7 Ideas from Today’s Interview at the Insights with Entrepreneurs Series

Earlier today I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Sam Williams of the Metro Atlanta Chamber in front of 100+ people as part of the Insights with Entrepreneurs series. We covered a variety of topics ranging from Atlanta entrepreneurship to Pardot to the Atlanta Tech Village.

Here are a few notes from today’s conversation:

1. Atlanta has all the natural resources to be a top 10 tech startup city due to Georgia Tech, a low cost of living, many young professionals, the world’s busiest airport, and great internet connectivity (Atlanta is the number one place in the country for data centers)
2. Pardot’s success came down to culture, timing, and execution
3. Pardot’s culture was defined by the following:
   Be the best place to work and the best place to be a customer
   Good work, good people, and good pay
   Core values are positive, self-starting, and supportive
4. Most often, the original business idea isn’t the idea that ends up being successful — Pardot started as a PPC bid arbitrage platform before pivoting into marketing automation software
5. Atlanta Tech Village’s goal is to be a rainforest where chaos and weeds ensue instead of being a planned farm with organized crops
6. The Atlanta Tech Village, at 103,000 sq ft, is the largest tech entrepreneur center in the Southeast and the largest coworking space in the Southeast (25,000 sq ft)
7. Atlanta Tech Village has sold over 100 memberships in the first 75 days purely through word of mouth, Twitter, and PR

Bonus: I shared my work / life balance strategy.

I enjoyed the Metro Atlanta Chamber event and it was fun to meet several new people.

What else? If you were at the event, what are some ideas you took away from it?