Big Numerical Goals for the Atlanta Startup Community

Allen Nance tossed out some new ideas for the Atlanta startup community yesterday and John Melonakos followed it up with his thoughts on each of Allen’s ideas. Combine that with the Twitterverse commentary and comments on each of the posts and there’s been some healthy dialogue.

To complement Allen’s post, I’d like to offer up some big numerical goals for the Atlanta startup community:

• $1,000,000,000 of annual VC investment in the state
  According to the NVCA, VCs invested $383 million in GA in 2011 leaving tremendous room for increased investment and involvement in Georgia.
• 1,000,000 square feet of startup-friendly office space
  Between the Atlanta Tech Village, ATDC, Hypepotamus, and others, Atlanta has about 150,000 square feet of startup-friendly office space. With a goal of one million square feet, the idea isn’t to have a big number for bragging rights, rather it’s to have much greater density of startups for serendipitous interactions.
• 10 growth-stage startups on the annual Inc. 500
  In a good year Atlanta will have two tech startups on the annual Inc. 500 list of the fastest 500 growing private companies in the U.S. There’s no reason 10 isn’t achievable on a regular basis once the Atlanta startup community matures.
• 1 eight or nine figure exit per month
  Currently, there’s about one eight or nine figure exit per quarter reported, so there’s probably one or two more that happen but aren’t reported. With a much larger, stronger community, one solid exit per month is attainable.

Of course, this is in addition to Atlanta having 1,000 active startups at any given time. Atlanta has tremendous opportunities ahead and I’m excited to be involved.

What else? What are some other big numerical goals for the Atlanta startup community?