On this episode of The Bentonville Beacon, host James Bell had the chance to talk with Bryce Paden and Ryan Shelton of Flowfeed, a predictive analytics app for mountain biking trails. Bryce, Ryan, and their four other co-founders are all serial entrepreneurs and brought their diverse areas of expertise together to simplify an age-old problem for mountain bikers looking to use the trails in Northwest Arkansas. Throughout the episode, James, Bryce, and Ryan discussed the origins of the app and how it works, how collaboration has fueled their success, and why Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas are fertile grounds for entrepreneurship and growth of all kinds.

Show Notes:
(0:45) Introductions
(6:08) Getting into Mountain Biking
(8:45) Flowfeed App
(9:36) Collaboration over Competition
(18:54) Why Is Bentonville Best for Flowfeed?
(21:41) Response to Flowfeed
(23:53) Newest Features
(29:57) The Hardest Learning
(36:13) Tapping into Local Resources 
(40:45) How Bentonville Is Changing
(44:44) How Else Should People Know Northwest Arkansas?
(53:14) Where to Find Flowfeed and a Final Shameless Plug

‍Links
‍JAMES BELL
‍BRYCE PADEN
RYAN SHELTON‍
FLOWFEED
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Quotes:
‍“So we live in a digitized data-rich world, and we believe that data can add a lot of value to the mountain biking community.” Ryan Shelton, (8:57)

‍”That’s not to say, you know, the answer is go ride everything. The answer is: let’s make sure we efficiently communicate all of the excellent trails we have down here that can be ridden in almost any weather condition, and all of the value that’s here, even when it’s wet outside.” Ryan Shelton, (16:57)

‍”The raw drive and desire to grow that I found here meant huge potential, and being an entrepreneur, I’m always betting on the upside. And I think the upside on entrepreneurship in Northwest Arkansas over the next five years is tremendous.“ Ryan Shelton, (20:35)

 ”We felt like if you try to build something for everybody, you potentially build something for nobody, so we wanted to be really focused on mountain biking and make sure that we could really understand that user well.” Bryce Paden, (29:04)

‍”We’re no longer just where Walmart is. There’s this whole other narrative that’s being built that is resonating with people.” Bryce Paden, (41:18)

 Solving the Trail Condition Communication Problem
On this episode of The Bentonville Beacon, host James Bell had the chance to talk with Bryce Paden and Ryan Shelton of Flowfeed, a predictive analytics app for mountain biking trails. Bryce, Ryan, and their four other co-founders are all serial entrepreneurs and brought their diverse areas of expertise together to simplify an age-old problem for mountain bikers looking to use the trails in Northwest Arkansas. Throughout the episode, James, Bryce, and Ryan discussed the origins of the app and how it works, how collaboration has fueled their success, and why Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas are fertile grounds for entrepreneurship and growth of all kinds. 

The Flowfeed App
After working at Walmart, Bryce was immersed in the emerging tech ecosystem, which led him to a path of entrepreneurship, first in technology and then in recreation. Ryan has a background in engineering and a medical device startup. This unconventional duo joined forces with four other entrepreneurs of varying backgrounds from consumer behavior, to architecture and design, to software and development. Together, the team combined their talents and skills to tackle the biggest problem they were seeing with the budding mountain biking trail systems in the area: communication. 
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‍“That’s not to say, you know, the answer is go ride everything. The answer is: let’s make sure we efficiently communicate all of the excellent trails we have down here that can be ridden in almost any weather condition, and all of the value that’s here, even when it’s wet outside.” Ryan Shelton, (16:57)
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The founders of Flowfeed devised an app that predicts trail conditions after weather events using real weather and environmental inputs and custom-built algorithms. The team first made trail conditions available to give users an idea of what was rideable and what was not. Due to continuous feedback from the community and their desire to improve and grow, the team at Flowfeed is now working on features like personalizing trail recommendations for users, adding static maps, and providing live weather conditions. They hope to eventually enable trail managers to utilize the app to let users know what trails are being added to the system and which might be closed for maintenance. To continue improving and investing in their users, the team at Flowfeed is exploring their partnership strategy so they can keep development going while creating excellent products, all without charging their users. They welcome and encourage feedback from mountain bikers and community members on how to improve the app experience and functionality.
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Why Bentonville?
Bentonville used to be known solely for the presence of its large corporations. However, it is quickly gaining notoriety in many other areas such as food, art, and outdoor recreation. The primary reason Flowfeed is based out of Bentonville is because of its popularity as the mountain biking capital of the world. Another reason is the seemingly endless list of local resources within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Both Bryce and Ryan cite people as the most valuable and available resource in the area, with execs and prominent business people at every turn. And not only are they everywhere, they are also accessible and largely willing to support others.
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‍“The raw drive and desire to grow that I found here, meant huge potential, and being an entrepreneur, I’m always betting on the upside. And I think the upside on entrepreneurship in Northwest Arkansas over the next five years is tremendous.“ Ryan Shelton, (20:35)
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 ”We’re no longer just where Walmart is. There’s this whole other narrative that’s being built that is resonating with people.” Bryce Paden, (41:18)

Get Connected!
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Bentonville Beacon! Join us weekly for more stories from entrepreneurs and business leaders who are making a positive impact on Bentonville’s culture, community, and lifestyle. Don’t forget, Bentonville is a place where you can have more of what you want and less of what you don’t!