My goodness the golf was nice the last couple of days in Atlanta! It was a cleansing of the mind to get away from any discussion of the moribund economy. (I have to admit, however, that one of my playing partners listened into a board call for about 3 holes — ignoring the no-cell-phone rule and actually getting a birdie on #15 while thusly distracted. The good news was that the subject company actually could make payroll at the end of March. These days we are all grateful for small favors.)
Thank all of you who are reading TechDrawl and making comments either in person or on the site. We especially thank our sponsors who have stepped up to make this possible. You’ll see below a video interview with Julie Carlock of Integrity Business Group, the first of many to come to introduce you to sponsors just as we introduce you to companies.
In two months we have had more than 300 deals come to our attention, some from Startup Riot, Capital Lounge, TAG Top 40, various angel groups and venture seances, and others just over the transom. Whatever the world’s circumstances and capital issues of the moment, one can make a good case that there is tremendous entrepreneurial energy in the Atlanta community. We have already written about companies in Texas, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee and are staying on mission to cover the South, but, to be honest, we must cope with a sudden explosion of deals. As of this writing, we believe we have on our list at least 130 bona fide companies that have potential to attract 3rd party investment and to get somewhere; we’ve got our work cut out for us keeping up with all this.
We are also including reports on events which we hope you find interesting. Our Executive Producer Celia Dyer (relation) has become ubiquitous with her Flip MinoHD videocam, and you may see yourself in her post on the TAG Summit below. She has not traveled as far as John Yates, who covered India with great skill and introduced her to the Flip, but one of us will be on a similar mission to Florida and other states soon.
Speaking of events, we’ve been asked to announce that the NACD meeting featuring Stephen Moore of the WSJ editorial board will be at the Buckhead Club at breakfast on March 18. This meeting has been often rescheduled to accommodate the speaker, so the local NACD chapter is trying to get the word spread on relatively short notice. His speech is titled “Out of the Economic Abyss” – I hope he’s more encouraging than the MIT Forum summary we posted today!
Ben Dyer, March 8, working from the kitchen
