TechAmerica is pleased to announce the 7th annual Spirit of Endeavor Awards Banquet, Chaired by Adam Beckerman, Partner, Habif, Arogeti & Wynne, will be held on Thursday, September 17, 2009 at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
Nominations are being accepted from June 1st - July 31st 2009 and are open to TechAmerica members and nonmembers. Award categories include Outstanding Leadership, Technology Entrepreneur, Emerging Business, Technology Innovation, and Leadership in Technology Education. In addition the NEW awards category of "Cool Technology of the Year" has been added and the winner will be determined via live, on-site text voting and presented at the event!
For award criteria and to make a nomination visit the Spirit of Endeavor Awards website. Additional information including sponsorship and registration information, may also be found on the site. Nominations will be accepted from June 1 – July 31, 2009.
Due to low demand, we have cancelled this event. We apologize for any inconvenience. Stay tuned for the next Meet the VC.
Meet the VC cranks up again next week with Steve Nussrallah of Atlanta based Venture Plus Ventures being the featured attraction.
Value Plus has a unique approach of providing both active management and capital to emerging technology companies.
The basic format of Meet the VC is a question and answer
session delving into the fund raising process, venture capitalists'
investment criteria, and specific venture capital firm profiles. This session will
take place on Wednesday, May 13th from 7:30 to 9:30 am.
The series is free but you need to register to attend (link removed).
Since January I have been devoting a good chunk of time leading the preliminary judging of the TAG/GRA Business Launch Competition.
This year 76 companies submitted preliminary applications and 47 full
business plans were presented. After the 47 plans were received
entrants were invited to provide an overview of their companies in a
three minute unaided presentation. Today TAG notified the companies of
their status. In alphabetical order the selected semifinalists are as
follows.
AccelerEyes: simple software for powerful visual computing.
BandMetrics: tracks, analyzes, and scores the overall popularity of
musical artists by aggregating and interpreting online content.
Millionaire Moms: a platform designed to help entrepreneurial Moms find and achieve their own vision of success.
ReinventEd: creates immersive game based learning experiences for middle and high school students.
TalentSoup: an Internet service that provides a highly efficient matching engine to connect talent with advertising projects.
VOC Systems: a speech based customer feedback method to service organizations that can benefit from on-site service recoveries.
VQLink:
provides headend and network products for video service providers that
enable them to add more HD channels and improve video quality while
lowering expenses.
WebIvy: enables marketing organizations to quickly and inexpensively optimize concept to market for online initiatives.
The
semifinalists are being offered an opportunity to practice their 20
minute pitches next Monday and will present and defend their plans
privately to an esteemed panel of judges
on May 6, 7 & 8. The selected finalists will present to a
panel of judges and the public on June 3 at IBM.
Regardless of
how far a company gets in the competition to win the $100k in cash and
$200k in prizes the aim of the contest is to move all of the companies
forward in their development. And from this perspective it is my hope
that all of the companies that entered believe that they are winners.
Charles Ross Says Need More Capital Residing in Georgia Last week, TechDrawl featured Charles Ross, general manager of the ATDC, giving his take on the entrepreneur community in Georgia. After the video, the post goes on to describe the great location ATDC has in the center of the Atlanta tech community. The remainder of the post highlights the mission of the incubator and bio for Charles.
Obtaining a patent is necessary to protect the valuable IP that your company is built upon. However, the process can be expensive, complicated, and cumbersome. Is there a better way?
John Harris, from Morris, Manning and Martin, LLP, will be here at the ATDC to present a more economical and practical strategy for obtaining a patent. John is a partner in the Technology/IP practice at MMM and has advised clients on intellectual property matters for 25 years. The session should be very practical as John shares his insights in the patent world – from patent searching and competitive intelligence to the appropriate disclosure documents needed when meeting with a patent lawyer.
The BrownBag session is on Wednesday, February 25 and check-in begins at 11:45 am. Lunch is provided. The session is free, but you must register to attend.
As an active leader of the Georgia software ecosystem ATDC is pleased to announce that it has become a Microsoft Bizspark Network Partner. Bizspark is a new program that is
uniquely designed to accelerate a software startup's success by providing fast,
affordable access to current, full-featured Microsoft tools and
technologies, plus production licensing for hosted solutions. More specifically Microsoft BizSpark offers startups the opportunity to:
Get Software: Receive fast and easy access to Microsoft's current full-featured development tools, platform technologies, and production/hosting licenses for immediate. There is no upfront cost to enroll in Microsoft BizSpark. There is a $100 fee when you exit the program.
Get Support: Get professional support from Microsoft
Get Visibility: Startups have the opportunity to achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients, and partners by profiling their company in the online Startup directory, BizSparkDB, on the Microsoft Startup Zone Website
An eligible startup must have the following characteristics at the time of joining
Actively engaged in development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of its current or intended business.
Privately held, In business for less than 3 years.
Less than US $1 million in annual revenue.
A startup must be associated with a Network Partner before joining. To become a BizSpark participant through an association with ATDC go to Find a Network Partner and select "United States" then "Advanced Technology Development Center."
If you are using Microsoft software as your development program it makes lots of sense to join the BizSpark program and as a strong supporter of startups in Georgia ATDC is here to help make that happen.
Qcept – ATDC graduate company specializing in non-visual defect detection. Their inspection systems allow fabs to improve yield by detecting non-visual defects such as sub-monolayer metallic and organic contamination.
Qualified Stock Options – Also known as Incentive Stock Options, provide tax advantages to an employer that non-qualified stock options do not and are subject to more strict requirements. Quality Control Manager – directs the quality control program designed to ensure continuous production/service consistent with established standards.
Restricted Stock – A method of executive compensation that has come into prominence since stock options fell out of favor. The restricted stock must meet certain conditions such as a length of time or other business performance metrics before the stock can be transferred.
Return On Investment (ROI) - A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of several investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment, the result is expressed as a percentage or ratio.
Revenue – The amount of money brought into a company by its business activities. It is the "top line" or "gross income" figure from which costs are subtracted to determine net income.
Reverse Merger – the acquisition of a public company by a private company, allowing the private company to bypass the usual lengthly and complicated process of going public. According to DealFlow Media's Reverse Merger Report, only 12 reverse mergers were completed in November and December 2008, capping the worst year for reverse mergers since 2004.
With a title of Steering Your Start-Up Through Economic Turbulence, this month's BrownBag event promises to be relevant and applicable. The event will feature a panel of founders and business operators as they discuss the necessary elements, strategies and processes for both managing and navigating through some challenging economic times.
The panel speakers are John Lappington, president of EGT, and Sanjoy Malik, founder and recent president of Air2Web. John brings a wealth of technical expertise and start-up management experience from his years at Scientific Atlanta as well as several start-up ventures. Sanjoy also founded Synchrologic, as well as Air2Web, after he spent 7 years in Sales Technologies, a Dun & Bradstreet company.
This is an event you can't afford to miss. Be sure to register and put it on your calendar.
Over 100 people attended the TAG/GRA Business Launch Competition kick-off event last Thursday. Atlanta entrepreneurs were encouraged by the success stories from last year's winners. The CEO's from ReachCall, IVOX, and Acculynx, the three previous winners, gave updates on their companies progress. In the last nine months the companies raised over $15 million in venture captial.
Our own Lance Weatherby performed as moderator for the kick-off event and shared some of his experiences from the 2008 competition. He also promised to post his presentation on how to compete in the Business Launch Competition. The presentation is below for your reference.
If you are looking for more help with the competition and pitch process, be sure to check out the ATDC library. The Executive Summary template may be of particular benefit for the Business Launch Competition.
As many of you know, that while serving entrepreneurs across the state of Georiga, ATDC is a part of Georgia Tech. And every year Georgia Tech has what they call their "winter break" that runs from Christmas to New Year's Day. The campus closes and ATDC closes with it.
We'll be back on January 2nd ready to make 2009 a great one for Georgia entrepreneurs.
From all of us at ATDC to all you, have a safe and great holiday season.
Over 100 people attended the 