The Atlanta Story

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Joe Rogers Jr, Chairman of Waffle House.  In 1979, Joe brokered a deal earning him and the Rogers family controlling interest of the steadily growing Waffle House franchise. Under his leadership, Waffle House grew to over 1900 restaurants while emplo...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Fred Castellucci, President and CEO of Castellucci Hospitality Group .    Fred grew up in Atlanta before heading off to Cornell University. After interning in the consulting world, he quickly realized his heart was in the business of food. Upon retur...

Mayor Franklin served as Mayor from 2002 to 2010 and leaves an indelible legacy affecting every Atlantan today. In this episode we talk about her reputation as the mayor who cleaned our sewer system, had the political vision to act on the Beltline, and lessons she learned from her time working for Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young. We also learn how she has transitioned from public to private life...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Neal Cohen, Co-Founder of Tip Top Proper Cocktails.  Before starting a fast-growing cocktails in a can company, Neal was helping brands create unique experiences at Superfly. One particular industry he worked in was music festivals where he collabora...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Coach Mike Smith, former head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.   Mike or Smitty as locals know him, is the Falcon's winningest coach in franchise history by number of wins. In 2008 he was the recipient of the NFL Coach of the Year Award. In today's epis...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Ryan Hersh, Founder of Edison Bicycles .    Ryan scratched his own itch when his 4 mile commute in Atlanta took over 1 hour. Through trial and error, he built the first prototype of what would be the first Edison Electric Bike. Fast forward 5 years l...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Sandeep Ahuja , Co-Founder of cove.tool .    Sandeep's love for building and architecture started at a young age across several countries she lived in with her parents who were diplomats. After graduating from Georgia Tech's esteemed architecture pro...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with DL Warfield , Founder of Goldfinger Creative .   DL is a critically acclaimed creative designer and artist. After earning his degree in Painting from Washington University, he started his early career for Edison Brothers Stores as an intern and worke...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Jim Chasteen and Chad Ralston, the minds and marketing behind ASW Distillery .  After fiddling around in college, Jim and his college friend, Charlie Thompson decided to take the leap from corporate America and start making their own whiskey. After r...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Nick Miller , Co-Founder of Gather Technologies .    Nick started Gather with his Co-Founder Alex Lassiter almost 9 years ago but it didn't start out the way they imagined. After three pivots and on the verge of giving up, Nick and Alex forged ahead...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Brian Steely, Founder of Steely Works .    His start in the professional design world began when he sent an unsolicited tour design poster to the manager of Widespread Panic. Their interest and his new found calling sparked Steely's love for what he'...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Mike Jordan, Editor In Chief of Hypepotamus .  In today's episode we have Mike Jordan, writer and editor. Over his 20 year career Mike has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Atlanta Magazine, Creative Loafing, The Hunt...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Allie Kelly , Executive Director of The Ray .  The Ray is an 18 mile stretch of highway on I-85 in West Georgia. The Ray is a peachtree dish for innovation and experiments to make highways more safe and environmentally sustainable. In our conversatio...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Dr. Crawford Loritts , Senior Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church .  In addition to being the Senior Pastor, Dr. Loritts is the author of nine books, a speaker, a radio host, and board member of Chick-fil-A. In today's episode we discuss race in Americ...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Geoff Graham , Founder of GuildQuality . During his early career in residential development, Geoff found a niche service surveying homebuyers and their customer experiences with contractors. In 2002, he started GuildQuality, a software company making...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Asif Ramji , of Paymetric and Chief Growth Officer at FIS .  Asif took over a struggling Paymetric in 2009. At the time, the business was losing $2m a year. Fast forward 8 years later, with the financial backing of Francisco Partners, Asif sold the b...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Sara Irvani, CEO of Okabashi Brands . This American Made brand produces over two million shoes a year right out of Buford, Georgia. Sara took the reins as CEO of the multi-generational family business three years ago and hasn't looked back. In today'...

In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Derrick Hayes , Founder of Big Dave's Cheesesteaks .  Derrick named his growing cheesesteak company in honor of his late father. Six years ago, Derrick opened up his first shop outside of a gas station in Dunwoody, Georgia. Today, he has a line out the door at his downtown location and is soon opening in Chamblee. We also talk about how he's delivering f...

In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Garrett Langley , CEO & Founder of Flock Safety .  Garrett and his co-Founder Matt Feury started Flock Safety over three years ago with a mission to eliminate crime. They do this with their leading edge neighborhood license plate reader that provides police evidence to solve crime. Today, they have 65 employees, raised over $40 million dollars, and curre...

In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Hala Moddelmog , CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber.   Hala was born and raised in Georgia and began her career as a financial analyst at Arby's Restaurant Group. Over the years, she scaled the corporate ladder and busted glass ceilings becoming the first woman to lead an international restaurant company as the President of Church's Chicken. Hala transitio...

In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Chef Ron Hsu to talk about the genesis story behind his restaurant, the constant back and forth between chef and entrepreneur, and the decisions he made along the way to create some of Atlanta's best food.   The Atlanta Story is put together by the folks at Atlanta Ventures . Atlanta Ventures invests in entrepreneurs through community, content, and capit...

In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Tharon Johnson , CEO of Paramount Consulting Group . Tharon is a former campaign manager turned political strategist and in today's episode we talk about the strategies he implemented for Mayor Kasim Reed's come from behind win. We also discuss leadership insights about Congressman John Lewis from Tharon's perspective. And of course, we talk about all th...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong shares the vision of the podcast and why Atlanta Ventures has launched into the podcast space.  Sponsor information: The Atlanta Story is put together by the folks at Atlanta Ventures -- and we can't wait to share some of the personalities behind the brand. Atlanta...