Last night I attended the Atlanta Web Entrepreneur's Meetup on the state of Atlanta's Startup Ecosystem. Scott Burkett and Mike Blake of StartupLounge presented and followed with a call to action and open discussion on their proposal to strengthen this community.
Let me back up three years. In 2006 I was working with Sherry Heyl at What a Concept! (now Concept Hub). It was through Sherry that I began to receive an introduction and crash course into the Atlanta business community: who's who, how it operated, etc. To my dismay I saw a community that was very much traditional business with no clue about social media or how it was changing the way business works at fundamental levels. Having been primarily exposed to Silicon Valley's culture, it was a bit of a shock to me to meet the 20th century in 2006. And there was barely a startup community to speak of: at least not one I would recognize.
Since then, social media has taken over Atlanta (as it has the rest of the world), and there seems to be exponentially more activity as individuals all over the city have been empowered by social media and the relationships they've been able to build as a result.
I've been on a bit of a sabbatical for the past year and a half and have only recently returned to the local 'startup scene' to see what's new. And what I see is fantastic! Not only is there a growing community of entrepreneurs, it seems there is a conversation that has picked up critical mass about taking it to the next level! Leading of course to last night's discussion where Scott and Mike pitched their vision for how we can take this community to the next level: The 'Atlanta Startup Cloud'.
For more of a summary on last night's event check out @urvaksh's ABC article. (Let me know if there are other summary blog posts I can add here.)
There were a number of ideas flying last night about building an online community space, mentorship, education, coworking, culture, legal concerns, finding resources, and a number of other topics. What really resonated with me was the fact that what was being proposed was creating some new cultural patterns in Atlanta.
As I said during the discussion, we need to create our own flavor of kool-aid. (Peach kool-aid!) We're not Silicon Valley, so we have to discover what works for us. And beyond leadership in education and mentorship within the community, we need to introduce some straight up indoctrination!
If a new entrepreneur approaches someone plugged into the 'Atlanta Startup Cloud', that person should be able to give them a quick rundown of this city works and how they can both contribute to and gain from the community.
Last night I brought up the topic of core values, and yes there were some eyes rolling. (Eyes always roll!) But core values are none the less important. Last night was a meeting about leadership, and it's up to everyone who has an interest in growing the Atlanta startup ecosystem to take up the burden of leadership. In order for this to be successful, a discussion of core values must be had. While discussing this with a few people last night, a joke was cracked about creating a mission statement for this project. I loved Scott's reply: it's not a mission statement that's needed, but a manifesto!
So, what is the manifesto for the Atlanta Startup Cloud? How should the entrepreneurial community in this city operate, and how can each of us as individuals, budding startups, and support organizations within this ecosystem contribute towards the success of all of us? What are the values that are going to drive this thing, and propel this discussion to the next level of action?
