Who will be there?
Stephen Fleming, the new Vice Provost of Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute and many of ATDC’s staff will be on hand to discuss the new ATDC.
What’s the agenda?
While there will be a short introduction, the majority of this event will be us listening to you! Our goal is to hear your suggestions for how ATDC can best help Atlanta startup entrepreneurs see the most success.
Why should you come?
If you are running a technology startup in Georgia, you should definitely plan to attend this event because this is your opportunity to provide your ideas, thoughts, and feedback as to how we can best help you build a successful company.
How do you register and find more details?
In anticipation of the demand and to ensure as many can attend as possible this event will be run twice on August 20th. Feel free to register for whichever session best meets your schedule as Stephen Fleming and most of the ATDC staff will be on hand for each event.
Click here for Open Forum 1 (3:00 to 5:00 p.m.)
Click here for Open Forum 2 (7:00 to 9:00 p.m.)
Special thanks to Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs for allowing us to take over their next meetup! We’re holding Open Forum 2 during AWE’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting. Thanks!
This Friday, from 9:30 to 11 am, Lance Weatherby and I will be holding an "open coffee/office hours" at the Starbucks at Tech Square. If you’re a technology entrepreneur, please drop by, learn about the all new ATDC, and tell us how we can best help you.
Location and directions.
So, you’ve applied to ATDC – now what? Now, we want to provide you with membership benefits that you need to accelerate your business. To do that, we need your feedback, your suggestions, your comments and questions. Help us help you!
To get you started, here’s a short list of services that we think would be beneficial to you.
- Startup Circles – Each member company will be involved in a Startup Circle – a subgroup of ATDC members (segmented by georgraphy, industry, stage of growth, etc.). These will be created as a means of program delivery, as well as ease of getting together and networking with fellow entrepreneurs. Startup Circles will have their own CEO roundtables, member roundtables (based on subject matter), socials, and the like.
- Startup Catalyst Coaching – The ATDC staff is made up of Startup Catalysts that provide coaching, instruction, connections, and support. ATDC members can request Startup Catalyst coaching by signing up for their office hours.
- St. Charles Open Breakfast – Join ATDC associates every Monday morning at 7:45 a.m. at St. Charles Deli in Technology Square. No agenda – just open dialogue about whatever is on your mind.
- Brown Bag – Brown Bag is a monthly educational program that covers startup business issues (i.e. sales, marketing, fundraising, exit strategies, etc.).
- Social Networking – Social networking with ATDC is as simple as befriending us on Facebook, joining our group on LinkedIn, and following us on Twitter.
Okay – your turn. Is this what you want? If not, expand on these benefits to make them better – or give us some new ideas all together. (Don’t worry – we’ve got more ideas, too – we just want to hear from you first!)
And stay tuned – we’re planning a few open forum sessions so that you can bring your ideas to us in person! Check back for dates and times.
ATDC is pleased to announce SeedSpace. SeedSpace is approximately 1,200 square feet that ATDC has set aside for early seed stage companies that have both a pressing need for office space and a desire to enter ATDC’s incubator program. It’s somewhat like coworking, but really startups at work. Think of it as an early stage incubator within an incubator.
We have been working on making SeedSpace a reality since last August. The drivers being to find room for entrepreneurs when they are in the early stages of concept development as well as ventures that are not quite ATDC ready but need space.
As I predicted on my personal blog last year, SeedSpace remains within the mission of ATDC to help Georgia technology entrepreneurs. What we want to do with SeedSpace is better assist technology startups and the entrepreneurs that create them.
So what is SeedSpace?
- Seven individually keyed offices
- Eight workstations
- Use of three third floor conference rooms
- Free Internet access
- 90 day lease terms
- 120 day max time in Seed Space
- 24 hour proximty card access
- Discounted parking
Prices per month are currently $225 for an office and $150 for a workstation. As this program is designed for entrepreneurs and companies that have a desire to enter ATDC’s incubator program the best way to learn more is to complete an inquiry and someone will be in touch with you in short order.
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.
2007 was a pretty darn good year for ATDC. And while New Years is well past we are going to toot our own horn and share some of our achievements. Before diving into that it is important to share our vision as well. ATDC is striving to be the world’s best science and technology incubator producing successful graduate companies and making Georgia a leader in technology entrepreneurship.
By the numbers 2007 was a record year for ATDC. We assisted (provided direction or outreach programming) to 275 companies. That’s about a 45% jump over our previous high in 2006. Moreover, 180 companies applied to join ATDC in 2007, another record, eclipsing the previous mark set in the dot com boom back in 2000 by about 20%. Thirteen promising companies joined the incubator and a six healthy companies graduated. We have a goal of 50% of all seed/early stage funding in Georgia coming to our companies in fiscal 2008 (which ends June 2008). We are currently sitting at 46%.
From a programming perspective 2007 was also one of notable achievement. We did a bit of market research to find out how we can better help entrepreneurs and are working to implement some of their suggestions. The ATDC Annual Showcase with its Billion Dollar Celebration theme was a smashing success. Peachseedz launched last year.
ATDC aggressively expanded its outreach in 2007 to reach more entrepreneurs. We developed the CapVenture curriculum and launched the five week program which received rave reviews from participating companies. We formed a partnership with TAG to create the TAG/ATDC Entrepreneurs Society to provide monthly education and create a peer learning environment via the roundtable series. And for the GRA/TAG Business Launch Competition we reviewed all the business plans and coached the finalists for their presentations. We also were able to help make BarCamp Atlanta a reality, led the effort to bring Startup Weekend to town, and provide a regular home to to the Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs and Atlanta Ruby on Rails organizations.
Put this all together and you have to reach the conclusion that In 2007 ATDC took the right steps to continue to be recognized as a world class incubator and the hub of entrepreneurial activity in Georgia. 2008 is the year of the rat. At ATDC we intend to be industrious and hard working as we continue to drive toward our vision.
ATDC recently entered into a partnership with TAG to deliver some great programming open to any technology entrepreneur.
The next in this series is Thursday June 7 from 7:30 to 10:15 am at the ATDC. For you not so early risers the programming really starts at 8:00 am. The format for these is that there is a speaker on a subject that goes from 8:00 to 9:00 am. Then from 9:15 to 10:15 is an technology entrepreneur only roundtable session.
The upcoming roundtable is focus on entrepreneurial leadership. The discussion will include the below and others related to the topic:
- What is the role of the entrepreneurial CEO?
- How does this change as the CEO brings on an executive team?
- How does the CEO role change as you proceed from founding through various phases of growth?
- How open should an entrepreneurial CEO be about challenging issues such as running out of money?
- How does an entrepreneurial CEO manage his or her time given the overwhelming demands?
- What if a founder has limited experience growing a venture?
- How does one know if it is prudent to give up the CEO role?
We are essentially extending some of the conversations that happen within the incubator to a larger group. Any technology entrepreneur that is interested in this topic and/or learning more about ATDC is welcome to register.