Category: Community

One of the biggest opportunities I see for the Atlanta startup community, and many other startup communities around the country, is helping connect local startups with local mid-to-large companies looking for certain technologies. Big companies are difficult to navigate, have many competing interests, and are not oriented to purchase from startups. With that said, big companies do want to be more innovative and want to try new things but don’t know where to begin or how to engage local startups.

Here’s an idea for a hot or not service to connect startups with potential big companies:

• Similar to the site James Hong launched in 2000 (history), the idea is to have startups and big companies list their information in a database with some data being public and some being private
• Startups filter and browse the big companies giving a thumbs up or down depending on if they are a good fit (hot) or not
• Big companies filter and browse the startups giving a thumbs up or down depending on if they are a good fit or not
• When a match is made (both parties give a thumbs up), the software does an email introduction and let’s the startup and big company take it from there

Some of the key aspects of this include startups agreeing not to hassle big companies that get introduced, big companies agreeing to spend a modest amount of time using the system (will need some C-level buy-in from people that want to help the local community), and a constant curation of information by someone that manages the system (e.g. the local chamber of commerce). Connecting startups with mid-to-large companies is a big opportunity to help grow the local entrepreneurial community

What else? What are some thoughts on this hot or not system to connect startups with large companies?

Over the past four days I’ve attended three different startup events. Each event served a slightly different purpose and had overlap in attendees. One of the benefits of a medium-sized tech startup community, like what’s found in Atlanta, is that there are a tremendous number of events and get togethers. Only, there’s a real risk in people attending events and equating that to making progress as an entrepreneur.

Attending events is for learning, networking, and helping each other. If someone’s repeatedly attending startup events, and not actually in the startup game, it becomes startup theatre: a form of entertainment and enjoyment with no advancement. Even worse, it can bring a sense of accomplishment that you’re doing something, when, in fact, no progress is being made.

Here are a few thoughts on startup theatre:

• Entrepreneurship is best learned by doing and accelerated by the quality teaching, mentoring, etc
• Attending events is a great way to get to know people in the community, but shouldn’t be a substitute for actually working on something (see 3 Next Steps for an Entrepreneur Without an Idea and Finding a Startup Idea)
• Accountability is an important component of a health startup community, and starts with repeatedly asking direct questions like “what have you accomplished in the last 30 days?” and “how close are you to product/market fit?”

Startup theatre is a very real challenge for startup communities around the world. Startup communities should work hard to maintain a bias towards action and not theatre.

What else? What are some other thoughts on startup theatre?

Yesterday I was talking with a visitor at the Atlanta Tech Village who moved to Atlanta recently. After covering a number of subjects, he brought up several common complaints he’d heard about Atlanta’s startup community. We spent 10 minutes talking through them and I offered up an insider’s perspective.

Here are some common complaints about Atlanta’s startup community and ideas about them:

• Lack of Talent – With Georgia Tech (one of the largest engineering schools in the country and top five academically), there’s a tremendous amount of technical talent in town. When large companies complain about a lack of talent, it’s a function of culture and desirability of work environment (large companies find it easier to open an innovation office in a different city as opposed to making the harder changes at their headquarters).
• Dearth of Capital – Capital is still scarce but the cost of building a product and signing the first 10 customers has gone down by 90% over the past 10 years, making limited capital a non issue to get started (see Assembling a Minimum Viable Product for Market Validation). Scaling a startup is still capital intensive, but once revenue is growing nicely, even at a modest scale, it’s easy to raise money as capital is much more mobile (see AngelList).
• Disconnected Community – Community cohesiveness is stronger than ever with a number of regular events, entrepreneurship centers, and leaders committed to strengthening the community (check out the open-to-the-public Atlanta Startup Village with 350+ attendees every month).
• Limited Number of Exits – Every year Atlanta has 3-5 $100M+ exits (see AirWatch and Silverpop already this year). Atlanta startups do have a higher bar for an exit, but there’s a steady flow of success stories.

I’m sure these complaints aren’t unique to Atlanta and are applicable to most regions of the country. So while there’s plenty of room for improvement and growth in Atlanta’s startup community, many of the common complaints are outdated and not as relevant.

What else? What are your thoughts on these common complaints in Atlanta’s startup community?

Earlier today we had a great “Show and Tell” event at the Atlanta Tech Village where four entrepreneurs gave a five minute update on their startup followed by five minutes of Q&A:

The five minute updates ranged from personal stories to sales videos to product demos. With an audience of fellow Villagers, there was an opportunity to make an ‘ask’ — that is, to get help from the community. Whether it’s names of relevant mentors, introductions to potential prospects, or something else, a group of people always can help. Only, most people don’t make an ‘ask’ when presented with an opportunity.

My advice: make the ‘ask’ at the end of a presentation.

What else? What are some other thoughts on making the ‘ask’ at the end of a presentation?

One of the regularly debated topics is government’s role in the startup community. According to the Bolder Thesis, successful startup communities have to be entrepreneur-led, and not government- or nonprofit-led. A common government initiative is to try and help with capital (see the Invest Georgia Fund). Except more capital doesn’t create more investable opportunities. More successful startups creates more investable opportunities.

There’s one immediate way government can help the startup community: connecting local businesses with entrepreneurs. Customer acquisition is the number one challenge for startups. Local businesses, especially larger employers, actively work to maintain strong ties with the government to help keep the region moving forward. These relationships between government and influential employers are perfect to parlay into a “Buy Local” campaign.

Imagine events similar to the ATDC Industry Connect whereby select businesses are assembled to hear pitches from a curated group of startups. Much like Y Combinator’s Demo Day, a combination of product demos and networking enables a more efficient exchange of information so that buyers and sellers can connect. Even a tiny percentage of the purchasing power of local businesses has the potential to create more jobs and help successful startups.

What else? What are your thoughts on government helping connect local businesses with local entrepreneurs so as to help the startup community?

Paul Judge set the stage earlier this week with Unicorns in Atlanta: A Look at Atlanta’s Billion Dollar Exits and Current Promising Startups. Atlanta has had a number of billion dollar exits over the years but there’s a desire to have more. Many more. Today, Urvaksh announced that Paul Judge and Allen Nance are launching Tech Square Labs in his article Atlanta techpreneurs launch “studio” to turn ideas into billion-dollar exits.

Tech Square Labs, no relation to Tech Square Ventures, is a hybrid incubator and private coworking space. It’s an Incubator in the true sense of the word where Paul and Allen role up their sleeves and help other entrepreneurs commercialize and launch their ideas. As compared to the dot com days, this model is different in that it’s only capital from Paul and Allen, combined with serious sweat equity. With up to six companies at a time, it’ll be an exclusive group.

From a coworking perspective, it’s a free hacker space with the twist that the software engineers have to prove they are super talented as a prerequisite for admittance. Smart people want to hang out with other smart people. Overall, the goal is to get the best technical people together and start companies.

Tech Square Labs has an audacious stated goal: produce billion dollar exits. The kernel of the thesis is that most of the billion dollar exits come from companies with serious, sophisticated technology at their core combined with massive, fast-growing markets. Billion dollar companies are difficult to build, but there’s clearly been a pattern in the past.

Tech Square Labs is great for Atlanta and I can’t wait to see it succeed.

What else? What are your thoughts on Tech Square Labs?