David Cummings on Startups

Category: Community

  • Venture Atlanta 2013 Presenting Companies

    Venture Atlanta is largest annual event in the Southeast that connects startups in Georgia with venture capitalists from around the country.  Today, Venture Atlanta just announced the 2013 presenting companies for the late October conference.

    Here are the companies:

    Early Stage Companies

    Venture Spotlight Companies

    • Aptitude Health – Data analytics services to biopharmaceutical and diagnostics companies
    • Azalea Health – Patient management platform
    • BitPay – Bitcoin payment processing platform
    • Blue Ridge Inventory – Supply chain planning and inventory software
    • Catavolt – Cloud middleware for legacy systems
    • Digitus Biometrics – Physical biometric access control systems
    • Izenda – Business intelligence and reporting software
    • OneCare – Mobile health platform that tracks patient compliance
    • Parkmobile – Mobile payments system for the parking industry
    • Racemi – Cloud and virtualization migration software
    • RazorInsights – Financial and clinical systems
    • REACH Health – Telemedicine software
    • ShopVisible – Ecommerce software
    • SignUp4 – Event registration and management software

    It’s a great group of companies and I’m looking forward to Venture Atlanta next month.

    What else? What are your thoughts on the Venture Atlanta 2013 presenting companies?

  • Thinking About Startup Density for a City’s Entrepreneurial Success

    Tomorrow I’m giving a short talk at the (co) lab summit at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta. One of the sessions is about Fostering Entrepreneurship and I’m speaking on the topic of startup density as an important element of a city’s entrepreneurial success.

    Here are a few thoughts on startup density:

    • Entrepreneurs, like any tribe, seek to share and learn with other like-minded people
    • Urban sprawl, a fact of life for Atlanta, results in startups spread out all over, and little density outside a couple pockets in the city
    • The Atlanta Tech Village, combined with ATDC and Hypepotamus, create serious startup density in Buckhead and Midtown
    • Serendipitous interactions play an important role in startup success and those interactions are a function of density
    • Recycling talent, which happens when members of a failing startup join another startup, increases significantly with density
    • Life can be lonely in a startup with the same tiny group of people everyday, thus instant community that comes with density fulfills a real human need and increases the likelihood of success

    I’m looking forward to the (co) lab summit tomorrow and sharing a few thoughts on the importance of startup density.

    What else? What are your thoughts on startup density for a city’s entrepreneurial success?

  • Does Providing Entrepreneurs with Accelerators and Office Space Help or Hurt?

    One of the questions I’ve heard several times about the Atlanta Tech Village and the Atlanta Ventures Accelerator is “does coddling entrepreneurs with an accelerator program and office space make things too easy?” Part of the question stems from the historical rite of passage entrepreneurs had to go through spending dozens of hours on office space, furniture, and internet access combined with the effort to find a community of like-minded entrepreneurs, educational programs, and screened mentors.

    On the positive side, it’s clear that the instant community and physical infrastructure adds tremendous value. Entrepreneurs get to focus their time and energy on building their company with minimal administrative overhead, can walk down the hall to get expert feedback on an issue, and gain a serious edge when recruiting talent.

    On the negative side, there’s an increased chance that entrepreneurs who aren’t as motivated and resourceful will be able to coast in an environment that is fun and feels great without making any substantial progress. Yes, that can happen anywhere, but the support and community in a high density startup cluster softens the frustration of not having startup success as the human desire to be a part of tribe is being met.

    Overall, having a great startup center with a cohort of entrepreneurs significantly outweighs the downside of things being too cushy and some entrepreneurs just coasting.

    What else? What are your thoughts on whether or not providing entrepreneurs with accelerators and office space helps or hurts?

  • Pardot as Proving Ground for Startup Community Ideas

    One of the things we did at Pardot was try and help the local entrepreneurship community by providing a handful of desks to startups. At any given time we’d have 3-4 startups in the office with 2-3 desks per startup (by my count, we had at least eight startups use our office). This was a good gauge that showed some of the local demand for an entrepreneurship center like the Atlanta Tech Village.

    Pardot also acted as a proving ground for ideas that were implemented at the Village, including the following:

    • Focus on Values – Values set the tone and define the contract for everyone involved
    • Startup Chowdown – Bringing everyone together on a weekly basis to break bread is incredibly valuable to build relationships and rapport
    • LED Scoreboard – Results matter and clear accountability with metrics define the standards
    • Show & Tell – Products are the heart of the business and doing regular demos keeps everyone updated

    Without realizing it at the time, several of the Pardot experiences and lessons learned translated well to the startup community and have been implemented at the Village.

    What else? What are your thoughts on ideas translated from company to startup community?

  • Atlanta Tech Village as a Sales and Recruiting Tool

    Last week I was talking to a sales executive at the Atlanta Tech Village. He works for one of the startups in the Village and we were talking about how things are going. After hearing about a big deal he’s working on, he volunteered something I wasn’t expecting: the Village is a sales tool whereby if the prospect is local, he’ll invite them to a Startup Chowdown. Pretty sweet.

    Startups are always looking for an edge, especially when it comes to signing customers. With little brand recognition for the startup, sales reps seek to associate with other brands through social proof by referencing recognizable customers or mentioning something that might pique a prospect’s interest, in this case the Village if they are local.

    Later in the week I was talking to another startup that was in the process of hiring a couple new people. After catching up on progress, I heard again how bringing a potential new hire to the Startup Chowdown was a great recruiting tool as it gives the candidate a taste of the energy in the building and gets them excited about being part of the startup community. There’s a real war for talent going on and having an edge makes a big difference.

    Startups are closing more deals. Check. Startups are recruiting great talent. Check. These are great benefits of being in a startup campus that aren’t appreciated until you hear about the results.

    What else? What are your thoughts on the Atlanta Tech Village as a sales and recruiting tool?

  • Takeaways from the First Kevy Connects Event / Impact of the Cloud

    Tonight we had our first Kevy Connects event at the Atlanta Tech Village with over 250 registered attendees and a panel of Atlanta cloud software leaders including Reggie Bradford of Oracle / Vitrue, Michael Cohn of Cloud Sherpas, Bill Nussey of Silverpop, and Ed Trimble of Kevy. For the event, our goal was to bring together some of the major Software-as-a-Service companies in town to learn from each other and explore how we can continue to expand Atlanta’s strength in the world of cloud-based applications.

    Here are a few takeaways from the first Kevy Connects event:

    • Cloud-based software, while it’s been around for well over a decade, is one of the fastest growing software segments and shows no signs of slowing down
    • Most companies that were originally averse to putting their information in the cloud due to security, availability, etc have come around and are now comfortable with it
    • Integration of cloud apps is a big challenge for the industry and an opportunity for new entrants
    • Atlanta’s extensive history of successful B2B software companies provides a strong foundation for the next generation of cloud-based software.

    Overall, tonight’s event was a big success and we look forward to bringing the local cloud community together on a regular basis.

    What else? What are some of your takeaways from the event and the impact of the cloud?

  • Atlanta’s Sales Community as Core for a Sales and Marketing Tech Hub

    Atlanta has one of the highest number of sales reps per capita in the world. Think about it: if you live in Atlanta or have friends in Atlanta, how many people do you know that are in sales? That’s right, there are a ton. Now, there are two main reasons why Atlanta has so many sales people:

    1. Capital of the South – Thousands of companies have regional sales offices in Atlanta to call on and service accounts all over the Southeast. Atlanta is the clear leader in the Southeast based on number of people and scale of infrastructure.
    2. World’s Busiest Airport – I know a sales-oriented CEO of a multi-national health IT company that just moved his family to Atlanta because he’s on the road all the time and would rather be based out of Atlanta instead of Boston, even though he grew up in the Midwest. The main reasons: climate and the airport. With the world’s busiest airport, it’s easy for sales reps to quickly visit customers anywhere in the world at a reasonable cost, and almost always with a direct flight.

    So, Atlanta has an unusually large number of sales people, which translates well into Atlanta being a hub for sales technologies, and the close relative of sales, a.k.a. marketing.

    The world’s largest software company in the late 70s was a firm called MSA, based in Atlanta. MSA had an amazing culture that was incredibly sales focused. From the sales reps and sales management at MSA, over 50 startups emerged in Atlanta. Several of Atlanta’s largest success stories, including the billion dollar exit of Internet Security Systems to IBM, were lead by MSA alumni.

    A strong cluster of sales and marketing technology startups and companies have already coalesced in Atlanta including SalesLoft, Rivalry, Insightpool, CallRail, Badgy, Pardot, Vitrue, BrightWhistle, and more not even counting the amazing pool of email marketing companies in town like WhatCounts, Silverpop, and MailChimp.

    Atlanta’s strong sales community is the core that’s helped spawn many tech companies. Over the next 10 years, I predict Atlanta will become even more well known as a sales and marketing technology capital, and I can’t wait to see it happen.

    What else? What are your thoughts on Atlanta’s sales community as core for a sales and marketing tech hub?

  • Atlanta Tech Village Shrank the Traditional Buckhead Real Estate Submarket

    One interesting detail of the Atlanta Tech Village is that it actually shrank the commercial real estate submarket in Buckhead. Let me explain. Real estate submarkets, like Buckhead, are tracked based on available Class A, Class B, and Class C space. The Village, before renovation, is a Class B mid-rise, representing 103,000 square feet. After renovation, it’ll be a Class A building with over $80/ft invested (counting items like the new courtyard and rooftop patio).

    From a market perspective, the Class B space is being taken off the traditional market, making things less competitive for the buildings nearby. The vast majority of the tenants in the Village wouldn’t choose a space in Buckhead so early in their startup journey, and would likely be in subleases or Class C space for cost and flexibility reasons.

    Buckhead has officially lost 100,000 square feet of Class B space, and it’s great for the future of tech startups in the city.

    What else? What are your thoughts on Atlanta Tech Village shrinking the amount of space in the Buckhead submarket?

  • Local Angel / VC Investing for Returns or as Civic Duty

    A few days ago I was part of a number of discussions around angel / VC investing and supporting local entrepreneurs. One of the recurring themes was between the desire to generate risk-adjusted returns vs investing as a civic duty to help grow the local economy with an understanding that returns might not be strong.

    Here are a few ideas on angel / VC investing for returns vs civic duty:

    • Generating market-rate returns with angel investing, regardless of scale, is difficult
    • One idea is to do a fund of funds where money is invested in angel funds as well as VC funds to diversify the money by spreading it across a much larger number of investments
    • Local economies with successful startups benefit from more high paying jobs, diversification of employment base, and wealth creation
    • Foundations, which usually can’t invest in startups with their grant making money, can invest their endowments in funds, which could be locally focused

    There’s no clear answer as it’s up to the goals of the investor. Regardless, investment returns and civic duty should be allowed parts of the conversation.

    What else? What are your thoughts on local angel / VC investing for returns or as civic duty?

  • Atlanta Companies on the 2013 Inc. 500

    I love this time of year. It’s when Inc. magazine publishes the latest Inc. 500 for the 500 fastest growing companies in the United States. Hannon Hill was #247 in 2007 and Pardot was #172 in 2012.

    Here are the Atlanta companies on the 2013 Inc. 500 list:

    • #31 – Innovolt, $8 million (profile)
    • #64 – GSC Packaging, $112.6 million (profile)
    • #117 – Green Box Foods, $251.1 million (profile)
    • #142 – Cloud Sherpas, $75.3 million (profile)
    • #170 – TracePoint Computing, $4.9 million (profile)
    • #193 – S2Verify, $4.4 million (profile)
    • #237 – Xtreme Solutions, $8.6 million (profile)
    • #303 – Caduceus Healthcare, $4.1 million (profile)
    • #324 – MiLend, $14.2 million (profile)
    • #351 – Configero, $2.2 million (profile)
    • #364 – ClearLeap, $5.5 million (profile)
    • #404 – PalmerHouse Properties, $7.2 million (profile)
    • #428 – Careers in Transition, $5.3 million (profile)
    • #430 – VDart, $20.7 million (profile)
    • #440 – RePay, $12.8 million (profile)
    • #447 – StandBy Talent Staffing Services, $2.3 million (profile)
    • #470 – Mom Corps, $16.2 million (profile)
    • #479 – Hicks & Clark, $2.3 million (profile)

    Based on the list, 18 of the 500 fastest growing companies are in Atlanta. Congratulations to all the winners — great work!

    What else? What are your thoughts on the 2013 Inc. 500 award winners?