FAQs from the Village

Recently Atlanta Tech Village founder, David Cummings, wrote a great blog post about some of the most Frequently Asked Questions he gets about Atlanta Tech Village. If you haven't read it yet, you should check it out. As someone who has done hundreds of tours, I thought I would add a few of my own often asked questions in addition to those David addressed.

Is the Village highly profitable?

Contrary to most assumptions, the answer for us is no. While we are a for profit company, David could have multiplied his wealth with investments and other projects much more quickly in a variety of other ways. Our Pay it Forward mentality comes straight from the top. Here's the quick scoop- the Village is a double bottom line business with a time horizon for the investment of 20-25 years, and a 5% rate of return. So there are many ways to earn a better ROI if you are only looking to turn a profit. :)

How do you define a "tech" startup?

This may be one of the biggest points of confusion for entry to the Village. These days everyone has a website (or should!) and uses technology in some way, shape, or form. But the Village exists for a specific niche- tech startups. We define this as someone who is making the majority of their income from selling some type of proprietary technology.

Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?

I have heard David say this, and I know the team would agree- We do not recommend renovating a building around an existing community. It was tough. It came with lots of inconveniences and crazy stories. It also required lots of grace from our members. We survived it. We are a closer knit community because of it. But we would not choose to do it again.

What do I get for being a member?

I usually group these into categories-  work space, fun, and professional growth. These are considered all inclusive and are a part of each membership. Here's a quick overview:

Work Space:

Building access 24/7. High end Knoll furniture including desk, chair, and filing cabinet per desk space. Dozens of conference rooms, huddle rooms, and phone booths available for meetings. Many community spaces for working, events, and hang outs. Super fast wi-fi. Community kitchens per floor. Awesome rooftop lounge.

Fun:

Free beer on tap, coffee, soda, organic fruit, snacks, game rooms, wii, playstation, ping pong, shuffle board, lockers and showers, fitness room, free fitness classes (yoga, bootcamp, etc), free lunch every Friday, Nap Rooms, standing desks, walking treadmill desk, razor scooters throughout the building, giant bean bags, and more. We also host monthly new member socials, and fun events throughout the year.

Professional Growth:

Access to 30 curated mentors, weekly Pitch Practice, 2-3 workshops and lunch and learns weekly, multiple professional events per week, up to $15k in AWS credits, $24k at Rackspace, Google Developers Pack, dozens of discounts and connections for startup needs, access to 5 in house VCs, multiple pitch opportunities to outside investors, a network of over 700 talented folks, and Village relationships with enterprise companies such as Coke, Home Depot, Metro Atlanta Chamber and more. We also have 6 and 7 Figure Clubs that include Founder, Technical, and Sales Manager huddles each quarter.

Why did we choose a location in Buckhead?

While I could talk to you about our proximity to MARTA, our direct access to 400, and the amazing companies located here on the Tech Corridor, the biggest answer is that Buckhead is where the highest concentration of wealth resides. One of our city’s challenges with growing successful startups is a lower occurrence of investment capital. The Village hopes to change that by literally being in the epicenter of Atlanta’s financial district. Our location helps us to build relationships and put some of our tech startups in the middle of the wealth where potential investors can see successes happening first hand. It becomes more of a connected community and a more ideal and complete ecosystem benefiting everyone involved.We love the interest from the community and look forward to continuing to help build a strong and successful startup ecosystem in Atlanta. Any questions we missed? Let me know!