Expanding Access to Funding for Small Businesses with Martha Londagin of Northwest Arkansas Kiva Hub

Summary

On this episode of The Bentonville Beacon, host James Bell is joined by Martha Londagin, the inaugural Capital Access Manager for the Northwest Arkansas Kiva Hub, a non-profit that increases access to capital for entrepreneurs. Additionally, Martha is a Business Consultant at Startup Junkie, an organization that offers consulting services to entrepreneurs at no cost, and she is the creator of HER Entrepreneur Journey, a yearly series to encourage the development of woman-owned businesses in NWA. Throughout the episode, James and Martha discuss how Kiva provides funding opportunities for entrepreneurs when conventional lenders can’t, ways Startup Junkie and HER Entrepreneur Journey positively impact founders, and why Bentonville’s culture is ideal for small business owners. 

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Show Notes

(0:52) Introduction to Martha

(3:18) About HER Entrepreneur Journey

(8:31) Startup Junkie’s Mission

(10:38) About the Northwest Arkansas Kiva Hub

(14:48) Ideal Micro-Borrowers

(18:33) Northwest Arkansas Success Stories

(22:28) The Kiva Loan Process

(28:17) Ideal Micro-Lenders

(33:43) Spreading the Word about Kiva 

(38:24) What Makes Bentonville Great

(45:07) How Bentonville Has Changed

(48:15) Bentonville in the Next Five Years

(51:29) Advice to Small Business Owners

(54:38) Closing Thoughts

‍Links

James Bell

Bentonville Economic Development 

Martha Londagin

Startup Junkie

Kiva Northwest Arkansas

Quotes

“The Startup Junkie Foundation is funded by multiple grants and resources and it’s to appoint a mission-driven organization that believes that entrepreneurship improves lives, families and communities. And so we are here to empower innovators and entrepreneurs at every level in the nine counties of Northwest Arkansas.” - Martha Londagin, (9:04)

“By having hubs, by having a partner like the Walton Family Foundation pay a local nonprofit like Startup Junkie to get someone trained to offer the program, to have classes, to sit beside them…they are eighty percent more likely to finish the application and get approved.” - Martha Londagin, (14:08)

“That’s the whole point of Kiva. We want to help you build your business credit and get used to having a business loan and paying it back.” - Martha Londagin, (25:41)

“Bentonville has always throughout its history been a hub of commerce, and all of that is small business. And so if you want to come to a place that has at least one-hundred-fifty years of history being a great birthplace, a great place to develop and grow a small business, this is it.” - Martha, Londagin, (39:45)