Arkansas Capital created the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation (AEAF) in 1999 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
The mission of AEAF is to be a catalyst in an environment focused on ideas and initiatives that nurture Arkansas’s future entrepreneurs, especially young Arkansans living in the state’s underserved communities.
Click here to receive updates on our programs and offerings.
The nationally-renowned Arkansas Governor’s Cup provides college students with a real-world experience of entrepreneurship and helps them learn the expectations of lenders and investors should they ever seek funding for a business enterprise.
Arkansas Capital has also partnered with Economics Arkansas to hold the Youth Entrepreneurs Showcase, known as the Y.E.S. competition, to provide similar real-world business experience to students in 5th – 8th grade.
Arkansas Capital works year-round to recruit sponsors for the competitions. We want to ensure that our future entrepreneurs can compete without financial barriers.
There are no requirements or pressures on teams to start their businesses. The intent of the Governor’s Cup and Y.E.S. for Arkansas is to give competitors a unique entrepreneur education experience. Past competitors say they felt empowered to be creative, innovative, and free to take initiative in developing a business idea as part of a team. They also say the competition helped them increase their critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration skills. By competing, students get a rigorous and real-world entrepreneurial experience that’s hard to duplicate in a classroom. They also discover Arkansas has the resources they need to start, grow, and keep their businesses here at home.
Our Competitions
Arkansas Governors Cup
Since 2001, the Governors Cup has awarded $2.81 million in cash to the winners of this prestigious business plan competition, open exclusively to Arkansas college and university students.
Y.E.S. for Arkansas
Arkansas Capital has partnered with Econonics Arkansas on the Youth Entrepreneurship Showcase (Y.E.S.) which introduces elementary and middle school students to entrepreneurship via a structured business planning process. They begin with an idea for a product or service to solve what they see as a problem or unmet need in the marketplace. The competition showcases the students’ creative, innovative, and teamwork skills that emerge through the process.
12,973
Students from 5th grade to college level involved to date
$2.95 million
In cash awarded to innovative and hard working students
1,794
Arkansans have volunteered to judge the competitions (unduplicated)
