Comments on: Observations^3

By: Atlanta Open Coffee - August 27, 2008 / (Sanjay_Parekh) == (Rambling)

Atlanta Open Coffee - August 27, 2008 / (Sanjay_Parekh) == (Rambling) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:31:45 +0000

[...] and hackers who came by to hang out and chat. There was some discussion at the start about recent blog commentary but we quickly broke into smaller groups to talk about all kinds of random [...]

By: Russell Jurney

Russell Jurney — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:31:06 +0000

An hour of your time on something you’re an expert at is worth 12 hours of my time if I am a noob.

By: Micah

Micah — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:41:51 +0000

For all us “work nights and weekends on our crazy idea” types, time is all we have, but there’s never enough of it.

I suppose I could give an hour here and there, but honestly, would an hour’s worth of programming time really help anyone? I’m a pretty fast web developer (RoR, mainly), but it’s hard for me to imagine that I could do anything useful with only one hour per week. I guess I could fix some small bug in your website that your brother’s neighbor’s nephew left you high-and-dry with ;)

Still, I’d kill for an hour of time from a skilled designer or marketer. Just long enough for them to say, “You’re doing it all wrong and here’s why…”

By: CoworkAtlanta.com » Blog Archive » Atlanta Needs a Cowork Facility

CoworkAtlanta.com » Blog Archive » Atlanta Needs a Cowork Facility — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:19:09 +0000

[...] of those space catalysts, Sanjay Parekh, recently issued some open advice to the community: …you need to start doing what you’re saying they aren’t doing – giving back time to other [...]

By: James Holmes

James Holmes — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:01:03 +0000

Great post Sanjay and something I was actually thinking about recently.

Count me in for offering up my time. I’m well versed in Java, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript/AJAX, etc. Basically, if you need help with something technical, I can likely help.

By: Sanjay

Sanjay — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:48:27 +0000

@ashish – you guys definitely did proactively ask to sponsor and for that you get a big thank you. What’s interesting is that this is the approach you took while other organizations refused to support the event even when they were asked. Your comment goes exactly to this issue – risk aversion by organizations and people who SHOULDN’T be risk averse. Be happy to know that you aren’t one of those folks.

By: Ashish Mistry

Ashish Mistry — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:34:43 +0000

I’ll just keep my comments to the facts I know.

First, Startup Riot did have organizational sponsorship. The Atlanta CEO Council actually paid $1000 to sponsor the event (proactively I might add). I think our logo is still on the website.

Secondly, Venture Atlanta is priced at $500 because the event is targeted towards VC’s and being run like a business – one that will sustain itself for the long run. It has full-time staff and because the scale of the event (including, screening companies, arranging food/bev, handling speakers like Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems) the day-to-day needs of organizing the event requires more time than a purely volunteer team can typically commit. In fact, the entire conference was FREE to both the VC’s and presenting companies (which will always be the case) until the conference started becoming bigger and more time consuming. I know this because I and several others have worked on the event in our volunteer time since we started it.

Lastly, we (Atlanta CEO Council) made investments over the last seven years (i.e. ION Venture Forum) in building the foundation of what Venture Atlanta is now , so we understand the P&L of running these events pretty well in addition to understanding that it takes time to build credibility for an event.

P.S. All the local and out of town VC’s we asked for support did sponsor the event.

By: Alan Taetle

Alan Taetle — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:11:10 +0000

To Michael’s point but in a different area, our state is woeful in the area of encouraging capital to be invested here. I know Stephen Fleming has been single-handedly trying to change this but I have got to believe something else can be done. We spend alot of time throughout the Southeast and we are trailing other states by years in this area. For example, check out http://www.eflorida.com/PressDetail.aspx?id=6100 for what Florida is doing or
http://www.state.ar.us/adfa/Venture%20Capital%20Description.htm for what Arkansas does. We have the most viable group of entrepreneurs and the least amount of support on a state-level.

By: Charles Lumpkin

Charles Lumpkin — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 01:32:55 +0000

I’ll happily help others with online marketing including SEO, Paid Search, market research and market testing. Our motto is fail fast and cheaply. We can help you do the same. I can’t express to you the importance of understanding your market’s responsiveness before you enter.

By: Michael Mealling

Michael Mealling — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 01:06:24 +0000

One thing I think we are missing is that, while we have been talking about mentoring and creating new entrepreneurs out of Tech, Emory, etc, we have not (that I’m aware of) been talking about creating new technology investors. There are large pockets of wealth in this state that could be very interested in picking up a piece of the Atlanta technology scene if they knew how, had some help, and had access to the deal flow.

Two questions:

1) How many of you have tried to look for seed round investors in Columbus, Athens, Chattanooga, or Savannah?

2) How many of you who are looking for money would be interested in an organized “on the road” version of what Startup Riot did?