Laura Rich at FastCompany published a great article today on Why You Should Start A Company in… Atlanta.

I’ve lived and worked in & out of Atlanta since 1981 – I’m passionate about this town, the quality of life here, and so much that it has going for it.  I know Alan Taetle at NMP and agree with a number of references in the article.  Unfortunately, here are several fundamental points Alan didn’t mention:

1. Lack of Ideas – Even with Tech and Emory in town, there are not enough compelling ideas being generated by intellectual curiosity and horsepower!  Wonder how many quality and quantity deals Alan has looked at in the past month?
2. Lack of Seed Funding – Atlanta has never been a strong capital market and we seem to lack visionary angel investors who are willing to put their money, experience and reputation behind budding entrepreneurs.  In the past Angels would fund early, promising ideas – now they’re looking for proven market validation, i.e. customers!  Wonder how many Angel deals of say less than $1M has been completed here in the last year?
3. Lack of Institutional Funding – ATDC can produce great ideas backed by decent entrepreneurs.  A handful maybe able to find Angel investors, but then what?  Without a robust and competitive venture capital community, how can these early stage firms mature and progress their vision?  Wonder of all of the deals Alan looked at last year, how many did NMP fund?  How many were co-syndicated by other local VCs?
4. Lack of Entrepreneurial Ecosystem – Detrimental to the entire picture is lack of any sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem. Unlike other regions where successful entrepreneurial exits tend to reinvest their green- and gray matters back into the market, Atlanta’s successful entrepreneurs retire to Lake Oconee or move on to real estate development, depriving the ecosystem from much needed fuel to support the next generation of ideas.
5. Lack of Leadership and Vision – The local business chronicle has yet to replace its technology staff writer from the last one they let go two years ago!  Leadership Atlanta seldom selects class members from the technology entrepreneur ranks.  The local technology association often confuses vibration with forward motion.  And our last several governors and mayors couldn’t spell technology if they tried.

Atlanta is an amazing town with some amazing people – unfortunately, a technology entrepreneurial Mecca, it’s not.  It’s about time we stopped kidding ourselves and started doing something about being seen as more than just the town that hosted the Olympics and home to Coke, UPS and Delta!

David Nour is CEO of the The Nour Group, Inc. and author of Relationship Economics (Wiley), ConnectAbility (McGraw-Hill), and The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Raising Capital (Praeger).

David Nour, the author of the book Relationship Economics, is one of the dynamic keynote speakers we have for you at SM@RT 2010.  David is going to be an informative and engaging speaker. His message on how you can use social media tools to enhance the value of relationships to grow your business and improve your organization makes him the ideal keynote for our conference on social media for business. You don’t want to miss David Nour!

And if you register for the conference before November 1, you will also receive a pre-conference webinar from David Nour as part of your registration. So register NOW for SM@RT 2010!

We hope to see you in beautiful Reno-Tahoe this December.

Have you noticed a recent trend of business executives trying to explain their companies’ sudden failure resort to the perfect storm metaphor?  Give me a break!  Its amazing to think how many people actually buy into this nonsense.  Isn’t it interesting that what a ship went through in an extremely rare and unusual collision of three weather systems has become an excuse for poor judgment, lousy leadership, and abuse of the facts?

Not to mention a complete disregard for their most valuable asset  their portfolio of relationships, their reputation capital and professional net worth.

"With Twitter Power, Joel Comm demonstrated how to build and nurture productive digital relationships. With KaChing, he teaches how to tap into your passions and create online revenue streams via several compelling models. If you’re serious about creating revenue online, without having to live online, read this book and apply its best practices." —David Nour, bestselling author of Relationship Economics and ConnectAbility

Buy here:

KaChing: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays

Looking forward to reconnecting with friends like Bryan Silbermann at the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Fresh Summit in October.

Join us in Orlando if you can – learn more here.

Best,

David

In 2010, one of our fundamental recommendations to clients of varying sizes and industries is to Get Creative!

    * Get creative in how you engage current prospective clients
    * Get creative in your suite of products or services and particularly the perceived value-add you deliver
    * Get creative in where you identify great talent and the creative manner in which you put that talent to use

One way to encapsulate enormous amount of creativity is to focus your efforts on reinventing your business model.