UARK 2022 Heartland Challenge — Fireside Chat with Jim Goetz & Steve Nelson

“People make the assumption that entrepreneurship is up and to the right and it’s just not. There are dark days, crucible moments, and those are the defining elements of entrepreneurship.“ – Jim Goetz, Sequoia Capital An early investor into famed companies like Apple, Cisco, and Google, Goetz sat down with Steve Nelson for a fireside chat on the travails of entrepreneurship at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Nelson is a co-founder of Carbon Inc., a pioneering company in additive manufacturing and 3D printing. Goetz was a first round investor in Carbon, and the company secured $260 million funding in 2020, making the company worth about $2.4 billion, according to Forbes. The keynote event kicked off the third annual Heartland Challenge, a competition designed to simulate the process of raising venture capital for a high-growth enterprise. Established in 2020 by the University of Arkansas, the Heartland Challenge has awarded more than $35,000 to