I am responding to this late for several reasons. 1) its painful 2) its honest so I wanted to take time to fully think about my response 3) We are in the same boat although not as “floaty” as with an institutional round. I came back to charleston sc after spending time in the Valley and PacNW. I looked at this as a HUGE opportunity. For instance we are paying 1.00 per square foot office space! My entire burn rate is LOWER than many west coast companies office rental. We have working software and I have farmed some of my former teammates from Apple,Microsoft and other west coast startups to come here due to the quality of life. Its about the team and execution. it will always be even if you have a grade B idea it can turn into a grade A idea with the right execution. Its also about the corporate contacts. We had two Series A rounds fall through for reasons that I have personally never seen. They fell through post tech due diligence and post strawman terms that had nothing to do with those two items. Disruptive technology isnt made out of a university nor through an SBIR or other. I have still been asked about an exit of an IPO. Given I have been on both sides of the fence for acquisitions the “companies inside the firewall” cannot afford another IPO to occur. Google, IBM,Oracle,Yahoo,Apple,Microsoft,AOL, oh yea the new CISCO) wont let it happen. I had one VC in the SE tell me aqusitions are not good for the investors. I was speechless. I build companies so I can affect change for the NEXT company that could possible be built. Invest in the same people that put you there. They in turn invest in the locale. Jeff I hope that you nail it. I have spent to many hours in Printer Inc on California Ave not being able to talk about work for fear of poaching and idea espionage. Good luck. We may have to follow suit. – tct

I’ve just graduated from the Emory MBA program, and you’re right, more of my classmates should be clamoring to get jobs in the start-up community, but part of that situation is getting administration to realize the importance of entrepreneurship. I took a very active part in starting (back) up the Entrepreneurship Club, and was a teacher’s assistant in multiple entre. classes. One of the major pushers for increased traction in that arena is local serial entrepreneur/investor Charlies Goetz, who pretty much teaches all of the MBA-level Entrepreneurship classes at that school and gets students excited about it. And a lot of us are. But it take more than one professor. When the Dean of the school and the Career Center are more concerned about placing people in more “visible” companies (read: safe and guaranteed visibility), they won’t put any effort into pushing entre. programs. So that’s another thing that local entrepreneurship and investors can do, is reach out to those communities that can offer prime talent (we tried to do a LOT of work to get y’all in there, and for the most part, I think we accomplished a lot, but it’s got to keep going and growing!). I can name a handful of classmates who went into start-ups after graduation, but it’s still an area that students are exploring, and most go back into big corporations. They need more than job postings from local start-ups (which takes no more than an email to the career center). They need convincing, encouragement and more entre/investor presence around.

Another opportunity I see: I’ve just started up my own business consulting group, and we focus primarily on marketing strategy, but definitely offer overall business strategy and consulting (I must admit, it’s located in Boston, where I’m from). After experiencing the Atlanta entre/investor community, I walked away feeling that investors were, as you highlighted, timid, and that perhaps collaboration could be useful. I don’t mean combining funds. I mean making partnerships between Entrepreneurs, consultants and funders to make the most successful business out there. I’m currently trying to reach out to investors both in Boston and Atlanta to see if some sort of partnership can be achieved, one where the start-ups get the business side up-to-par (let’s be honest, a lot of start-ups have great ideas or products, but sometimes lack on the business side) to a point where the investors start getting more confident in the company. If people tried to work together on this problem, Atlanta could really move forward. It’s the fastest growing major city in the US right now, and that means HUGE opportunity.

I could write a TON more right now, but your post really hit the head on the nail, and someone needed to say it.

I wish you luck in the Valley!

Cheers,
Kate
http://www.othersidegroup.com

Courage is an attribute that some people know, but that few truly own. You have it and you and your company are all the better for it.

Make us proud out there in Cali; and remember to bring back lots of money for the rest of us!

God’s speed,

James Harris

CEO and Chief Storyteller
Elemental Interactive / ListenShare
934 Glenwood Avenue, SE
Suite 110
Atlanta, GA 30316

http://www.elementalinteractive.com

The world tends to be risk averse. That is a joke because life carries risk.

Getting VC is a hard thing due to the desire to get the 40x payback. If you can’t generate the huge payback, its hard to get funding.

For some folks, if you run the gauntlet of starting a business, growing it, generating a payback for investors, and possibly selling it and getting money out, I can see where a lot of folks don’t want to do that again. Its like asking a soldier if he wants to go back into battle.

I hope it works out for you in SF.

Wally

A’s get hammered by B’s who get hammered by C’s and then the F’s come along and take it all away. Or, it just flops before the vultures get to it.

This ‘mentoring pool’ is not a reality either. Successful entrepreneurs go to the next gig. They don’t become angel mentors. They’ve got real VC backers calling on them because they are proven. When was the last time you saw Brewer hanging around?

Get a real job that pays and provides security. Self fund your business. Sweat equity can go a long way.

Sorry, I don’t follow you at all. OTOH, I’d be extremely interested in a post on your blog that that explained in detail what you meant, with examples. And I’m not goading you; I sincerely think it would be helpful. The more entrepreneurs can understand how the local angel investors analyze deals and invest in companies the better off we’d all be.

BTW, I really don’t have a horse in this race other than really wanting to see the tides rise for all the boats in the Atlanta area. Frankly I’d love to see all my fellow Atlanta web entrepreneurs hit home runs as success breeds success.

The best way we can make that happen is for all of us to understand each other and work together to make Atlanta the envy of Ft Wayne Chicago and Boston as well as even Silicon Valley without us wishing we were them.

Agree?