Category: Community

One of the projects we’re working on at the Atlanta Tech Village is setting up a scholarship program for entrepreneurs and startups. The idea is that internally as well as sponsors might want to support certain areas that aren’t as represented like social enterprises, student entrepreneurs, B2C startups, specific industry verticals, etc. We’re confident that our strength is going to be B2B/enterprise software but part of our overall mission is to support the entire tech and startup ecosystem.

Besides the obvious question of how many scholarships will we have, which will be determined by sponsorships, the next question is: what criteria will we use to decide?

Here are some criteria ideas we’re currently brainstorming (it would be a combination of attributes):

• Startups that haven’t raised any money
• Startups that have less than a certain amount of total revenue (e.g. $10,000)
• Startups with specific founder characteristics (e.g. certain demographics)
• Startups targeting a vertical desired by a sponsor (e.g. a large digital media company that wants to help other digital media startups)
• Startups with a double or triple bottom line (e.g. a social enterprise that helps the community and makes money)

Over time we’ll figure out what does and doesn’t work with scholarships. Right now, we’re looking forward to trying it out and learning as we go.

What else? What are some other ideas for scholarship criteria?

Earlier today I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Sam Williams of the Metro Atlanta Chamber in front of 100+ people as part of the Insights with Entrepreneurs series. We covered a variety of topics ranging from Atlanta entrepreneurship to Pardot to the Atlanta Tech Village.

Here are a few notes from today’s conversation:

1. Atlanta has all the natural resources to be a top 10 tech startup city due to Georgia Tech, a low cost of living, many young professionals, the world’s busiest airport, and great internet connectivity (Atlanta is the number one place in the country for data centers)
2. Pardot’s success came down to culture, timing, and execution
3. Pardot’s culture was defined by the following:
   Be the best place to work and the best place to be a customer
   Good work, good people, and good pay
   Core values are positive, self-starting, and supportive
4. Most often, the original business idea isn’t the idea that ends up being successful — Pardot started as a PPC bid arbitrage platform before pivoting into marketing automation software
5. Atlanta Tech Village’s goal is to be a rainforest where chaos and weeds ensue instead of being a planned farm with organized crops
6. The Atlanta Tech Village, at 103,000 sq ft, is the largest tech entrepreneur center in the Southeast and the largest coworking space in the Southeast (25,000 sq ft)
7. Atlanta Tech Village has sold over 100 memberships in the first 75 days purely through word of mouth, Twitter, and PR

Bonus: I shared my work / life balance strategy.

I enjoyed the Metro Atlanta Chamber event and it was fun to meet several new people.

What else? If you were at the event, what are some ideas you took away from it?

At the Atlanta Tech Village we’re reserving 80% of the space for tech companies and tech startups while leaving 20% for tech-related service providers. Of course, the next question that comes up is “how do you define a tech startup?” Some companies that we believe fall in the service provider category claim they are actually a tech startup, so we’ve been debating how best to handle it and have a few ideas.

Here are some ideas on how to differentiate between a tech startup and a tech-related service provider:

• Tech startups generate the majority of their revenue from proprietary technology
• Tech startups have a scalable product and actively strive for a reproducible customer acquisition process
• Tech startups have product managers and software engineers on staff (service providers could have them but rarely do)

We don’t have all the answers but we’re actively working on ideas. Over time, we’ll have a better understanding and ways to clearly differentiate tech startups from service providers.

What else? What are some other ideas to differentiate tech startups from service providers?

One topic that makes sense, but wasn’t talked about much previously in our community, is the role of serendipitous interactions. Recently, I wrote about The Power of Serendipitous Interactions and Startup Communities and how I was experiencing it first-hand at the Atlanta Tech Village. Now that we know it’s important, how can we engineer it to happen more frequently? Here are a few ideas:

• Cool hangout areas with soft seating, games, kitchen amenities, and more
• Regular events like happy hours, speaker series, show and tells, workshops, hackathons, etc
• Startup launch parties and product demo sessions
• Community clubs like running, sports, and shared interests
• Great coffee in an awesome coffee shop
• Free coworking times or areas
• Mentors and catalysts that like to connect people and help solve problems

Engineering serendipity is one of the most abstract topics we talk about regarding building community, and possibly one of the most important.

What else? What are some other ways to engineer serendipity?

Atlanta-based AirWatch, LLC just announced that they raised a massive $200 million Series A round of financing from Insight Ventures Partners out of New York City. AirWatch makes mobile device management software for companies to manage all the different smart phones used by their employees. For many years, Blackberry by RIM was the main smart phone used in the corporate setting, and all the management software, along with the hardware, was provided by the same company. Now, with the explosive growth of iPhones and Android devices, the need for enterprise software to manage the deployment of these devices has grown tremendously — enter AirWatch.

With this being one of the largest venture-type Series A rounds ever (not just in Atlanta but in the the entire country!), it deserves some further commentary. Here are a few thoughts on the AirWatch $200 million Series A:

• Often when a growth equity firm puts in money they are looking to make a return of 3-5x their money in 3-5 years
• AirWatch has been in business for 10 years and hasn’t raised any institutional capital. I’m guessing their chairman, who started and took Manhattan Associates public ($1.32B market cap), had put in money personally prior to the raise (just a guess)
• AirWatch has 861 employees listed on LinkedIn (source), meaning they likely have 1,000 total employees when factoring in people that don’t have a LinkedIn profile
• With 1,000 people on staff, at an estimate of $150,000 in revenue per employee per year (investing in growth and not worrying about profitability), they likely have a revenue run rate of $150 million/year (just a guess)
• Based on a published growth rate of 40%, they likely got a pre-money valuation of 5-6 times revenue — let’s call it an $800 million pre-money and a $1 billion post-money, assuming all the money went to the balance sheet (just a guess)
• Redemption of shares by existing shareholders is likely, although not mentioned, meaning that some of the $200 million probably went to shareholders selling their shares (I’d guess they took $25 – $75 million off the table)
• Insight Venture Partners needs to generate a return, so the company will have to IPO or be sold in 3-5 years

AirWatch is an amazing company and I’m excited they’re here in Atlanta. They’re building a large anchor technology company that will spawn many more companies over the years and be great for the city.

What else? What are your thoughts on the AirWatch $200 million Series A round of financing?