Summary
‍On this episode of The Bentonville Beacon, host James Bell is joined by Meagan Bowman, Founder and CEO of STOPWATCH, a cloud-based commerce software. STOPWATCH allows businesses to thrive in the blinding speed and complexity of commerce by optimizing profit across retailers in real time. In addition to leading STOPWATCH, Meagan is also a member of Fast Company’s Executive Board and a full-time contributor to the Forbes Technology Council. Throughout the episode, James and Meagan discuss how COVID impacted supply chain management and consumer behavior, the specific challenges women in business face and the specialty of Bentonville’s startup ecosystem.Thanks for tuning in!

Thanks for tuning in!

‍Show Notes
‍(0:57) Introduction to Meagan
(5:35) A Recovering Supply Chain
(8:04) How COVID Changed Consumer Behavior
(12:54) About STOPWATCH
(17:14) Meagan’s Experience with Fundraising
(23:19) Advice to Women Raising Capital
(27:13) Balancing Motherhood with Entrepreneurship
(29:11) Why Bentonville is Right for STOPWATCH
(32:29) Bentonville’s Startup Ecosystem
(37:12) Bentonville’s Past, Present and Future
(40:29) #Bentonville Story
(45:29) Closing Questions
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‍Links
JAMES BELL‍‍
‍BENTONVILLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT‍‍
MEAGAN BOWMAN
STOPWATCH
MICHAEL PALADINO
ENDEAVOR HEARTLAND
ATENTO CAPITAL/412 ANGELS
BENTONVILLE SQUARE
WRIGHT’S BBQ
MEDICAL DEVICE GURU
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Quotes
“When you have a barcode on the back of a product, a different barcode could be on the back of the same product in a different retailer. So what stopwatch does is reverse engineer and put the genie back in the bottle and ask, ‘If you had one sky how would you build this out differently?’” – Meagan Bowman, (15:20)

“Developer talent is fantastic here. It’s very prevalent in things like Walmart and JB Hunt. It’s stuff that’s organized and it’s stuff big money gets made off of. So I knew from a culture perspective, [Bentonville] is going to be a really good place to build a team.” – Meagan Bowman, (30:14) 

“I like that type of energy. It’s kind of like get-up-and-go energy. I think one thing I really love about Northwest Arkansas is it doesn’t feel to me like you have to work super fast and be really flashy to make friends.” – Meagan Bowman, (34:18)

Streamlining the Supply Chain with STOPWATCH
On this episode of The Bentonville Beacon, host James Bell is joined by Meagan Bowman, Founder and CEO of STOPWATCH, a cloud-based commerce software. STOPWATCH allows businesses to thrive in the blinding speed and complexity of commerce by optimizing profit across retailers in real time. In addition to leading STOPWATCH, Meagan is also a member of Fast Company’s Executive Board and a full-time contributor to the Forbes Technology Council. Throughout the episode, James and Meagan discuss how COVID impacted supply chain management and consumer behavior, the specific challenges women in business face and the specialty of Bentonville’s startup ecosystem.‍‍‍
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Putting a Stop to Muddled Logistics
It’s a vast understatement that the pandemic caused a multitude of problems within the supply chain. And as a result, the world is still experiencing side effects. To put it into perspective, the situation equates to when a sailboat’s guidance is off one degree and it ends up on the other side of the world. Unfortunately, COVID was a mountain of little one degree issues that caused commerce to die by a thousand cuts on a mass scale. Every phase of a product’s life was impacted, from its production, to its transportation to the middleman, and then to its purchase by the consumer.
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Companies continued to suffer even when the supply chain started recovering because they were employing outdated resource planning systems that haven’t adapted their dynamic connections to outside feeds. This means companies weren’t up-to-date on factors like volume of materials and lead times. To combat this, STOPWATCH focuses resource planning around a single product and inputs all necessary data, whether it be syndicated, social, political, etc., so the company can make informed decisions about the creation and distribution of that product.

“When you have a barcode on the back of a product, a different barcode could be on the back of the same product in a different retailer. So what stopwatch does is reverse engineer and put the genie back in the bottle and ask, ‘If you had one sky how would you build this out differently?’” – Meagan Bowman, (15:20)

The Benefits of Doing Business in Bentonville
Undeniably, Bentonville has been the best place for STOPWATCH for several reasons. The first is the affordability of living and starting a business here, and the second is how economically driven the state of Arkansas is. The state wants people to move here and start businesses. Therefore, it allows tax credits for investors and has a fund that provides non-dilutive capital.
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“Developer talent is fantastic here. It’s very prevalent in things like Walmart and JB Hunt. It’s stuff that’s organized and it’s stuff big money gets made off of. So I knew from a culture perspective, [Bentonville] is going to be a really good place to build a team.” – Meagan Bowman, (30:14)
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Moreover, with the number of startups and large companies located in Bentonville alone, there are ample opportunities for education. There is always something to be learned, and people in Bentonville are excited to share their knowledge. They want to help. They want to make friends. And they want to see others succeed, whether it’s something as small as winning a community basketball game or as large as obtaining funding to start a new business.

“I like that type of energy. It’s kind of like get-up-and-go energy. I think one thing I really love about Northwest Arkansas is it doesn’t feel to me like you have to work super fast and be really flashy to make friends.” – Meagan Bowman, (34:18)
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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!