Georgia – Startup Southerner https://startupsoutherner.com Inform, include and empower the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Southeast Mon, 04 Dec 2017 12:53:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.1 https://startupsoutherner.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/StartupSoutherner_Badge.png Georgia – Startup Southerner https://startupsoutherner.com 32 32 Startup Sisters Sparks Connectivity Among Female Founders https://startupsoutherner.com/2017/03/14/startup-sisters-sparks-connectivity-among-female-founders/ https://startupsoutherner.com/2017/03/14/startup-sisters-sparks-connectivity-among-female-founders/#respond Tue, 14 Mar 2017 11:26:45 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=3177

Kiki Roeder sees firsthand how Startup Sisters is helping to elevate conversations about women in entrepreneurship.

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Women are taking on the startup world with remarkable numbers. They are starting businesses at a rate 1.5 times of the national average, with startups seeing an unprecedented 54% growth in female ownership over the last 15 years. Women own just over one-third of businesses in the United States, yet many still feel isolated. Nearly half of female founders note that a lack of access to mentors and advisors is holding them back. Startup Sisters, a southern-sprung event series, is answering this need for connectivity.

Startup Sisters was created to elevate conversations among female entrepreneurs. Its goal is to help women grow businesses within their local communities. Events and workshops will occur regularly at startup hubs and incubators across Atlanta. Potential expansion to other southern cities is also underway.

The regional movement launched its first event on the the evening of International Women’s Day. Nearly 60 women gathered at startup hotspot, the Switchyards Downtown Club. CNN’s Amy La Porte moderated a panel discussion with local female leaders, featuring myself, Theia Washington-Smith, founding Executive Director of the City of Atlanta’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, and Titania Jordan, cofounder of PRIVET, host of the Atlanta Tech Edge, and CPO of Bark. Professional development organization, Mavenly + Co. also led a workshop.

The brainchild behind Startup Sisters is Stefanie Jewett, CEO and founder of Activvely, a social-pairing app that matches people with like-minded workout partners. Here, Jewett shares why she wants to amplify conversations among female entrepreneurs.

What motivated you to launch Startup Sisters?

I launched Startup Sisters: ATL after realizing how siloed the female entrepreneurs and founders of this city are and how it is hindering us from truly being able to support one another’s businesses. The moment that really drove that point home for me was being invited to visit the Atlanta Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative and realizing this city-backed incubator, with 15 female-founded companies, had only been five blocks away from me for months. It made me wonder, how can we rally around one another if we don’t even know we exist?

Why is it important to have meaningful discussions and workshops about female entrepreneurship?

Both entrepreneurship and working in tech can be extremely isolating endeavors for women, and a plight I can relate to personally having launched my own startup, Activvely a few months ago.

Whether you’re figuring out how to move your business forward or how to navigate a male-dominated workplace, it’s critical to our success to find women who are navigating the same path. Sometimes, just hearing that another high-achieving woman is facing or has faced struggles similar to yours is all you need to help strengthen your resolve in the face of adversity.

How do you feel after the first event and what are your hopes for Startup Sisters in 2017?

I feel inspired. The truth is, I set out to create the kind of event I want to attend: an opportunity to connect with other brilliant, unapologetically ambitious and kind women in a meaningful way. I’ve frequented many events where the goal is just to hand out your business card, but Startup Sisters: ATL is decidedly different. The feedback I have received has been incredibly positive and we are already collaborating on ideas for the next event.

Images provided by Startup Sisters. Credited to Varada Bhat, Stephanie Diaz, Stefanie Jewett and Natsai Ndebele.

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BIG Demo Day a Big Success https://startupsoutherner.com/2017/01/20/big-demo-day/ https://startupsoutherner.com/2017/01/20/big-demo-day/#respond Fri, 20 Jan 2017 14:22:26 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=2881

BIG Demo Day, digitalundivided's inaugural event to support black and latina female founders, was a big hit.

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Kelechi Anyadiegwu – Zuvva, Tatiana Figueiredo – Everist, Christina Valdez – Taeleur, Darlene Gillard – DigitalUndivided, Kathryn Finney – DigitalUndivided, Kellee James – Mecaris, Amina Yamusah – Bloc, Nicole Sanchez – ECreditHero

Atlanta’s digitalundivided, led by Kathryn Finney, is working to break down the barriers for black and latino women entrepreneurs. It recently graduated the inaugural cohort of the 12-week BIG incubator, which, of course, culminated in a Demo Day. Last weekend, the six founders who participated (Tatiana Figueiredo of Everist, Christina Valdez of Taeleur, Kelechi Anyadiegwu of Zuvva, Amina Yamusah of Bloc, Kellee James of Mecaris and Nicole Sanchez of ECreditHero) pitched their startups to a packed room.

“We had over 300 people who registered, and for us to be able to host an event that highlighted companies founded by black and latino women during MLK weekend in Atlanta was incredibly special,” says Darlene Gillard, a director at digitalundivided. Keep reading for more from Gillard on the event and the importance of providing targeted support to this under-represented group in entrepreneurship.

If you could only highlight one or two moments of the BIG Demo Day, what would they be?

One of the highlights of the event was having Mark Walsh, head of investment and innovation for the U.S. Small Business Administration and some of the advice he gave during his talk. Another would be having Dr. Freada Kapor Klein, one of our early supporters, come out from Silicon Valley to speak and to show her continued support of digitalundivided

All of the companies got a $20,000 seed investment, but they were also pitching to investors. Did any connections or interest come out of that? Was there a “winner”?

There were several connections made and leads to potential investment that we are extremely excited about. In the beginning of the 12-week BIG Incubator we had some investors come in to meet with the companies and to learn about what they were doing. A couple of the companies were being tracked by those same investors who showed up on Demo Day to find out where they landed. We are excited about all the possibilities.

This was the inaugural class, and I assume only the beginning. Are you planning for another cohort, is that already in the works? And what can you tell us in terms of interesting events or programs you’re planning in the near future for digitalUndivided?

We’ve opened up the BIG Innovation Center to events, memberships and co-working. In April we’ll start our next cohort accepting up to 30 companies.

Nicole Sanchez – ECreditHero, Kellee James – Mecaris

Was the growth apparent in the companies pitching on Demo Day? In other words, how did the incubator program help grow these individuals and ideas?  

Some of the companies that entered into the program were simply ideas, others were already established and yet through mentorship and training were able to pivot to ideas that are scalable.

Your organization is synonymous for many people with #ProjectDiane and the research finding that only 0.02 percent of venture deals were with women of color-owned companies. We’re now coming up on a year since that statistic first made headlines. What’s changed since then? And what does that say about how long (or not long) making a sea change like this takes?  

We believe that there are at least two more companies founded by black and/or latino women that have been able to raise more than $1M since we released #ProjectDiane but that’s not a significant enough increase to think that our work is done. It is going to take years for a sea change to happen and we’re doing our part to move things along. We created The Harriet Fund to provide investments in high-growth companies led by under-represented women founders and this year we are looking to expand our current data collection efforts and create a variety of reporting and dissemination tools (white papers, infographics, workshops/talks) on black and Latina women entrepreneurs in the tech and innovation space.

Photo credit: chuckyfoto

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How Will Communities Retain Its Young Talent? Athens, Ga. May Have A Solution https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/11/21/will-communities-retain-young-talent-athens-ga-may-solution/ https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/11/21/will-communities-retain-young-talent-athens-ga-may-solution/#respond Mon, 21 Nov 2016 14:30:31 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=2610 four athens startup intern georgia

The Startup Internship Program in Athens aims to have a much longer local impact beyond the 12-week program period.

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four athens startup intern georgia

For the last five years, Four Athens, a local economic development nonprofit based in Athens, Ga., has been hard at work creating a variety of programs that supports the startup ecosystem in town. But there is one pain point they had not yet tackled, until now.

Like other similarly sized communities positioned just outside a much larger city, kids grow up and obtain higher education in Athens, but then leave to join the young talent pool sought by a city such as Atlanta. “Startups in Athens have an amazing available talent pool just steps away from their doors in many cases. Yet for both our local students and companies, lacking a direct connection between them makes that distance seem difficult to bridge,” explains Four Athens executive director Jim Flannery. “We’re looking for companies in town willing to help create the local workforce they want to see in Athens.”

In January, the Athens Talent Partnership, in partnership with Four Athens, is launching a Startup Internship Program (SIP), designed to connect participating startups and small business to a distinct pool of talented young Athenians looking for career opportunities.

How will it work? An initial cohort of student interns drawn from area universities will be guided through a 12-week work program that includes placement with local companies. Students and company representatives will convene weekly for a series of skill sharing workshops structured around topics especially focused on small business needs, such as customer discovery, marketing, technology, agile design and team leadership, as well as a speaker series to share a broader vision and context for SIP participants as a whole.

By the end of the 12-week program, the aim is to have increased the capacity of startups and small businesses in the area to successfully integrate student interns into their companies, and to have prepared participating students to pursue careers in the unique and thriving local startup and small business scene. Application process is now open for students who are interested in the program.

Four Athens is also accepting early stage companies seeking to recruit and retain top talent in Athens to join the first group of businesses to be part of SIP in January. The inaugural group of companies will also include founding members of the Athens Talent Partnership, Docebo NA, Partner Software, Peachtree Medical Billing, Rehabmart.com and RoundSphere.

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Maker Profile: Meredith Caveney and Her 3-D Printer https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/10/28/maker-profile-meredith-caveney-3-d-printer/ https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/10/28/maker-profile-meredith-caveney-3-d-printer/#respond Fri, 28 Oct 2016 11:40:11 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=2485

A fascinating glimpse at the work and inspiration of this maker at Georgia Tech.

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Meredith Caveney is an active maker, and has been so since high school. Now a freshman at Georgia Tech, she is thankful for already being embedded in the Maker community.

“From knowledge about CAD software to the understanding of 3-D printers, being a maker has influenced my mindset of what the next few years will hold as an engineer,” she says.

But don’t think that because she was in high school at the time that she was limited by age or education. Being a maker was mostly something she did outside of high school. It also helped her gain experience by “looking at the de12935127_1093650653991152_1294359362_nsign process and resources from a different perspective,” she says.

She bought her first 3-D printer in 2014, and she chronicled the unboxing and setup of it on her website at macaveney.com. She brings the reader along as she troubleshoots, and it’s truly a fascinating look inside the mind of a maker. Her latest project was creating a VR headset with her Google Cardboard (see photo at right).

This was the very first thing Caveney designed with her 3-D printer. It's a block that screwed into a light-switch panel. On the block was a loop in which a sting would go through. The string was mounted at the top of the panel and ran through the loop over the light switch button. The string was then routed through her room to her bedside, where she could pull on a handle to turn off the lights.

Unlike a lot of makers in high school, who are fascinated by 3-D printing, she looked at it a different way. She was more concerned with utilizing 3-D printing to assist her in projects. Seeing past 3-D printing as just a way to create things, she applied it to help her with things like designing a walking robot or a device that helps her turn off her bedroom light switch (see left). “It’s a block that screwed into a light-switch panel. On the block was a loop in which a sting would go through,” she says. “The string was mounted at the top of the panel and ran through the loop over the light switch button. The string was then routed through my room to my bed, where I could pull on a handle to turn off the lights.”

Among her other creations are an electronic violin, which she says took her six months to make (side note: she also plays the violin), a Minecraft server and even an app that assists local law enforcement in an eight-county area in northeast Tennessee (from where she hails) when working with children.

When you consider all of her creations, Meredith Caveney shows that she isn’t limited by perspective, that she doesn’t just know how to use new technologies, but the application of such technology to assist in the creation of useful objects.

She also says she doesn’t “create just to create.” That’s why she isn’t a creator, she’s a Maker. 

Photos courtesy of Meredith Caveney.

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#MyStartupStory: SynapseMX Modernizing Airplane Maintenance https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/07/21/mystartupstory-synapsemx-modernizing-airplane-maintenance/ https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/07/21/mystartupstory-synapsemx-modernizing-airplane-maintenance/#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2016 12:40:06 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=1819 SynapseMX

Airplane maintenance is still an incredibly paper-based process; an Atlanta startup is trying to change that.

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SynapseMX

One of the highlights of my 36/86 experience was hearing the two-minute pitches from the all of the startups vying for the big prize. One of the most compelling pitches—to me, at least—was SynapseMX, an Atlanta-based startup that is modernizing airplane maintenance by replacing a paper-intensive process with a software platform. It was compelling because I was sitting there thinking, how is this not the norm already? How is it that aircraft maintenance still relies on basically a ream of paper every time an aircraft gets serviced? The short answer: Regulation.

SynapseMX“Aviation is incredibly regulated due to safety concerns, and along with that regulation comes an audit trail for everything,” explains Shane Ballman, founder of SynapseMX and the former lead for maintenance technology for AirTran. “Just about every part can be tracked from birth to death, meaning when it was manufactured to when it gets scrapped. That’s still done on a lot of paper today—and if something happens to those records, wave goodbye to 30 percent of the aircraft’s value. Fax machines are alive and well, and I talked with a prospective customer just this week who still uses microfiche!”

Enter SynapseMX, which provides a platform for commercial aircraft maintainers to track, plan and accomplish maintenance tasks, including writing compliance records, from any device that can get online. But that’s not all it does. “Then, we take that data and help them understand hidden insights,” Ballman says. “For instance, how much time does it take to perform a certain inspection task? Is there variance between their facilities?”

Startup Lessons Learned the Hard Way

After spending 18 months validating the idea and determining that it was a viable business, Ballman launched the company in April 2015 with a co-founder who is no longer with the company. Ballman wasn’t new to startups, per se, but he did make a rookie mistake: assigning equity to both founders right away. “Even before you take in outside capital, you need to have founders on a vesting schedule,” he says. “It keeps everybody hungry and aligned in the same directioSynapseMX Logo copyn. Don’t skip it.”

Funding has been a challenge for the company, whose leadership team is composed of aircraft maintenance veterans. The company bootstrapped in the beginning, then received seed funding from 500 Startups as a participant in its Batch 15 accelerator. Its most recent investment was from Dynamo, a Chattanooga, Tennessee-based fund and accelerator that is specifically targeting startups focused on improving the “lagging logistics industry.”

“It sounds like it’s been easy, but it’s been a long, hard climb,” Ballman warns. “When people say it’s damn near impossible to raise funds and run a business, they’re right. You won’t be a special snowflake, so be prepared to hustle on fundraising so you can get back to work. When you pitch (and you’ll pitch a lot), don’t bore people. Tell a story, and make it personal for your listener. People remember stories that have an impact on them.”

The Right Location

One gripe Ballman doesn’t have about the startup life? Feeling isolated from the startup community and the subject matter expertise that is necessary for success. The company started out in Newnan, Ga., an Atlanta commuter town and veritable hotbed of aviation experts. “We started the company there for one specific reason: There are a lot of FAA, Delta and Southwest (formerly AirTran) people who live around there,” Ballman says. “That means lots of subject matter experts to chat with, walk through mockups, talk about business processes, etc.”

After some growth, the headquarters moved to Atlanta. “There’s something contagious about being in a startup environment where people are hustling to make deals, and I like being around that energy,” Ballman says.

When he’s not busy running his own startup, he takes some time to help others who are starting theirs. “There’s an amazing—and free!—Pitch Practice meetup every Friday in Atlanta, hosted by my friend Kevin Sandlin, and I go there when I can to provide pitch feedback,” he says.

Ballman also help out as a mentor to younger companies in how to think about things, such as business models, marketing campaigns, investor outreach and the like. “I’m no expert but I’ve learned a few tricks along the way,” he says.

Clear Skies Ahead

So what’s next for SynapseMX? Ballman points out that Airbus recently forecasted that the maintenance and repair services market will be worth over $3 trillion over the next two decades. “Plenty there to keep us motivated,” he says. The company is also keeping its eye on drones and anticipating a market for drone maintenance.

“Drones are on the cusp of a massive tidal wave in commercial usage, and the FAA is going to ensure the same incredibly high level of safety as manned aircraft,” he says. “That means routine preventive maintenance and the logistics surrounding it. We plan to be helping drone operators in five years like we’re helping manned aircraft operators today.”

 

BONUS AUDIO:  Shane Ballman speaks with Relationary Marketing during 36|86 in June.

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Entrepreneurial Circles: Building a Better Community for Entrepreneurs https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/07/01/entrepreneurial-circles-building-better-community-entrepreneurs/ https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/07/01/entrepreneurial-circles-building-better-community-entrepreneurs/#respond Fri, 01 Jul 2016 12:18:29 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=1680 entrepreneurial circles

Recognizing that entrepreneurs are not super-humans who can do it all, a Savannah, Georgia-based nonprofit provides support through community.

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entrepreneurial circles

A couple of months ago I was riding back from a leadership conference with Casey Herrington, a fellow entrepreneur and program director of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG). We were talking about the struggles and successes that we have experienced over the past years and the conversation got really deep in the emotional aspect of being an entrepreneur. After ruminating on the topic for some time, we came to the conclusion that entrepreneurs are not super- humans who can do it all. Entrepreneurs need the right group of people around them and the right environment to thrive.

Self-reliant entrepreneurship is a false rhetoric that is often portrayed in the media. Entrepreneurs are people who go through the same struggles as the person next door. In a 2015 study from University of California, San Francisco, researchers found that 72% of entrepreneurs reported having mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse and bipolar disorders. Casey mentioned to me the idea of having a peer support group to share life, build friendships and help each other thrive. After thinking about ways of getting this idea rolling, we realized that building this type of program would take a lot of time and resources that we didn’t have, so the conversation stopped there.

I kept thinking about the word “community” for the next days. I realized that we needed to take the entrepreneurial community in Savannah to the next level. A level deeper than just business strategy or happy hour once a month, although those two are fun and important. A level of community where we are completely transparent and vulnerable about the roller coaster of our lives as entrepreneurs, builders and innovators. A safe space for us to share our struggles as individuals trying to build companies and community projects.

Weeks later, Kait Lance invited Casey and I to participate in a focus group for The Creative Coast, a Savannah, Georgia-based nonprofit that works on economic development through entrepreneurship. We were brainstorming ideas to boost entrepreneurship in the area and impact the local economy. It was then when it dawned on me that The Creative Coast was the perfect organization to lead this effort of taking community to a deeper level. Casey and I proposed a new initiative that we are calling, Creative Coast Circles.

Later this summer The Creative Coast will be launching Creative Coast Circles. This is a new movement to engage entrepreneurs, creatives, builders and innovators through community. These regular small group meetings will provide opportunities to build a vibrant community, grow a trusting environment, increase entrepreneurial morale, build friendships and build businesses! Each circle will be composed of 3 – 7 people and they will meet once a week or once a month all over the Savannah area. After we take off in Savannah, we plan on expanding to other cities and states. I am thrilled to see this idea come to life and start seeing the beginnings of a new era of rising entrepreneurs in the south.

If you’d like to join a circle or learn how to become a circle host, contact Creative Coast Community Manager Kait Lance at [email protected].

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#MyStartup Story: Atlanta’s Fittery Solves Big Problem in Men’s Fashion https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/06/17/mystartup-story-atlantas-fittery-solves-big-problem-mens-fashion/ https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/06/17/mystartup-story-atlantas-fittery-solves-big-problem-mens-fashion/#respond Fri, 17 Jun 2016 12:24:28 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=1597 Fittery

Fittery cofounder Greg Vilines talks about being a FashionTech startup in the South.

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Fittery

Greg VilinesAtlanta-based Fittery launched in August 2015 as a shopping marketplace dedicated to helping guys find clothing that fit. Using big data, the brains behind Fittery—like cofounders Catherine Iger and Greg Vilines—can tell any customer who’s willing to provide his measurements a list of brands and specific item
s of clothing that will fit flawlessly. Startup Southerner got a chance to chat with Vilines about this FashionTech startup and its experience in Atlanta’s startup ecosystem.

Let’s talk about the big data aspect of Fittery. Without giving away any of your proprietary secrets, how does it work? 

Our approach combines big data with consumer psychology. We’ve spent countless hours talking to shoppers about what they think about fit and their body, and combined that with thousands of data points about actual human body measurements. These two factors allow us to home in on accurately predicting fit in a way no one else can.

Your background is impressive, but decidedly not in fashion. How did you make the jump to Fittery?

I’ve always been passionate about solving online shopping problems. My background is rooted in eCommerce, having worked at HomeDepot.com and AutoTrader.com. My partner Catherine and I both loved shopping online but were frustrated that we couldn’t trust the things we purchased online would fit, and no good solution existed yet in the market. So we decided to solve it ourselves.

How has Fittery grown since it launched?

As soon as we launched, we had retailers asking if they could use our technology for their customers. So we’ve built software solutions for retailers to power shopping experiences on their sites that guide shoppers to perfectly-fitting clothes.  We already have partnerships with menswear companies like Twillory, with many more retailers about to launch soon. And since we’ve added software solutions for retailers, we’ve mostly focused on developing partnerships with brands, enabling their customers to find great fits. Those partnerships help bring consumers the Fittery experience through other brands’ portals.

If someone buys a shirt via Fittery, how does that work? Where is it coming from? Whose inventory is it? And how does Fittery make money off that sale?  

If a shopper finds a great-fitting shirt via Fittery, they’re directed to the appropriate retailer (J.Crew, Ralph Lauren, Thomas Pink, etc.) for purchase and fulfillment.  We make money on commissions driven from our site. For our software products that integrate into retailer sites, we license our technology to the brands on a monthly basis for their use.

Any plans to expand to women’s fashion? Or is that just a hopeless case?

Not hopeless at all!  We’re definitely on the path to expand to womenswear, we should be there by the end of the year.

Let’s switch gears a little and talk about your experience in the startup world. Was this your first startup experience? 

Yes, after years working with big brands, this is Catherine and my first venture into the startup world. For me, it’s hard to imagine ever leaving the startup space, though.  Building and growing a company while creating a great team to work with every day has been so rewarding.

What has been the biggest challenge facing your startup and how did you or how are you trying to overcome? 

I think doing a FashionTech business located anywhere but New York has been a challenge, simply for networking reasons.  To help build our connections in New York, we recently participated and graduated from the New York Fashion Tech Lab, an incubator focused on connecting fashion companies to mentors and retail partners. It’s been a huge help in bridging the distance between Atlanta and New York.

You’re located in Atlanta; where’s your office and do you collaborate with other Atlanta startups, whether in a coworking space or through a support organization?

We work out of a coworking space called Strongbox West, and also have a partnership with Switchyards, a downtown club focused on B2C startups. It’s been amazing meeting other local entrepreneurs and hearing their challenges, and I think there’s real energy here in Atlanta to solve big problems.

What’s the best thing about Atlanta’s startup scene? 

The best thing is the energy that’s growing here…between Mayor Reed’s commitment to growing our tech culture to companies like MailChimp and Pindrop showing off Atlanta’s bona fides, it’s a great place to start a company.

How about the worst thing about it? In other words, what’s missing?

I think if Atlanta wants to continue growing, more interest in a broad-base of industries will be helpful. While it’s great to have success stories in marketing automation, health care, cybersecurity, etc., Atlanta is a big enough market to support all types of companies, and we need institutional and investor support to compete with the Valley and NYC for talent and interest.

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Goodie Nation Leveraging Startup Mentality to Solve South’s Most Pressing Problems https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/06/02/goodie-nation-curates-great-ideas-solving-souths-pressing-issues/ https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/06/02/goodie-nation-curates-great-ideas-solving-souths-pressing-issues/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2016 12:25:11 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=1476 Goodie Nation

Goodie Nation harnessing the startup mentality to address issue of recidivism in Memphis.

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Goodie Nation

Recidivism is a problem everywhere, and Memphis, Tennessee, is no exception. According to the Commercial Appeal, the state boasts a 44-45 percent recidivism rate (the percentage of previously incarcerated individuals who end up back in jail within the next three years), and the city even has an Office of Reentry to help the formerly incarcerated become productive, law-abiding citizens. But a single office isn’t going to ensure that. Which is where Goodie Nation comes in.

On June 18, the Atlanta-based nonprofit, which empowers changemakers and entrepreneurs, many of them minorities, to solve problems for their own communities, is partnering with Geeked Memphis to host Goodie Ideation+ [Econ Dev]. The one-day event will harness the city’s collective power of problem-solving to come up with a dozen or more tech-focused ideas to help provide more job opportunities for the formerly incarcerated—in a span of just 12 hours.

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Joey Womack, Goodie Nation

It’s one of many such ideation labs Goodie Nation has held in locations like Atlanta and Charlotte to solve other similarly pressing community problems since the organization’s founding in 2014.

Goodie Ideation is phase I in the Goodie Innovation Lifecycle for rapidly solving problems in underserved communities. After Goodie Ideation comes the Goodie Hackathon, which is tentatively scheduled for this fall, according to Joey Womack, co-founder and executive director of Goodie Nation. It’s where developers, designers, project managers and others form teams to develop prototypes for the ideas that came out of phase 1. Finally, there’s Goodie Marketing, where the prototypes are pitched to an audience of creatives and a panel of experts.

While Goodie Nation does support entrepreneurs, the ideas that come out of the ideation labs are generally open-source, and not tied to any single individual. That said, if someone was involved in coming up with the idea and wanted to continue working on it, Womack and his team would encourage their participation.

“At the end of the process, the goal is to launch these products into the wild,” Womack says, who estimates that Goodie Nation will have helped launch 30 products by the end of the year, as a result of the ideation labs and planned hackathons in Memphis, Atlanta and Charlotte.

And Womack doesn’t want just representatives from the tech community involved. “We want to see people who are creators, makers, designers, developers, subject matter experts, people from the community and hopefully some of the actual beneficiaries themselves, whether the formerly incarcerated or their family members, or parole officers,” he says. “Because we bring so many non-tech people into the process, we are able to create this huge mashup of ideas.”

While Womack says Goodie Nation isn’t growing any bigger this year, be on the lookout for its presence in Florida and Alabama soon. Oh, and if you were wondering about the name, it’s a throwback to the Atlanta hip hop group Goodie Mob. Before his calling to social entrepreneurship, Womack worked in entertainment and nightlife.

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The Company That’s Supporting and Encouraging Startups in Athens, Georgia https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/05/17/four-athens-supporting-local-startup-ecosystem-innovative-ways/ https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/05/17/four-athens-supporting-local-startup-ecosystem-innovative-ways/#comments Tue, 17 May 2016 13:33:21 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=1348 Four Athens

Four Athens supports and encourages startups in Athens, Georgia

The post The Company That’s Supporting and Encouraging Startups in Athens, Georgia appeared first on Startup Southerner.

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Four Athens

Four Athens supports the startup ecosystem in Athens, Georgia, in a number of innovative ways. There’s the coworking and incubator space, accelerator program, meetups and mixers, and even the coding classes for kids and adults. It’s all in an effort to change the reality of this startling statistic: Despite the presence of Georgia’s largest public university (University of Georgia), Athens has a per capita income that is 23 percent lower than the state average.

We are not economists, but our belief is that there are a ton of low-wage, service industry-oriented jobs due to the large student population and a lack of ‘professional’ jobs in the area to retain qualified, higher paying employees,” explains Tamara Neff, head of community outreach and marketing for Four Athens. Here are some other highlights from a conversation we had with Neff about the cool things Four Athens is doing to support and encourage startups.

What would you say is Athens’ biggest challenge facing its startup ecosystem? Finding high-quality entrepreneurs who are excited to tackle the challenge of building big companies.

What about its biggest strength? And what makes Athens most unique from, say, another similarly sized ecosystem? We are a younger community, with a vibrant cultural scene that attracts a wide range of people. We are heavily focused on giving without expectation, and believe in helping to build each other up rather than competing outright. We are situated next to a very well-regarded research university which pumps out thousands of new graduates annually. These graduates go on to work throughout the world, and therefore those entrepreneurs who choose to stay and build a company here have an alumni network that is global. In addition, the research created by the university presents tons of commercial opportunities for the right entrepreneurs.

UGA is in Athens, but does that brainpower tend to go elsewhere? Like Atlanta? And what role can an organization like Four Athens play in keeping that talent in Athens? We believe in not only keeping talent local, but in connecting the global talent generated by UGA and harnessing it to help build companies locally. Those far-flung alumni can help with funding, mentorship, and introductions to potential customers.

What is Four Athens’ relationship with UGA? Is there a formal one? There is no formal relationship. We currently operate an Idea Accelerator, which is partially funded by UGA, and hold a twice annual Students2Startups event on campus to connect students to opportunities with local startup companies. We also work with tons of student entrepreneurs directly from the University.

Talk about the accelerator program. When is the next one? Four Athens’ accelerator program runs twice a year (fall and spring). The most recent cohort had nearly 40 applicants, and 12 teams finished the program. The next session begins in September 2016, and the application will go live July 1 at www.fourathens.com/accelerator.

Let’s talk about the coding classes Four Athens offers. What was the catalyst? There were two sparks to the program: (1) a need for talent within our growing companies and (2) a willingness of a few UGA students and community members to expand opportunities for people in the community to learn to code.

Some of the coding classes are offered in conjunction with local schools. When you talk to teachers about coding, are they coming from a place of basic knowledge? Not necessarily that they know how to code, but that they know what it is? Or, is it a situation where you’re blowing minds a little bit? Most people are familiar with the fact that technology is encroaching on all aspects of their lives, but they may not have stopped to think about how all-encompassing it is, and how it will continue to do so. So we talk about future opportunities for today’s students and paint the picture of a future where everyone will need to understand some facet of coding.

We host in-school and weekend classes that are not tied to any particular school. For instance, we are offering code classes during the weekend of Athfest, the big annual music festival in town linked to local education efforts more broadly, and continue to pursue strategic partnerships in the area to offer more classes. All our classes can be found at fourathens.com/classes and the youth classes specifically at https://www.fourathens.com/youthclasses/.

Has the response to your coding classes been greater than anticipated? The demand has been great. Satisfying the demand, particularly with a large portion of the population being lower income, has been challenging due to financial constraints. Many families understand the importance of tech education, but are simply unable to afford it. We have set up a scholarship fund to help offset the cost of our classes so that students can take advantage of these opportunities regardless of income level. More about our scholarship fund can be found here: www.fourathens.com/donate.

What about the adult classes? Are they comprehensive enough that someone could get a job coding after taking them? We currently teach introductory and intermediate level courses. Numerous students who have taken those two levels have subsequently been employed by local companies. As that base of talent grows, we will begin offering higher-level courses, internship programs and other opportunities to place people directly into open jobs in the community.

Finally, what’s the etymology of Four Athens? We started with the concept that you need four “people” to bootstrap a startup: as coined by Rei Inamoto at SXSW in March 2012, it takes a hipster, hacker and a hustler to build a good startup team. We think you also need the community at large (service providers, mentors, supporters and cheerleaders) to help in the journey, so we added and made it four. Plus, it’s a nice play on doing this “for” Athens.

 

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How This Startup Hit $1M in Under 13 Months https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/04/22/sifted-expands-hit-1m-13-months/ https://startupsoutherner.com/2016/04/22/sifted-expands-hit-1m-13-months/#comments Fri, 22 Apr 2016 11:49:31 +0000 https://startupsoutherner.com/?p=1210 Sifted

Sifted shares its secrets to hitting this coveted startup milestone so quickly.

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Sifted

IMG_3416From the food at Nodevember and PyTennessee code conferences to the indoor s’mores table at Nashville Technology Council’s holiday party, many in the Nashville tech community have encountered the delicious food made by Sifted. And for those who work at iCitizen, Stoke.d, Emma and others, Sifted has been a regular part of their team members’ lives. Within a year of founding the business, this Nashville, Tennessee-based company on a mission to serve pop-up lunches as a perk, had found itself linked to the tech culture, without being a tech startup itself.

For Lyft, which provides catered meals a couple times a month for their team members, the consistent lunches have served to keep the team energized and engaged during rapid transition. “Sifted has gone above and beyond to meet the needs of our quickly growing team,” says Kristi Drenth, Nashville office coordinator at Lyft. “They have provided delicious food along with top-notch service with a smile.” 

This year, cofounders Kimberly Lexow and Jess Legge took their concept to Atlanta, where they signed Yik Yak as their first client in ATL. Within two months of the expansion, they doubled their business. And they’ve hit another milestone: $1 million in ARR (annual recurring revenue) in under 13 months since launching the business.

In their own words, the founders share some of the lessons they learned in how they reached this milestone:

  • kimberly lexow

    Kimberly Lexow

    We work with clients who are a cultural fit. Lots of companies bring in lunch, but it is important to us to work with companies who are using our lunch program as a way to consistently treat their staff. When evaluating companies, we look for a vibrant company culture, emphasis on personal growth and a startup mindset, no matter the age. When a company has these characteristics, they tend to enjoy our healthful, adventurous meals. And the consistency translates to predictable revenue for us.

  • We’ve resisted building tech at this early stage. While all of our competitors have a tech component, we’ve focused on building an active client base. We’ve
    Jess Legge photo

    Jess Legge

    garnered client loyalty, and now, with feedback from our clients, we are working to build technology that would support our service. Building tech on the front end would have slowed our growth and distanced us from our clients.

  • Organic growth and client referrals have allowed us to grow rapidly. Our clients are some of the fastest growing brands in ATL + BNA, so we’re growing with them. Eventbrite has almost doubled, and Lyft is busting at the seams in their current space.
  • Having a unique model has also allowed us to reach this milestone. We own the process from start to finish, unlike most food delivery services. We control menu design (using client feedback), create all lunches and dinners and have a team of dedicated hosts and account managers. Because we have our own kitchen, we can create out-of-the-box experiences like a Rice Krispy bar for Lyft or sushi-burritos for Stoke.d.

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