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

Graduating? Think Startups.

Fear not, grad! You are coming into the world at a great time as unemployment rates are down and companies ARE HIRING! So the question is- what now? Many graduates will pack a briefcase and hit the interview trail for the steady paycheck and generic cubical. It is pretty parallel to taking a lion out of Africa and sticking him in the zoo. Why have we let this be our norm? The good news is there is an alternative option for you braver, bolder souls. If you want fast track learning, unlimited potential success, flexibility, and hard work (if you don’t want to work hard, you can stop reading) - think startups! If “risky” was the first word that jumped into your mind, you aren’t wrong, but the benefit of working for a startup may be just what you are looking for whether you know it yet or not.

Storj - the Airbnb of Cloud Storage

Storj is a startup at Atlanta Tech Village. It is disrupting an industry many of us don't think much about except for how many documents and photos it can contain- cloud storage. You know, when you store stuff "on the line" and it just magically goes into a "cloud" somewhere mysterious in the sky? The simple explanation for cloud storage is that your data is being stored on remote servers accessed by the internet. That physical environment is then owned and operated by a hosting company.

Atlanta Startup Village #47

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 the live stream. It’s an incredible event at one of the largest tech centers that brings together not only the largest tech incubators and accelerators but also the entire Atlanta tech community and gives an up-close look at some of the technology coming out of our city.Make sure you join the meetup page and check out the details below. We hope to see you there!

When Families Grow Startups

Building a business is complex and can be stressful enough on its own, so what happens when your work family really IS family? This Father/Son duo at the Village show us that while it isn't always easy, working with family can make success that much sweeter, and the journey just that more special. Meet Andy and Kyle Williams, of Zypp Technologies, a Father/Son team and some of the nicest people in the Village. You may just want to add working with family to your relationship goals.

Open Letter To Every Girl: Please, Learn How To Code

Andrea Walsh, the CIO of Isentia, has 20 years experience in tech. Here, she writes an open letter to women asking them to learn how to code:At last count there was more than 6,500 languages spoken in the world, yet there is one that unites us all: code. If there is a single piece of career advice I would give to any young girl (or woman for that matter) it would be, unequivocally, to learn how to code.I am fortunate enough to be one of the few female CIO’s in Australia and I would love to be surrounded by more women. The problem is, the pipeline is a little thin. This is not only disappointing for the industry, it is a travesty for those women who are missing out on being a part of one of the most exciting, challenging and exhilarating industries there is to work in.

Together We Build the Future.

Here's to the spirit of entrepreneurs from Atlanta Tech Village. Thanks for letting us dream big with you.

The #1 Scheduling Service in the Galaxy - Calendly

At 31 employees and growing, the Calendly team is the 2nd largest startup in the Village. This B2C startup has simple, beautiful scheduling that prevents the back and forth emails. Solving this pain point has created viral growth resulting in over 750,000 monthly users, and gaining over 2,000 new users a day. That's right- PER DAY. Calendly's goal is to be the number one scheduling service in the Galaxy, and they are well on the way.The Village uses Calendly daily and we are hooked. Their amazing culture, product, and leadership is resulting in growth that we consider ourselves lucky to watch. We sat down with Tiffany Cosgrove, the Director of Happiness to learn more.

Atlanta Startup Village #46

If you haven’t attended an Atlanta Startup Village, then you are missing the largest monthly gathering of entrepreneurs in the Southeast at one of the largest tech centers. 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 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.Make sure you join the meetup page and check out the details below. We hope to see you there!

The Village Has An App!

Lean Marketing with a Female Founder

Heard of a lean startup? Now we have lean marketing. Meet Katie Cochran who is the founder of Atlanta Digital Marketing Group (ATL DMG). While not a tech startup, Katie's company serves a vital role is helping our startups tell their story and sell their product. Companies like hers are what help give Atlanta Tech Village a complete ecosystem and you will recognize her methodology.The core idea of lean is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste and Katie believes it is time to apply this concept to marketing for startups. She assists them with their marketing efforts in a conversion centric, data driven, transparent, and efficient way.Learn more about Katie's work and just what it looks like to be a female Founder.

Local v. Out-of-State VCs

This post is written by Jose Ancer, a Technology and Venture Capital Partner at Miller Egan. Some things in life are certainties. The sun will rise tomorrow, you will be taxed for something… and startup ecosystem players across the world, outside of Silicon Valley and NYC, will complain about the lack of local VC capital, and the need for more foreign capital. Are they correct in complaining? I’m not going to answer that question. Too debatable, and the debate gets you nowhere.What I am going to say, and I’m saying this as someone who manages a legal practice with visibility into a decent number of 2nd/3rd ‘tier’ ecosystems in the U.S., is that there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the overall trends in this area.

Atlanta Startup Village #45

If you haven't attended an Atlanta Startup Village then you are missing the largest monthly gathering of entrepreneurs in the Southeast at one of the largest tech centers. A simple format of free beer, 30 minutes of networking, and 5 local startups giving five minute pitches bring 300+ people each month and 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.Began by Jon Birdsong, this meet up quickly grew from a small grassroots group to a well organized and highly attended event. We are thankful for his leadership through five years of dedication and the planning of 44 Startup Villages! As he focuses all his energies on building his startup WideAngle, those MC reins have been officially passed to Aly Merritt of SalesLoft. An alumni of the Village, Atlanta blogger, and startup player, we are proud to have Aly host and take on Atlanta Startup Village moving forward. It is in good hands.Look for Aly at Atlanta Startup Village #45 which is officially on the books. Make sure you join the meetup page and check out the details below. We hope to see you there!