I’ve talked about this on Twitter but now it’s official. I’m changing these random events that I’m doing (Open Coffee Around My Schedule) to Startup Drinks. Just posted the first one I’m organizing next week. Not sure if I’ll continue to cross post events or not or if I’ll just stick them on over at the Atlanta Startup Drinks site. Best bet, check and subscribe to both. Some events I’m doing will only be published here and not there.
Archive for April, 2008
I got the heads up on a press release coming out tomorrow from ATDC (thanks Lance!). If you haven’t heard, ATDC and VentureLab is doing an Entrepreneurs Showcase on May 15, 2008. This will be a chance to mix and mingle with a lot of entrepreneurs as well as folks from ATDC and VentureLab.
Of the six companies that are graduating ATDC, I think I know three of them decently well. It’s good to see these companies get moved out of ATDC so that space (and more importantly, attention) can be focused on the new companies that are already moving in (folks like Suniva and Clearleap among the many others announced recently). None of these companies strikes me as being as huge as MindSpring yet (MindSpring was also an ATDC graduate prior to merging with EarthLink). But then, MindSpring wasn’t a huge success right when they graduated either (although they were definitely on the right path). If even one of the graduating companies goes on to make it big, then this year’s class will have been a success.
There are also five companies that are graduating from VentureLab - three of which have already moved to ATDC. Personally I’m surprised this number wasn’t all five of the companies but perhaps the other two (Verco Materials and Zenda Technologies) are in a space that doesn’t make sense for them to be at ATDC. On a quick glance, this seems to be the case with Verco working in materials technology and Zenda in neurological testing. Given ATDC’s company composition as of late, these don’t seem to be a good fit.
Once registration opens up for the showcase, I know I’ll be signing up to go. It’s being held at the Biltmore (just down the street from ATDC) which was in the running to host Startup Riot this year. Speaking of which, I just hope I’m not too frazzled from planning Startup Riot which will be four days later. Make sure you go to that too!
So I’ve been extremely busy trying to line up everything for Startup Riot (5 weeks away!) which has kept me away from blogging. I thought I’d give a quick update as to where things are at right now.
First, there is a nice site that is up for Startup Riot. You can see the agenda (which is already wrong - see below) as well as info on the keynote and how to signup to attend and/or present.
As of right now, there are 55 companies lined up to present on May 19th. This is way more than my 45 company target I initially hoped to hit. At the rate things have been going, I suspect we’ll end up with 60-70 companies for the day. This will require a shift in the schedule but it is totally doable. Anyone (nearly) who signs up will have a slot to present. I say “nearly” because there are a couple of companies who I’ve had to say no to due to lack of fit or other issues. Not to say these aren’t good companies, just they don’t really fit with the other presenting companies.
Along those lines, there are also over 100 registered participants for the day (including representatives from presenting startups). There are a number more waiting in the wings I suspect. I haven’t discussed when registration will stop but I’m planning on stopping accepting new applications about a week before the event (so on May 12th). So if you’re still contemplating signing up - better do it soon. If there is a surge of registrations, attendees will be accepted on a first come first serve basis.
Presenting companies should get some info in the next day or so about parameters for the presentation. I was thinking about having uniform icons for companies to use in their pitches (to make it easy to identify companies hiring people, etc.) but I think I’ve decided against that. As an audience member, it’s your responsibility to figure out which companies you want to approach. And even if a company says they aren’t hiring, if you’re a rock star in their field you should approach them (same goes if the company says they aren’t raising money but you love their business). So to make sure good interactions happen, I’m dropping this “feature” of the presentations so that I don’t inadvertently prevent something good from happening.
Remember, I’ve got two Open Coffee events this week (soon to be renamed). Feel free to swing by if you want to chat with me about Startup Riot or anything else.
Finally, remember to spread the word about this event. We need more entrepreneurs, job seekers, big companies, non-profits, and investors at the event. In this case, more is better for everyone involved!
So my last attempt at Open Coffee Around My Schedule was pretty successful. At the Emory event I had four people come out and at the Perimeter event I had a whopping 10-12 people there (I lost count). Given that I only gave folks a few days notice before the events, I’d say that was awesome. Also, given that a lot of folks initially came to meet up with me, it seemed like there was a lot of good discussion between folks that I wasn’t a part of. Which is perfect! The goal here is not, necessarily, to talk to me but to meet folks who are coming to hang out. I will say I didn’t get a lick of work done for the whole two hours at Emory or three hours at Perimeter.
So I’m announcing two more Open Coffee’s with a little more notice this time. The location on the first is thanks to Rob Kischuk - so all praise/blame should go to him. Here they are:
- April 16, 2008 - 2pm to 5pm - Cafe Intermezzo at 1845 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, GA 30309
- April 17, 2008 - 2pm to 5pm - Panera Bread at 1545 North Decatur Road, Atlanta, GA 30307 (by Emory)
Cafe Intermezzo has free Wi-Fi which is why it made the cut. If you’ve got a favorite place that offers free Wi-Fi at which you want to do an Open Coffee, leave a comment and I’ll try to work it into the schedule. If you’re going to show up for either one of these, also leave a comment. Not required but then I know to look out for you.
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