In an effort to better support the emerging startup community, the City of Atlanta has developed a short survey targeting young entrepreneurs. The results of the eight-question poll will help shape city efforts to provide a healthy and diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“The Innovation Delivery Team in the Mayor’s office is trying to learn more about the startup community in Atlanta, and how the city can benefit that community,” said Ric Geyer, of Atlanta’s Innovation Delivery Team. “If you are a startup, please take just a few minutes to provide your input.  Hopefully your input will have an impact on future programs and policies that will benefit the community and bring more attention to our great entrepreneurial strength.”

The survey is currently geared toward tech startups and high-growth entrepreneurs in Atlanta. However, the city will be sending out a modified version later this month to more traditional small businesses, restaurants and retail outlets.

Questions range from number of employees and industry segment to reasons behind opening a business in town. Atlanta is currently ranked third in the country for cities with the most Fortune 500 headquarters and ranked first in innovation in Zipcar’s Future Metropolis Index. Just recently, the Georgia startup community launched the first company in U.S. history to issue equity through online crowdfunding to non-accredited investors.

Want to weigh in? Take 10 minutes and fill out the survey. Your answers can help contribute to the Atlanta’s growing reputation as a center of startup activity and innovation.

• Founded: 2010
• Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO: Sanjoy Malik
• Headquarters: Atlanta, GA
• Specialty: Energy Information
• Website: www.urjanet.com/

With energy consumption a growing concern, seasoned technology entrepreneur Sanjoy Malik quickly recognized the potential to build a business around the intersection of big data and energy.

In 2010, he made that concept a reality and launched Urjanet – an energy intelligence firm developed in partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology. The recent ATDC graduate company provides clients with an automated platform that collects and analyzes energy and carbon-related data from various sources. The information is then crunched and delivered directly to customer applications and support systems.

With industry regulations and energy prices on the rise, Malik said Urjanet’s subscription-based technology can ultimately help organizations better manage energy use, save money and meet sustainability goals.

“Our cloud-based platform collects energy-related data from thousands of different utilities and sources,” said Malik. “By bringing utility data in a single format directly into other software, such as accounting programs or energy management applications, companies are able to make more informed decisions. There is nothing else like it (on the market) right now.”

The company works with approximately 30 customers, mostly large blue-chip clients and corporations including UPS, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Cox Enterprises and Chick-fil-A. As Urjanet’s reputation has grown, revenue and staff size have increased accordingly, with a team of 45 people now operating out of the U.S. and India. Currently headquartered in Technology Square, the company is set to move into a larger space in Atlanta to accommodate the growth.

Armed with more than $8 million in funding from Imlay Investments, Grotech Ventures, the National Science Foundation and the Georgia Research Alliance, Urjanet is focused on expanding sales and marketing efforts both locally and abroad. At the same time, they will continue to make software improvements to keep pace with changing technology.

Malik – who also founded ATDC graduates Air2Web and Synchrologic – said the incubator’s resources have played a role in Urjanet’s success, providing the startup with crucial connections and mentors along the way.

“ATDC provides a great environment for early-stage companies,” Malik said. “They have very flexible terms on real estate and a very knowledgeable group of people. It provides a lot of credibility to any young company.”

Sanjoy Malik

Past and present members continue to see success, helping to prove ATDC’s reputation as a major hub for technology entrepreneurship. Here are just a few of the recent highlights:

• Software firm Cardlytics Inc. is raising $40 million from investors to fund an expansion into international markets this year. The firm provides software that helps businesses analyze consumer purchase behavior. The company is also the leader in the card-linked marketing space, providing both national and local businesses with revenue-generating digital and mobile marketing options, based upon its core analytics platform.
• Suniva Inc. is adding 48 jobs at its Norcross headquarters to help handle increased demand. The maker of high-efficiency PV solar cells and modules is looking to boost the number of manufacturing line employees and supervisory roles within the company. “Demand for Suniva’s high-efficiency solar products has produced unprecedented sales bookings in Q1,” said Greg Mihalik, vice president of manufacturing and operations for Suniva, in a statement. “And we are currently sold out of capacity for Q2.”
• Merlin Mobility has been nominated for the Augmented World Expo’s 2013 Auggie Award in the Enterprise category. The company is developing a web-based authoring platform that allows organizations to rapidly create and deploy augmented reality content with in a simple format. You can vote for their entry here.
• ViaCycle, created by GT grad student Kyle Azevedo, was profiled in a recent Atlanta Magazine article. The startup aims to make bikes available for communal use without the pricey infrastructure that has plagued similar programs in other cities.

In other news, Atlanta’s growing tech ecosystem (and several ATDC companies) has drawn the interest of a Virginia-based venture capital firm. Armed with a $225 million fund, Grotech Ventures has already invested in several Atlanta startups including ATDC-affiliated Synchrologic and Urjanet and plans to invest in even more locally. “Just as Atlanta has excelled as a crossroads of transportation and financial [services], it is the natural place in the southern U.S. for an entrepreneurial ecosystem to flourish,” said Grotech General Partner Steve Fredrick, in an interview with the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Founded in 1980, ATDC has helped create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenues by graduating more than 150 companies which, combined with current companies, have raised more than two billion dollars in outside financing and created thousands of jobs in Georgia.  Want to learn what we’re all about? Register to attend our next Info Session on June 11 where you can meet with staff and find out about member benefits and qualifications.

We salute the hard work of all of our past and present ATDC entrepreneurs and look forward to seeing more member company accomplishments throughout the year!

Until the federal government approved the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act) a year ago, securities placement was governed by the SEC Act of 1933. The JOBS Act removes some of the constraints imposed by the SEC Act of 1933, however putting it into action has been delayed by the SEC. Well, Georgia’s Secretary of State office gave Georgians a head start on the JOBS Act. In 2012, they approved The Invest Georgia Exemption, which amongst other features make it legal for non-accredited investors to make intrastate investments (Georgia resident investing in a Georgia company) through crowdfunding. So, now, if you are a Georgia resident and are interested in investing in startup companies based in Georgia, it’s a 5-minute process.

Fundraising Programs

How is this different from Kickstarter, Indiegogo and AngelList? Kickstarter and Indiegogo provide crowdsourcing of non-equity contributions and are focused on filmmakers, musicians and artists. AngelList operates close to SterlingFunder’s space, but still requires investors to be accredited and the actual transaction occurs through Second Market (not online).

These are exciting times for Georgia-based companies with state rule makers removing barriers for startups and encouraging investor participation through tax exemptions. Just as cMEcompete is removing the barriers for non-athletes to participate in endurance events, SterlingFunder is removing barriers for non-accredited investors to invest in startups they are interested in funding. See us compete!

So, what should you do? Go register with SterlingFunder. It’s free.

If you want to learn more about SterlingFunder and crowdsourcing in Georgia, Atlanta Tech Village is hosting a Meetup on May 15. We at ATDC and the Atlanta Startup Community are excited to have cMEcompete and SterlingFunder and their founders active participants in our communities.

John Melonakos has some advice for young entrepreneurs: don’t expect luck to play a significant role in your startup’s success.

“Great entrepreneurs are able to see through the fog, make great choices and move mountains to bring success,” said Melonakos, CEO and co-founder of AccelerEyes. “Moving mountains is an iterative and step-by-step process. Great execution matters tremendously.”

Melonakos will share that insight and more at Entrepreneur’s Night on May 16.

A recent ATDC member graduate, AccelerEyes develops and markets fast, simple GPU software aimed at helping scientists, engineers, and financial analysts be more productive and run code faster. Customers come from a wide range of industries, including defense and intelligence, life science, oil and gas, manufacturing and media. Melonakos co-founded the startup in 2007, while working on his Electrical & Computer Engineering Ph.D. at Georgia Tech.

Open to the public, attendees to the event will hear about both his successes and his struggles, such as surviving the cash crunch, bootstrapping scrappiness and leading a startup from nothing to more than $1 million in revenue. Melonakos said the key elements of startup success are building and selling.

“Live lean and jump into entrepreneurship,” he said. “No other path will be as rewarding and deliver as much raw excitement. Work hard, be smart and take risks. Only two skills matter in an early startup:  building something and selling something.”

Entrepreneur’s Night takes place the third Thursday of every month at ATDC Headquarters. Running from 6 to 7:30 p.m., the monthly event provides young startups with the chance to hobnob with other industry players and hear success stories from a distinguished ATDC entrepreneur. The networking event is free for ATDC members, so register now to attend.

Here are some points I took away from Dr. Schramm’s speech:

• The nexus of economic growth is entrepreneurship. Eighty percent (80%) of net jobs are created by companies that have been in business for less than 5 years. Both on average and for all but seven years between 1977 and 2005, existing firms are net job destroyers, losing 1 million jobs net combined per year. By contrast, in their first year, new firms add an average of 3 million jobs.
• Schramm’s Law: The single most important contributor to a nation’s economic growth is the number of startups that grow to a billion dollars in revenue by the time they reach their 20th year. When the economy is operating well, the US economy puts 30 companies a year over the billion-dollar revenue mark. This is compared to other economies like Israel (9 last year) and Europe (only had 4 last year).
• Washington is in the throws of big business, while entrepreneurs are in the business of “creative destruction”. As an economy we cannot rely on big businesses to put us on the path to economic recovery because it fundamentally goes against their business goals. The stock market is rising because of productivity gains created mostly through innovation coming out of startups.
• Students are misguided into thinking they have to start their own business straight out of college. Dr. Schramm’s advice to graduates is to find a job where you learn business in a business setting and not in business school, and then start your business when you find a business problem that needs to be solved (back to “creative destruction”). Interestingly, of the 500 fastest growing firms in the US, the average age of the company founder is 40 years old.
• Each city is different from all the other cities. The one vector that is critical is the concentration of well-educated people. The number of engineers is the most important measurement. Make the universities stronger and everything else will follow. Smart people like to be around other smart people. Atlanta has an asset in its university system and needs to market that asset and continue to invest in the university system. The second key asset Atlanta has is its airport. And the third asset is the weather.

Overall a very insightful presentation from Dr. Schramm and panel discussion after his presentation. The attendance was great. Thanks to Metro Atlanta Chamber for hosting the event.

• Founded: 2013
• Founder/CEO: Eugene Yukin
• Headquarters: Atlanta, GA
• Specialty: Transcription, Editing, Summarization
• Website: www.transcriptshq.com/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/transcriptsHQ
• Twitter: @TranscriptsHQ

While working as a business journalist overseas, Eugene Yukin often wound up transcribing the interviews he conducted and recorded – an arduous assignment in such a fast-paced industry. Even when the task was outsourced to freelancers, the transcriptions were often expensive and done verbatim, rather than edited to the reporter’s specifications.

After returning to the U.S., Yukin settled on a new professional path, one that aims to take the frustration out of the transcription process. Launched last week, TranscriptsHQ lets users quickly upload audio and video files and provides them with a text transcript within 48 hours. Customers are then allowed to review the content and provide feedback, with payment only processed once they are satisfied.

“I wanted to create an online service that’s affordable and provides the end user with a really high quality transcript based on their preferred editing style and format,” said Yukin, founder & CEO of the ATDC member startup. “I also wanted to provide a stable marketplace for transcribers, with online software that is easily available to them.”

Currently in beta testing, TranscriptsHQ differs from many of the existing services by providing an edit option. For example, a university lecture can be transcribed word-for-word, or trimmed and summarized to exclude certain speakers, topics or introductions. All uploaded files also go through a three-step quality assurance process to ensure top-notch results.  First, all transcribers must pass an online test and sign a non-disclosure agreement to protect the content of the transcription work. After they have completed their work, the transcription is sent to professional, full-time editors to confirm accuracy. Finally, the client doesn’t have to pay until they’ve approved the final product.

“We built our own marketplace platform where everyone is responsible for making sure it goes back to the client accurately,” said Yukin, who has begun fielding resumes from numerous freelance transcribers in recent weeks.

Bootstrapped entirely through the support of friends and family, TranscriptsHQ is already receiving positive reviews from a growing list of customers. Now focused on product and customer development, the startup plans to utilize ATDC’s resources and technology guidance as they move into their next phase of growth – one that could extend into the smartphone realm.

“There are so many applications for this that go beyond transcription,” said Yukin. “We provide a basic service right now, but we plan on using the feedback of our customers to drive our next stage of development.”

Eugene Yukin

Need some startup advice? You may want to chat with our newest ATDC team member, experienced in the world of entrepreneurship and investing. Charlie Paparelli has joined our distinguished team, serving as ATDC’s first ever Angel-in-Residence. In this role, he will help coach member startups in search of funding.

“I am excited to be a part of the ATDC community,” said Paparelli. “The energy level, the idealism and the experience at the ATDC is off the charts. Being at Tech Square, right off the Georgia Tech campus is an added benefit. I feel like I am in the epicenter of entrepreneurism in Atlanta.”

A professional angel investor focused exclusively on the Atlanta technology community, Paparelli brings more than 20 years of coaching experience to the table. He began his career in a successful startup and, at exit, enhanced his experience with 10 years in general management and COO roles, finally focusing on angel investing full time. He currently serves as president and founder of Paparelli Ventures, a pre-formation investment company focused on entrepreneurs in the Atlanta technology market.

“My hobby is entrepreneurs and startups,” said Paparelli. “I love what I do, and I am so fortunate to work with entrepreneurs in helping them achieve their dreams. I bring money, wisdom, contacts and, most importantly, a deep faith to the process.”

The seasoned entrepreneur will host regular office hours to accommodate one-on-one meetings with member companies. With the local technology startup scene growing at a rapid pace, Paparelli was brought on board as part of an ATDC staff and service expansion now under way, all aimed at supporting the diverse portfolio of innovative member companies.

When Paparelli is not working, he can be found spending time with his family and, occasionally, enjoying a round of golf with friends.

Which annual event brings together hundreds of Georgia entrepreneurs, startups and technology leaders, as well as robots, an innovative “swim browser” and a solar-powered race car? That would be ATDC’s 2013 Startup Showcase, where the local technology community will gather on Monday for one of Atlanta’s premier industry events.

Held at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center, the showcase is open to the public and will include speeches from Bill Nussey, president and CEO of Silverpop, Steve Cross, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for research, and Hans Gant, Metro Atlanta Chamber’s senior vice president of economic development. Each year, the event honors Georgia’s brightest entrepreneurs and emerging technologies, putting a spotlight on ATDC’s graduating companies – all of whom have met rigorous growth milestones. In addition, dozens of ATDC’s most promising member companies – representing industries as varied as information security, financial technology, health care IT, mobile technology, clean tech/energy, and medical devices – will exhibit their innovative technologies during the event.

“Someone asks me every day what the most innovative ATDC companies are doing. The Showcase is open to everyone, so it’s your chance to see for yourself,” said Blake Patton, ATDC’s interim general manager. “These graduates have achieved what all of our startups are striving for by taking innovative ideas and turning them into great businesses. They serve as examples of the value that entrepreneurs bring to this region.”

The 2013 ATDC graduates include:

• AccelerEyes makes code run 10 to 100 times faster by enabling it to run on graphics processing units. It serves thousands of customers in more than 40 countries across a variety of industries.
• BrightWhistle is a first-in-class digital patient acquisition solution designed for health care providers. Its technology helps providers quickly find high value patients through search and social media.
• KontrolFreek is a leading designer of ergonomic, game-enhancing products to improve comfort and performance when playing video games.
• Patientco helps patients pay, track, understand and manage their healthcare costs. The company helps patients reign in healthcare costs and providers receive payments more quickly.
• Urjanet offers tools for tracking and reporting energy use for large-scale consumers.

Interested in attending? The Showcase runs from 1 to 4 pm, followed by a cash bar after-party until 6 pm. Although regular registration has closed, walk-ins are welcomed and tickets cost $20 at the door. For more information, visit www.atdcstartupshowcase.com.