 John Melonakos |
John Melonakos has some advice for young entrepreneurs: don’t expect luck to play a significant role in your startup’s success.
“Great entrepreneurs are able to see through the fog, make great choices and move mountains to bring success,” said Melonakos, CEO and co-founder of AccelerEyes. “Moving mountains is an iterative and step-by-step process. Great execution matters tremendously.”
Melonakos will share that insight and more at Entrepreneur’s Night on May 16.
A recent ATDC member graduate, AccelerEyes develops and markets fast, simple GPU software aimed at helping scientists, engineers, and financial analysts be more productive and run code faster. Customers come from a wide range of industries, including defense and intelligence, life science, oil and gas, manufacturing and media. Melonakos co-founded the startup in 2007, while working on his Electrical & Computer Engineering Ph.D. at Georgia Tech.
Open to the public, attendees to the event will hear about both his successes and his struggles, such as surviving the cash crunch, bootstrapping scrappiness and leading a startup from nothing to more than $1 million in revenue. Melonakos said the key elements of startup success are building and selling.
“Live lean and jump into entrepreneurship,” he said. “No other path will be as rewarding and deliver as much raw excitement. Work hard, be smart and take risks. Only two skills matter in an early startup: building something and selling something.”
Entrepreneur’s Night takes place the third Thursday of every month at ATDC Headquarters. Running from 6 to 7:30 p.m., the monthly event provides young startups with the chance to hobnob with other industry players and hear success stories from a distinguished ATDC entrepreneur. The networking event is free for ATDC members, so register now to attend.