How to improve ATDC

by Jeff Haynie on April 19, 2007 · Comments

We had a good turnout last night at the 6th annual YnR mixer. Probably 35-40 entrepreneurs turned out at the Globe in midtown. I’m looking forward to the new North Atlanta mixer that should start in the next few weeks going forward. I can’t stand driving an hour in rush hour traffic from Alpharetta to make it to midtown at that time of the day.

There were a few entrepreneurs I met last night that had some interesting businesses. One guy has built a micro social network for Harley Davidson owners. Another has a product for helping companies deal with the new legislation around Sarbanes-Oxley compliance as it relates to email communication. Yet another has a way for people to try and network while traveling on a plane.

Of course, like always, there was lively conversation about how to improve our area for entrepreneurs starting a business. And, I had a chat with someone about how specifically ATDC could (should) be improved to play their part.

First, a brief background. I have been part of 2 ATDC companies – RelevantKnowledge many years ago and most recently, Vocalocity. I started Vocalocity over 5 years ago and we were a non-resident ATDC company – and in fact, we were graduate 100. However, unlike most ATDC companies – we were a satellite – meaning, we didn’t live physically in the awesome new facility just off Tech.

ATDC is a well established, well respected non-profit institution connected with Georgia Tech. And since 1999 ATDC companies have raised over $1 Billion dollars in Venture Capital – quite impressive.

Like all institutions, it’s always good to look around and try and determine how you can improve the current state of affairs and recognize how the world is changing.

A few unsolicited personal observations:

  • Stop focusing on companies that have patentable, proprietary technologies. Embrace the fact that the technology world is no longer purely dominated by proprietary technologies and accept the fact that open source and open collaboration are part of the natural evolution of technology and business. Understanding that proprietary and patented technology has it’s role and advantages – but this is no final indication of the defensibility or competitive advantage of a company. ATDCs biggest loss because of this rule? JBoss. JBoss had applied to be part of ATDC awhile back when Ben and Marc were trying to build it out as a standalone company and had gotten rejected. The reason? They were a “services company” not a product company. I guess that’s debatable – but it could have been a flagship win for ATDC. Also, many other ATDC member companies could have organically benefited from the success of JBoss.
  • Focus more on new entrepreneurs and less on serial entrepreneurs. Serial entrepreneurs should be the mentors and the entrepreneurs-in-residence and possibly consultants, advisors and angel investors in fresh ATDC ventures. I realize it’s a safe model trying to re-attract serial entrepreneurs back into ATDC in their new ventures. The reality is that a serial entrepreneurs has the least to benefit from what ATDC can offer in value. Additionally, it’s also less likely to organically help fresh companies in my opinion. However, a purposeful plan by ATDC to incorporate seasoned entrepreneurs into the development process for new companies could have a more needed impact. I realize there are mixers and other events to try and facilitate this — however, that’s not what I’m suggesting. I’m talking about a more formal plan which ATDC facilitates a more seasoned entrepreneur to advise a first-time entrepreneur and hold them accountable to their plan.
  • Graduate some of those companies that have been there too long and get some fresh blood in. Jacket Micro and Qcept are on their way. Graduate them and get some more talent in their before summer break.
  • ATDC should blog about their companies. And encourage their member companies to blog about what they’re doing. There’s a nice roster of member companies – however, I have no idea what any of them are really doing. A blog (on both sides) would be a tremendous outlet.

The good news about ATDC in my opinion is that they have some fresh leadership talent that joined late last year in Lance Weatherby. Lance ran sales & marketing for Mindspring – and he’s a talented entrepreneur. Lance is officially an entrepreneur-in-residence but I sense he’ll be able to really help not only member companies, but the ATDC organization as a whole. Lance is passionate about helping startup businesses and entrepreneurs and I expect he’ll help make a big impact with his tenure at ATDC.

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  • Thanks for your comments Clark. It's encouraging to hear from other angels about what's needed to better our local community. I think action is the key to some of this.

    Also, re: Open Source vs. Closed Source. Good ideas about TAG, MIT Forum. There's always lots of debate and education (and confusion) around some of these topics that more conversation about them would be helpful so everyone has the complete picture of what the alternatives are.
  • Clark Gilder
    Jeff, great insight and suggestions. I particularly agree with the serial entrepreneur issue - too many investors only back "known" people, thus how many ATL startups will there ever be at one time with backing if we are limited to a fixed, known pool of people? As a former MSFT manager and believer in the west coast tech ecosystem model I see the need for more mentoring and talent development than has occured to date. These observations come from what I've seen since returning to ATL a couple of years ago. Also, as an active Angel investor I have been pushing ATA to do this but it's good to see someone encourage ATDC to do it as well.

    Finally, your comment about proprietary vs opensource models is intriguing. I'd like to see you develop that thought and perhaps sponsor a talk at TAG or MIT Forum or other venue on starting businesses and building a revenue model on open source foundations. I for one am pursuing a patent pending strategy for some of my ideas but recognize that many service oriented (SOA or otherwise) can be delivered off a known code base. Additional topics you could cover in subsequent talks would be on the tools, ecosystem collaboration techniques and perhaps licensing issues regarding GPL and other models. Feel free to ping me if you'd like to chat further.
  • First of all the YnR events are a great thing. Lots of energy, good conversations, and as you point out interesting companies.

    Some thoughts on your unsolicited, and always welcome, observations.

    Historically you are correct that the ATDC has focused on companies that have patentable, proprietary technologies. I could make a pretty strong fact based argument that the biggest wins in Atlanta and beyond since the advent of the Interet are not deep IP companies. What I believe is most important is defensablity, which most likely should be the topic of a conversation in and of itself.

    Your comments about new entrepreneurs versus serial entrepreneurs is dead on and the subject of ongoing lengthy and healthy discussions we are having about how to best serve both.

    I am a firm believer in the conversation of the blogosphere. Without it I never would have made it to the YnR event last night. About 10% of our companies are blogging right now. Which is about 10% more than a year ago. Right now I am write the unofficial blog of the ATDC. The official one is coming soon with tasty tidbits on our companies, articles of interest ot tech entreprenuers, and a blogroll of our member companies. Gonna take the community within the halls online.
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