Grain-dealing service to add Conway jobs

Grainster plans 120 hires, says city’s Net speed a draw

Grainster, a matchmaking service for grain buyers and sellers, has received an influx of money from investors and plans to hire 120 people in Conway this year and another 100 within two years.

The company will need employees with expertise in banking, programming, marketing and other professional fields.

"We're just some country boys from Arkansas with an idea," said Cotton Rohrscheib, the company's chief operating officer. "So it's really been a Cinderella story."

About 10 people are on Grainster's launch team, Rohrscheib said. Layne Fortenberry is chief executive of the company. Earlier this month, Crissy Fortenberry, Layne Fortenberry's wife, was named president.

Grainster chose Conway, in part, because of the availability of gigabit Internet -- which is more than 200 times faster than the average Arkansan's connection -- and because of a partnership with the University of Central Arkansas.

"We haven't solidified the deal or location yet, but we decided to base our operation in Conway due to the data district announcement that they recently made," Rohrscheib said. "We'll be ramping up in a few months, and we're already taking applications on our website."

Jamie Gates, executive vice president of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, said the hope is to attract more tech companies to the area.

"I think what we're witnessing is you don't have to be in downtown Austin or Silicon Valley to do meaningful tech work," he said. "The innovation that has taken place in the last 10 years have really flattened the landscape of where you can do that stuff."

Gates believes Conway's cost of living -- and a critical mass of technology companies -- will make the area attractive to startups and their employees.

Inuvo Inc. and PrivacyStar announced earlier this month that their headquarters will move from their current home in downtown Conway to Little Rock by October. Still, Gates said other tech companies are thriving in the city.

"The model is upside-down from where it used to be," he said. "Companies want to go to where their employees want to live. Fifty years ago you picked a job and waited for them to tell you where to go."

Grainster believes it can use technology to cut out middlemen and enhance security for the farmer and buyer.

A typical grain sale involves three parties -- a buyer, a farmer and a middleman. The middleman takes the form of a broker, who connects buyers and sellers, or a principal, who might arrange transportation, handle the money and pay appropriate fees.

But confidence in the system was shaken when Turner Grain Merchandising Inc. of Brinkley filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. The company left behind millions of dollars of unpaid bills.

Grainster began life as a Craigslist for grain, but Rohrscheib said the company has since moved beyond that role. Negotiations are now handled online. Money transfers are held in escrow by Grainster until sales are completed to both parties' satisfaction -- similar to how PayPal works.

"Checks won't bounce," Rohrscheib said. "We're taking that uncertainty off the table."

Grainster also offers an accreditation feature that scores buyers and sellers on a variety of factors, including their credit score and real-time transaction data.

The company's next project will be to make transportation more efficient. Grainster plans to launch a smartphone app that will allow truck drivers to bid on loads near them. Rohrscheib said this will increase efficiency by lessening the number of empty loads truckers haul and ensuring they choose jobs close to their location.

Wes Ward, Arkansas's secretary of agriculture, said that farmers' top concern with any new grain trading method is security, although they keep an eye on innovations to increase yields and profits.

"I can say it's increasingly a technological world," he said. "And farmers are becoming more inclined to use technology than ever before."

SundayMonday Business on 04/26/2015

Upcoming Events