After last week’s post on Next Level for Atlanta’s Startup Community, a number of people chimed in with ideas. Let’s take a look at a few.
eSports
Ben Alexander highlighted eSports as a high potential opportunity for the region. Between Skillshot Media, Atlanta Reign, Hi-Rez Studios, KontrolFreek, and more, there’s real momentum. To achieve a critical mass, we’ll need 10x that many companies and thousands of employees in the industry.
Inclusive Entrepreneurship
Rodney Sampson offered a detailed analysis in his paper Building Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystems in Communities of Color. Much is to be done in this area and Rodney should be lauded for his work.
B2C
B2C is much more difficult than B2B. Why? Human attention and desires are fickle compared to helping businesses do things better/faster/cheaper. With that said, a major B2C or DTC startup success story would do wonders to help the brand of Atlanta. Consumer products are always more exciting than business products.
Funding
This past quarter Atlanta companies raised $650M across 38 investments — the best Q2 ever — according to PitchBook – NVCA Venture Monitor. While the amount of funding fluctuates on a quarter by quarter basis, setting a new high bar with our best quarter ever is an indicator of progress. Funding is only one piece of the puzzle, but it’s an important one.
Atlanta’s startup community is making real progress, and has much work to do.
Keep the ideas coming.
David Cummings on Startups 
6 month follow up on esports in the ATL. Atlanta FaZe, is another esports team, this time in the new Call of Duty league. The FaZe will have homestands in Feb and May 2020. Also, just announced, big news with Atlanta Esports Ventures locating in Midtown, creating new jobs and large $$$ investment in Atlanta for esports.
The link:
https://www.georgia.org/newsroom/press-releases/aev-establishes-headquarters-atlanta-reign-atlantas-first-professional
-Ben