Comparing Austin’s Capital Factory Demo Day and Venture Atlanta

During the second day of the Venture Atlanta conference this week I was talking to a very successful VC who, like me, had attended Austin’s Capital Factory Demo Day a couple months ago. We were comparing Capital Factory Demo Day and Venture Atlanta, which to be fair, are pretty different events but involve a number of startups and investors.

Here are my personal observations comparing the two events:

• The speakers for both events were good but the Capital Factory speakers were more startup-specific and amazing (Bob Metcalfe’s talk and Brian Sharples talk)
• Capital Factory cost $99 to attend and had 300 attendees while Venture Atlanta cost $495 to attend and had 650 attendees (Venture Atlanta is a non-profit)
• The Venture Atlanta startups were significantly further along, on average, when compared to the Capital Factory ones (Capital Factory had the five accelerator startups which were only a few months old and then 20 other startups from the community)
• Capital Factory had a much more laid back atmosphere with jeans and t-shirt most common as compared to Venture Atlanta where slacks and coat was most common
• The Georgia Aquarium venue and the University of Texas Executive Education center were equally great with the aquarium getting the edge
• The mix of B2B vs B2C startups was consistent at both events with B2B being much more prevalent

Overall, both events were great and represented their respective communities well.

What else? Did you attend either event? What were your thoughts?