Tonight we had our first YnR event in the northern part of Atlanta. For those who haven’t been following along, YnR (Young and Restless) events were started by David Ratajczak to get entrepreneurs in Atlanta together. They’ve become a smashing success because David has been great at keeping the service providers out of the events. We all heard some grumblings about having the events more north so people who are OTP (outside the perimeter) could participate without having to suffer Atlanta traffic. So tonight, we held our first YnR North event. We had a decent turnout (I counted about 15 people tonight with a fair number who had been at previous YnR gatherings in town) which was pretty promising. We’re hoping to alternate between events in town and at the north end of town so as to give folks a chance to participate. Times and locations are never published so as to keep the riff-raff out.
Speaking of the types of folks who attend these, I found it pretty interesting that basically everyone there tonight was an entrepreneur. There was not even a hint of an angel investor or venture capitalist at the event tonight. I’m not sure if David considers these folks “service providers”, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t. A lot of folks have talked about what is wrong with investors in Atlanta but this event illustrates the issue – if you don’t want to be involved in the community, how would we know that you are investing in the community?
At least this lack of investor presence gave a number of us a chance to openly dish on investors and discuss what we think is wrong with the folks here. So that was a positive result in the end.
P.S. Yes, Jeff, I know it was technically ITP but still, at least it was on the north end. :-)
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
How about somewhere really north like Alpharetta? :)
Or even Duluth! We’ll get there as we continue to build up the community. As Bill Murray said in “What About Bob?” – “baby step out the door, baby step to the bus stop, …”.
I vote for the Village Tavern in Alpharetta on Haynes Bridge near 400.
Last night’s YnR (ITP) was great–I met several other entrepreneurs & even an investor!
Sanjay–There was one service provider in attendance masquerading as an investor last night. I’ll forward the name to Dave.
Yeah, I liked last night’s location much more than the one we’ve used for the ITP YnR in the past.
As for the service provider, yeah I thought she was one but I’m glad to have confirmation. The person she claims to have found out about the meeting from should be banned as well. She was supposedly waiting for him the entire evening. People who are going to blatantly disrespect the wishes of the people attending and the folks coordinating should never get business from anyone in our community.
{ 1 trackback }