Mentors
The Village community includes a number of Mentors who have committed to “pay it forward” and help startup Founders achieve their goals. We strongly believe every Founder should have at least one Mentor.
This highly coveted group of experienced professionals and successful entrepreneurs provide startup Founders with a deep, one-on-one relationship that delves into the personal and professional aspects over a long period of time. Mentors are committing to help you, and you are committing to not waste their time, deliver updates, and be open to receiving feedback.
If you’re interested in a Mentor, we strongly encourage you to first read this article about choosing the right Mentor. It’s a little like dating; it takes a commitment!
Making an Appointment
Click on the Mentor’s picture to view their bio and more information. See someone who might be a good fit? Swipe right and… just kidding! Click “Make an Appointment” to email the Mentor, and schedule a time to meet. You won’t regret it.
Questions? Let our Mentor Coordinator Kelly Anne know! julie@atlantatechvillage.com
Mentors
Jane McCracken
Make an AppointmentJane is a 6x founder, advisor, and investor in fast-growing tech companies. When she’s not around the ATL startup community, she is serving as the sous chef to her alpha cook husband or watching the Atlanta Braves, ACC Basketball, and Scottish Rugby.
Jane founded and served in the C-suite for companies in healthcare, software and e-commerce raising $100+ million and achieving exits via IPO or trade sale. Prior to her entrepreneurial career, she raised two venture capital funds and established a 50-person business angel network, all focused on early-stage technology companies. She currently serves as the Chief Growth Officer at Corps Team, a nationwide search and staffing firm that works with startups to the Fortune 500. Most recently, Jane was the Assistant Director and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the ATDC. She is also serves on the Boards of the Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust and Radyus Research.
- Go to market strategies
- Building high performing teams
- General brainstorming and out-of-the box thinking
Ashton Thomas
Make an AppointmentAshton is originally from Georgia but spent a decade in Pittsburgh before meeting his wife Jessica in Chicago. Ashton and Jessica have now lived in Atlanta for 5 years and have two children. Ashton is always on the lookout for new hobbies that come with the promise of new tools such as Photography or BBQ, Yardwork or Carpentry. Ashton studied Information Systems and Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon and was an active Teaching Assistant for the Computer Science department as well as an inaugural CMU Open Field Entrepreneur Fund recipient. He has been a start-up founder but has also worked in start-ups of all sizes (Series A-B, Later stage, Post Acquisition, Start-ups within large enterprises). Ashton has spent time in the start-up community in Pittsburgh and Chicago, and now wants to get involved in the amazing Atlanta start-up community to support great founders, help great companies, and contribute to a thriving community.
Ashton is primarily focused on large-scale technology transformation projects, go-to-market launches of new tech-driven businesses, building out large, high-performing technology organizations. Ashton has answered to multiple Fortune 500 executive teams as a leader across Product, Engineering, and Operations. Ashton has experience with B2C & B2B eCommerce as well as B2B SaaS in a variety of industries such as Fintech, Industrial Supply, Automotive, and Health & Wellness.
1. Product Architecture & Implementation Strategy
2. Business Plan Development & Go-to-market preparation
3. General help brainstorming - vetting business case analysis - providing reference points and real-world examples for the many different ways to do things (for the founder who suddenly is tasked with 'everything')
Christine Jones
Make an AppointmentChristine has been a part of the Atlanta technology scene for three decades where she has helped create, grow and scale many B2B software companies. She lives in NW Atlanta with her family and rescue critters and has a love of volunteering with animal rescue organizations. Christine’s home away from home is Truist Park where you can often find her (emphatically) cheering on the Braves.
With an education and early career rooted in technology and software development, Christine has a passion for creating, growing and scaling B2B technology and SaaS companies with a unique focus on client and delivery operations. Throughout her career, she has worked in many different industries including Healthcare, Security, Financial, Intelligent Power and Non-Profit and has held positions as a SaaS executive in development, product and client service areas of the business. Christine has been a key part of 5 various stage startups across Atlanta and has helped several founder based SaaS companies grow, scale and sell. She has a background working with PE and has been part of 10 different M&A events over the past few years. Additionally, Christine has worked as a professional and executive mentor, board advisor and female entrepreneur coach. Currently, she is the Founder and Managing Partner of Service@Scale where she helps fast growing SaaS companies create, grow and scale their product and client operations.
1. Assistance with full product and service lifecycle development (ideation through support/success)
2. Guidance on how to create a scalable organization & operational processes from onset
3. Help with developing a talent strategy aimed at hiring the right people at the right time while creating a memorable culture
Shade Reid
Make an AppointmentDr. Shade' Reid (she/her) is UK-born, Atlanta raised with strong British Jamaican roots. She loves basketball and played collegiate basketball on scholarship at UNC-Wilmington. She is a wife, mom, lover of all food and cultures, world traveler, hanging with friends and family, and helping with her husband's basketball coaching business.
Shade' is a seasoned Healthcare provider/Nurse Practitioner, healthcare consultant, nurse entrepreneur, innovator, program manager, and emerging capital entrepreneur. She is the founder of HealthCares Group, a mobile simulation center implementing e-gaming, VR, AR, and hologram technology clinical education for healthcare providers, but had to pivot and is now offering her expertise as a consultant, advisor, and Fractional Chief Clinical Officer for health tech startups seeking clinical expertise. She is also now the co-founder of Frontline HLTH Innovation, a startup school and venture studio focused on building groundbreaking health tech startups led by nursing and allied health professionals. Her previous work in healthcare spanned behavioral health, childhood development, neurological disorders, maternal health, and emergency services. She has over a decade in healthcare and 5+ years of experience in the tech industry and startup ecosystem. She is passionate about supporting underrepresented startup founders, building equitable, sustainable communities, and democratizing fundraising.
1. Choosing and leading your founding team
2. Sounding board for Go to market strategy, product, and team development
3. Experience as an underrepresented female founder
Adam Lewites
Make an AppointmentAdam is a father, husband, avid golfer and huge Georgia Bulldog fan.
Adam is the Managing Director of Phoenix Capital Ventures (PCV), an early-stage VC firm partnering with companies in the sports, gaming, human performance, and immersive media industries. He has deep experience founding, scaling and now investing in early-stage ventures. Prior to joining PCV, he helped launch Endeavor Atlanta, a global non-profit that selects and supports founders of the fastest growing companies in the Southeast. Fun fact: Adam was actually one of the very first tenants at ATV as part of the founding team of Insightpool!
1) Preparing to raise capital
2) Go-to-market growth and scaling your team
3) General feedback and strategy
James Summer
Make an AppointmentJames is an Atlanta native who enjoys spending time with his wife, daughter and 3 rescue dogs. He also enjoys running, an occasional backpacking trip and rooting for all of our Atlanta sports teams. He is passionate about serving others.
James is a Managing Director at EY and has over 30 years of experience working with a variety of business. He assists organization in thinking through their most strategic issues, developing solutions and connecting with other people with the right experiences. He loves growing revenues, solving problems, and building strong client relationships.
1. Make introductions that are aligned with your areas of focus
2. Go to market and building customer relationships
3. Constructive feedback on areas of focus and strategy
Bahadir Ustaoglu
Make an AppointmentCurrently, Bahadir is the Founder and COO of Cognira, located in Atlanta Tech Village. Baha brings together expertise in building scalable, data-driven technology solutions to retail problems.
Bahadir has a proven track record of designing, configuring, customizing, implementing and delivering complex enterprise class planning, forecasting and replenishment software for Fortune 100 Retailers. Prior to Cognira he has served leadership roles in multiple organizations in retail technology; Director of Product Strategy at Manhattan Associates, Senior Managing Consultant at IBM, Director of Program Management at Predictix (now Infor)
1. Anything from hiring your first employee to getting your first customer to scaling out. (Operations & Leadership)
2. Be a founder-to-founder sounding board for the issues you are facing, and champion (and challenge) your ideas. (Strategy)
3. B2B product, go-to-market, and sales
Jake Hadden
Make an AppointmentJake is a father of two and married to his college sweetheart, Erin. Outside of work, Jake is passionate about spending time with his family and all things fly fishing, whether that’s stalking trout through the North GA mountains or poling through flats for bonefish.
Jake Hadden co-founded and managed DigitalCrafts, a top-rated software development bootcamp, for 6 years before exiting to Perdoceo (NASDAQ: PRDO) in 2021. Jake continues to manage and oversee all DigitalCrafts operations. Prior to DigitalCrafts, Jake worked for the world’s largest manufacturing of modular carpet, Interface, as head of their internal innovation pipeline (think “Shark Tank”). In this role, Jake reported directly to the Chief Innovations Officer and gained working experience in Europe, Asia and Australia. Prior to Interface, Jake worked as a Management Consultant at Accenture and a Sales Rep in various roles after graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in Banking and Finance.
- General start-up knowledge from hiring an employee to building a company culture
- Business model strategy
- Proposal development and/or pricing strategy for services businesses
Cameron Abt
Make an AppointmentCameron is originally from Massachusetts and moved to Atlanta to be with a girl (now they’re married). When he was a kid he didn’t accessorize with the normal safety blanket or teddy bear; he was a super-nerd carrying around a 14-gauge electrical wire with alligator clips on either end. Learning to code as a kid and getting “Hello World!” to pop up on the screen has given him an insatiable curiosity about how (and why) the world works and how to make it better. On the weekends you can find him doing home improvement projects or trying to convince his wife he needs to buy more expensive tools to complete them.
Cameron Abt is the CEO of Atlas Bay VR, a B2B proptech startup providing visualization tools to real estate clients. He is passionate about operational efficiency, continuous improvement, and building stuff. As a broadly trained engineer turned CEO he has a unique startup perspective, focusing on streamlining production and removing operational friction instead of growth at all costs. Under his leadership, Atlas Bay VR has grown from a 2-person operation in a 1-bedroom apartment to a corner suite at the Atlanta Tech Village. With his first 7 years of full-time entrepreneurship under his belt, Cameron is excited to pay it forward to newcomers looking for where and how to start.
- Thinking like an engineer. Looking for a technical co-founder? Missing a tech background? Let me show you what the dark side is thinking.
- Defining unknown unknowns. There was a ton of early learning that I wish we could have heard before we started down the wrong path. Some of those landmines are easy to avoid with the right guidance.
- Creating repeatability. Building processes and procedures that scale without sacrificing agility.
Diane Bloodworth
Make an AppointmentI am a serial entrepreneur with a passion for sports and data. I love city life, dogs, Dawgs, and entrepreneurship.
Diane is a serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry, including a successful startup launch and subsequent acquisition. She has in-depth experience in analytics, software development, and process improvement through her past roles at IBM and as a consultant. Diane is the founder of scoutSMART, a leading provider of predictive sports analytics. scoutSMART helps college football coaches find recruits that fit their program. Diane is considered a thought leader in sports analytics and has spoken at several sports analytics’ conferences including the Titans of Sports Tech Roundtable and the Georgia Tech Big Analytics Forum.
- Leading technical teams
- Creative boot strapping
- Experience as a female founder
Jeff Goldblatt
Make an AppointmentJeff Goldblatt has been involved with startups of many shapes/sizes (including: VC-funded, Angel-funded, Bootstrapped… successes, failures, and that subjective gray area between) for ~20 years and has served as Advisor/Mentor/Coach to 100+ young founders. Originally from Framingham, MA, he has an MBA from Emory University and a PhD from The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry.
As creator of the original “Rejection Hotline” – a satirical phone service that grew into a 7-figure VIRAL *P.A.C.A.S.M. company (*Products As Content As Social Marketing) with 300+ “Humor Hotlines” engaging millions of fans – Jeff became a nationally-recognized expert on VIRALITY (in Products/Content/Marketing). He feels awkward writing in the 3rd-person, so he will now switch to 1st-person (and so will I). #BeReal – Like MOST entrepreneurs, I put “CEO” on my first business card. Also like most entrepreneurs, I once believed in The Tooth Fairy. In BOTH cases, it took YEARS to realize I WAS WRONG. My #IamNOTaCEO epiphany was undoubtedly the catalyst for my first startup success. – [3 months after replacing myself as CEO of my own company, we raised $1 MILLION in funding; 9 months later we were a PROFITABLE 7-figure company – after YEARS struggling as a solo founder wearing all the hats)] – And it began my fascination (obsession?!) with #SelfAwareness and the MANY related problems that young founders are OFTEN blind to (until YEARS LATER – often lamenting: “I Wish I Knew THEN, What I Know NOW!”) Full-Disclosure: Yes, I’ve occasionally been called a “Negative Nancy” – but I believe “Realistic Rick” is much more accurate AND much more helpful to young/future founders because… “Negative / Pessimistic (BAD?)” vs. “Positive / Optimistic (GOOD?)” creates a Dangerous False Dichotomy! [Spoiler Alert] “Objective / Realistic (GAME-CHANGER!)”
- Multiple Perspective Thinking: Helping you see how your and your business are seen by potential customers, employees, investors, and… by FUTURE YOU?!?
- Helping YOU to challenge your own ASSumptions– Do you KNOW it or THINK it or HOPE it? – Do you Differentiate POSSIBLE vs. PROBABLE?
- – Confidence is great – sometimes; is yours based on data/stats/testing or hunches/hopes & conversion rates YOU plugged in to hit YOUR revenue/growth goals?
- I Have Many *FUQs to Give! *[Frequently UNasked Questions] NOW is the time to discuss/debate uncomfortable topics (including potentially-bad FUTURE STUFF!) – so you can consider it objectively/calmly (with minimal emotional bias!) while it’s still just hypothetical!!
Phil Hill
Make an AppointmentI arrived in the US with a backpack and $267 in cash after traveling around the world. I love mountain biking and follow an unglamorous Premier League soccer team.
My experience spans 25 years of leadership in technology and nonprofits. I have co-founded, run, and exited multiple technology start-ups in telco, music, and education. I’ve overseen award-winning social innovation projects that have brought new opportunities to thousands of kids. My belief: give people access to opportunities, and they will thrive.
- Find early-stage market fit
- Develop sales & marketing channels
- Make sure you stick to your passion
Brennen Lawrence
Make an AppointmentBrennen enjoys being back in Atlanta, spending time with family, following his beloved fighting Irish of Notre Dame, and enjoying a good Kentucky bourbon.
Brennen is the Chief Revenue Officer at Axes.ai a Fintech providing solutions to the global gaming industry and has 25 years of experience scaling tech centric businesses. Having scaled his start-up from 1 employee to a global leader with thousands of employees and a $2B acquisition.
- Developing internal operating structure and processes
- Identifying and evaluating strategic partnerships
- Sounding board for Go to market strategy, product and team development
Bill Jones
Make an AppointmentI’m an Atlanta native (not many of us around!). Enjoy spending time with his adult daughters, occasional workouts (let’s not go overboard here), and college football season.
Bill is a VP at TechOperators Venture Capital. Spent 10 years doing product management and UX in the early days of Windows and spent another 10 innovating in mobile technologies. Through 4 successful exits, both products he led had more than 20M users worldwide. Ran a mobile marketing software company, founded his own startup, and has run a food cost management software company too.
- Helping you become compelling through honest feedback
- Challenging you around product innovation
- Fundraising strategies and pitch
Jermaine Brown
Make an AppointmentJermaine is an avid reader, loves working out and roots for LSU and the Saints during football season.
Jermaine is the Founder and CEO of CCAW Automotive Group, a bootstrapped B2C ecommerce company in the automotive space. Jermaine is a leader with experience in building scalable teams, systems and processes. He has experience leading growth initiatives across functions that include Customer Service, Operations, Accounting/Finance and Engineering.
1. Thinking through what you want to do, why you want to do it, and how to make it happen.
2. Building scalable processes and systems.
3. Identifying goals that move the needle and developing specific action plans to achieve those goals.
Kim Wilson
Make an AppointmentKim is a journalist turned serial entrepreneur who loves working with early-stage founders who are passionate about the problem they’re solving.
Kim is an experienced Founder and CEO who bootstrapped and successfully exited her startup, Social News Desk (SND). As a former journalist, Kim saw a problem in her own industry and solved it by creating a SaaS company which would go on to become the worldwide leader in social media management technology for newsrooms and journalists. Kim recently exited her role at Social News Desk after having led the company to $5M ARR and a successful acquisition by Graham Holdings (NYSE:GHC).
- Market Fit and Sales Strategy for early-stage SaaS
- Pros and Cons of Bootstrapping
- Pitch Deck Feedback
Mike Burke
Make an AppointmentMike is a musician, Braves fan and father of 3 daughters. His wife and he are avid cyclists and like to tour the U.S. in their RV.
Mike is a serial entrepreneur in B2B SaaS healthcare technology/patient experience. He founded Dialog Medical - the leading provider of Informed Consent systems - and sold it to Standard Register (NYSE: SR) in July 2011. He founded Clockwise.MD -the leading virtual queue for healthcare - and sold it to Warburg Pincus/DocuTAP in April 2017. He is currently founder and CEO of Copient Health.
1. Customer Discovery.
2. Customer Development.
3. Building a repeatable, scalable sales model.
4. Generative AI and Machine Learning Development
Aaron Hurst
Make an AppointmentAaron is a proud father of three who loves spending time with family, cooking and watching Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech sports.
Aaron enjoys helping founders unlock the most effective levers for growth as the Managing Director of Endeavor Atlanta, a global non-profit that selects and supports founders of the fastest growing companies in the Southeast. He has deep technology experience with strengths in strategy, product development, finance and operations.
1. Go to market strategy planning: you've found product-market fit, now what?
2. Preparing to raise capital.
3. Leading and managing a growing team.