Bryce Paden
Sum It Up
My atypical career path began with incredible experiences inside a Fortune 1 company. From managing inventory for a $300+ million category to building the future of retail through innovation, my background in business and technology allowed my voice to stand out in a digitized retail world.
In 2017, I co-founded i2i Labs and took my experience in corporate innovation to the masses. The i2i platform gave enterprises the power to evaluate emerging opportunities and develop new models of collaboration with external tech companies.
In 2018, I launched Urban Forest - a unique entertainment and recreation concept. The company was acquired in December of 2020 and has brought smiles to communities across the country.
Now, I’m involved in the creation of new software tools, real estate development, and other niche projects. My newest solo venture, Small Bee Better, is arming small business owners with the tools and resources they need to accelerate growth and elevate their operations. I'll share more info about that business in the near future.
There is more to my life than work, which is why I threw in some fun facts about myself for you to check out!
June 2014 - February 2016
I graduated from the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas in 2014. I was part of the Walton Honors College and completed my degree in Supply Chain Management.
After graduation, I accepted a job as a Replenishment Manager for Walmart. This opportunity allowed me to learn how retail functions at its core. I used powerful tools like Retail Link to collaborate with buyers, planners, and external suppliers to find the root cause of issues. We worked together to adjust product mix, forecast item sales, coordinate features and rollbacks, and much more.
I was able to effectively control inventory across a $300+ million Walmart US business while becoming the "go-to" for ad-hoc tasks from my leadership.
I addition to building new operational tools and rolling them out for use across the department, I was also selected to be a GRS Functional Expert. GRS was a new replenishment system Walmart was moving to, and I coordinated a successful system integration for one of the most SKU-intensive departments in the company.
I was never afraid to question the status quo, and I pushed my cross-functional team and leadership to continually advance our ways of working.
February 2016 - September 2017
Early on in my Walmart career, I was introduced to Lab 415-C. Lab 415-C was a small team within Walmart that was tasked with exploring the future of retail technology. As soon as I got to know that team, I knew it would be my future home!
After a year and a half in my previous role, I accepted a job as a Sr. Research Specialist for Lab 415-C. Our job was to research, experiment with, and showcase emerging tech. I was responsible for researching over 700 technologies a year to ensure Walmart stayed at the forefront of retail. In addition to research, I also gave presentations to Walmart and Sam's Club executives, members of the board, and members of the Walton family. In these settings, I took highly complex tech like robotics, AR/VR, artificial intelligence, IoT, computer vision, etc., and created presentations for non-technical stakeholders.
Story time! Lab 415-C got its name from Sam Walton's Ercoupe 4150C airplane. He used that plane to scout real estate from the sky, which was an extremely innovative idea for the time!
Our team transitioned to the Walmart Labs organization and my role morphed into an emerging tech business development position. While part of Walmart Labs, I led efforts to streamline our partnership with venture capital firms, incubators, accelerators, and other players in the startup scene. I also co-authored multiple white papers that became part of the Walmart US strategy.
In mid-2017, I became one of the founding members of Store Nº8. As a founding member of the organization, I built a collection of tools that assisted in the tracking and scoring of innovation projects from inception to completion. I used my knowledge of Walmart's core business processes to identify non-intuitive ways to leverage external technology inside the Walmart ecosystem.
I achieved a Lean Enterprise - Corporate Innovation Certification and an Innovation Black Belt - Innovation Mastery Certificate. The Innovation Black Belt was granted by The Delphi Group, and I earned the highest score they had ever recorded on their certification exam. I was also recruited to serve as a member of the McMillon Studio Steering Committee at the University of Arkansas.
September 2017 - December 2020
While working with hundreds of small tech companies in my biz dev role at Walmart, I kept hearing the same complaints over and over again. It was evident that most large enterprises wanted to engage with external startups, but they did not have a process to manage this function. In September of 2017, I left what I considered to be "the best job at Walmart" to try to solve this problem. My goal was to take my experience in corporate innovation to the retail and consumer goods industry as a whole.
i2i Labs was launched, and we built a powerful emerging technology research, curation, and accreditation platform. This platform gave enterprises an objective way to evaluate the external technology landscape. We were often working with antiquated companies that were trying to inject new ideas into the organization, thus, we created a physical space to match that theme. We renovated a building marked in the Arkansas Register of Historic Places to house robots, virtual reality hardware, computer vision tech, and more.
I was asked to provide thought leadership at conferences and tech events across the country and I provided insight about a myriad of technology topics to multiple written publications. This exposure helped i2i Labs execute deals and projects with multiple Fortune 500 clients.
I was named to the NWA Business Journal Fast 15 class in 2018 due to my work with i2i. I also became increasingly involved in the Northwest Arkansas tech ecosystem and served as a member of the Northwest Arkansas Tech Summit Steering Committee and as a mentor for the Fuel Accelerator.
In late 2019, I transitioned to an advisory role with i2i Labs. I had launched a new concept that was rapidly growing, and I knew I couldn't fully focus on both businesses. i2i Labs is still functioning and is continuing to provide incredible insight and access to the emerging tech landscape.
August 2018 - January 2021
In early 2018, I saw a photo of an indoor axe throwing venue. It caught my attention and I immediately started researching the concept. There weren't a ton of venues across the country at that time, but the few that were open had incredible reviews! I had to go experience it for myself.
My wife and I drove a little over two hours to the nearest venue to give it a shot. We had a blast! At that moment, I knew Northwest Arkansas needed an amenity in this space. Over the next few months, I traveled from Texas to New York to experience different axe throwing venues. Drawing on my experience in the tech space, I wanted to do my part to create something that would help companies in Northwest Arkansas recruit and retain talent, so a premium experience was a must!
After months of site selection, branding, and designing, Urban Forest Axe House was launched in August of 2018. We were the first indoor axe throwing venue in Arkansas and officially opened our doors to the public in December of 2018.
Over the next year, sales continued to climb and the business performed extremely well. We quickly became one of the highest-rated entertainment experiences in the entire state of Arkansas. During our peak season in 2019, our team grew to ~20 members, we hosted celebrities like Jennifer Garner, became the go-to place for team building in Northwest Arkansas, and served tens of thousands of customers.
As COVID-19 hit in March of 2020, we were under a government-mandated closure. We retained 100% of our team at full pay and introduced new technology and processes when we were able to reopen. Our COVID protocols were featured by the World Axe Throwing League as a best-in-class response to the pandemic.
We built Urban Forest to scale across the country from its origination by creating a universal brand, building a full suite of digital assets and tools, architecting training materials, and more. This generated a good bit of interest from other players in the space and we were approached with multiple acquisition offers.
In December of 2020, Urban Forest was acquired. This acquisition was a great opportunity for the brand and our team. There are now multiple Urban Forest locations open or in development across Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia.
Our team received the incredible honor of being named the 2020 Emerging Small Business of the Year and the 2020 Small Business Owner Under 30 of the Year by the Greater Bentonville Chamber of Commerce.
Fun Facts
I am married to my high school sweetheart and am a dad to an awesome little guy.
I was a member of the University of Arkansas and Kansas City Royals drumlines.
I am a music producer, was signed to multiple record labels, and played live shows.
I qualified for and competed in the 2020 World Axe Throwing Championship.
I was part of the Google Glass Explorer Program and received my hardware in 2014.
I love cars and want to continue growing a collection of unique modern vehicles.
