What's Next for StartupLounge?

This month

asked

co-founder

to shed some light on what's next for StartupLounge and what he would like to see in the ATL startup world for the rest of 2014. Check out the excerpt below & then watch the video that Michael made on trends in mergers & acquisitions in his role as Director of Valuation Services for

VA: The StartupLounge website mentions that you are “laying the groundwork for StartupLounge 2.0”- what can you tell us about what’s coming down the pipeline?

MB: The fact of the matter is that StartupLounge 1.0′s mission is complete. It’s not needed anymore. Between a revitalized

, a very successful Venture Atlanta conference,

,

, the new fund popping up, the re-invented

,

, and lots of organizations that I’m not naming but are valuable and effective, there’s just no need for StartupLounge.

The resources are out there for entrepreneurs to learn the funding process and meet actual investors. Plus, the whole pay-to-pitch model seems to have finally died, so I consider that a victory.So, now what? Well, we are looking at four issues that are now unmet needs:

• We are starting to produce companies that need capital at a scale generally not available in Atlanta. They’ve outgrown angel capital and we need to connect them with Silicon Valley, recognizing there is a risk that some such companies will leave. I think most will stay even if they do take Silicon Valley money. We need to expose those companies to Silicon Valley and showcase what great investment opportunities they represent.
• The bulk of the Atlanta technology scene lacks ethnic diversity. We need to figure out how to bring more African-American and Hispanic entrepreneurs and investors into the mainstream technology community. In no way do I think there is a discriminatory component here. Rather, I think it’s a lack of outreach on our part. And I lump StartupLounge into this. We flat-out didn’t do a good enough job engaging the black and hispanic communities and bringing them into the white-dominated tech community. We think we can change that. And this isn’t an affirmative action program. It’s recognition that the technology community, for the most part, has a blind spot on 30 percent of the local population. There may be awesome ideas being cooked up right now at Clark or Morehouse or Spelman. There’s angel investor potential, too, that we’re just not tapping. StartupLounge has an opportunity to become a catalyst for meaningful inter-community integration in the technology community in Georgia.
• We may just need a StartupLounge that supports harder-to fund deals, like space launch, alternative energy, consumer products, B2C companies and apps. We might throw medical devices in there also.
• I’d like to see an awards program that recognizes strong contributors to the startup ecosystem in Atlanta. For every entrepreneur that earns well-deserved recognition at the TAG Excalibur Awards or E&Y’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards, there are dozens of people doing amazing things as organizers, educators, mentors, investors and leaders. There are great deals that no one talks about and innovations that no one hears about. An awards program, properly and independently done, would be a nice platform to acknowledge many people’s accomplishments in the tech community who, for the most part, toil in obscurity. And we’d make the program StartupLounge fun!

So, we’ll see. We are thinking about lots of ideas. Maybe we’ll pick one of these or something completely different – but we’re not going away. We’re figuring out how we can be a contributor to the tech community while not being IN the way.

VA: Finally, what are you looking forward to seeing from the Atlanta startup community in the second half of 2014?

MB: I hope what we’ll see is a high-profile exit or two. Exits are so important to a startup community because a) they show that risk-taking can be handsomely rewarded; b) they put more capital into the startup ecosystem as (now wealthy) entrepreneurs launch new businesses and become investors themselves; and c) they are like standing up with a megaphone and shouting, “YOU CAN MAKE CRAZY GOOD RETURNS IN ATLANTA STARTUPS!” Give me some exits and good things will follow.

Mergers and Acquisitions Video:

Read the full article that share's Michael's insights in music/music tech as well. 

[Photo Credit: http://eagleentrepreneur.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/startup-lounge.jpg]