Category: Community

Today we received our certificate of occupancy and opened the 1st floor at the Atlanta Tech Village. Now, the 1st floor is very different from the other floors (standard floor, 2nd floor) in that it is primarily amenities. From a buildout and design perspective, the 1st floor was much more complicated due to the hardwood floors, custom millwork, and more intricate ceilings.

Let’s take a look at the 1st floor:

Community Center (Lounge) and Coworking

• 20 coworking desks
• Three sofas
• Two kegs
• One bar
• Idea paint walls
• Reclaimed Oak floors (stained to look like Bamboo)

Game Room

• Two 70″ TVs
• Xbox and Playstation
• Ping pong table
• More goodies coming soon

Classroom

• Room for 16 desks
• Two 90″ TVs

Board Room 1

• Room for 20 people
• One 70″ TV

Board Room 2

• Room for 20 people
• One 70″ TV

Conference Center

• Room for 200+ chairs
• Two 90″ TVs and two 70″ TVs
• Audio/visual equipment
• Board rooms in each corner (can be made into overflow rooms)

Octane Coffee

• High-end, locally owned coffee shop and bar
• Indoor and outdoor seating
• Catering available
• Adjacent to the conference center and across from the community center

Overall, I’m very pleased with how everything turned out. I believe that having an Octane Coffee in the heart of Buckhead will bring many people through the door that might not otherwise interact with the tech community, thereby increasing the awareness of so many good things going on. The 1st floor sets the tone for the Village, and it’s a great one.

Haven’t been to the Village yet? Sign up for a tour online.

One of the best decisions at the Atlanta Tech Village was knocking down walls in prime office space and creating a 4,000 square foot event space. Over the past year, we’ve hosted hundreds of events from small 15-person meet ups to a number of large, 250-person gatherings (see the Atlanta Startup Village at the Atlanta Tech Village). Without experiencing it first-hand, it’s hard to appreciate just how important and valuable it’s been to host several thousand people in our facility.

Here are a few thoughts on providing public event space:

• Engineered serendipity happens when people interact with other people face-to-face, and events are one of the best forms of bringing people together
• Community strength comes from the number of interconnected people and quality of relationships, making a large event space that much more important for building an eco-system
• Word of mouth marketing is one of the most valuable, and difficult to facilitate, yet it happens naturally when people come into a physical space based on their own initiative
• Talent wars for software engineers and salespeople are real, so why not provide a great facility to host events for the target audience, which will then help with recruiting and brand awareness
• Brand, corporate culture, and style are readily apparent based on the facility, location, and ambience of the event space, so use it to reinforce a specific message

Organizations or companies serious about long-term community building and recruiting would do well to evaluate making their facilities available for local meet ups and gatherings.

What else? What are some other thoughts on event space for community building and recruiting?

Yesterday we opened our new 2nd floor at the Atlanta Tech Village. The 2nd floor is different from our standard floor in that it is almost entirely private offices with no multi-room suites whereas floors three, four, and five are mostly 2-6 room suites. In addition, the 2nd floor has a few additional amenities not found elsewhere in the building (see below).

Here are highlights from the 2nd floor:

Floor Plan

• 37 private offices
• 16 coworking desks
• 8 phone rooms
• 3 conference rooms
• 2 huddle rooms
• 2 standing desks
• 1 usability testing lab
• 1 nap room
• 1 staircase to Octane Coffee

Private Offices

• Fully furnished
• All rooms have glass and can see outside
• Most rooms can see out two sides of the floor

Hallways

• Dry erase paint throughout the interior walls

Lockers

• Storage for hot desks and reserved desks

Coworking

• Reserved desks and hot desks
• Shared conference rooms and phone rooms

Phone Rooms

• Perfect for conference calls, cold calls, and personal calls

Usability Testing Lab

• Combination huddle room and conference room with one-way glass

Nap Room

• No windows
• Schedule it like a conference room
• Look for a hammock and future accessories soon

Next up is the 1st floor which opens later this month with an Octane Coffee, coworking space, community center, game room, classroom, conference center, and two board rooms.

Every week we have a public tour, so please signup online.

What else? What are your thoughts on the walkthrough of the 2nd floor of the Atlanta Tech Village?

Today, 10 people from Atlanta, including Mayor Kasim Reed, are heading out to Silicon Valley to meet with several venture capitalists and large tech companies in order to espouse the benefits of Atlanta. All the great benefits of Atlanta will be highlighted including strong technical talent from Georgia Tech, massive airport with direct flights around the world, low cost of living, and growing population of educated young professionals. It’s important to convey this message as there’s real value to it.

Only, this isn’t going to get VCs excited. VCs get excited about the prospect of making huge amounts of money for their limited partners, which in turn makes huge amounts of money for themselves. If they don’t do that, they can’t raise another fund, and they go out of business.

A great city with strong fundamentals doesn’t incite the fiery capitalist function in an investor.

Instead, what’s needed is a conversation that accomplishes two things:

1. Builds confidence that Atlanta has good people that care about making the city great, and
2. Reveals the investors’ sweet spots in terms of stages, industries, growth rates, revenue run rates, etc. and everyone makes a commitment to talk to entrepreneurs that meet these specifications.

With this in place, city leaders then organize a program to continually stay apprised of startups in town and qualify them against the necessary parameters provided by the VCs. Finally, introductions are coordinated for good fits and an annual trip is facilitated to maintain rapport and continually calibrate the quality of deals.

Great startups that make investors a ton of money will put Atlanta on the map. Let’s start with a tactical plan that produces more success stories and everything else will fall into place.

What else? What are some other thoughts on Atlanta’s pitch to West Coast VCs?

One of the initiatives we’re working on at the Atlanta Tech Village is the Village Verified program. With the initiative, our goal is to identify potential startups that have achieved some modest level of success and are poised for greater growth. Having 140+ startups in the same facility is amazing, but we need a way to funnel extra resources and programs to a smaller number of companies.

Here are a few details on the Village Verified program:

• Membership is for startups that have raised at least $100,000 from investors OR have at least $100,000 in revenue (either trailing twelve months revenue or $100,000 in annual recurring revenue)
• Provided $10,000 in credits from Amazon Web Services, $24,000 in credits from Rackspace, and several other special deals at no charge
• Domain-specific peer lunches and roundtables (e.g. for engineering, sales, marketing, etc)
• Special meetings with VIP guests (Village Verified companies had a special lunch with the Mayor of Atlanta as well as other executives and investors in town)
• Must complete a One Page Strategic Plan and review it bi-annually

With the Village Verified program, we want to find a balance with our large, all inclusive events while providing more attention and resources to startups that have differentiated themselves. As with everything we do, we’re constantly experimenting and looking for ways to make things better. Check out the Village Verified program and help spread the word.

What else? What are your thoughts on the Village Verified program at the Atlanta Tech Village?

Earlier today the big news broke that Atlanta’s AirWatch is going to be acquired by VMware for over $1.5 billion. AirWatch is the consumate Atlanta success story. Business software? Check. Security technology? Check. Limited outside capital to get to scale before raising institutional capital? Check. AirWatch has all the ingredients.

Here are some of the awesome Atlanta benefits of the AirWatch story:

• Created 1,000 jobs in Atlanta
• Delivered another success story on the international stage
• Minted many more tech millionaires in the city
• Established a strong reputation for mobility-related software

Unfortunately, AirWatch won’t be the next anchor technology company for the region but it will leave a lasting legacy for the city. New entrepreneurs and investors will emerge and 1,000+ people will have felt what it’s like to be a part of something that succeeds in a big way.

Congratulations to AirWatch on building a large software company in Atlanta.

What else? What are your thoughts on the impending VMware acquisition of AirWatch?