Lee Watson

Lee is the co-founder and chief strategist for the Arkansas Venture Center, a mentor and member driven accelerator program with a range of programming, including advanced technical and data science training. The AVC has a focus on data and accelerates startups located in Arkansas, the home of the world’s first and largest companies in big data. Lee is the co-founder and managing partner of Southern Coding, an investment incubator group made up of industry leading experts in development, design, data science and business operations. Southern Coding works with portfolio companies on developing a scalable technical infrastructure, implementing design best practices and creating internally incubated projects. Southern Coding was invited to compete in the first American Airlines hackathon. Southern Coding also develops internally incubated projects with major corporate partners. Prior to the founding of Southern Coding, Lee created Clarovista, LLC a strategic consulting agency focusing on the intersection of marketing and data. Through Clarovista, Lee also consults with enterprise clients on adopting a sales culture through the gamification of KPIs and creating a culture of innovation by bridging the marketing, development, sales and product departments together and creating a cross-unit innovation team. Lee has worked with major regional clients in the financial services, automotive, retail, agricultural and travel industries and consults for numerous advertising agencies on implementing data analytics, leveraging new ad networks and developing mobile strategies, including partnering with appropriate startups. In addition to his companies, Lee is active in several non-profit organizations and is an active champion for Startup Arkansas, mentor to Startup Weekend, supporter of Gone in 60 Seconds and serves as a member of UP Global and Startup America.