Nine local entrepreneurs have been selected to participate in the second annual Spark! — a local small-business pre-accelerator program developed by the Venture Center and the Little Rock Regional Chamber to provide opportunities, exposure and company growth for local entrepreneurs.
Through mentorship, group sessions, expert-led workshops, feedback on pitches and the opportunity to win thousands of dollars in a pitch contest, Spark! helps entrepreneurs refine the tools they have and acquire the ones they need.
In this Spark! Spotlight series, we’re introducing you to the entrepreneurs in the second cohort and to their small businesses. Meet Misti Staley, founder of FreeArm.
With FreeArm, Staley House LLC is providing a helping hand with tube feeding and IV infusions. Based in Helena, Staley House was founded in 2018 by Misti Staley. The FreeArm is capable of holding syringe gravity feeds, pump and bag feeds and IV infusions and features a clamp that can attach to flat and rounded surfaces. She was inspired to start the business by her son, Freeman. He needed tube feeding before passing away at almost 10 months in 2016.
FreeArm is a way of spreading Freeman’s “love to tubies around the world,” Staley said. With Spark!, Staley hopes to gain additional expertise to increase the impact that FreeArm can have.
“We have been in their shoes and want to take everything that we learned through our son Freeman to make medically complex lives easier,” she said.
Read the full article introducing this year’s Spark! class from Arkansas Money & Politics: SPARKING INNOVATION: 2020 SPARK! CLASS FROM VENTURE CENTER GOES VIRTUAL.
We hope you enjoy getting to know each of our entrepreneurs and encourage you to register for the GEW Pitch Competition, which takes place Nov. 17, to see their pitches!
Interested in pitching your own business at the GEW Pitch? Apply here.