Qualtré Inc., an inertial sensor company in Marlborough, has raised $10 million from venture capital backers Matrix Partners of Waltham and Pilot House Ventures of Boston. . . .Founded in 2008 by CTO Farrokh Ayazi, who developed the technology at Georgia Institute of Technology’s Integrated MEMS Laboratory, Qualtré is led by former 3Com Corp. CEO Edgar Masri, who joined the company in 2009. The company had been based in Atlanta, and had raised $5 million in early funding from both Matrix and Pilot House at the time. After moving to Massachusetts in 2009, it snagged an $8 million second round funding from the two firms.
Category: Entrepreneurs
WorthPoint, the World’s Largest Resource for Researching Art, Antiques and Collectibles, Graduates from ATDC
Will Seippel, CEO and founder of WorthPoint®, describes his company as “the Bloomberg for antiques, art and collectibles.” The four-year-old company, which graduated from the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at Georgia Tech May 9, helps people determine the value and transaction history of their treasures. They can also seek expert advice from subject-matter experts and network with other collectors.
WorthPoint offers a database of transaction records on art, antiques and collectibles in a repository branded Worthopedia™. Founded in 2007, the company has quickly become the world’s largest and most comprehensive resource for this information. When Seippel launched WorthPoint, Worthopedia consisted of nearly two million items; today, it contains more than 80 million items. By the fourth quarter of 2011, it will include more than 100 million items.
“If you look at ancestry.com, their objective is to make the birth records of every person ever born available. We’re trying to do something similar with everything manmade,” Seippel said.
The process for WorthPoint’s taxonomy is laborious and technology-intensive. Beginning with purchased reference material, WorthPoint tags the information with data attributes and then catalogues it. In the future, Seippel plans to incorporate visual recognition into the database, enabling auctioneers and collectors to search by words and photographs.
According to Seippel, everyone collects something, and the numbers prove it. In 2010, there were 94 million active eBay users, more than 100 million worldwide collectors, 30,000 U.S. appraisers and 16,000 auctioneers worldwide. More than 500 million collectibles are sold on eBay each year, and auctioneers sell another 100 million items.
As a founder of a startup company with a seemingly daunting task, partnering with ATDC made perfect sense for WorthPoint, Seippel said. ATDC helped in a number of ways, including connecting WorthPoint to professionals who helped the company think through technology and business decisions and provided flexible office space.
Since becoming an ATDC member company in 2008, WorthPoint has achieved remarkable success. It also acquired GoAntiques™, the oldest antiques and collectibles web site, signed up 16,000 paid subscribers and exceeded $3 million in revenue, becoming cash flow positive. It was also ranked sixteenth on Lead411’s Technology 500 list, which recognized the company as one of the fastest-growing technology startups nationwide.
In January 2011, WorthPoint – which now has 20 employees – opened an office in Dublin, Ireland. Now the company is adding a sizeable European database to complement the North American database. Eventually, the WorthPoint Internet offering will expand through fully localized European-based web sites.
“WorthPoint, which originally started in Virginia, relocated to Atlanta due in large part to what ATDC has to offer startups. By working with ATDC, we were able to learn about funding strategies and gain exposure to venture capitalists,” noted Seippel, who has received $11.6 million in financing since starting the company. “We were also able to be part of a dynamic entrepreneurial community and have proximity to the keen minds at Georgia Tech. I would recommend ATDC to any technology startup company in Georgia.”
About ATDC:
The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) serves as the hub for technology entrepreneurship in Georgia. Founded in 1980, ATDC helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build successful technology companies. Through business incubation and acceleration services, ATDC has supported the creation of hundreds of high tech companies that have raised more than a billion dollars in outside financing. Headquartered in Atlanta’s Technology Square, ATDC members benefit from a close proximity to Georgia Tech and connections with other Georgia research universities.
Media Relations Contact: E-mail: John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail (john.toon@innovate.gatech.edu).
Georgia Tech to Begin Offering Government Contract Training in Atlanta
Georgia Tech is helping the federal government address a critical need for government contract training by launching The Contracting Education Academy, a Defense Acquisition University (DAU) equivalency provider that will offer acquisition and public sector contracting for both the government and business communities. The Academy’s first course offering in July 2011 – Mission-Focused Contracting – is designed for personnel new to the contracting workforce or non-contracting personnel who play a role in the acquisition process and want to learn and apply problem-solving and negotiation skills.
Through interactive instruction and case studies, participants in this comprehensive, 10-day course will learn how government agencies:
- Complete a market research report;
- Develop a bid or proposal package;
- Evaluate proposals and award contracts;
- Monitor contractor performance, apply remedies and make proper contract payments; and
- Modify contracts, exercise options and complete the contract closeout process.
Rhonda Lynch, project manager for The Academy, points out that Mission-Focused Contracting is the capstone course for Level I federal contracting professionals as well as for all non-contracting personnel who play a role in the acquisition process.
“The beauty of this class is that it is applicable to both government and industry purchasing,” Lynch said. “This course engages the participant in the entire acquisition process, from meeting with the customer to completing the contract closeout process. Contracting officials and members of the contracting community alike will have the unique opportunity in this class to sit side-by-side to learn how the government acquisition process works.”
Stephen Fleming, the vice president and executive director of Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²), says that the idea for the Academy began last year as an outgrowth of a range of services offered to the government and business sectors.
“There are record high retirements from federal ranks and the number of jobs is increasing, so there is a huge demand for these classes,” he observed. “Every federal agency is represented in Atlanta, so in these budget-conscious days, having The Academy in the southeast can greatly reduce travel budgets.”
Within the first six months of operation, The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech was recognized by the DAU as an official equivalency provider of DAU course work. This is especially significant for at least two reasons. Since federal contracting professionals are required to obtain a certain amount of hours of contract training annually to keep their jobs, those located in Atlanta will not have to travel far to obtain training. Whereas local agencies and businesses view The Academy as a welcome resource for superior and convenient training, there is quite a bit of interest from prospective students outside of Georgia.
A chance to train at Georgia Tech, the availability of classroom seats, and the ease of access to the city of Atlanta are just three of the many pluses for The Academy. In addition, The Academy’s DAU-equivalent classes satisfy both the Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C) and Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) certification programs, which means contracting officials from any federal agency will receive credit toward their training requirements.
To register for The Academy’s inaugural class and subsequent classes, please visit http://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/training/. More information about The Academy, including training offerings and services, can be found on the web site at www.contractingacademy.gatech.edu or by contacting Rhonda Lynch at 404-894-6109 or rhonda@contractingacademy.gatech.edu.
About Enterprise Innovation Institute:
The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute helps companies, entrepreneurs, economic developers and communities improve their competitiveness through the application of science, technology and innovation. It is one of the most comprehensive university-based programs of business and industry assistance, technology commercialization and economic development in the nation.
Enterprise Innovation Institute
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA
Media Relations Contact: E-mail: John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail (john.toon@innovate.gatech.edu).
Writer: Nancy Fullbright
Georgia Tech Wins Cooperative Agreement to Operate MBDA Business Center
The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2) was recently awarded a U.S. Department of Commerce cooperative agreement to operate the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Business Center. Formerly known as the Georgia Minority Business Enterprise Center (GMBEC), the MBDA Business Center will expand its focus to help minority business enterprises expand their global footprint, scale up through acquisition, and develop more teaming and strategic alliances to secure larger contracts.
The MBDA Business Center will also be launching an entrepreneur-in-residence program with Mark Wilson, an entrepreneur, investor and business leader focused on nurturing business innovation and applying his expertise to help guide others. He is the founder and former CEO of Ryla, Inc., a nationally-recognized customer support and contact center with more than 5,000 employees and revenues in excess of $100 million. Wilson was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award® for 2010 and TiE Atlanta’s 2010 Entrepreneur of Year.
“The Georgia Minority Business Enterprise Center – now the MBDA Business Center – will continue to play a vital role in facilitating the growth of both emerging and established minority businesses in Georgia,” noted Stephen Fleming, Georgia Tech vice president and executive director of EI2. “Minority business owners in Georgia will now have even more resources at their fingertips to innovate and improve their competitiveness.”
The MBDA Business Center provides business and technical assistance that helps emerging and existing minority business enterprises (MBEs) experience significant growth and sustainability, and have long-term economic impact through the creation of jobs and revenue. Part of a national network of centers established to increase the number of MBEs and strengthen existing ones, MBDA provides services in business assessment, access to capital and finance management, access to markets, strategic business consulting and business process improvement.
Georgia Tech has operated the Minority Business Enterprise Center (MBEC) since 2004 when it won the first cooperative agreement. The second award was in 2007 and the April 2011 cooperative agreement will make the third time Georgia Tech has competed for and won this award. Since its establishment, the Center has helped minority businesses in Georgia create more than 3,200 jobs and generate more than $400 million in finance, contracts and sales.
For more information on MBDA services offered by Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, contact Donna Ennis (404-894-2096); E-mail: (donna.ennis@innovate.gatech.edu); Web site: (www.georgiambc.org).
About Enterprise Innovation Institute:
The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute helps companies, entrepreneurs, economic developers and communities improve their competitiveness through the application of science, technology and innovation. It is one of the most comprehensive university-based programs of business and industry assistance, technology commercialization and economic development in the nation.
Enterprise Innovation Institute
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA
Media Relations Contact: E-mail: John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail (john.toon@innovate.gatech.edu).
Writer: Nancy Fullbright
ATDC Company Pindrop Wins Prestigious Business Competition
Pindrop Security, a member of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), recently won the 2011 GRA/TAG Business Launch Competition, sponsored by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and Georgia Research Alliance (GRA). The Atlanta startup will receive $50,000 cash and more than $200,000 in donated services from the Atlanta business community to help the business grow. Pindrop Security offers a unique Caller ID technology that authenticates callers through the “fingerprint” of the phone call making financial and other transactions over the phone more secure.
“Winning the prize feels great, particularly because there were 88 other great companies competing for it. It provides validation for the technology, the efforts of the team and the market potential,” said Balasubramaniyan. “The team at ATDC, including Keith McGreggor, Roberto Casas, Nina Sawczuk and Lance Weatherby, have been really helpful in guiding us through these initial stages. The space, the advice and the events all provide great resources for any startup.”
Pindrop was founded by Vijay Balasubramaniyan, chief technology officer and a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, and Mustaque Ahamad, chief scientist and director of the Georgia Tech Information Security Center. Together with Patrick Traynor, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, they developed the technology that formed the basis of the company through Georgia Tech’s VentureLab program, a one-stop center for technology commercialization that provides a clear pathway from laboratory innovation to the commercial market.
Originally called “PinDr0p,” the technology works by analyzing audio imprints left on calls by the multiple networks — cellular, voiceover IP, public switched telephone networks — through which they travel. It uses these imprints to positively identify the calling phone with high accuracy. Equally important is that the identification is made within 15 seconds of initial call placement.
“Pindrop is a great technology startup out of Georgia Tech with a powerful solution in the security space – a next generation caller ID,” said Nina Sawczuk, ATDC general manager. “They recently moved into the Centergy building at ATDC and have assembled a strong board to support them as they move forward toward commercialization. The recognition and prize money will accelerate their growth.”
The other finalists Soket, AuditMyBooks and ViscidTech – all ATDC member companies as well – will split the remaining $200,000 in pro bono services. Services include legal counsel, professional consulting, marketing, software and even real estate space. They have been donated to the final participants in a way to not only help ensure their success, but to assist in connecting the Atlanta entrepreneurial community with established businesses.
This year’s event also featured a “People’s Choice Award.” The more than 130 participants that took part in the final competition voted using the TAG Entrepreneurs Mobile App for their favorite presentation. Soket, a company that focuses on online promotions that offer local organizations a place to manage, monitor and make sense of promotional efforts on the web, was the proud recipient of the first annual People’s Choice Award.
Judges for the final round of the 2011 Competition included Ron Vern, former CEO of Sage Software; Allen Moseley, General Partner at Noro-Moseley Partners; Wayne Hunter, Managing Partner, Harbert Venture Partners (Roanoke, VA); John Glushik, Investment Team, InterSouth Partners (Durham, NC); and Tripp Rackley, Technology Entrepreneur and 2010 Inductee to the Georgia Technology Hall of Fame.
The competition, now in its sixth year, facilitates connections between the younger entrepreneurial community and the more seasoned entrepreneurs, with the initial applications being screened by an experienced panel of entrepreneurs, and the most promising applicants being assigned a mentor for the duration of the competition. Participants are also connected to the investor community, with out-of-state venture capital companies being represented among the judge’s panel and a multitude of angel and venture capital investors in attendance at the event. For more information visit: http://www.tagonline.org/businesslaunch.php.
About Technology Association of Georgia:
The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) is the leading technology industry association in the state, serving more than 13,000 members and hosting over 170 events each year. TAG serves as an umbrella organization for 30 industry societies, each of which provides rich content for TAG constituents. TAG’s mission is to educate, promote, and unite Georgia’s technology community to foster an innovative and connected marketplace that stimulates and enhances a tech-based economy. The association provides members with access to networking and educational programs; recognizes and promotes Georgia’s technology leaders and companies; and advocates for legislative action that enhances the state’s economic climate for technology. Additionally, the TAG Education Collaborative (TAG’s charitable arm) focuses on helping science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education initiatives thrive. For more information visit the TAG website at www.tagonline.org or TAG’s community website at www.TAGthink.com. To learn about the TAG-Ed Collaborative visit http://www.tagedonline.org/.
About Georgia Research Alliance:
A model public-private partnership of Georgia’s research universities, business and state government, the Georgia Research Alliance helps build Georgia’s technology-rich economy in three major ways: through attracting Eminent Scholars to Georgia’s research universities; through helping create centers of research excellence and through converting research into products, services and jobs that drive the economy. To learn more about GRA, visit www.gra.org.
About ATDC:
The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) serves as the hub for technology entrepreneurship in Georgia. Founded in 1980, ATDC helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build successful technology companies. Through business incubation and acceleration services, ATDC has supported the creation of hundreds of high tech companies that have raised more than a billion dollars in outside financing. Headquartered in Atlanta’s Technology Square, ATDC members benefit from a close proximity to Georgia Tech and connections with other Georgia research universities. To learn more about ATDC, visit www.atdc.org.
Media Relations Contacts: E-mail: John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail (john.toon@innovate.gatech.edu).
Georgia Research Alliance Regaining Its Sea Legs
After seeing its budget slashed during the last legislative session, the Georgia Research Alliance appears to be regaining favor among state leaders. The board of the Georgia Research Alliance passed a resolution May 12 to support the integration of Georgia Centers of Innovation with the Georgia Research Alliance. The Centers of Innovation were launched in 2003 by the state to provide technological support to businesses and startups. Currently, there are six Centers of Innovation in the fields of aerospace, logistics, agribusiness, energy, life sciences and advanced manufacturing. “The centers were envisioned as being a bridge between these industry clusters and the universities,” said Mike Cassidy, president of the Georgia Research Alliance. The alliance was founded nearly 21 years ago as a partnership between the state’s six research universities — Georgia Tech, Emory University, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Health Sciences University (formerly the Medical College of Georgia) and Clark Atlanta University — and the state’s top business leaders.
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2011/05/20/georgia-research-alliance-regaining.html (Subscription required*)
Vendormate: Reducing Risk Through Improved Credentialing
2010 was a banner year for Vendormate as the ATDC graduate company captured the No. 25 spot on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing U.S. companies, making it the highest-ranking software company on the list. In another major coup, in December 2010 the company landed a significant investment from Primus Capital, a Cleveland-based private equity firm, which will position Vendormate for additional growth.
Launched in 2005 by Andy Monin, Vendormate provides a unique credentialing solution that enables health care, banking and other clients to better manage supplier networks and reduce the risk of partnering with fraudulent, illegitimate or fiscally irresponsible vendors. Vendormate’s patented software system screens both new and existing vendors to make sure they meet client requirements and comply with government mandates and regulations, such as HIPPA and Medicare’s and Medicaid’s fraud list.
Admitted to ATDC in March 2006, Vendormate marked Monin’s second tour through Georgia Tech’s startup accelerator. Prior to Vendormate, Monin co-founded BroadSource, a telecommunications expense management company that ATDC incubated from 2003 to 2005. “One of the reasons I wanted to take Vendormate through ATDC was because of the value we got with BroadSource,” Monin said.
Monin estimates that Vendormate received more than $250,000 of cash impact from ATDC membership. This reflects consulting services, the ability to attract talented employees, a $25,000 unsecured line of bank credit, access to office space at reasonable rents — and the flexibility to move into larger quarters as the startup needed more elbow room. Indeed, Vendormate made four moves during its two-year tenure in ATDC as the software company grew from five employees to a staff of 45 when it graduated in May 2008.
In addition, ATDC was able to accommodate Vendormate for several weeks after its graduation while Monin worked out a sublease for office space in Buckhead. As part of its lease agreement, Vendormate received $140,000 worth of office furniture and artwork. “It was an amazing deal, but one we wouldn’t have gotten unless we could be patient about the move-in date. Thanks to ATDC, we were able to wait,” Monin said.
Yet what Monin considers the greatest benefit of ATDC was the sense of community it provides to members. “When there are five people in your company, and you’re sitting in cubes in an office complex in Norcross, it’s hard to build a strong company culture,” Monin says. “At ATDC our team got to be in an environment where they didn’t feel all alone and could learn from other entrepreneurs. The casual conversations that happen on the way to the soda machine, when you could talk to other people about whatever pain you were going through, were priceless.”
ATDC also hosts numerous events to accelerate peer learning, from brown bag luncheons with outside speakers to confidential CEO roundtables.
Monin fondly recalls those CEO roundtables. “They were unbelievable networking events,” he said. “Although we were in different vertical industries, you could get fast answers to so many questions, from HR issues to what it costs to do a series A round of funding. While we were at ATDC, our CTO even started a roundtable for other CTOs because I kept saying how valuable the CEO roundtables were for me.”
In fact, the ATDC culture was so ingrained in Vendormate that its management team has replicated some of the incubator’s events. “In celebration of our new digs, Gil Benton and Jeff Beck went out and bought a giant popcorn machine so we could continue to have Popcorn Thursdays,” Monin said, referring to a weekly networking event at ATDC. There’s just one switch: Instead of a different ATDC entrepreneur making a presentation each Thursday, someone in a different Vendormate department discusses what’s going on in his or her area. “It’s a great way for people to feel connected now than our staff has grown to more than 100 employees,” Monin said.
Vendormate has been focusing on the health care market since 2006. Today more than 1,200 hospitals use its flagship product, including such prestigious institutions as John Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic and Harvard University.
Intent on capturing even greater market share, Vendormate introduced two new products in 2010:
- IDConfirm, a solution that tracks credentials and monitors compliance for hospital staff, volunteers and medical students.
- VisitorConfirm, a badging application that enables hospitals to document visitors’ entry and create identification badges for them. It also visually screens visitors for health risks, such as fever, so hospitals can deny access for someone who may be ill.
“This is something no one has done before,” Monin said, referring to the new badging solution. “Having a process for tracking visitors provides better physical security — and demonstrates the hospital’s commitment to patient safety. Hospitals need to know who is roaming their halls. You can’t have 40 people in the same room visiting grandma and expect to have patient care under control.”
In addition to expanding his company’s presence in the health care arena, VisitorConfirm will be key to entering new industries and achieving future growth, Monin said. Vendormate is already providing its badging solution to a private school in Atlanta.
Photo caption: Andy Monin, CEO of Vendormate, considers the greatest benefit of ATDC the sense of community it provides to members.
Research News & Publications Office
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314
Atlanta, GA 30308 USA
Writer: T.J. Becker
ATDC to Graduate Nine Startups
Tech business incubator Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) will graduate nine companies this year, bringing to 135 the number of early-stage technology firms it has helped launch and build since 1986.
The new graduates will be recognized during ATDC’s annual Startup Showcase, May 9 at 1:30 pm in Technology Square.
Read more: ATDC to graduate nine startups | Atlanta Business Chronicle
ATDC Company Urjanet Helps Companies Manage Energy Spend and Reduce Carbon Footprint
When serial entrepreneur Sanjoy Malik started a company to provide energy data, he knew exactly where to turn for assistance. His earlier telecommunications companies, Air2Web and Synchrologic, are both graduates of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a startup accelerator that helps Georgia’s technology entrepreneurs launch and build successful companies.
In late 2009, Malik started his latest company – Urjanet – through Georgia Tech’s VentureLab program, a one-stop center for technology commercialization that provides a clear pathway from laboratory innovation to the commercial market. Malik worked with Sham Navathe of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing and Ravi Subramanian of the College of Management in the areas of data modeling, database design and mining, and energy-related analytical decision modeling.
“We basically started in VentureLab, but once we were ready to come out of that phase, we began talking to ATDC, and they were kind enough to rent us some space and let us become one of their companies,” Malik recalled. “Our research partnership with Georgia Tech has helped us create and bring new technology to market to create some the industry’s most innovative products.”
Urjanet enables large-scale energy consumers to better manage company-wide power usage, meet carbon reduction goals and evaluate potential power investments, including investments in solar and wind. The product – UBus – is a scalable data service that provides easy access to static and real-time data sources. It collects and compiles energy information from multiple sources, and delivers it directly to customer applications and dashboards through a user interface that can measure ROI of energy investments.
With rising energy prices and increasing regulations, Malik says the timing is right for a company like Urjanet. For instance, British retail giant Tesco wants to cut its supply chain emissions by 30 percent by 2020, Cox Enterprises has set a goal of reducing its company-wide carbon footprint 20 percent by 2017 and telecommunications company BT plans to reduce absolute emissions by 80 percent by 2016, compared to its 1997 baseline. But businesses that want to optimize energy use and implement green initiatives are facing a critical gap in data needed to fully implement energy programs.
“Companies want to reduce energy costs by making better purchasing decisions,” noted Malik. “We can help them have complete insight into how their purchase plans affect overall cost and deliver accurate and detailed energy usage and market information required to make those decisions.”
UBus collects, consolidates, analyzes and delivers data related to energy and carbon. The platform collects data from varied sources like utilities, smart meters and energy management software, processes this data, and then delivers the information via a standard interface to customer applications such as appliances, energy monitors, dashboards and analytical and reporting tools. The subscription-based service is available as a monthly, weekly, daily or transactional service. Target customers are organizations that spend millions of dollars a year on electricity and natural gas and have multiple business locations.
The first version of UBus was released at the end of the second quarter of 2010, and three large blue-chip companies have signed on as customers. The year-old company is currently obtaining energy data from many sources, including U.S. electric utilities, and expects to have several thousand utility data connections within the next 18 months. Just this month, Cox Enterprises announced a partnership with Urjanet to track its national energy usage and costs for approximately 30,000 accounts spread across 190 utilities in the United States and Canada.
Urjanet has received funding from Imlay Investments, the National Science Foundation and the Georgia Research Alliance. The company currently has nine employees and is based in Georgia Tech’s Technology Square. Malik says that ATDC lends credibility to his startup business.
“ATDC has always been a good nurturing environment for early-stage companies,” Malik said. “That’s important, especially in a recession. Having ATDC behind us is like a pillar of strength, a sign to outside people that this very respected organization believes in our company.”
About ATDC:
The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) serves as the hub for technology entrepreneurship in Georgia. Founded in 1980, ATDC helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build successful technology companies. Through business incubation and acceleration services, ATDC has supported the creation of hundreds of high tech companies that have raised more than a billion dollars in outside financing. Headquartered in Atlanta’s Technology Square, ATDC members benefit from a close proximity to Georgia Tech and connections with other Georgia research universities.
Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail (john.toon@innovate.gatech.edu).
Encouraging Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Savannah
Encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation at the local level is one strategy for building a successful and thriving community. To that end, The Creative Coast recently co-hosted FastPitch 2011. Our partners were ATDC (the Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Tech Savannah) and the Center for Entrepreneurial Learning & Leadership at Georgia Southern University. Entrepreneurs and startups from throughout the region were invited to submit applications to compete. We received more than 100 applications, and 45 were selected as competitors for the program. The majority of our participants were local, butwe hosted competitors from as far away as Charleston, Atlanta, and Jacksonville.
http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2011-04-12/stop-brain-drain-savannah