Village News

INSIDE #INBOUND18

September 13, 2018

What do 24,000 marketers, Shonda Rhimes, and Alex Rodriguez all have in common? INBOUND 2018, that’s what. This past week, tens of thousands of marketers flocked from around the world to not only champion marketing strategies but to also celebrate inclusivity and kindness. Keynote speakers like Beth Comstock, Deepak Copcara, and Scott Harrison brought the noise. Their stories, experiences, and determination paved the way for new inspiration and ideas on how to put a dent in the universe. How to Build a Brand with Kindness and 7 Lessons that will Make you a Better Entrepreneur are just two examples of the sessions that were offered. The key to this conference was badass content with a dash (let’s be real, a heaping scoop) of reality that we are ALL human and ALL deserve for our products/services to be delivered and maintained with kindness and equality. We even got to spend two hours laughing with Two Dope Queens, jealous yet?HubSpot For Startups was also present as were some of our Village alumni and graduates - shout out to Hull and Terminus! The networking for startups was invaluable. Attendees had access to so much knowledge and success, it was overwhelming. If you are wondering if it would be worth sending a team member to Inbound 2019, the answer is yes. Here are three reasons why:

Matt Pfaltzgraf - A Founder Story

September 6, 2018

Matt Pfaltzgraf is the 33-year-old Founder and CEO of Softgiving, a FinTech startup that creates alternative recurring fundraising solutions for nonprofits to help them bridge the gap to the next generation of donors. By designing innovative fundraising technology, Softgiving enhances the relationship between nonprofits and their donors by revolutionizing the way people can give. Softgiving’s innovative technology integrates seamlessly into any donors lifestyle and creates passive revenue for nonprofits. On average, annual donor attrition for a nonprofit is roughly 55% however, with Softgiving’s technology nonprofits retain over 90% of their donors. In less than two years, Softgiving has grown into a team of 11 that have worked diligently and successfully signed on international nonprofits like World Vision and CARE. Matt’s mission to help people give more to great causes was born of personal experience and very humble beginnings.

The Most Connected Startups in Atlanta

August 30, 2018

With its affordable cost of living, warm weather and spirit of community, it’s no surprise that Atlanta is a desirable place to work and live. Well-established brands such as UPS, Coca-Cola, and Delta Airlines all hail from Atlanta, but it is also home to a number of tech-oriented and engineering schools which has helped feed a growing tech movement of innovators and entrepreneurs.Boasting the 4th largest technology startup hub in the country, Atlanta Tech Village, the city's burgeoning tech community has produced successful startups such as MailChimp, FullStory and SalesLoft. While it might not be the top tech destination in the US (yet), it is certainly gaining momentum. In 2017, Atlanta made #3 on the list of the top tech cities to watch.

What to consider before making your first tech hire.

August 23, 2018

In the world of startups, where founders, doers, and thinkers often leverage borrowed resources or work crazy hours in order to realize a dream, it’s easy to feel like you’re going at it alone. But building something big from the ground-up is not for the faint of heart–and it requires tremendous investment, guts, and strategy. And, eventually, other people.So imagine this: you’ve (mostly) made it. You’re on the up and up. Your work is out of stealth mode, and you’ve tackled the push for a minimally viable product. You might be wondering where to go from there. How do you build and innovate, at scale? At some point, you’ll need to build out your team to help your product really take off. But how do you know when it’s time to make your first tech hire? What should you consider before jumping into the hiring market?[caption id="attachment_17080" align="alignnone" width="500"]

ANNOUNCING ATLANTA STARTUP VILLAGE #60

August 21, 2018

If you haven’t attended an Atlanta Startup Village, then you are missing the largest monthly gathering of entrepreneurs in the Southeast. A simple format of free beer, 30 minutes of networking, and local startups giving five-minute pitches draws 300+ people each month, with another 150+ watching live stream. It’s an incredible event that brings together the Atlanta tech community and gives an up-close look at some of the technology coming out of our city. You should join us.Make sure you join the meetup page and check out the details below. We hope to see you there!

21 Reasons to Love the Village

August 16, 2018

The Village is what it is because of the members. The Village team has the pleasure of getting to know these incredible (1,000+) people both professionally and personally during their time in our community. Recently, a long time Villager compiled a list of learnings from his time in our building and we had to share:Here are my21 lessons learned from my time @ATLTechVillage... to all you Villagers, entrepreneurs, Atlantans, the Community. (Many more sure to come up as time goes by & things marinate, but here goes!)

The It Takes A Village Pre-Accelerator is Back in Session!

August 9, 2018

With the previous success of our first ever pre-accelerator, we decided to relaunch the It Takes A Village Pre-Accelerator Program to give 11 more emerging startups, led by women and people of color, direct access to community, capital, and resources this fall.

SPOTLIGHT ON SUPPORTER

August 2, 2018

Donating to nonprofits and political campaigns is something that is becoming increasingly important, but do you know where that donation is actually going? Well the Porter brothers are setting out on their quest to change the way donation platforms work. “Almost 50 percent of people don’t trust charities,” says Inman Porter, the youngest of 4 Porter brothers. “When someone makes a donation to an organization, the journey that dollar goes through is quite frankly ridiculous. Not only is it timely and costly, but the person making the donation has no idea how their money is being used.” Let me introduce to you: SupPorter, a Blockchain Enabled "Smart" Donation Platform and Rewards System serving political campaigns and non-profits. Founder, Inman Porter & his brothers are as smart as they are kind and they know a thing or two about political campaigns.

ANNOUNCING ATLANTA STARTUP VILLAGE #59

July 27, 2018

Startup Funding 101

July 26, 2018

I have spoken with over 1,000 Founders in the last 5 years and heard even more pitches. My job is to spend time with some of the most driven, creative people in the world. I have walked alongside startups as they formed and reformed their idea, built their first deck, launched their product, scored their first customer, shut down their company, sold their company, grew their company, and pivoted, and then pivoted again. From the highest highs to the lowest lows, I have seen it all firsthand. And while each Founder and story is unique, almost all first time entrepreneurs building and launching software think money is THE answer. But my experience (and that of others much smarter than me) will tell you, it’s probably not the solution you hope it to be, especially not in the very beginning.Funding is incredibly misunderstood, perhaps more than anything else (other than the importance of Customer Discovery but, we will leave that for another day). So today I am going to give you the cliff notes version of funding for startups. Read it, learn it, share it. It may save an entrepreneur.

Recruiting Talent for Startups

July 18, 2018

Hiring for a startup is arguably one of the most important pieces to having a successful startup. Because startups tend to be small, each member of the team matters A LOT both in the company’s success and failure. Contrary to popular belief, 64% of millennials would rather take a $40k salary for a job they love over a desk job at $100k. So, chances are you have a pretty good shot at finding someone great to hire.

Artificial Intelligence: Only Time Will Tell

July 12, 2018

In the last 18 years, there has been a 14x increase in the number of artificial intelligence (AI) startups, a 6x increase in the amount of Venture Capitalist investments in AI startups, and jobs requiring AI skills have grown 4.5x since 2013. Who runs the world? It’s lookin’ like robots to me. Artificial intelligence is no longer a Spielberg movie phenomenon, it is a technology that exists and is thriving. While robots probably aren’t going to take over the world (yet), the premise behind artificial intelligence (AI) is to build machines that are capable of human thinking. We all have our imaginations to blame for misconceptions around what artificial intelligence is so before we dive into the guts of this buzzword, let’s start with the basic definitions.

Spotlight on Innovation: Atlanta Startup Village #95 Welcomes Four Dynamic Tech Startups