Bill Nussey, the longtime Atlanta entrepreneur, investor, and former CEO of Silverpop, will be the keynote speaker at the Advanced Technology Development Center’s 2017 ATDC Startup Showcase on May 11.
Showcase, which will feature more than 70 exhibiting technology startups, 10 companies in a fast pitch session, and four companies graduating out of the ATDC Signature program, is ATDC’s largest event of the year. (REGISTER HERE.) ATDC, a state-funded initiative at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is Georgia’s technology incubator and works with entrepreneurs to help them learn, launch, scale, and succeed.
The Showcase gives those involved with or connected to the technology and startup communities — from entrepreneurs to Fortune 1000 companies to investors — an opportunity to see and talk to the innovators behind Georgia’s most innovative companies.
The Showcase’s keynote speaker — an event highlight — shares milestone events or moments in his or her experience and how that has shaped professional outcomes, as well as advice and wisdom gained that attendees and ATDC graduates can use in building their own startups.
“Bill has 30 years of experience running technology and Internet companies, going back to his days in high school, when he launched his first company, which provided enhanced graphics for text-based computers,” said Jen Bonnett, ATDC’s general manager. “His long-term record as an entrepreneur, leading international companies, and as an investor, gives him some critical and keen insight into what it takes to succeed. We’re honored to have him at Showcase.”
In college, Nussey co-founded Da Vinci Systems. As CEO, he grew this company to become one of the most widely used desktop email tools in the world. When he sold the company in 1994 to ON Technology, a publicly traded firm, Da Vinci Systems had more than 3 million users in 45 countries.
Nussey later joined Greylock, a venture capital firm based out of Boston, Massachusetts and Silicon Valley. He spent several years investing in early Internet companies and ultimately left to run one of the firm’s largest investments—Internet agency and consulting firm iXL. As CEO of iXL, Nussey helped lead the company through several years of 250 percent annual growth, the acquisition of more than 20 companies, a successful IPO and secondary offering and, ultimately achieving annualized revenues close to $500 million. While at iXL, Nussey was named the most influential consultant in the world by Consulting Magazine.
After iXL, Nussey become CEO of Silverpop, a leading cloud-based marketing automation technology and services company. During its lifetime, Silverpop expanded to 500 employees, nearly $100 million in revenue and served 5,000 organizations across 42 countries. In May 2014, IBM acquired Silverpop to use it as the foundation of IBM’s Marketing Cloud. In 2015, IBM named Nussey vice president of corporate strategy to work with the CEO and top executives in setting the company’s overall direction.
In 2016, Nussey left IBM to begin working on a book about the rise of distributed, renewable energy.
Nussey has received several awards including the Lifetime Achievement award from the Technology Association of Georgia and the John Imlay Leadership award.
Nussey has served on the board of numerous private technology start-ups and nonprofits. He is the author of several publications, including “The Quiet Revolution in Email Marketing” and has received several patents in marketing technology. Nussey received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Nussey lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and two sons.
ABOUT ATDC:
The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a program of the Georgia Institute of Technology, is the state of Georgia’s technology startup incubator. Founded in 1980 by the Georgia General Assembly, which funds it each year, ATDC’s mission is to work with entrepreneurs in Georgia to help them learn, launch, scale, and succeed in the creation of viable, disruptive technology companies. Since its founding, ATDC has grown to become one of the longest running and most successful university-affiliated incubators in the United States, with its graduate startup companies raising $3 billion in investment financing and generating more than $12 billion in revenue in the state of Georgia. To learn more, visit atdc.org.