The last few posts have been about why there isn’t coverage of Southeast/East Coast startups. Every time I write or talk about this subject, I think “is this just our perception and it really isn’t true?”. Well apparently not. Tyler Ransburgh over at Startup Hustle thought about it and then discovered he was right. I haven’t looked back but I’m pretty sure no Atlanta or Southeast based startup has been in the running for a TechCrunch award. At least, I’ve never heard of it (as always, make sure you speak up if you know of something that proves me wrong).
This is just additional fuel to the fire that we need to be more vocal about our own community because folks outside of our community aren’t going to do it. So what are you doing to help out the community?
The links to ATDC companies add ammo to a running theory of mine. The Atlanta startup environment tends to produce enterprise-oriented startups, and doesn’t produce many consumer-oriented startups. There are exceptions.
Consumer-oriented startups are easier to talk about, and easier to research. Many times their product is readily available for anyone to see, and the degree of their success is often visible in the strength of the community. Individual bloggers talk about their experiences with consumer startups. Individual blogs are less likely to blog about IVOX fleet risk management solution their company is implementing, the embedded JMD RF modules they’re using in their product, or their Racemi IT Asset Management deployment. TechCrunch probably doesn’t care about any of that. In my experience, enterprise customers are also coy about being named as a startup’s customer, so it can also be quite difficult for a startup to even talk about their own successes, and aggregate numbers of success can’t be inferred from Alexa and ComScore. It’s harder to build a conversations around enterprise-oriented companies.
Though understandable, much of the focus on commercializing Georgia Tech’s research also de-emphasizes consumer-oriented startups.
I grant you that we can create better channels to share news on our startup community, and a better echo chamber discussing local ventures. Your initial stream of blog posts makes you a must-read on my blog list, and I think you’re helping the community. In many cases, I just can’t interact with the products of our local startups enough to do more than point to their press releases. Thoughts?
Interesting point. Looking at ATDC’s companies, I’d call Evoca and Jobkabob consumer facing but that’s it. We do have a number of consumer facing companies in Atlanta that aren’t discussed as often as they should be. And I’d suspect that this is a wider issue on the East Coast. Obviously, I’m writing a lot about Atlanta issues right now but I’m hoping to expand coverage soon. Stay tuned for some company specific coverage soon.
Doh! I was just told that I left out one other ATDC company that is consumer facing. That’s InteleHealth. The company is run by a great guy that I know - Dan Seitam. There isn’t much info on their website but right now, that’s intentional. Sorry about that Dan!