Startups and investors across the Southeast took over the Woodruff Arts Center and Atlanta Symphony Hall on Wednesday as the annual Venture Atlanta conference returns at a complex economic time.
The multi-day event is loaded with events where entrepreneurs can pitch to potential investors and network with others. This year’s keynote speaker is Dawn Staley, head coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team and an Olympic gold medalist.
Joey Womack, founder and CEO of Goodie Nation, says Venture Capital is happening at an interesting time this year.
“We have an election coming up. I know interest rates were just reduced a little bit…It’s a time where there are a lot of different variables, and people are still trying to figure it out,” said Womack, who serves as a member of the Startup Atlanta and Venture Atlanta boards.
“It creates a lot of stress from founders to investors to corporate employees in tech and everybody really in between.”
According to Venture Atlanta, investors seem more hesitant this year than last as they monitor the state of the economy a month before the U.S. presidential election.
“I’m definitely seeing people are very cognizant of prices, very cognizant of of everything. So we’re trying to obviously work with everybody,” said Allyson Eman, CEO of the annual conference.
“We had a record number of applications because, again [for] the founders it’s hard to raise capital, whereas a couple of years ago, the money was just flowing. It’s not right now.”
Founders here have the opportunity to compete in pitch competitions where they can win cash to fund their dreams and possibly even scale them.
Eman is delighted every year by the conference’s expansion and that VC in Atlanta has grown significantly outside of it.
“One of the things I’ve seen in the 17 years is an incredible evolution of the number of funds that are here. More and more funds from outside of Atlanta are spending more time here because they’re excited about the companies we have here.”
As the businesses looking for capital continue to grow more diverse, Womack says this year’s conference is a great time to start developing a more diverse base of investors.
“In metro Atlanta, we are fortunate to have a large quantity of people who are either qualified already to become angel investors or are on the track to become one. Relatively soon, I say the next 12 to 18 or so months,” he said.
“This is a metro Atlanta opportunity. I think it’ll explode the local innovation economy to really a levels we really haven’t seen in maybe forever.”
