Open Letter to Atlanta Angels, VC’s (We Want Co-Working!)
8.08.2008 | Offices, Personnel, Startup Resources, Videos
In case you haven’t heard all the chatter, Atlanta entrepreneurs are tired of being ignored and/or forced out of the city just to get some recognition. It’s gotten so bad that we actually formed various communities determined to help each other succeed; with or without financial support from the able.
However, millions in funding aside, we (the seed stage startups) have decided what we REALLY need to keep talent in Atlanta is to foster our entrepreneurial community. What this means TODAY is establishing a safe and ideal environment for us to co-work, learn from each other and minimize individual risks by helping each other avoid mistakes we may have already made.
So what does this mean exactly?
Well, as a group, we (the entrepreneurs) are asking someone with the $$$, the vision, and the desire to invest in the Atlanta early stage startup community to step forward, work with us and earn this t-shirt.
While we do expect our joint efforts to flourish and ultimately churn out a few home run businesses, we need investors who can meet our demands and see the value of investing in this community as more than numbers on a spreadsheet.
The questions we don’t expect to answer right now is “How will investing in this community be a profitable business in its first month?” Instead, we want to tackle questions like “What can we do to make Y-Combinator and TechStars jealous of our community and space” or “What would make Appcelerator regret leaving Atlanta?”
I know… those questions seem crazy and wayyyy too idealistic but the truth is it’s too late for Atlanta to play catch up. If we want to act and are willing to act now, we need to compete and try to out-do other established programs to attract talent to Atlanta. It’s worked for this city before; I’ve seen it in the form of our local aquarium. Bernie Marcus aimed to have the biggest, baddest, buck aquarium this side of the planet and look what it did for the city? Now if someone’s willing to do the same for the entrepreneurial community, there’s no reason why we can’t be the Valley of the south east.
Will the real angel please stand up?