Venture Atlanta 2011 This Week

Venture Atlanta has its annual event October 25th and 26th this week at the world’s largest aquarium. The great event has been expanded from one day to two days so as to showcase more startups, especially early stage and seed stage ones (boat analogies for startups). This year, 40 startups based in the state of Georgia will present with several of them having already raised venture capital and looking for another round.

Here are a few questions to ask when hearing the companies pitch or from reading their website:

• Do I understand what they do?
• Do I understand how they make money?
• Do I believe there’s a large or growing market for what they do?
• Do I believe they’ll be successful?
• Would I invest in the business?

The goal for startups presenting at a conference like this isn’t to raise money on the spot but rather to gather enough interest to get a meeting with investors. Startups need to create a hook in the mind of the investor and desire for the investor to want to learn more.

What else? What other questions do you ask yourself when you listen to a startup pitch?