The Startup Digest is a weekly curated events email list that is focused on the needs of the startup community.  The concept was created by Chris McCann and Brendan McManus out in the valley last quarter with the following purpose. 

1. We want to promote the entrepreneurial lifestyle and the culture of DOING, to help change the world into a better place.
2. We want to strengthen the pre-existing entrepreneurial communities no matter how small or large they currently are.
3. We want to create stronger bonds between entrepreneurs
   through relevant events where the startup community physically meets
   each other.
4. We want to promote the cross-pollination of ideas and people that would not otherwise interact.
5. We want to empower the leaders in these startup
   communities and give them the tools and inspiration to create a huge
   difference.

The guys were getting lots of initial traction and were encouraged to expand to Atlanta.  ATL Startup Digest was born.  Jonathan Nelson was selected as the local curator.  Startup Digest is nicely presented and Jonathan is actively trying to find out about more startup related events in Atlanta.  I am sure he is looking for advertisers as well.  So if you have anything good let him know.  And signup for the email list.

To be fair to the local guy, Sanjay Parekh has an event mailing list called Startup Gossip.  You might want to signup for that list as well and see which you prefer.  

Who da thunk that Atlanta would have a competitive market for startup event mailing lists?  But it does.  In a year in which I have pledged to stop going to so many events so that I can personally focus on doing.

Seems like lots of people like to talk about how important location is when starting a company.  Well, here’s a thought.

Back when I wrote an article on Keys to Entrepreneurial Success one of the findings that I slipped in was 50 percent of entrepreneurs ranked location as not at all important in determining the success or failure of their business.

This led me to four conclusions.

One, entrepreneurs start businesses that have an opportunity to be successful in their current locale.

Two, entrepreneurs that are busy growing a business don’t care about location.

Three, the vast, vast majority of people that talk about the importance of location are not entrepreneurs that are starting companies.  They are observers or people within a startup ecosystem with a vested interest and an agenda.

Four, location does not matter.

On Thursday morning I am going to sit down and talk about the GRA/TAG Business Launch Competition at the ATDC/TAG Entrepreneurs Society Meeting.  With the kickoff of that and the Georgia Tech College of Management Business Plan Competition "Moving an Idea into a Fundable Venture" event on January 20 it seems like we are starting to move into high gear of the competition race. 

Which of course begs the question, are business competitions good for entrepreneurs and startups?  The New York Times recently had an interesting article on the subject.  As someone who has been involved with these things from both the perspective of a participant and a judge here is my point of view.

First of all I agree with the times article that business competition might be focus a bit too much on telling a good story about their business as opposed to focusing on actually creating a business.  They also can steer the focus of a fledgling startup away from what it needs most.  Customers.

With that said these competitions are good for three reasons.

1. They are wonderful focusing events that require entrepreneurs to think about and do things that otherwise would not have a deadline.  If you enter, you have to get the business modeling, business plan, and presentations complete by specific dates.
2. If you make it into the deeper rounds buzz and exposure to investors are assured.
3. Most prize money comes with few strings attached.  Non-dilutive funding is very good and can set a startup up for an angel round.

So yes, business competitions are good for startups and the holiday season is behind us.  Time to strap in and go racing.