up in Springdale, and Cameron grew up in Fayetteville, and we watched this place change a lot. We repeatedly talked about how amazing these businesses are that are here and how many amazing founders we have here in Northwest Arkansas, and so that was really the inspiration of what we wanted our podcast to do. We want to build a place where people could learn and find value from people who actually live where they live,” Beyer said.
The duo launched the podcast with the goal of providing the community with intimate testimonies of how businesses in the area were started, how they navigated roadblocks and their strategies to keep momentum going.
The podcast’s first episode aired in late 2024 and continues to release episodes bimonthly. Since its genesis, the podcast has welcomed reputable business leaders within the region such as Andrea Allen of Onyx Coffee Lab, Mark Zweig of The Zweig Group and Todd Simmons of Simmons Foods. Clark and Beyer typically recruit leaders of well-established local businesses, as the duo feels these business founders have witnessed different seasons within the business’ lifespan, from navigating loans, to hiring their first employees, to their first time scaling up their business.
“Our goal is that, when listeners are listening to these different stories, they can identify with certain aspects, especially if they’re an aspirational business owner or if they’re already in the middle of the storm. We hope they hear it and understand that they’re not the first to go through something like that,” Clark said.
Clark and Beyer collaborate with Daniel Matthews of Rockwell Productions for audio and visual support. Since hosting NWA Founders is a side project outside of their full-time career ventures, the podcast does not have a studio headquarters. Instead, the co-hosts travel to and set up shop within the companies that their guests have founded. This not only provides convenience and comfortability for their guests, but also grants viewers of the podcast a chance to see what the founders’ world looks like, Clark said.
With their podcast’s goal to provide local listeners, which reaches up to 3,000 a month across listening platforms, with foresight into different facets of founding a business, it was inevitable for the co-hosts to learn some tips along the way. Beyer and Clark recognized that they regularly have guests discuss their commitment to giving back to Northwest Arkansas, and both aspire to mimic this philosophy in their own business ventures.
“We have so many healthy businesses here because we have founders who truly care about the community and their customers, and every founder that we’ve interviewed has cared more about their customer experience and happiness than they do about the success of their business,” Beyer said.
Clark and Beyer have no interest in slowing down the trajectory of their podcast anytime soon. As its reputation grows in popularity and founders make their way onto the show, the co-hosts are secure in the fact that NWA Founders will continue its mission of being locally-based.
“We're not trying to be this big national podcast or anything – we just want to provide a way to encourage the businesses here in our community,” Clark said.
NWA Founders can be found on all streaming platforms.
We want to build a place where people could learn and find value from people who actually live where they live.
We have so many healthy businesses this year because we have founders who truly care about the community and their customers.