Authors
TechDrawl is a blog showcasing emerging technology and new media businesses fresh from the South. Our mission is to bring to the national stage the newest and most promising privately owned companies and entrepreneurs from D.C. to Texas (the U.S. Census South) and to report on their concepts and accomplishments. In the South, there is a considerable imbalance between capital requirements and capital supply. Entrepreneurs have difficulty getting funded, and some relocate to money centers like Boston and Silicon Valley. Investors, on the other hand, say there aren’t enough good deals in the region. We believe we can play a role in correcting this imbalance by providing an informative and entertaining discussion at TechDrawl.
Our Team
Founders:
Ben J. DyerEmail | Twitter | LinkedIn | Posts
Ben J. Dyer – President of Innovations Publishing, LLC, which produces TechDrawl. He consults with early-stage companies with respect to business planning and capital acquisition and is a licensed broker (Series 7, 63, & 24) affiliated with the investment banking firm Croft & Bender. Dyer is also a General Partner of Cordova Intellimedia Ventures, a $41 million 2000-vintage seed capital fund for software, datacom, and new media. Among Dyer’s earlier ventures were two pioneering multimedia firms, Intellimedia and Comsell, the latter of which was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. Dyer was earlier a founder of Peachtree Software, Inc. and served as its president from inception in 1977 through September 1983. The company was sold to Management Science America in June 1981. Dyer has served as president, chairman, and a director of the de novo Enterprise National Bank and has served on numerous private and public company boards. Dyer has concentrated his community activities on higher education. He has been president of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, a director of the Georgia Tech Foundation, and chairman of the Alumni Advisory Board for Tech’s School of Industrial & Systems Engineering. He served a 30-month term as Chairman of the Georgia Tech Research Corporation ending in 2006 and returned to that board in 2008. He is currently on the External Advisory Council of the Georgia Tech Research Institute. In March 2006 he received the Joseph Mayo Petit Alumni Distinguished Service Award, Georgia Tech’s highest honor for its alumni. On October 19, 1998 Dyer was inducted as the 14th member of Georgia’s Technology Hall of Fame. Dyer holds a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering degree with highest honor from Georgia Tech, and an MBA in finance from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, also with highest honor.
Celia R. DyerEmail | Twitter | LinkedIn | Posts
Celia R. Dyer, D.M.D. – Founder & Executive Producer of TechDrawl, a video blog sequel to Southeast Innovations. TechDrawl is produced by Innovations Publishing, LLC, from its ATDC headquarters at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. Dyer is responsible for the site concept and styling, producing the video content, and writing about about interesting entrepreneurs, businesses and events. She holds a BBA in marketing from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University and a DMD from the University of Alabama School of Dentistry with honors in Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology. She is a licensed general dentist by profession, formerly specializing in cosmetic, and implant dentistry. She owned Tuxedo Dental, P.C. in the Buckhead community of Atlanta, GA and owned Bello Bianco Sportswear, an apparel manufacturing company prior to that. Dyer is a founding member of StartupChicks, an organization for women founders of high-growth technology companies founded by Jennifer Bonnett of eTour.com fame. She is a new member of the Board of Directors for the Atlanta Community Food Bank, an organization which distributes 2 million pounds of donated food through 800 non-profit agencies each month to feed the hungry. She is on the Advisory Board of AppointmentCity.com, a lead-generation company targeting dentists and other healthcare professionals founded by Sherwin Krug and Chris Mitchell, both formerly with MFG.com.
Editors:
Ross BairdEmail | Twitter | LinkedIn | Posts
Ross Baird – Contributing Editor on Social Enterprise is an Atlanta native who works with First Light Ventures, a seed fund within social venture firm Gray Ghost Ventures in Atlanta, GA. At First Light, Baird is an Investment Analyst, helping build the investment portfolio by analyzing and recommending investment opportunities. He also works closely with entrepreneurs to assist them in preparing for long-term financing. He helps connect them with the resources and knowledge they need to create strong business models and successful prototypes.
Baird completed a Masters degree in Comparative Government as a Marshall Scholar at the University of Oxford, England. He graduated from the University of Virginia where he was a Jefferson Scholar, Truman Scholar, president of the Raven Society and president of the Class of 2007 with a B.A. in Government. He started two civic participation initiatives, Vote From Home, which uses technology to motivate political participation, and Georgia PACE, a civic education program in the state of Georgia using technology, including online mock elections and webcast debates, to encourage civic education.
Courtenay BirdEmail | Twitter | LinkedIn
Courtenay Bird – Reporter recently earned her Master’s degree in Digital Media from Georgia Tech with a Certificate in Management of Technology. She holds a Bachelor’s in Economics and Organizational Management from Agnes Scott College. Bird was most recently associated with Turner Entertainment in their New Products Group with offices in Atlanta and New York City. Prior to that she was associated with Definition 6, an interactive agency in Midtown Atlanta. Bird regularly covers conferences in digital media including Social Fresh in Charlotte, NC and BlogWorld in Las Vegas, NV. She is passionate about emerging technologies and consults on a range of digital media startups and projects in the new media space.
Cindy CheathamEmail | Twitter | LinkedIn | Posts
Cindy Cheatham – Contributing Editor on Social Enterprise is a former Venture Catalyst & Director of Business Development at Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) and a leader in the Atlanta technology entrepreneur community. Most recently, Cheatham was Venture Catalyst and Director of Business Development at the ATDC, a nationally recognized science and technology incubator affiliated with Georgia Tech that helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build successful companies. She is a frequent speaker to entrepreneurs and has led award-winning entrepreneurial programs. She is a co-founder of StartupChicks, was a nominee for Women in Technology’s (WIT) Woman of the Year in Technology, and was selected to participate in the 2010 class of Leadership Atlanta. Prior to working for ATDC, Cheatham was Director of Business Development for ATDC graduate company, Blue Rock, Inc. and Director of Marketing for acquiring company RichFX. She is also a former management consultant for Bain & Company and a financial analyst with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Cheatham sits on numerous boards including the Business & Technology Alliance (B&TA) of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and the Montgomery Elementary Executive Committee. She also helped grow a pro bono nonprofit consulting organization, Community Consulting Teams staffed by MBA’s where she assisted dozens of nonprofits with management issues. Cheatham is an honors graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned an MBA from Harvard University with distinction. She enjoys competitive tennis, travel and U.S. history.
Maurice Cherry Email | Twitter | LinkedIn | Company | Blog | Posts
Maurice Cherry – Contributing Editor is a web, graphic and print designer in Atlanta, GA originally from Selma, AL. Cherry is a mathematics honors graduate of Morehouse College and a freelance web designer and electronic media consultant working with entrepreneurs and small businesses leveraging blogs, podcasts and other online technologies for their marketing and public relations needs. He is Chief Strategy Officer at Relate Media Group, a full-service marketing company that helps companies strategize their online presence and social media engagement. Relate Media Group specializes in providing these solutions for political candidates and other high-profile clientele in Atlanta, GA. Cherry is also the Founder and Chairman of the Black Weblog Awards and runs his own design company, 3eighteen media.
David Cummings Email | Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog | Posts
David Cummings – Contributing Editor is business and technology enthusiast who founded Hannon Hill Corporation, an Inc. 500 company, in January 2001. Hannon Hill’s goal has always been to provide strategic web content management (WCM) solutions, with an emphasis on personalized customer service. David has also spun two more companies out of Hannon Hill: Pardot marketing automation software and Clickscape real estate technology solutions. A technology and business expert, David’s articles have been published on O’Reilly’s XML.com and OnJava.com, in addition to popular web development sites such as SitePoint.com. He has presented at the Silicon Valley Web Guild, Silicon Networks, Atlanta Electronic Commerce Forum, and the Technology Association of Georgia. David has also lectured on startups and technology at Duke University, Emory University, and Kennesaw State University. With more than 14 years of software development experience, David is an experienced programmer and has written code for commercial applications in Ruby, Java, PHP, ASP, and Visual C++. David serves on the board of the Atlanta chapter of the Entrepreneur’s Organization. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, David earned a bachelor of science degree in economics from Duke University and studied at the London School of Economics.
Brian Z. Danin Email | Twitter | LinkedIn | BZD-Films | Website | Posts
Brian Z. Danin – Contributing Editor & Video Editor, Atlanta, GA is the Founder and CEO of BZD Films, an Atlanta based independent media company. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in film production from the University of British Columbia in 2007 and is currently pursuing an MBA at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Brian has produced films for about a decade, everything from animations, comedies to documentaries; his films have played world-wide and his 2007 film “Personal Growth” is in international distribution. Also an avid photographer, he has worked on commissioned projects, had his art exhibited in galleries and does freelance production and camera work in Atlanta. He was a founder of the Vancouver Short Film Festival (VSFF) and was Director for the festival’s initial two years.
John FlackEmail | Twitter | Posts
John Flack – Contributing Editoris a long-time observer of the technology industry, both from within and without. He graduated at age 16 with a BFA from the University of South Prestwick, just outside Encutta, MS. His scant but agile frame enabled him to be a star midfielder on the USP lacrosse team (women’s, actually, but nobody noticed). From there he entered the building trades, where he specialized in garages. As luck would have it, he was an eyewitness to many of the seminal technology developments that occurred in those garages, and he redirected his career accordingly. USP having by then been converted to a juvenile detention center, he completed a computer science masters degree on the other side of Encutta at the University of North Prestwick. His career since has encompassed a who’s who of leading technology companies across the South, where he has held positions from janitor to CEO, and sometimes both. Of late he has focused on writing, and he is a prolific angle investor (that’s right, he’s always looking for an “angle” in every deal, and he’s no “angel.”) He lives in East Atlanta with a Jack Russell terrier named, “Bullet.”
Josh Grenon Email | Twitter | LinkedIn | Website | Blog | Posts
Josh Grenon – Contributing Editor is a Senior IT Analyst for El Paso Corporation, a natural gas transportation company in Birmingham, Alabama. He holds a B.S. in Software Engineering Technology from ITT-Technical Institute where he graduated as valedictorian and with highest honors. Grenon is Executive Producer, creator and co-host of Inspirageek, a casual yet informative Internet show designed to inspire geeks. He is responsible for producing episodes and writing content for the show. Grenon is also a member of many local user groups where he mingles with the who’s who of Birmingham’s technology and social media community.
Russell Jurney Email | Twitter | LinkedIn | Posts
Russell Jurney – Contributing Editor is a Senior Data Scientist at LinkedIn in Mountain View, CA and a self-described compulsive, degenerate technology entrepreneur. Originally from Georgia, Jurney embarked on a research project for TechDrawl in 2009 writing a series of articles on the startup culture as it relates to geography in Silicon Valley where he has since relocated. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and on TechDrawl. Prior this, Jurney was Owner and CTO at Star Caller , and CEO at Lucision. Jurney studied Neurobiology at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA.
Ajai KarthikeyanEmail | Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog | Posts
Ajai Karthikeyan – Contributing Editor is Founder of the Young Entrepreneurs Society and a 3rd year Computer Science major at the Georgia Institute of Technology from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He founded the YES in December 2008 when he noticed the lack of entrepreneurial activity and the absence of a networking ground for entrepreneurs at Georgia Tech. He is also a co-founder of The FIREwall, a magazine for the College of Computing and was recently elected the President of the College of Computing’s Undergraduate Council, an advisory and lobbying board for undergraduate interests. He is a communications junky and goes through Blackberry withdrawal on airplanes (unless he flies AirTran with GogoWifi!) Omnia Mutantur Nos Et Mutamur In Illi
Jonas Lamis Email | Twitter | LinkedIn | Website | Blog | Posts
Jonas Lamis – Contributing Editor, Austin, TX Disclaimer: All models are broken, some are useful. Here are several different models for me: Tweet: Venture grower by day, glass blower by night. Strengthsfinder 2.0: Strategic, Activator, Ideation, Maximizer, Futuristic (Hear me talk about my strengths) Elevator Pitch: I’m an entrepreneur, venture junkie and parallel COO. Co-Founder of Tech Ranch and KoThought. Board member at Zehicle and Humanity+. COO at Piryx and Vitasio. I have an MBA and two engineering degrees. [Longhorn, Yellow Jacket and Boilermaker.] I live in Austin, TX with my wife and 4 kids. I like to create HDR photographs and blow glass in my copious spare time. I love my portfolio companies!
Haiku:
Parallel thinker.
I like to make good things great.
My Name is Jonas.
André Natta Email | Twitter | LinkedIn | Website | Blog | Blog | Posts
André Natta – Contributing Editor, Birmingham, AL operates a hyperlocal site about the city named The Terminal as well as a consultancy and blog about urban revitalization and social media (yes, the two are quite similar) called Urban Conversations. He originally thought his life would be spent behind a drafting table, leading to his study of architectural history and architecture at The Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. He received his Certification in Main Street™ Management from the National Trust Main Street Center in 2008 and has previously worked as a Programs Assistant for Marketing at the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority and as Senior Main Street Coordinator at Main Street Birmingham in Birmingham, AL before entering the world of blogging and social media. André is a founder of WordCamp Birmingham, Birmingham’s edition of the unconference for users of the popular web publishing software (WordPress) held annually in late September; a member of the 2009 class of Leadership UAB; and theJefferson County Historical Commission, among other things.
Josh Sweeney Email | Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog | Blog | Posts
Josh Sweeney – Contributing Editor is Founder of ALT-Invest and a CRM consultant who specializes in training other consultants about various aspects of SugarCRM including customization, development, and client education. His company ALT-Invest focuses on consulting while CRMStage.com an ALT-Invest training website delivers premium SugarCRM tutorials and modules to consultants and developers. Prior to starting ALT-Invest and launching CRMStage.com he held a Sales Engineering position at SugarCRM where he developed and presented customized presentations for enterprise and SMB deals.
Prior to SugarCRM Sweeney held positions as a security analyst at Internet Security Systems where he managed customer IPS, IDS, Firewalls, and VPN’s as well as a lead QA engineer at SPI Dynamics testing the core of their web app security scanning products.
Chris Treadaway Email | Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog | Posts
Chris Treadaway – Contributing Editor, Austin, TX is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Notice Technologies, a provider of local, real-time advertising platforms for newspapers, television, and other local media companies. He is a serial entrepreneur, Microsoft alum, and 14 year veteran of Internet businesses currently working on startup #4. His specialties include enterprise Web 2.0, Internet marketing, viral/guerrilla marketing, social media and product management. Most recently, Treadaway was Group Product Manager of Web Strategy at Microsoft, where he was responsible for the company’s Web marketing and messaging. Previously, Chris was the Founder/Co-Founder of Web startups: Cruising Speed, Infraworks, and Stratfor.com where he built the company’s first portal, a site profiled in Time Magazine and other international publications. Treadaway is a graduate of Louisiana State University and earned an MBA from the Red McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. He blogs regularly on Web 2.0 issues here at and on Twitter, and his first book, Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day, will be released by Sybex in February 2010.
