For all those who have attended our open coffee’s in the past, and for all those who plan on attending in the future, coffee’s will go on! Though, I’m moving on to other pasture’s, hopefully as green as ATDC, Roberto Cassas will be taking my place as King of Roam. This Fri, Roberto will be at Roam from 8 to 10am, and then available all day for individual meetings. You’ll be able to book him through our “office hours” section on the ATDC website.
Roberto will continue on the tradition with monthly special guests. Please speak with him on any speaker recommendations. My last Fri Roam open coffee will be Fri, Apr 2nd. See you there.
For all those who missed out on applying for Shotput Ventures last year, they are taking applications right now for this summers session. Apply here
Shotput Ventures launched its first class in the summer of 2009 in Atlanta.
The second class will be in the summer of 2010. Please learn more.
Shotput invests $6,000 per founder as part of a coordinated program that operates each summer in Atlanta.
Are you getting ready to submit your applications to the 2010 GRA/TAG Business Launch Competition? The deadline is fast approaching, it’s next week!
Currently in its fifth year, the Business Launch competition was created in 2006 to support the growth of new companies that will strengthen and expand Georgia’s strategic high-tech clusters. The comprehensive $300,000+ prize is GRA and TAG’s way to reward high-tech entrepreneurship and assure a deserving Georgia startup company has everything in place to be successful.
The GRA/TAG Business Launch 2010 will invite entries in the area of Internet Technologies. This includes software and hardware companies that are developing products, online services, or backend technologies, which extend the reach, flexibility and ease of the internet. If you are yourself, or know of a startup company that is looking to launch themselves to the next level, applications are currently being accepted.
For further information, access the Business Launch page on TAG’s website or you can contact TAG directly at gro.enilnogatnull@ylrebmiK or 404.920.2022.
2009 was extra special. Mortgage meltdowns, market meltdowns, high unemployment rate, venture/private equity lack of liquidity, the list goes on. I won’t dwell on how horrible 2009 was, but it’s hard not to. It’s still fresh on all of our minds. Let’s all forget about it, like it was a bad nightmare.
The good news is when there are troughs, there are peaks around the corner. Consumer spending appears to be picking up. Banking appears to be improving, the strongest will survive and thrive. Responsibility has returned, mortgage backed securities didn’t seem to be such a good idea. The market finished up more than 20% in 2009 and should continue through 2010. Corporations should have finished their right sizing exercises in 2009 to improve their bottom line but will need to look into hiring in order to improve their top line in 2010. Growth is the key. One more hurdle, commercial mortgage problems are supposed to be felt this year but it appears that it will be more subdued.
You may ask, why am I writing about the macro economy. This is an accelerator blog. Folks, the macro economy affects us micro startup entrepreneurs. Expect venture investing to pick up this year. Startups should have a stronger revenues as customers will look to grow their top line through technology. VCs know this. The key to economic growth is investment.
It all sets us up for positive year. As a friend reminded me, the US is great at growing bubbles. The beginning of bubbles are real growth, the problem is when they get over inflated.
As many of you know, Prof Dan Breznitz from Georgia Tech, recently published a research paper on Atlanta based start-ups over the last decade. He covered topics such as venture capital, community support, cross pollination of companies, and the migration of home grown start-ups out of our region. Much of his findings are not suprising. Yes, we all know there is a dearth of venture firms in the southeast and yes, there are a number of cases of start-ups moving to what appears to be greener pastures. On the surface, I can understand why one can reach these conclusions. After all, Atlanta is no Silicon Valley.
Then I started thinking about my time here in Atlanta, can’t believe it’s nearly been a decade. You see, I’m a transplant from Boston. Plucked directly out of the number two entrepreneurial region in the country, at it’s height. I guess I can argue I’m one of the few that can really give a fair perspective on the Atlanta startup community and how it compares to other areas in the country. I lived and breathed the start-up scene both in Atlanta and Boston. The key ingredients to a successful start-up region are:
- great technology university/universities
- talented resources (developers/business entrepreneurs)
- available funding
- supportive entreprenurial community
- local acquiring companies
If you compare Silicon Valley/Boston to Atlanta I believe you’ll find only one major difference, local acquiring companies. Atlanta has a great technology university in Georgia Tech, talented resources (we’re home to more fortune 500 companies than almost any other region), funding has always been available for the right deal (in or out of town money), and great support system (there are entrepreneurial networking events going on every week, ATDC, Startup Riot, Startup Gauntlet, Open Coffees, ATA “So You Think You Can Pitch, Shotput Ventures, GRA/TAG Business Launch, Startup Chicks, Startup Lounge, Venture Atlanta, and the list goes on).
Look back ten years at all press releases on technology acquisitions in the US, you’ll find 90+% are by companies based out of Silicon Valley or Boston and that the acquired company is local to that area. We’ve had our chance with companies such as ISS and Scientific Atlanta. They could have opened the flood gates to this area with security and video acquisitions. A few years ago, I counted we had upwards of thirty security start-ups in Atlanta. ISS and SA have since been acquired themselves by IBM and Cisco. Hopefully, they develop an appetite for acquiring local companies. In addition, companies such as Cox and Time Warner/Turner could be prime as well buying companies in the internet and media space. Once local acquisitions occur by local companies, local venture capital will return. Venture capitalists prefer investing in their backyard. They also know acquiring companies only buy in their own backyard (minimizing integration risk).
The most important thing we all can do in fostering start-up growth in Atlanta is plug in our local technology Fortune 500 companies into the start-up scene. In nurturing this most important relationship, we could find this to be the single most catalyzing event for Atlanta. It’ll take some time and education. After all, Silicon Valley was no Silicon Valley twenty years ago.
Even in the best of times, it is difficult for a small or start-up high-tech company to obtain funding to move a great idea into a finished product. With more than $2 billion available annually for high-tech research, the federal SBIR and the STTR programs have the largest seed capital fund in the United States for disruptive technologies. Learn what the programs are, if you qualify, and if so, how to position your company for this competitive research funding. Come ask questions and learn what it takes to be successful.
Connie Ruffner is a Startup Catalyst within the ATDC (Advanced Technology Development Center) at Georgia Tech. She specializes in providing assistance to Georgia’s companies and researchers interested in the SBIR and STTR programs. Previously, she worked for NASA’s Southeast Regional Technology Transfer Center, also part of Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2). Prior to arriving at Georgia Tech, Connie worked for the Executive Search Division of TMP and Solvay Pharmaceuticals. A native of Virginia, she received her undergraduate degree from the University of Mary Washington and her Master’s from the University of South Carolina.
See you Fri at Roam
Gordon Roger’s, head of Atlanta Technology Angels, makes his triumphant return to “Alpharetta Open Coffee” this Fri, Nov 20th from 8am to 10am at Roam Atlanta. A last minute detour on his European tour freed up an opening to make this special “once in a lifetime, well at least this month” appearance to ATDC North.
Bring your best pitches and your bank routing numbers.
Special Invitation from OtherNumber to our fellow ATDC Companies!
OtherNumber is planning a beta launch on 11/9 and we want you to take part in it!
OtherNumber is a Virtual PBX your small company or startup can use to have a sophisticated phone presence with layered menus, voicemail boxes, extensions, announcements and more with no hardware to purchase and no signup fees.
Learn more and sign up here: http://bit.ly/318wUT
Also, read more about our Beta program on our Blog here: http://bit.ly/2Xk3Qb
We have a special guest this Fri, Nov 6th at Roam (8am-10am). We’ll be discussing everything legal and startups. Be sure you come prepared with questions. Free legal advice, at least for a couple hours.
Michael Horten, the founder of Horten CC, offers the entrepreneurial community top-rate legal advice without the “marble” and “mahogany”
environment typically associated with top-notch legal advice. Michael has spent most of his career with some of the largest law firms, including 25 years with King & Spalding HortenCC has no central offices, no paper files and we use the latest technology to create efficiencies. As a result, our fees are considerably lower than those charged by firms of comparable ability and quality. Furthermore, we do not bill on a time basis and thus do not keep track of every “six minutes,” as is the norm in most law firms.
We believe that our clients purchase our lawyers’ skill, not their time, and our work is typically performed at a fixed fee.
Good to be cleantech or microblog!
1. Solyndra (photovoltaics for solar energy panels), five rounds, $285.9 million
2a. Twitter (microblog), 7 rounds, $100 million
2b. WastePro USA (waste disposal and recycling), later stage, $100 million
2c. Facebook (social network), corporate stage, $100 million
3. Tesla Motors (electric cars), 6 or 7 rounds, $82.5 million
4. Pacific Biosciences (gene sequencing), 6 rounds, $67.9 million
5. Canopy Financial (technology to lower costs for corporate healthcare benefits), 3 rounds, $62.5 million
6. Serious Materials (ecofriendly building materials), 3 rounds, $60 million
7. Meru Networks (wireless infrastructure for businesses), 9 rounds, $57.5 million
8. Kosmos Energy (oil and gas exploration in Africa), 14 rounds, $56.5 million
9a. Calypso Medical, (radiation therapy), 6 rounds, $55 million
9b. RuffaloCODY, (fundraising and enrollment management services), 4 rounds $55 million
10. Complete Genomics (gene sequencing and drug development), 4 rounds, $45 million
11. Oraya Therapeutics (robotically controlled treatments for inflammatory eye disease), 3 rounds, $42 million
12a. Direct Flow Medical (aortic tissue valve prosthesis for people with heart disease), 3 rounds, $40 million
12b. Adamas Pharmaceuticals (small molecule drugs for infectious diseases, including influenza A), 3 rounds, $40 million
13. Epizyme, (drugs to treat diseases based on gene functions and mutations, i.e. epigenetics), 2 rounds, $32 million