We announced Start It Up Georgia last month as a way to jump start entrepreneurship in the state and help with the many dislocations in our world. The response was overwhelming. Over 700 entrepreneurs signed up for the program — 706 to be exact. Amazing! We never knew there would be this much demand.

Now, for the fun part. The program kicks off tomorrow with the first of 12 lesson labs:

Jermaine Brown – Entrepreneurship: Do You Have What It Takes?

Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon – Turning an Idea and Skill Into a Business.

Rachel Ford – Testing Your Idea: Will Someone Pay You For It?

Christina DeVictor – Company Creation: The Practical Steps Required to Establish a Business.

Jacey Lucus – Developing Your Online Presence: Creating a Website and Social Media.

Lauren Patrick – Marketing Your Business and Developing Your Brand.

Matthew May – Financial and Accounting Basics for Business Owners.

A.T. Gimbel – Pricing and Product: Creating a Profitable and Sustainable Business Model.

Ethan King – Operation Management: How to Run Your Business.

Kyle Porter – Company Culture and People Management.

Amy Zimmerman – Hiring: Sourcing, Training, and Leading a Team.

Kim Seals – Funding Opportunities and Raising Capital.

In addition to the 12 lesson labs, taught live over Zoom and available as recordings, we have small accountability groups for the entrepreneurs. With a cohort this large, we had to find a significant number of volunteer mentors. Of course, the community stepped up and we have 44 mentors to lead the small groups. It’s incredible to see so many people helping entrepreneurs realize their dreams.

Finally, the program culminates with a demo day where the entrepreneurs present their ideas and progress. Donors have already donated over $10,000 in grant money to help the demo day winning entrepreneurs continue their journey and grow even faster.

Start It Up Georgia is a grand experiment with lofty goals. I’m sure we’ll have bumps along the way but we’ll do our best to help hundreds of entrepreneurs start and grow new companies. We believe entrepreneurship is one of the greatest forces for good, and we’re working hard to increase the chance of success of everyone involved.

Last week I had the opportunity to join an Endeavor Zoom meeting with Brad Feld to talk about his updated and revised book The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. Brad’s predecessor book, Startup Communities, was excellent and something that I read back in 2012. For the previous book, my main takeaway was that startup communities must be lead by the entrepreneurs. Top-down government- lead entrepreneurial efforts don’t work, getting bogged down by different agendas and struggle to ignite the necessary sparks. Entrepreneur-lead communities work because entrepreneurs are more resourceful and innovative — as expected.

From Brad’s talk, the biggest addition to the new book is a focus on startup communities as complex systems, and digging into to what it means to be a complex system in the ecosystem context.

From Wikipedia on complex systems:

A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other.

Complex systems are systems whose behavior is intrinsically difficult to model due to the dependencies, competitions, relationships, or other types of interactions between their parts or between a given system and its environment.

Thinking about startup ecosystems in the complex system theory feels right. An event over here, groups over there, entrepreneurs everywhere, and without prompting it, magic happens.

A startup is formed by people who met through the community.

A startup achieves a breakthrough with the help of a stranger.

Personally, I’ve seen this so many times that I know it works.

I’m looking forward to reading Brad Feld’s new book when it comes out next week.

Two months ago we were talking about ways to help jump start Georgia economically. With unemployment at an all-time high and the pandemic still raging, the answer was clear: entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is one of the greatest forces for good in the world. Inventing a new product or service and taking it to market isn’t a zero sum game — a new widget to help save time, a new medicine to improve the quality of life, a new material to make the world safer — all of these are possible and everyone benefits.

With this backdrop, we just launched Start It Up Georgia as a free, 12-week program to start and launch a new company.

Start It Up Georgia is a combination weekly lesson labs, small accountability groups, and demo day. Everything is virtual and everyone is welcome. Thanks to sponsors, there’s no cost and we even have tens of thousands of dollars available in grant money available to the top startups at demo day.

Please help us spread the word.

Please consider applying.

Please tell a friend.

It’s go time for entrepreneurs — start it up, Georgia.

America is hurting. Atlanta is hurting. We can do better. We must do better.

This past week I was asked what we can do to support Atlanta’s black tech founders. Start with action.

Here are five immediate ways to support Atlanta’s black tech founders.

Startup Runway – Focused exclusively on introducing under-represented entrepreneurs to investors. Donate immediately to the 501 c(3), volunteer to help, get involved.

It Takes a Village Pre-Accelerator – Free 4-month program for under-represented founders providing direct access to community, education, mentorship, and capital. Volunteer, mentor, become a customer. Cohort five just wrapped up and cohort six is accepting applications (apply now).

Valor Ventures – Only venture fund in the region focused on under-represented founders. Become a limited partner (write a big check!), refer a potential investment, help. Contact Valor now.

Atlanta Founders Academy by Google – A series of hands-on programs from Googlers, experts, and investors to support under-represented Atlanta startup founders on topics such as sales, strategy, hiring and fundraising. Get involved, give back.

Become a Customer – Check out Calendly, LeaseQuery, Storj, Patientory, Goodr, and many more. Use your resources and buying power to purchase software and subscriptions from our local black tech founders.

With so many challenges and injustices, on so many fronts, it’s daunting where to begin.

Start small, start now.

Exactly seven years ago to the day we closed on Ivy Place at 3423 Piedmont Rd and called it the Atlanta Tech Village. At the time, it seemed like a crazy idea. Why take a perfectly good building at one of the busiest street corners in Atlanta, one that’s full of credit-worthy tenants with long-term leases, and parse it up into tiny offices for unprofitable startups with no leases? Simple: we believe in the power of entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs to increase the chance of everyone’s success.

Today, the Tech Village has exceeded all expectations. Over 300 companies and 1,000 people call the Tech Village home. Tech Village graduates like SalesLoft, Calendly, Terminus, and others are collectively valued at billions of dollars. The It Takes a Village pre-accelerator program has graduated four cohorts of under-represented founders. Village startups have raised nearly $1 billion in capital.

Ultimately, the Tech Village’s success comes down to the people. David and Karen set the tone internally. Jewell sets the tone when you walk in the door. And, of course, the entrepreneurs make it the vibrant, thriving community it is.

Happy birthday Atlanta Tech Village. Here’s to your first seven years, and many more to come.

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.