A Bounds Accelerator Program
Highstep Announces 2025 Cohort Companies
Bentonville, Arkansas – March 17th, 2025 – We’re so excited to announce that we’ve selected our 10 cohort companies for the Highstep accelerator! As a reminder, Highstep is an innovative early-stage accelerator program based in Northwest Arkansas with a mission to empower new founders in creating the next generation of tech-enabled professional services firms targeting the retail value chain.
After a highly competitive application and interview process, we have selected 10 companies to join the Highstep cohort. The founders of these companies have a vision of how their tech-enabled services bring something unique to the retail value chain, and we’re excited to encourage and challenge them and ultimately help them grow into scalable businesses.
The companies and founders making up the 2025 cohort of the Highstep accelerator are:
You’ll notice that we have some yet-to-be-named companies and others still operating in stealth mode. Many of these are truly new entities and are actively preparing for launch. We’ll have more to share about these companies later in the accelerator.
Highstep is funded by a grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and supported by the Walton Family Foundation. For more information, please visit https://highstep.cartwheel.studio/ or contact Michael Paladino at michael@cartwheel.studio.
After a highly competitive application and interview process, we have selected 10 companies to join the Highstep cohort. The founders of these companies have a vision of how their tech-enabled services bring something unique to the retail value chain, and we’re excited to encourage and challenge them and ultimately help them grow into scalable businesses.
The companies and founders making up the 2025 cohort of the Highstep accelerator are:
- LEBUL
- Christina Iannuzzi, Crystal Marroquin, Aaron Criswell, Reese Van Allen, Damon Epps
- Story-first digital marketing & production
- ShelfSight
- Joe Murphy
- Retail media strategy and execution
- Valas Group
- Christina Johnson
- AI-powered retail insights
- Zenith Retail
- Alex Roebuck, Mason Sutton, Dillan Welch
- Store shelf design for Category leads
- Company Name TBD
- Tyrel Denison, Joseph Clifton, Ben Poffley
- AI-Powered Workflow Automation
- Company Name TBD
- Payton Lenz
- AI, IoT, and Automation
- Company Name TBD
- Willi Nelson
- Operational technology
- Stealth mode
- eCommerce strategy and execution
- Stealth mode
- AI-driven solutions for CPG
- Stealth mode
- InfoSec, Compliance, Risk, Governance
You’ll notice that we have some yet-to-be-named companies and others still operating in stealth mode. Many of these are truly new entities and are actively preparing for launch. We’ll have more to share about these companies later in the accelerator.
Highstep is funded by a grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and supported by the Walton Family Foundation. For more information, please visit https://highstep.cartwheel.studio/ or contact Michael Paladino at michael@cartwheel.studio.