1/ Last night I tweeted that Atlanta is on absolute fire. 2,300+ liked the tweet. There’s a special energy building here. So what is going on in this “overnight success hub”? Hint - it’s been 15 years in the making. Time for a thread https://twitter.com/RomeenSheth/status/1329244062860324864

2/ Atlanta has historically been a Fortune 500 town. Today Atlanta is home to 26 F1000 companies (16 F500) - household names like @UPS, @Delta, @CocaCola. All have been instrumental to “increasing the size of the pie” - these companies cumulatively do $500B+ in revenue annually.

3/ ATL has had tech success, but it's been few and far between. Meanwhile, something deeper has been happening. Specialized expertise has been sewed into the city’s fabric - logistics, aerospace, retail, payments. Atlanta goes toe to toe with any other city on vertical expertise.

4/ But 2 things were missing: (1) consistent local success + (2) organization. The biggest thing I learned from my time in SF was the importance of community energy. Hypergrowth companies breed more hypergrowth companies. Organization turns potential energy into kinetic energy.

5/ The energy started shifting in '07. @cohnhead started Cloud Sherpas, @davempayne + @tavani started @scoutmob, @davidcummings started @Pardot. All successful outcomes, but more importantly these 3 (amongst MANY key others I haven’t listed!) started developing founder community.

6/ @davidcummings would go on to start @ATLTechVillage, which birthed @Calendly, @SalesLoft, @Terminus, @TeamRigor. @davempayne is one of the most founder friendly @techstars MDs in the country and @cohnhead went on to start @OverlineVC, of which @CoxEnterprises is a major LP.

7/ This same model is prevalent in the other winners - @AlanDabbiere sold Airwatch for $1.5B and co-founded @OneTrust ($2.5B); Johnson Cook co-founded @ATLTechVillage and is President of @GreenlightCard ($1B+); @pauljudge sold Cipher Trust and then started @pindrop ($1B+).

8/ This mindset shift was necessary, but not sufficient. It was the follow on effort of everyone in the community that poured absolute gas on the ecosystem. @TAGthink, @atlchamber, @ACEOCouncil, and many others built true community - amplifying resources, knowledge, connectivity.

9/ We started harnessing our greatest commercial assets (F500 ecosystem) - @engagevc started a fund with 10 Fortune 500s as LPs. Shoutout to @BlakePatton, @daleyervin, @thiagoolson and the team - and my good friends at one of their success stories, @The_Mom_Project.

10/ We used to lose the best @GeorgiaTech engineers to the Valley and NY. Now many of them stay in town. Empowering 17,000 engineers to build in ATL is infectious. The result is companies like @GetSTORD (shoutout @chadbyers, @lpolovets) and @Flock_Safety ( @Bedrock, @Initialized.

11/ And outsiders are taking notice. Turns out low cost of living, weather and downright good people are pretty attractive when you're deciding where to live. Atlanta has consistently been one of the top transplant cities in the country over the last 5 years.

12/ So what do you get when you get an engaged corporate community + 17,000 engineers (and awesome tech/non-tech talent from HBCUs like @Morehouse, @SpelmanCollege) the world’s busiest airport + successful founders pouring back into the ecosystem?

A world class tech hub.

13/ Excitingly, this has started to spin off a bunch of other cool stuff - @GoogleStartups is led by one of our own ( @jewelmelanie); @Opendoor opened HQ2 here and @pauljudge is co-leading the Opportunity Fund for @Softbank. I talk to 1 high growth Founder a week about ATL.

14/ Similarly many of my SF friends ask me to “help them identify the next best ATL company” to which I say - happily, but good luck! ATL is brimming with early stage funds - we have over 17 now, many of which have been started in the last 2 years. https://davidcummings.org/2020/07/11/atlantas-startup-community-brimming-with-early-stage-capital/

15/ So who else is super exciting I left off the original list?

@Mailchimp, @SalesLoft, @GetSTORD, @Flock_Safety, @Bakkt, @switchyards, @GetGreenzie, @Rubicon, @fullstory, @PadSplit, @RuralSourcing, and many many more.

Shoutout to @nickrmiller on the recent sale of Gather!

16/ This ecosystem is about to blow the lid off. It’s been slowly compounding year over year, not visible to others. So just remember, when over the next 5 years everyone talks about “how obvious it is that Atlanta is a tech hub”, remember it’s been 15+ years in the making.

17/ Shoutout to so many of my friends in ATL shaping the future they want to see: @ALewites, @JonnyBird, @davempayne, @tavani, @seanobrienATL, @nickrmiller, @cohnhead, @KatColeATL, @thakurster and countless others.

We're in for a hell of a ride. over the next 10 years.

Fin!