Although we do spend a significant time in NY and CA, and often debate whether we should just pack our bags and move, all of us are currently committed to running our little startup here as long as we possibly can. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to promise how much longer this will last, as the negatives here continue to outweigh the good that is being done by local community members such as yourself, Scott, and another blogger who has spent some time with our company, Dan Greenfield.

In Atlanta, we face wall after wall of incredulous responses from the local venture community, almost always centered around “discussions about financials” etc., while hearing far more constructive responses from Silicon Valley VC’s and investors.

As long as financial risk aversion takes precedence over innovative-based investments, the Southeast will never create a startup engine that is attractive to the raw talent and passion that most entrepreneurs possess. I can only hope that these messages resonate with the appropriate parties, and mindsets are changed, before just about every local technology-oriented firm runs screaming or another game-changing startup decays in the muck never to have an impact on the area or the world.

The hope for the Atlanta community lies in an aggregate of the connections and influences that each member can use to positively influence others. We touched on this as well in a blog entry we wrote after Dan stopped in at our offices, which you can find here:
http://blog.maestro.fm/2008/06/interviewing-maestro/

Paul – that is sad, man. This goes to the point that we’ve all been beating to death over the past couple of years that by and large the VCs here are not “plugged” into what is happening in the community.

I agree with much of what has been said here, but have a slightly different twist on it. Too long to post here, so here’s a link:

http://tinyurl.com/6pyszc

Cheers.
Scott

Having taken a handful of graduate business classes at Tech, I am not without blemish myself :)