When Tim Dorr launched a monthly coworking initiative at ATDC last fall, he intended to eventually make it a more regular occurrence. Thanks to the permanent use of a new space – the Entrepreneurs Resource Center (ERC) on the first floor of Centergy One – that goal is now a reality.
“When I started the coworking program, I did it without knowing there was this available resource,” said Dorr, an Entrepreneur in Residence for ATDC. “Once I realized members weren’t taking advantage of ERC, I pushed to take over the room and basically rebrand it into a coworking space.”
The ERC has long been an under-utilized resource at ATDC headquarters, despite its vault of articles, tools and research materials designed to guide young entrepreneurs and veterans. Although space is tight and limited to about 10 people, Dorr said the room is ideal for ATDC members looking to enjoy a dedicated and collaborative working environment. From Monday through Friday, participants can now network, compare stories and collaborate on solutions with other fledgling entrepreneurs, as well as receive advice and feedback from ATDC mentors.
The co-founder of Ignition Alley, a popular in-town coworking space, Dorr has seen the benefits of the coworking movement first-hand – touting a synergistic working environment where the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurship can be shared.
“If I have a problem with something, I might spend hours researching possible answers and trying each one before finding the solution,” said Dorr, who recently moved his office to the first floor space to better accommodate coworking participants. “But with coworking, I might wind up interacting with someone who has already experienced the same or similar struggles and who might have expertise and insight to offer.”
Although details of the ATDC coworking initiative are still being finalized, the ERC is now available to members between 7 am and 7 pm on weekdays. And for those in need of mentorship, Dorr is available on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so stop by the space for more information.
November 10, 2011 by
kateFor the third consecutive year, top executives, investors, entrepreneurs and academics will converge in Atlanta next week to discuss the rapidly changing media landscape and the trends driving that change.
The gathering is due to FutureMedia Fest 2011, a three-day conference packed with panel discussions, workshops, keynote speeches and research demos all focused on “exploring the media’s disruptive power on people and business.” Organized by the Georgia Tech Institute for People and Technology, the event runs from Nov. 15-17 at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center. This year, a number of ATDC employees and member companies will participate in the discussion.
“It’s wonderful to see that FutureMedia has acknowledged the role of startups and the power they yield in the media space,” said Nina Sawczuk, Director of Startup Services and General Manager of ATDC. “This event is a great networking opportunity for many of our members and provides a global glimpse of some of the trends impacting the media environment.”
Throughout the Fest, startup companies and researchers will present demonstrations of the latest technologies from Georgia Tech students and outside businesses. Among the speakers will be representatives from ESPN, Turner Broadcasting System, Twitter, Mashable, The Coca-Cola Company and Cox Media Group. Panel topics will range from sports entertainment and civic engagement to emergency response, entrepreneurship, advertising, gaming, television, computational journalism and the Georgia film industry.
Sawczuk will join several other industry leaders in a discussion about Entrepreneurship in a Noisy World, while ATDC Entrepreneur-in-Residence Hezi Moore leads a “Birds of a Feather” discussion on content integrity. In addition, current and graduate ATDC member companies including Scoutmob, OpenStudy, PlayON! Sports, Preparis, IdeaString, BLiNQ Media, CodeGuard, CubeVibe, Cooleaf, Digital Assent, Jigsaw Meeting, LiquidTest, Merlin Mobility, Mogley, Proximus Mobility, Regator.com, Social Fortress, Soket, TripLingo, Whisper Communications, Xsporture and Zooz Mobile will all be featured in various aspects of the event.
Last year’s FutureMedia Fest drew more than 750 attendees and was viewed online by thousands of people from nearly 80 different countries. Organizers say this year’s event is expected to be even bigger.
“There is really something for everyone in the digital, social or multimedia industry, whether student age or CEO level,” said Erin Dowdy, a spokesperson for FutureMedia. “The quality of the speakers giving the keynotes and the people on the panels is outstanding. One of the best things about it is the price point. For only $150, you can get inside the minds of these incredible innovative thinkers and businesspeople.”
To learn more about FutureMedia Fest 2011, view the schedule, and register, visit http://futuremediafest.gatech.edu/.
September 29, 2011 by
kateFor the past six weeks, a group of Georgia’s most promising technology startups have worked closely with seasoned entrepreneurs to learn more about key startup issues. The training was part of ATDC/TAG CapVenture, a unique annual program designed to educate and equip new company executives for smarter and more productive capitalization of their business.
During the CapVenture finale event this Tuesday, Oct. 4, several of those participants will be pitching to investors, and you are invited to attend! In addition to gaining insight from the presentations, attendees will have the opportunity to network with industry professionals at the event.
“This year, we have a really strong program that we feel will be valuable to more than just our program participants,” said Amanda Shook, Senior Director at the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG). “We also want to be able to showcase our CapVenture companies to the community. One of these companies will be selected to attend Venture Atlanta later in the month.”
The event costs $10 to attend and runs from 5:30 to 8:30 pm at Newell Rubbermaid Auditorium, featuring a “fireside chat” with Tom Noonan, an operating partner at TechOperators, as well as John Yates, partner-in-charge of the Technology Practice at Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP. In addition, the investor panel charged with judging the startup presentations includes moderator Mark Johnson of TTV Capital, Linnea Geiss of Arcapita, Sean Banks of TTV Capital and Mike Eckert of the Atlanta Technology Angels (ATA).
“Both young entrepreneurs and seasoned tech pros will receive insight and great networking opportunities at the event, while investors get to see some promising young companies that are getting ready for fundraising,” said Shook.
The CapVenture program features a combination of keynote speakers, presentations, and coaching and is tailored for startups seeking their first institutional round of financing. The program is split into two tracks: “Series A” for companies ready for venture capital, and “Seed,” which caters to companies who need funding but are not yet ready for venture capital. The “Series A” participants will be the ones presenting on Tuesday, with the top company gaining an automatic berth at Venture Atlanta. These companies include: Blue Mammoth Games, CodeGuard, GetOne Rewards, Pindrop Security, YouFinity and ViscidTech.
Although walk-ins will be allowed the night of the CapVenture finale event, attendees are encouraged to register by Oct. 4.
As co-founder of Ignition Alley, a popular in-town co-working space, Tim Dorr has seen first-hand the benefits of a collaborative working environment. So when ATDC staff began brainstorming ways to provide more office space for member
startups, Dorr suggested providing young entrepreneurs with the opportunity to join an all-day collaborative work session.
Now a reality, the newly created Cowork@ATDC initiative will kick off on Sept. 23. Participants will be able to network, compare stories and collaborate on solutions with other fledgling entrepreneurs, as well as receive advice and feedback from ATDC mentors. The idea, Dorr said, is to provide a synergistic working environment where the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurship can be shared.
“The exchange of knowledge and general networking are really the main benefits of coworking,” said Dorr, an Entrepreneur in Residence for ATDC. “If I have a problem with something, I might spend hours researching possible answers and trying each one before finding the solution. But with coworking, I might wind up interacting with someone who has already experienced the same or similar struggles and who might have expertise and insight to offer.”
The inaugural session will be held in the Community Room from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 23. Dorr hopes Cowork@ATDC will eventually become a weekly recurrence. But until staff can determine the demand, it will likely take place once a month or every two or three weeks.
To register for the event, click here.
When ATDC staff conducted a member survey last fall, one of the most common findings was a call for more networking opportunities. And so the monthly Entrepreneurs Night was born, providing young startups with the chance to hobnob with other industry players and hear success stories from a distinguished ATDC entrepreneur.
“We heard the members loud and clear and created Entrepreneurs Night to meet that need,” said Ivy Hughley, ATDC Membership Manager. “It’s a fun and informative event that allows Atlanta startup entrepreneurs to mingle and learn.”
The next event, to be held Aug. 18 from 6 to 7:30 pm, will feature insight from Andy Monin, CEO of Vendormate. A market leader in vendor management and credentialing, Vendormate was ranked 25th on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing U.S. companies last year, making it the highest-ranking software company on the list. In another major coup, earlier this year the ATDC graduate company landed a significant investment from Primus Capital, a Cleveland-based private equity firm, paving the way for additional growth.
Monin will share his success journey with attendees and discuss the value of ATDC membership, which provided Vendormate with networking opportunities, access to reasonably priced office space, peer learning events and a sense of community.
Launched in 2005, Vendormate provides a unique credentialing solution that enables health care, banking and other clients to better manage supplier networks and reduce the risk of partnering with fraudulent, illegitimate or fiscally irresponsible vendors. Vendormate’s patented software system screens both new and existing vendors to make sure they meet client requirements and comply with government mandates and regulations, such as HIPPA and Medicare’s and Medicaid’s fraud list.
Entrepreneur’s Night takes place the third Thursday of every month in ATDC Community Room 235. The networking event is free for ATDC members.
SimCraft, an ATDC member company since mid-2006, was born in the late 1990s out of the work of William MacDonald, a retired engineer from Eastman Kodak who wanted an affordable flight simulator. At the time the best simulators available were based on an expensive six-legged platform that uses hydraulics to move a cockpit like the bulky, enclosed $20-a-ride simulators you sometimes see at shopping malls and amusement parks. MacDonald used off the shelf components to build the SimCraft flight simulator, which is less expensive and requires much less force to operate than the older simulators.
In late 2007 SimCraft was selected alongside Ford to develop driving simulators for the US Army SAVE Program. SAVE is dedicated to preventing soldier vehicle accidents, which are the leading cause of accidental death within the military. The program has continued for over three years and has helped SimCraft advance their simulation software by leaps and bounds.
The ever improving SimCraft driving simulator has since been endorsed by NASCAR, GrandAm, and Indy drivers as the most realistic simulator on the market because of its instantaneous response to input as well as its realistic motion. Having super accurate laser scanned copies of professional race tracks means that drivers can experience a track without as many expensive test runs on the track itself.
By January 2009 SimCraft had introduced the APEX full motion racing simulator to the gaming and consumer industries. The SimCraft motion simulators interface with dozens of commercially available PC based racing and flight games. There is even a simulator system called STAR that customers can self-assemble.
Stephen Fleming, Vice President of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, trying out the APEX simulator from SimCraft
APEX had truly made its mark on the consumer market by August of 2010 when PC Gamer enthusiastically reviewed SimCraft’s APEX sc830 calling it a “nifty contraption [that] can turn your favorite racing sim into a full-on roller coaster ride.”
The price limits the number of gaming customers, but with a price at an order of magnitude lower than the old platform models, the number of professional customers has taken off. Today, the Skip Barber Racing School classroom at Road Atlanta and Sam Schmidt Motorsports of Indianapolis sport APEX simulators and many professional drivers rely on the APEX to prepare for races.
SimCraft has spent a over a decade perfecting motion simulation and proving that roll, pitch, and yaw are all you need to feel like a real race car driver.
With over 6 million visits per month ATDC company Worthpoint is the become a leading site for collectibles valuation in the world. The company’s main product is a searchable database of sales records on art, antiques and collectibles. The company helps collectors accurately assess the worth of their items and provides expert advice from its international team of Worthologists on how to preserve or sell antiques and collectibles.
This week the company announced a new equity raise of $3.6 million led by the British firm Cheviot. Worthpoint is planning to use the cash to increase its workforce and to continue international expansion. The executive team is working with publishers of collectibles and antiques magazines and websites to integrate content and offerings such as international auction price data and currency conversion tools. Eventually the WorthPoint internet offering may be expanded through fully localized European-based web sites.
Will Seippel, Founder and CEO of WorthPoint, tells us that the company’s core business is profitable. Lead 411′s 2010 Technology 500 List reports Worthpoint’s annual revenue at $1.3 million and the company sits as the 16th fastest growing company in the United States. New products scheduled to arrive in 2011 will include an expanded price guide that includes more than 100 million items, a fremium community forum with access to collectibles experts, and an iPhone application for on-the-go valuations.
Worthpoint is taking full advantage of the power of the internet to give buyers better access to information and more efficient collectibles and antiques markets. With the world’s largest and growing resource center for researching collectibles and antiques and the upcoming slate of valuation tools, WorthPoint is well on its way to becoming the ultimate ‘go to’ destination for collectors.
It’s hard to find a founder more dedicated than Jason Zamer, the man behind SimpleC – an ATDC member company that provides a breakthrough non-drug intervention for dementia and depression. SimpleC’s roots extend all the way back to 2002, when Zamer was still an undergrad studying psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. What started as a senior project has now grown into a self-funded, 20 employee business that is right on the brink of getting its technology into healthcare facilities across the country.
SimpleC helps elderly adults suffering from dementia, depression, and other mental ailments by employing a customized non-drug intervention delivered via touch screen computer directly to the individual. Pictures, music, voices, and other memorable elements of an individual’s life are collected and entered into a customized delivery system that then creates a uniquely profound visual and auditory experience. The content is presented in such a way to be pleasantly and powerfully evocative so that the memory centers of the brain are exercised and strengthened, which positively affects mood, participation in social activities, and overall mental health. All of these effects foster a much healthier life for not only the patient, but also the caregiver and the family, who experience much more pleasant interactions with their loved ones.
What is striking about SimpleC is how dedicated their team has been to the business. The company is 8 years old and in early stage with revenue. And it’s now becoming very apparent that the years of development, research, and planning are paying off. The company scored pilots in four major healthcare facilities in 2009 and locked down their first customer with a large healthcare facility in Austell, Georgia. CEO Stan Anderson is incredibly enthusiastic about several other customer facilities in the pipeline as well.
SimpleC goes to show that heavy research and careful planning can really set a startup business on the path to growth. It’s great to see such a noble startup progress, especially one with so many Georgia Tech employees!
The third annual 2010 Venture Atlanta conference has elicited quite a bit of excitement in the Georgia startup community and is revving up to be the best iteration yet with a beautiful venue and a long list of attending venture capital firms. Yesterday’s announcement of this year’s presenting companies prompted even more enthusiasm in the ATDC community about the conference when we realized that eight of the twenty companies selected to present at Venture Atlanta are ATDC members. The companies were vetted by a selection committee composed of highly respected members of the technology startup community, making acceptance even more prestigious. Register here to attend Venture Atlanta 2010 and learn what made these ATDC member companies stand out:
BLiNQ Media makes it easy for big brands and agencies to deliver break-through results in social networks.
Preparis helps companies around the world protect their employees, revenue and brand against crisis events.
ScoutMob is a flash-commerce company that enables consumers to receive local daily deals on their mobile device.
SolidFire offers scalable, reliable storage for customers with thousands of servers.
ThePort Network is the leading OEM provider of Social CRM solutions to the nonprofit market.
Toomah provides an interview management and language assessment solution for high volume hiring environments.
Twitpay is the leading innovator in social media payment technology.
Wavee combines the excitement of fast-paced auctions with traditional e-commerce.
Here is the complete list of Venture Atlanta 2010 presenting companies
Inc. Magazine will announce on Monday that Vendormate, an ATDC graduate, is the fastest growing software company in America this year. The third-party vendor credentialing service successfully targeted the Healthcare market to earn $10.7 million in 2009, double their 2008 revenues. John Harper, Vendormate’s VP of Marketing, tells us the company has grown over 7000% in the past three years. Seven Thousand. The only way to get to growth like that is to fill an unmet need in a big market in a big way.
Vendormate is also 25th on the 2010 Inc. 500 annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. With talk of breaking into the financial services market with the Vendormate technology, our crystal ball is predicting continuing astronomical growth.
