Anatomy of a Seed Stage Atlanta Startup
August 22, 2010 2 Comments
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Recently I spent some time with a local seed stage Atlanta startup that has the makings of a successful business. The anatomy and DNA of this company are a great example of the type of team that can build a thiriving business. Let’s take a look at some of their characteristics:
- Two passionate co-founders in their late 20s who met as grad students at Georgia Tech
- Raised a low six figure angel round from local investors after building a working prototype
- Built a B2B product using Python deployed on Google App Engine
- Have a small number of paying customers and are slowing growing their client list
- Seek advice from a good group of mentors and advisers that are actively helping the entrepreneurs
- Members of ATDC
- Participate in the local technology community by attending events
Now, I believe this company will be successful but by no means are the above characteristics requirements. Atlanta is a great city to build a startup and this company is well on its way.
What else? What are some of characteristics of seed stage companies that you believe will be successful?
About David Cummings
David – I have a software startup in Louisville, KY but did Startup Riot this past year and as a result have some advisors in the ATL area. I read your posts regularly (nice stuff btw) and have a couple of q’s about the profile of this startup.
1. Raised six figure round after working prototype – If you dont mind, expand on what ATL angels expect from a company to raise a small angel round on average. Just curious. Around here there is sometimes pressure to have customers to prove out prototypes, markets, etc. before raising a round.
2. Small number of paying customers and slowing growing client list – Again if you don’t mind, give a example of what are real expectations in terms of paying customers, and what the feeling is about slowing that growth. btw, I get what you are saying (customer discovery, revenue models, pivots, etc.) but I’m always curious as to what its like in a similar type of community (not NYC or SV).
Thanks!
Thanks Chris for the nice note.
1. Yes, there’s tremendous pressure to have a working product with beta customers (paying customers are best but in this case they were non-paying).
2. The number of paying customers is in the low 10s with the amount of annual recurring revenue being pretty small as well. The key right now is developing product/market fit before pushing the gas pedal on sales and marketing.