Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program. The accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have the CEO of Venture Atlanta, Allyson Eman. Welcome.

Allyson Eman: Thanks, Lee. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to get caught up for folks who aren’t familiar. Can you share a little bit about Venture Atlanta mission purpose? How you serving folks?

Allyson Eman: Absolutely. So this is year 18. Lee. So I have had the pleasure of running this organization for 18 years, and hopefully it just keeps getting bigger and better. So it’s one of the largest venture capital conferences in the country that connects tech entrepreneurs to venture capitalists and sources of capital, and gathers together everyone who really supports entrepreneurs and helps them thrive and grow.

Lee Kantor: So, like you said, you’ve been doing it for 18 years now. What has got you excited about this year’s venture? Atlanta.

Allyson Eman: You know, what I love is that we change it up every single year. So we always try to do something a little bit different, a little bit better. So for a long time, all of our content was all kind of main stage content in the big room threw up, you know, some threw out some keynotes and panels and that kind of stuff. And this year we’re we’re a lot more focused on on bringing, bringing founder, content, investor content, content that might mean a smaller audience. So we actually have eight executives who are sharing stories with like, you know, small groups of 50 instead of 500, um, in topics like, you know, how to stretch a marketing budget and, you know, having those tough conversations with people as you grow and go to market strategies and sales strategies and things like that. And then we actually are adding a whole procurement session to our conference. And that might seem like a strange thing that we’ve never done, but we also want to make sure we’re targeting founders as they grow in their journey. So we want to help founders sell into corporates. So we’ve got a panel with Fiserv, Southern Company, The Home Depot and Inspire Brands, and then we’ve got a breakout session that has those leaders and a bunch more FIS global Georgia Department of Health, you know, several more. And of course, my mind’s blanking right now and there’s ten people, but, uh, all sorts of, uh, you know, great corporates that will that will help everyone really demystify the sales process and help people understand when is the right time to sell into those companies.

Lee Kantor: So for having done this for almost 20 years now, are you seeing anything different about a founder or the founder, a founder, a founder, or is the personality or qualities or traits of a founder different today than they were when you started?

Allyson Eman: You know what? I think founders always have to be scrappy. They always have to have grit. And I think it’s true now more than ever. You know, there’s there was years, uh, that maybe funding was, was just flying out. Everyone, you know, you look back to 2020 and 2021, there seemed to be capital everywhere. And it wasn’t hard for people. Now they’re having to be a little scrappier. They’re having to stretch their dollars a little bit more. Investors are telling them it’s going to take a little longer in between, in between rounds. So I think there’s always going to be a an evolution for founders. But what I think is great for founders, especially here in Atlanta, the evolution that I’ve seen as wow, what’s happened in Atlanta and the collaboration and the co-working spaces like Atdc, seen Atlanta Tech Village and the Russell Center and Tech Alpharetta. And you know, there are so many great resources available for entrepreneurs. And I think those those weren’t around 18 years ago, you know, Atdc was here. And obviously they’ve been been around for a long time and and an incredible organization. But now there’s so much more now.

Lee Kantor: Are you seeing kind of, um, community form around maybe underserved entrepreneurs to give, uh, folks with all different types of backgrounds the opportunity to tap into some of this startup ecosystem?

Allyson Eman: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I know there’s a there’s an event going on tonight, uh, with, with Morehouse Spelman that that’s, you know, to help, um, to help founders. We actually have an initiative that we do a dinner, uh, the last night of Atlanta. And it’s just a support female founders to to to put female founders in the room with, um, other investors and, you know, the venture capital money. Still, still. You know, it doesn’t go to women. I mean, under 2% goes to women and under 2% go to black founders. And it’s just it’s hard. And, you know, we want to do whatever we can to support those groups.

Lee Kantor: Now, when it comes to, um, creating this ecosystem that we’ve been talking about for 18 years now and, and it’s, uh, it’s grown dramatically. Are you seeing it being kind of self-sustaining where the folks that 18 years ago got funding, you know, created those kind of, uh, super large enterprise unicorn companies, are they kind of reinvesting back into the community, or is it something that they, you know, get the money and then they’re like, you know, on a beach somewhere?

Allyson Eman: Um, some definitely are. I think what what we could use is a lot more of that. I mean, obviously, David Cummings is probably the the quintessential, uh, founder who, you know, sold Pardot and opened Atlanta Tech Village and is now transforming south downtown. So, you know, he has given back so much and I think there’s definitely others. I mean, you look at tech operators. I mean, that fund was started by Tom Noonan. And you know, all the gentlemen that and people that are involved in that fund have all been true operators, which is, you know, where the name came from and they’ve all put money back in. You know, we we have a decent angel network here. I think, uh, Tie Angels has done a really good job being a great resource. Obviously you’ve got the Atlanta Tech Angels, but if we had a little more vibrant, um, angel ecosystem, I think it would help as well.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, as part of this year’s event, there’s a big prize. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Allyson Eman: Yeah. So, uh, ten seed stage companies. So these are early. These are early, folks. Pre-seed seed companies that are, uh, going to pitch on stage for a chance at a $375,000 investment. And that is an investment with four incredible funds co-founders Capital, Tye, angels, Knoll Ventures, and Front Porch Venture Partners. And actually, what’s great is one of the funds is out of North Carolina, one’s out of Tennessee, and two are local here in Atlanta. So great to see four groups coming together that, you know, generally wouldn’t work together. But we know we’re going to have another great winner, um, announced on Thursday.

Lee Kantor: And what about the region as a whole? I mean, you know, we’re biased towards Atlanta as kind of the center of the universe, but are you seeing the region as a whole kind of grow and, and be this kind of now regional ecosystem when it comes to startups and venture funding?

Allyson Eman: I’m sorry, can you repeat that? I spaced out for one second.

Lee Kantor: Um, like we talk a lot about Atlanta, obviously, but how is the region doing? How is the southeast doing when it comes to startups and, um, and venture funding?

Allyson Eman: I mean, the southeast is still getting a fraction of, of funding. I mean, there’s still no comparison to Boston to to Silicon Valley, into New York. We’re still getting a fraction. And I you know, the interesting thing is we’ve got 400, almost 450 investors coming to Atlanta, coming to invest in companies from across the southeast. Our companies are seeing great success. I mean, we’ve had three huge announcements just in the last few weeks. Price pix was one of our companies that just announced a huge acquisition. Um, uh, ad pipe just announced a huge raise. Rainforest just announced a huge a huge raise. So there are companies getting, you know, funding, but not enough. I mean, not not not compared to what you see in other other markets. We’re still not getting our piece of the pie.

Lee Kantor: So why is that?

Allyson Eman: I don’t know I don’t know I wish I wish I could, uh, could have the magic answer and wave a magic wand and everyone would, would get what they needed. But there there continues to be be a problem. And everyone always says it’s a funding problem. But you look at, you know, there’s a lot of funds here and there’s a lot of money that that comes into Atlanta, but I don’t know why are our our startups aren’t getting the money that that they should.

Lee Kantor: Is it just.

Allyson Eman: I can’t answer I can’t answer why why a VC doesn’t write a check?

Lee Kantor: Well, I mean, it’s one thing of not writing a check, but it’s another thing of writing a check somewhere else for maybe a lesser company.

Allyson Eman: Right, right. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Um, so we don’t have an answer to that. There’s no, um, no magic wand in the 18 years of you doing this that, uh, you can, uh, kind of point to and say, hey, you know, take a look at us or like, is there anything we could be doing or is there any activity you’d like to see, maybe public private activity that would attract more funding or funders?

Allyson Eman: I don’t know, I think I think Atlanta has always had a little bit of a marketing problem that people don’t know. Everything’s here. I mean, if you look at it where the payments capital, capital really of the country, I mean, we have incredible, you know, cybersecurity companies here in Markham. I mean, we’re building in a great climate tech group here with what you know, Cox is doing and generator. So there’s so much here and and honestly Lee, maybe we’re just not telling the story. Maybe people don’t know know things. And what happens when people come to venture Atlanta is like I always hear funds from all over the country going, man, like there’s a lot of good stuff here. And it’s like, why did you not know that? You know? So I kind of always continue to think we have a little bit of a, of a marketing problem that, that we need to do a little better job shouting it from the rooftops. And, you know, I think you go out to Silicon Valley and there’s, there’s a fund after fund after fund after fund, and maybe it’s just a little bit easier to connect with them. But, you know, you look at what’s going on here. I mean, there’s events happening all the time. There’s collaborations happening all the time. So I, you know, maybe we’re just on the cusp of things, but there’s definitely more happening here, certainly, than there was ten years ago, no doubt.

Lee Kantor: And it’s one of those things, I think, that one of that helps Georgia as a whole is the diversity of our economy. And maybe that in some ways is holding us back because our economy is so diverse. There aren’t like kind of the density of standouts in one particular industry. There’s a splattering amongst lots of industries and that, you know, if there was 10 in 1, maybe that would get more attention as opposed to 1 in 10.

Allyson Eman: Right, right. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So, um, what do you need more of? How can we help you? I’m sure the event is sold out. I’m sure that you don’t need sponsors. What do you need more of? And how can we help you?

Allyson Eman: Yeah, you know what? At this point, we don’t really need more of anything. Um, you know what? I think it’s never too early to for people to think about next year. Obviously. You know, as of next Monday, I’ll be working on 2026. So if you miss this year, get in touch with us about next year. This event happens annually. And you know what’s amazing is how many people have reached out to me in the last two days. Hey, just found out about this. Can I have a ticket? Well, no. You know, unfortunately you can’t. But, I mean, we’re we’re we’re basically on the brink of of of sellout. I mean, we’ll probably take a few people at the door, but, um, you know, we’ve got well over 1500 approaching 1600 people. So it’s definitely a pretty, pretty significant crowd. But, you know, and I asked would always be for, for investors to put money in southeast companies to look at the companies that we have selected this year. There’s a company lineup on our website. And, you know, we we did a lot of due diligence on these companies. They’re great companies like let’s help them get funded.

Lee Kantor: Now. What’s advice for next year’s aspiring entrepreneur that wants to get into Venture Atlanta next year? What is the thing that they have to do in order to stand out at Venture Atlanta?

Allyson Eman: Well, they actually have to apply. So that’s the funny thing is that we’ve got this open application process that, by the way, is completely free. It’s open all of May, all of June, all of July and half of August. And people will be like, oh, oops, didn’t see it. Well, make sure you’re following us on social media. We’re on every single channel LinkedIn, Instagram, threads X, Facebook. I mean, our team does a great job with social media. Uh, you know, make sure you are subscribed to our newsletter so that, you know, when applications open and get your applications in before the last day. You know, we get 600 plus applications. And what’s crazy is we get 400 in the last three days.

Lee Kantor: And then how many do you typically pick?

Allyson Eman: Uh, we pick about 85.

Lee Kantor: All right. So you can’t win if you don’t play right. You got to get you gotta apply.

Allyson Eman: Exactly. You gotta you gotta apply. But, you know, it’s it’s just the amount of people that have reached out. And, you know, what’s funny is, like, everyone seems to, you know, come out of the woodworks. Hey, I’m ready to volunteer. Hey, do you have discounts for this? I mean, you know, we we we’re pretty predictable. We open registration in April, we open company applications in May. Things, you know, our events going to probably be the exact same time next year. So people can pretty much plan it on their calendar.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Subscribe to the newsletter. So you just kind of can you don’t have to think that much. It’ll remind you there’s no shortage of reminders.

Allyson Eman: And trust me, we do. Trust me, we do. But I mean, you know, for everyone that’s coming this year, we hope everyone has an incredible time. We work really hard. You know, we’ve got a great cocktail party and different lunches and different fun. There’s tons of fun events happening around the conference. I know, you know, Wednesday morning there’s there’s a founder and founder, jog. And that started, I think five years ago with like, you know, 2 or 3 people. And now there’s like 150 people that run through run through Midtown. And tomorrow one of our sponsors, Reed Smith, is hosting a pickleball tournament down in West Midtown. And we’ve got 100 investors coming to play pickleball. So there’s lots of fun stuff going on.

Lee Kantor: And if people want to connect the website.

Allyson Eman: Uh, venture.org.

Lee Kantor: Well, Allison, thank you so much for sharing your story, doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Allyson Eman: Thank you so much, Lee.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.