David Cummings on Startups

Category: Community

  • Growth-Stage Startups Should Have In-House Recruiters

    In early 2012 it was clear we needed to significantly grow our Pardot employee base and we weren’t bringing in new team members fast enough. From an organization perspective, we were growing the business from 70 employees to 110+ by the end of the year, with an expectation of even more hiring the following year. In an effort to scale to 200+ employees, we hired four full-time recruiters in-house to focus on engineering, sales, and services. Four recruiters, plus two additional people on the HR team, is a huge HR department for a 70-person company. In hindsight, it was a great move.

    Here are a few thoughts on having in-house recruiters for growth-stage startups:

    • In-house recruiters learn the mission, vision, values, and culture at the deepest level
    • In-house recruiters spend all their time recruiting just for the company, and don’t split their time with other accounts like an outsourced recruiter
    • In-house recruiters can identify and nurture a “virtual bench” such that candidates are lined up and ready as soon as the position needs to be filled
    • In-house recruiters are typically in the $40,000 – $70,000/year range with commissions, depending on how many team members they bring on board
    • Contingent outside recruiters can be great, but with fees representing 20% of the first-year salaries, adding $4 million in new payroll in a year equals $800,000 in fees (vs. less than half that for an in-house team)
    • Referral fees for different types of hires are still encouraged (e.g. a $10,000 bonus for referring an engineer)

    Growth-stage startups that plan on hiring a large number of people would do well to hire an in-house recruiting team and make it a company-wide priority to become excellent at recruiting new team members.

    What else? What are some more thoughts on growth-stage startups hiring in-house recruiters?

  • Atlanta Startup Village October 2014

    Tonight was Atlanta Startup Village #22 at the Atlanta Tech Village. With over 500 signups, it’s the largest monthly gathering of entrepreneurs in the Southeast. Every month five entrepreneurs deliver a five minute pitch followed by five minutes of audience Q&A.

    Here are the Atlanta Startup Village October 2014 presenters:

    • WeCareCard – Like a Kickstarter platform to raise money from friends and family (the example given was raising money for a funeral)
    • SwipeLoyalty – Loyalty programs built around a debit card for retailers to move consumers away from credit cards
    • Farrago Comics – Imagine an App Store for comics where everything is free and advertiser-driven
    • Campus Bubble – Take the best of social networks and make it private to the college
    • Rivalry – Automate the sales coaching process and grow faster

    Join the Atlanta Startup Village Meetup Group and come next month — it’s an awesome event.

    What else? What are some thoughts on tonight’s startups?

  • Venture Atlanta 2014 Takeaways

    Today wrapped up the 2014 Venture Atlanta conference at the amazing Georgia Aquarium. With 30 startups and 700 attendees, it’s one of the largest venture conferences in the country. The presenting companies did a great job and should be commended for their excellent work.

    Here are a few takeaways from the event:

    • Big data and predictive analytics are the popular buzzword phrases
    • Most of the venture capitalists in the audience were focused on growth stage startups (e.g. at least $3-5 million in recurring revenue)
    • Out of town investors enjoy the annual Venture Atlanta trip and have been coming for years
    • Atlanta is a B2B tech town (we already knew it but the event really drives it home)
    • ATDC and ATV were extremely well represented with over half the companies
    • Having 25 Atlanta startups and five out of state startups was a mixed bag (the out of state startups presented well but as a city we should field 30 quality startups every year)

    Overall, there’s a general level of excitement and interest around tech startups in Atlanta. Venture Atlanta acts like an annual pep rally for the city and is a worthwhile event.

    What else? What are some other takeaways from the 2014 Venture Atlanta conference?

  • 7 Tips for Startup Community Building

    Earlier today I had the opportunity to talk to a group of business leaders that were in town as part of the Cincinnati Leadership Exchange to learn about Atlanta and recent city initiatives. I was asked to talk about the Atlanta Tech Village and ways to grow a startup community. Of course, we had several lessons learned over the past 18 months.

    Here are seven tips for startup community building:

    1. Don’t try to control all the startup community activities in town — let a thousand flowers bloom
    2. Bring the community together on a monthly basis for entrepreneurs to share progress on their startup with the greater community, and have no other agenda beyond building community (see the Atlanta Startup Village)
    3. Connect mid-to-large companies in the region with startups through curated meetings (the best form of funding for startups is helping them find customers)
    4. Focus entrepreneurs on building successful, sustainable businesses and not on raising money (too many people view raising money as the measure of success)
    5. Foster serendipitous interactions in the startup community through clusters of tech companies in different areas of town
    6. Support entrepreneurs with different programs based on the stage of the company (e.g. The 7 Figure Club)
    7. Incorporate mentors and community leaders that want to give back, but understand that the strongest startup communities are lead by entrepreneurs

    Note that physical office building with startups isn’t necessary for community building, but physical proximity is critical. Startup community building is difficult and rewarding at the same time. Plan for a long journey and enjoy the ride.

    What else? What are some other tips on startup community building?

  • Venture Atlanta 2014 Presenting Companies

    Venture Atlanta 2014 is next month at the Georgia Aquarium. Last week the presenting companies were announced in two categories: Early Stage and Venture Spotlight. While there’s not a hard and fast delineation, the Early Stage category is typically under $1 million in revenue and the Venture Spotlight category is typically over $1 million revenue or has already raised a venture round (there are other non-revenue factors, like number of active users, that are also analyzed).

    Here are the Venture Atlanta 2014 presenting companies:

    Early Stage

    Venture Spotlight

    I’m looking forward to attending Venture Atlanta and hearing the pitches from these companies.

    What else? What are some other thoughts on Venture Atlanta 2014?

  • Community Engagement as an Entrepreneur

    As long as I can remember I’ve felt driven to get involved with the community and give back. My amount of civic involvement would ebb and flow based on the various stages of the startups. Over the past two years I’ve gotten even more involved in civic organizations as a representative of the Atlanta tech entrepreneurship community, working to build awareness around the importance of startups in new job creation for the region.

    On the business side, I’m involved at the board/committee level with the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Young Presidents’ Organization, and the Buckhead Coalition. On the civic side, I’m involved with Atlanta Rotary, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Woodruff Arts Center, and Piedmont Park.

    Here are two events next month and one next year that I’m actively involved in:

    Civic engagement is a personal decision and one that I’ve found very rewarding. If you’re in Atlanta, please consider sponsoring or buying tickets to one of the above events.

    What else? What are some other thoughts on civic engagement for entrepreneurs?

  • 10 Community Learnings from the Atlanta Tech Village

    Over the past 21 months we’ve learned a tremendous amount building the Atlanta Tech Village. With 200+ startups and 650+ members, we have a critical mass of entrepreneurs, events, and energy. Of course, everything hasn’t gone according to plan, but it’s been a great experience nonetheless.

    Here are 10 community learnings from the Atlanta Tech Village:

    1. Startup stages are more varied than expected, so we had to come up with different ways to segment them (Village Verified, 7 Figure Club, etc.)
    2. Mentors are plentiful, only we haven’t figured out how to curate and engage them as well as we should
    3. Occupying the building while renovating it at the same time is terribly difficult (it was the right call but messaging and timing weren’t always well executed)
    4. Communicating changes, especially around pricing and parking, requires an ongoing dialogue and more proactive conversations
    5. Events are the best way to get large numbers of new people to experience the community and facility
    6. Entrepreneurs love helping other entrepreneurs and act as an accelerant to each other’s startup (we also had a few bad apples along the way that we had to remove)
    7. Coffee has a passionate following, and Octane is the best
    8. Social functions like yoga, running club, and Startup Chowdown are key to bringing people together on a more personal level
    9. Design and style of the physical space sets the tone and contributes to the positive energy
    10. Core values establish a standard for the entire community and provide a common foundation

    The Atlanta Tech Village has already exceeded expectations and we’re just getting started. I’m excited about many more learnings in the future as we work to fulfill our mission to be the #1 hub for startups in the Southeast.

    What else? What are some other community learnings from the Atlanta Tech Village?

  • Revolving Door Transactions and Strange Coincidences

    Back in 2005 I was talking to a friend’s uncle who had previously worked in the technology industry for a number of years. He shared with me a story that during the 1990s he worked for a software company in Atlanta where the owners of the business bought a building that was 50% occupied, signed a lease so that their own company would use the remaining 50% of the building, and then sold the building to new investors, all in the same day. This is known as a revolving door transaction where entrepreneurs buy a building in the morning and sell it in the afternoon for a significant personal profit.

    After almost 10 years that story has stuck with me and represents an opportunity that many entrepreneurs don’t consider. Only, it gets more interesting. I bumped into my friend’s uncle last night at an event at the Atlanta Tech Village after not seeing him for several years. We caught up for a few minutes and then he tells me that the Atlanta Tech Village is the building he worked in 20 years ago for American Software (NASDAQ:AMSWA). Not only that, the Atlanta Tech Village is the building that the entrepreneurs did the revolving door transaction!

    Life is full of strange coincidences and this is another interesting one.

    What else? What are some more strange coincidences you’ve encountered?

  • 2014 Inc. 500 Atlanta Companies

    Inc. magazine just released the 2014 Inc. 500 and there are several Atlanta companies on the list. As covered in 2013 and 2012, it’s great to see so many fast-growing firms in the area.

    Here are the Atlanta companies on the 2014 Inc. 500 list:

    • 147 – Residential Capital Management, 2,626% growth, $30.2m revenue
    • 178 – Apex Controls, 2,360% growth, $7.8m revenue
    • 180 –  Futurewave Systems, 2,343% growth, $2.8m revenue
    • 239 –  Expert Technical Solutions, 1,908% growth, $3.5m revenue
    • 305 – Clearleap, 1,510% growth, $9.8m revenue
    • 310 – CoolMiniOrNot, 1,495% growth, $6.2m revenue
    • 334 – Caduceus Healthcare, 1,385% growth, $6.0m revenue
    • 396 – StandBy Talent Staffing Services, 1,179% growth, $3.7m revenue
    • 401 – National Tax Credit, 1,176% growth, $3.4m revenue
    • 405 – Patientco, 1,167% growth, $3.0m revenue
    • 458 – Cloud Sherpas, 1,036% growth, $113.1m revenue
    • 467 – Mashburn Outdoor, 1,010% growth, $5.7m revenue
    • 483 – Premier Logic, 983% growth, $8.5m revenue
    • 489 – CATMEDIA, 970% growth, $4.6m revenue
    • 490 – STONE Resource Group, 969% growth, $9.0m revenue

    With 15 companies on the list, it’s a solid showing. I’d like to see more product-based tech companies on the list and expect things to change over the next 3-5 years.

    What else? What are some other thoughts on the 2014 Inc. 500 Atlanta companies?

  • The 7 Figure Club

    One of the initiatives we’re working on at the Atlanta Tech Village is bringing together different groups within the community to build relationships and help each other. Today we launched our newest group, the 7 Figure Club, for entrepreneurs within the Village that have either a million in revenue or have raised a million from investors. While one million in revenue or investment might seem arbitrary, it’s a nice milestone that represents customer traction or investor confidence. One million in revenue is also the requirement for the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

    Slightly more than 10% of the Village is in the 7 Figure Club (21 companies). The format is a monthly lunch with the following agenda:

    • What’s going well
    • What’s not going well
    • Topical discussion (one topic per month e.g. fundraising, hiring, growth strategies, etc.)
    • Needs and leads (anything anyone needs help with or has something to help others)

    Overall, the club isn’t designed to replace an EO or YPO forum. Rather, it’s goal is to keep the largest companies in the Village abreast of what’s going on with each other and act as a regular meeting to help each other.

    I’m looking forward to participating in the 7 Figure Club.

    What else? What are some other thoughts on this type of entrepreneur group?