Atlanta Startup Podcast

Atlanta Founder Shep Ogden discovered his passion for marketing and media in college where he started out helping small businesses augment their marketing. Today, he's founded and scaled Offbeat Media Group , a leading digital influence and media company that owns, builds, and brokers the largest native social media network of publishers and virtual influencers. Offbeat leverages its 1B+ foll...

Get to know Sed Joseph of StageWing and Gbenga Arotiba of GoodAction as they tackle what it takes to build a startup and why your team and support systems are key. In this episode with Mecca Tartt, Executive Director of Startup Runway Foundation, they talk about the peaks and valleys along with the passion needed to push through even when you’ve experienced a crushing moment. The secret sauce for...

Georgia-based founders Katherine Shayne of CIRT , Anthony Joiner of Blooksy , and Robert Grant of Revealaroo have bottled the key to pivoting during challenging times. They have all birthed companies that provide a solution to a major problem. Blooksy has found its way to becoming one of the most sought-after platforms for universities and writers. CIRT is saving our ecosystem by providing a solut...

Every day hundreds of new startups are launched, but it takes a market disruptor to pitch and win! How do you know that your startup has the "It Factor"? Meet Timothy Min with Supercopy, Vanessa Sachs with SWAKE, and Elissa Russell with READI, the 18th Startup Runway Showcase Winners judged by William Leonard, Investor at Valor Ventures, Jonathan King, Principal at Coinbase Ventures, Van...

Atlanta Founder Jonathan Porter is building PorterLogic , a flexible low-code solution aiming to turbocharge complex operations for supply chain teams. Jonathan spent time early in his career leading operations at supply chain firms like Manhattan Associates before he transitioned to consulting for himself, where the idea for PorterLogic ultimately came about. In this episode, Jonathan breaks down...

DataSeers is an Atlanta-based fintech building at the intersection of financial crime mitigation and AI. Led by CEO Adwait Joshi , DataSeers has grown as an entirely bootstrapped startup and was named one of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies by Inc 5000 in 2022. We hear from Adwait the exact blueprint he’s followed to scale DataSeers without investor capital and the advantages that come...

With over $2B in assets under management, Drive Capital is a significant lead venture capital firm focused on backing startups between the coasts. On today’s episode, we’re joined by one of Drive’s newest General Managers, Avoilan Bingham , who is opening their new Atlanta office. Avoilan writes $500K checks for visionary pre-seed founders seeking to innovate in billion-dollar markets. Avoilan sha...

Join Jonathan King , Principal at Coinbase Ventures , as he reveals essential perspectives on how Coinbase became one of crypto's busiest VCs. Coinbase Ventures seeks to invest in an early-stage company operating in the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology sectors. In this episode, you'll learn what's ahead for the crypto world in the Atlanta area and what Coinbase Ventures is l...

Meet De’Havia Stewart, an early-stage FinTech investor at Anthemis, where she is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and executing deals of pre-seed to Series A startups. Anthemis Group is an early-stage venture capital firm based in London, UK, with $1.5BN+ in AUM. De'Havia previously worked at Softbank, supported the SoftBank Opportunity Fund, and helped deploy $100M+ into black and brown...

Meet Stefanie Diaz, Manager of Industry Discovery and Research at Catalyst by WellStar. WellStar is Georgia's largest healthcare system. Catalyst is a First-of-its-Kind Global Digital Health and Innovation Center right here in Atlanta looking to invest in and engage with early-stage startups. Learn how they invest in this must-listen episode for early-stage founders. This week, join Valor at...

Atlanta founder Hannah Olson was forced quit her dream job due to Lyme Disease. But she didn't let this setback halt her entrepreneurial aspirations. Today as the CEO and Co-founder of Disclo , she's the visionary behind the compliance platform managing employee disclosures and helping organizations meet employee needs in a HIPAA and ADA-compliant manner. Research shows over 133 million...

The Plug and Play Tech Center is making waves in Georgia. As the largest innovation platform in the world, they're focused on the brightest startups building the future of supply chain, retail, eCommerce, fintech, digital health, and more. Director of Corporate Partnerships Jessica Vargas and Senior Director of Enterprise Technology Nate Hinman join William on the podcast for a rich conversat...

Get to know seed and Series A investor Steve Hasty of Circadian Ventures, an Atlanta investor. He talks about his introduction to venture capital in Atlanta and how helpful a chance connection with John Yates was in his journey. Plus, learn more about how to apply for grants that will be presented December 15 by the Startup Runway Foundation. Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Va...

EARLY RELEASE to help you prep for INNOVATION WEEK next week! Meet Jennifer Richard, an investor with Bonfire Ventures, focuses on SMB tech, vertical SaaS, and "anything led by a woman or a diverse founder." Interviewed by Valor investor Wiliam Leonard, Jennifer is working out of a $168M core fund to lead seed rounds and looking hard at the Atlanta ecosystem, where Bonfire has already le...

Atlanta's at it again--changing the world. Valor investor William Leonard catches up with Atlanta CEO and co-founder of Yellow Card Chris Maurice in this exciting ep. Yellow Card started by creating a better micro-payments infrastructure in Nigeria, a country that is on pace to be larger than the US by 2050. When they met Valor in 2020, we loved it--and so did Andreessen Horowitz, who led the...

The first JP Morgan Atlanta Techstars just launched two weeks ago! Hear how this accelerator brings a uniquely Atlanta focus to helping startups scale. Managing Director Melissa Pegus shares how the accelerator is designed to provide equitable for all and particularly support for Black, Hispanic and Latino, Indigenous American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs. The accelerator is focused on explo...

Jeff Richards, CEO and founder of SnapNurse, leads the 2nd fastest growing company in America. He cut this podcast 2 days after that news was broken by Inc. You'll enjoy hearing his fresh take, including how he walked out of the door at Grady passionate about changing healthcare for the better. . Learn how he went about it and SnapNurse's exciting trajectory in this intimate conversation...

As the region gears up for Venture Atlanta, Valor investors Lisa Calhoun, Gary Peat, Robin Bienfait and William Leonard discuss the current state of venture capital locally, including the seed stage deal volume, the trend in seed capital valuations and more. They discuss local firms including Valor, Knoll, Collab, Tech Square Labs, Fearless Fund and more, mentioning specific outside investors the...

In this can't-miss conversation with co-host Mecca Tartt, get to know Maria Velissaris, the founder and managing partner of the largest women's healthcare fund ---Steelsky Ventures. Steelsky is based in Atlanta and invests at Series A. Maria shares how she got started as an investor, her passion and purpose, what she looks for when she writes a check, and how she got inspired to launch h...

Meet Patrick Reynolds, the man connecting tech startups to the Department of Defense. Based in Atlanta, Patrick scouts tech and talent as the university representative for Georgia through the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN). We sit down with Patrick who shares the numerous ways NSIN supports startups, the misconceptions of working with the DoD, what he looks for when scouting talent, a...

Atlanta influencer turned founder Cynthia Ruff is building Hashtag Pay Me, the software helping creators and influencers appropriately price content. Incubated in Georgia Tech’s startup accelerator Create-X, Cynthia is building her startup from over a decade of content creation experience. In this energetic episode, learn why she turned down early investor capital to bootstrap Hashtag Pay Me, the...

Paul D'Arrigo, co-founder at logistics and warehouse startup Saltbox, is a 2003 Georgia Tech grad. In this converstion, learn how he believes ecommerce is changing now, and how his background at UPS shape Saltbox's vision to create more billion-dollar ecommerce businesses. Saltbox is based in Atlanta and backed by several venture investors, including Metaprop, Kapor Capital and Prologis....

Founder Akshita Iyer is rethinking the kitchen, and it's an exciting journey. This Duke University founder took her startup onto Shark Tank, turned down $800K in early stage investment, and made the tough decision to move to Atlanta. Find out how Akshita is thinking about building smart, interactive cooking appliances. You'll also learn where Valor is this week, including a few days in T...

Nick Santora just sold his cybersecurity training platform Curricula to Huntress for $22M. Get his impressions of the journey and lessons learned while bootstrapping. Nick dives into how he got here and how he evaluated acquisition offers. If you're building software in the South, this is a must-listen deep dive with host William Leonard. Let's take this conversation to real time. Join V...

Founder Chris Cherian of Gatherly credits his girlfriend, who set up a Zoom birthday party for him during the pandemic, with inspiring the product that became Gatherly. Since then, the Georgia Tech Create-X startup Gatherly has raised its seed round from Knoll Ventures. Join this episode to hear the inside story of an Atlanta startup that leaped out of the pandemic to solve a big problem. Let&apos...