Atlanta Early Stage Investors

One of the leading suggestions in my Skribit is the subject of Atlanta Investors.  I was fortunate enough to sit in on a talk that Sig Mosley, the unwitting godfather of early stage technology investing in Atlanta, had with the companies in the ATDC incubator program.  Sig got me motivated.   So today I am going to write a bit about Atlanta early stage investors.

But before I do that I think some of the things that Sig had to say about the state of early stage technology companies is also of interest.  According to Sig, there are more good opportunities going on in Atlanta than in the past four or five years.  In 2007 Imlay Investments did eight deals.  They have already committed to three in 2008.  Typically the firm does three deals a year.  Deals are flowing at the moment.  Sig finds the new media and video spaces to be very interesting at the moment.

Switching to Atlanta investors, Imlay is not the only game in town.  There are a host of individuals that do angel investing.  Most of them would not appreciate their names being published here.  If you want to find them I suggest finding a CEO of a company in your space that has been funded, ask them out to coffee, and find out the folks that were interested in their deal.  Try to get an introduction. 

More formally the Atlanta Technology Angels is the biggest and oldest angel group in town.  They mostly do enterprise software type deals.  But if you have something else Knox Massey may be able to direct you to specific individuals within the group that may have an interest in your venture.  The Seraph Group is a well funded professional early stage venture fund based in Atlanta.  Seraph is one of those companies that is bridging the gap between traditional angel and VC investment, so they are really looking at companies that are raising more than $500k but not as much as a typical venture round.

What is really exciting are the new early stage investment vehicles that are being created.  All the talk over the last year or so about the need for a seed stage fund is starting to be more then talk.  A seed stage investment company called Profounder, of which I am an investor, is in the process of being formed.  There is another seed stage group being formed by two or three of the biggest names on the Atlanta technology scene.  Value-Plus Ventures is making its first set of angel like investments.  And don't forget the Edison Fund if you have some loose connection to Georgia Tech. 

To top all of this activity off, the folks over at StartupLounge have started the AngelLounge. While this is more of a networking event for angels as opposed to an angel group per se, I predict that it will result in at the very least more engaged angels and perhaps yet another seed stage fund.

So if you are an early stage entrepreneur there are lots of options.  And the deals are flowing.  Go get yours. 

And if I can help you know where to find me.

A Picture Tells

This is what I have been doing with my time the past week.  Reading these business plans for the GRA/TAG business launch competition. 

On Thursday the screening committee had a three hour meeting to get the 45 final entries down to 15.  Lots of concepts.  It was a tough job.  Next Thursday the recommendations will be presented to the GRA/TAG Task Force and the semifinalists will be notified.  On the afternoon of Monday May 5th I am going to hold a pitch presentation workshop for the semifinalists.

Special thanks to Ashish Mistry, Nelson Chu, and Sig Mosley for lending their time and expertise and helping in this stage of the competition.

Short Blogging Break

TAG/GRA Business Competiton final entries review + ATDC Web site relaunch + lots of applicant meetings + coworker vacations = no time for blogging this week.  Back soon.

Quote of the Week

"The biggest factor determining how a VC will feel about your startup is how other VCs feel about it."

Paul Graham

Cisco's Takeover Strategy

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece today about how Cisco, one of the leading acquirers of small technology companies, is changing their takeover game plan.

Cisco's acquisition playbook is the stuff of Harvard Business school case studies.  The bada bing, bada bang plan includes new business cards the day the deal is announced, new Cisco bosses, new Cisco comp plans, and sale force integration in short order. 

However, Cisco's strategy started to change when they bought Linksys.  It made little sense to kill the consumer brand and the sales force called mostly on retailers.  Cisco rightly left the Linksys brand alone (it has more brand equity with consumers then Cisco).  The Scientific Atlanta acquisition also led to a change as most of SA's more than six thousand employees remain in Georgia (and a target rich environment for startup technical talent) and not integrated within Cisco.  It then left WebEx alone when it bought that company. Featured in the article is how the acquisition of IronPort unfolded. 

The leave the smart people that know these businesses alone, and let the brand stand strategy seems to be working.  All of the above mentioned companies in my mind continue to grow and innovate within Cisco.  Unlike the borg type strategy that Google is using on companies such as Urchin that kill innovation (compare the Urchin site to the IronPort site), Cisco's new model seems to be working pretty darn well.  Cisco is adapting with the times and seems to be a strong suitor for a wide range of startup companies.  Startup entrepreneurs would be wise to follow their activities.

If you have an interest in reading the entire Journal article you can find it here.

As a personal aside, I got to know Scott Weiss the CEO of IronPort a bit when he was running business development at HotMail.  Our paths crossed again when IronPort competed with CipherTrust and its IronMail product.  Nice to see him get some ink.

Atlanta Startup Mailing List

I few weeks ago I was contacted by Arcadiy Kantor.  Arcadiy was inquiring if a startup mailing list similar to Steattle Tech Startups was in Atlanta.  I told him I was not aware of one.   He asked me if he created such a beast would I promote it.

Well he made it and I am promoting it.  You can read the rationale for making in on Arcadiy's blog and join the list here.

Quote of the Week

"PowerPoint presentations won’t get you into the meeting room of most venture capitalists even though you may need a presentation once you get there. Working software that they can look at before they look at you, on the other hand, seems a great way to start."

Tom Evslin

Seriously

One of my kids, I don't know if it was Kate or Jack, came up with the rather astute observation that it was the normal convention some time ago not to smile when getting your picture taken.  So every time we take pictures we have to do a "serious" pose.  He is my eight and nine year old Bonnie and Clyde.

Logistic Regression Markov Chain

What is Logistic Regression Markov Chain (LMRC) you may ask?  It is a tool that can be used to help with selecting and seeding the NCAA Tournament field.  Or if the NCAA does not want to use it for that perhaps you can use it to win your office pool.

According to this article LRMC has predicted 30 of the past 36 Final Four teams correctly.  That's pretty impressive.  This year it predicted both the Final Four and Kansas as champion of the tournament. 

Something to keep in mind when putting together your brackets next March.  And I am looking forward to next year.  On a Sportscenter broadcast Dicky V had the Louisville Cardinals coming out of the gate as number three.

Quote of the Week

"We like to consume.  I try to consume less.  I only have one airplane."

Ted Turner