This is a day of transition for me as I close the TechDrawl office in the ATDC in Atlanta and get ready to move both the business and my home to Austin.  In the early 80’s I was a member of the Committee of Twenty, a group of young Georgia Tech Alumni chaired at the time by John Hayes, which actually spawned the idea for an incubator.  Then GT President Joe Pettit, having come to us from Stanford, was receptive, and the ATDC became a reality.

I have started and housed companies in all iterations of the ATDC from the original O’Keefe basement to 10^th Street and then to 5^th Street when that building first opened.  (Having indoor access to the bathrooms at 5^th was a major architectural improvement, but that’s another story.)  Although there have been a few interruptions over the years as my companies have grown and flown elsewhere, the ATDC has always been a welcoming home for the next venture.  I commend all those who have had a role in building such a strong institution over these decades.

My etching still remains in the lobby, and I’ll be back and forth to Atlanta for business and family reasons, so hopefully I won’t be forgotten.  I did keep my prized Georgia Tech football seat, but I’m afraid my near perfect attendance record over 44 years will be lost.   It’s not all bad having the Longhorns to cheer for, particularly since both my children graduated from U Texas in Austin and long ago gave me an excuse to add some burnt orange to my wardrobe.

Our windowless office for TechDrawl became affectionately know as “the Cave” in recent years.  In addition to our staff, we enjoyed having a number of talented young people hang out with us, particularly during the evolution of TechDrawl as a video blog.  We appreciated their time there, and I hope there was some little bit of wisdom imparted to them. 

My last meeting in the Cave was this morning with Peter Baron and Suzanne Moccia of Carabiner Communications, a loyal TechDrawl sponsor.  That meeting was memorialized by my immediately thereafter removing the conference table to its new home. 

The Daily Beast today has a gallery of America’s 30 funniest cities.  Austin ranks 1st, but Atlanta is 4^th, and both cities have a population in which 26% of people consider themselves funny.  I’m glad to be staying in the top tier of funniest, and maybe that will give me some license to add more humor to TechDrawl.

I would actually have written a more business topical post today, but the relocation process requires interacting with all manner of service providers on both ends, and every touch point now is measured so tightly that there is always a request for a follow-up phone or online survey.  It takes more time to respond to all the surveys than to make the actual transactions.  I had my car serviced for the road trip last week at a GM dealership where I received unbelievably good service.  It was like they had Prozac in the water cooler, and everyone from the porter to the senior managers was drinking from that cooler.  Of course I gave them all 10’s on the follow-up survey, but somehow I miss the old days when you had to fight a bit to get your car fixed.  There was a certain manly satisfaction to that.

Enough rambling for this Thursday.  Thank you for reading TechDrawl, and please continue.