Venture Atlanta, it is the big conference of the biggest region in the country. And so I’ve curated a handful of conversations to help you not only make sure you have a great time while you’re in Atlanta, but also really get a sense of some of the behind-the-scenes excitement from investors, corporate partners, and founders. Here are just a few conversations to help you get a taste of what’s on tap at Venture Atlanta. I look forward to seeing you there.
Alex Estevez with Accel, I am so glad you could make some time this afternoon to join me on
the Venture Atlanta special series of the Atlanta Startup Podcast. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Lisa. It’s great to be here.
It’s great to have you. Listen, how many times have you been to Venture Atlanta?
My first Venture Atlanta was 2014. And I had just moved back from the Bay Area. We’re a CFO at Atlassian. And moved back to the Southeast for family reasons. And I’ve been with Venture Atlanta on the board since 2015.
Wow. Lots of change. Lots of growth. Tell me a little bit about the arc of Venture Atlanta over the last decade. Because, as we both know, there are dozens of VCs coming in from the West Coast, the East Coast, makingVenture Atlanta a real destination again this year. But for a lot of them, it’s their first time, and they may not have a sense of the history of this institution.
Yeah. You know, a lot of us are similar to the arc of the tech and entrepreneurship scene in the broader Southeast ecosystem over the last decade, where you knew it was coming. And it’s been pretty amazing to see that progress and growth. During that time, it’s been a good environment for VCs. There’s been a lot of really good exits, like KnowBe4 or Sales Loft. They sold to Vista for $2.3 billion. Benefit Focus out of Charleston, for half a billion. PrizePix is a Venture Atlanta alum.
Amazing.
$4 billion. Yeah. I mean, $1.6 minority or majority takeover. Rhodey is going to be one of the speakers. They sold to UPS. So there’s been a lot of activity that’s happened over that period of time. And so Venture Atlanta has really kind of reflected that development and that growth over the last decade. And it’s been—you kind of knew it was coming—but it’s been awesome to see, especially how Venture Atlanta has just outperformed over that period of time. It is now, without question, the most important conference. If you’re doing business at all in the Southeast, this is the one you’ve got to go to. There’ll be over 400 investors, over 1,400 attendees. It usually sells out—the last several years it has. And so it’s the one you’ve got to go to. And just even the informalities of kind of meeting people in the hallways, you know, learning different funds—there are a ton of different corners of the investment universe.
The vibe is off the charts at Venture Atlanta because it’s just not only—it has a feeling of freshman rush combined with homecoming, all at the same time.
Yeah. And it’s neat to see, you know, some of the companies that have been through there, like it’s becoming more and more founder-centric or, you know, entrepreneur-centric. The mission’s always been like founders meet funders or, you know, companies meet capital. And that networking has always been central to the success of Venture Atlanta. But, you know, one of the winners of the pitch competition a couple of years ago just raised $29 million—Rainforest—this month. It’s been their Series B. And so the PrizePix was a Venture Atlantaa alum. So now it’s neat to see this kind of ecosystem of alums that are starting to give back.
You know, it’s fun. We’ve got three portfolio firms coming this year. We have a handful every year. They come, they raise a lot of money, they don’t need to come back for a while. Next thing you know, they’ve exited. It’s really a very business-forward, let’s-get-a-good-deal-done environment. I couldn’t agree more. Look, if you’re coming to Venture Atlanta for the first time, what would you recommend that a founder absolutely not miss and that a VC absolutely not miss?
Well, first of all, I’d recommend patience, and you’re not going to get a lot of rest. For the founders, it’s really clear to me. We now have eight exec sessions; we had four last year. This is a founder-only, CEO-only session to be open, vulnerable, ask questions back and forth with some outstanding executives that have been there and done it. You know, most of the executives—we have eight this year—most of them have had major exits in the past. There are some just amazing, amazing leaders that are going to be presenting. It’s only 50 seats for each session, so you need to sign up early. They will be closed out. But you should; there will not be investors in there. There won’t be service providers in there. It’s just founder to founder. And the idea is that it’s unstructured. It’s not recorded. There are no presentations. It’s Q&A. It’s awesome. And the desire is that you leave that room as a founder, you’ve got three ideas that day about how you can make your business better.
For VCs, you know, the thing that is interesting about—for me—is what happens on accident. You mentioned, like, in the hallways. Like, I’ll just be really—it’s a friendly conference. It’s an open conference. So I would just be curious about different investors that you meet. You’re going to see them everywhere. Introduce yourself. Ask them what they’re interested in. Ask them where they put their capital, what their fund winners are going to be. You’ll learn so much from that informality. And it’s a great environment for that kind of open, friendly kind of discourse.
Yeah, it is a beautiful environment. And I feel like you get some kind of an insight every 10 minutes if you’re doing it right. Yes. You know, for an introvert like me, it actually gets exhausting after a couple hours.
I’m the same.
Yeah. I take breaks. But I will say that might even be one of my tips for those of you that are—and a lot of VCs are—I’m INTJ. I take a little walk. I walk away. It’s in a beautiful environment. You can walk across to the High Museum. You can walk down the street and take in the Fox Theater. And you can walk right back when your head’s in the game and really meet another—oh, four dozen cool people. So it’s an environment that really allows that kind of walk-in, walk-out in a good way.
Alex Estevez
Yeah. I’m glad you said that. That’s my point around patience and pace yourself because you have plenty of time. But it can be overwhelming at first.
Lisa Calhoun
Well, and Accel is hosting an incredible after party, right? How does someone score a ticket to that?
Alex Estevez
Oh, that was very clever of you, Lisa. Thanks.
Lisa Calhoun
You know, I’m living by my wits. I don’t know what to say, Alex.
Alex Estevez
This is something that we’ve done every year since I’ve been involved. And the idea is just to give back to the community, especially the leaders and influencers of the community that have really been impactful. And it’s really just a way of saying thanks. So I’ll make sure that I have to double-check, but I’ll make sure that you’re on the list.
I really appreciate it. Well, and for those who might want to raise their hands, is there a way that they can raise their hands for your waitlist as you’re pulling it together?
Oh, I just would say I’d love to connect. And, you know, whether it’s there or any type of setting at the conference, I’d love to make that connection.
That’s really—that’s awesome. You guys, you heard it here. He’s absolutely serious. He’s very findable, especially on LinkedIn. What a generous offer. And what can the community of listeners do for you, Alex? What’s Accel looking for these days? What are you most curious about? What are some of the theses you have going?
There has been—this is a rare time—where there are a lot of startups globally that are growing to, you know, 100 with ambitions to a billion ARR in a very, very short period of time. So you’re seeing those points of inflection that are just pretty extraordinary. Like, it’s just not in my career that I have seen this kind of traction. And there are parallels to what’s happened in the past.
You’re going all the way back to the manufacturing revolution, the industrial revolution, going to the SaaS, you know, vertical SaaS.
I couldn’t agree—it’s on the level of that kind of revolution.
Yeah, it is significant. And I do think that there are going to be vertical SaaS, vertical AI opportunities that emerge. I think you’ve invested in several of them that are going to be at the conference. I think that that is something that’s interesting to me because I think it offers opportunities for regional centers to really thrive in an AI ecosystem. What’s happened in the last couple of years is all the energy has gone back to the Bay Area, back to the major hubs, because that’s the infrastructure of, you know, everything to work.
Well, it’s been critical for talent and capital, which were necessary in the previous era. But now, talent—there’s kind of a fuzzy line between the human talent, the embodied talent you need, and the digital talent that can augment it.
And so I agree that regions like the South, where there are economic booms in other areas, the highest rate of entrepreneurship regionally in the country, lowest unemployment regionally in the country—these things are changing the landscape very fast because of AI.
It’s fascinating.
Yeah. And so, just like it felt in 2014, I think there’s going to be a wave of opportunities in this that you’re going to see at the conference. And so that’s what’s interesting to me: to see, OK, part of the Accel thesis is you can do it anywhere. Who in this group is going to do it from Atlanta? Who’s the next, you know, Cal Lee or OneTrust or Greenlight or Pindo, you know, out of North Carolina or Stored?
Full story. I mean, there are a lot of these innovative companies that have come out of this ecosystem. Who’s next? And that’s pretty exciting to play that game.
It sure is. I’m excited about the conference, too. Alex, is there anything else I should have asked you that you’d like to share with the audience that’s prepping to come to Venture Atlanta and meet you there?
I would say: be curious and don’t be shy. And if you’re an introvert like both of us, pace yourself.
Will do.Thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate you. All right.
Thank you, Lisa. See you soon.
See you soon.
# # #
Lisa Calhoun
Will Bryan of Autonoma, I am so glad to see your face not in the Atlanta airport. Thanks for joining me for this Venture Atlanta special series on the Atlanta Startup Podcast.
Yeah, of course. Absolutely.
So listen, it’s been an absolute honor to have Valor lead your seed round. And since then, you have been literally off to the races, and it’s been incredible watching your smoke. For those who have not heard about what you’re doing in Autonoma, would you mind sharing a little bit about just the beginnings of your company, why you started it, and what it does today?
Yeah. Well, it all started, I guess, with a problem that I had myself. I was a researcher developing autonomous vehicles—self-driving cars, everything from, you know, robo taxis to semi-trucks on the highway. And then eventually, 180 mile-per-hour race cars with no driver. So it was all really exciting. You know, it’s a very cutting-edge area. But, you know, regardless of the application, we’re always running into the same problem. And that’s: testing in the real world was super expensive and dangerous. And testing in simulation was slow, clunky, and inaccurate. And it just didn’t translate.
So, you know, one concrete example of that is, you know, I was leading a team and we were developing this new control algorithm for a self-driving car. And we tested it, you know, hundreds of runs of simulation, and everything looked great. And then we get in the actual car, hit run. It’s driving down the road. I’m in the driver’s seat as the test driver. And out of nowhere, it tries to drive into a ditch, and, you know, obviously took over—and I’m still here today. But, you know, that’s just one example of kind of the daily experience developing complex robotics.
And so we just had this belief that there had to be a better way to do it. There had to be a way to make simulation match reality much closer. And so that was really the inspiration behind founding Autonoma. You know, it started in racing at 180 miles per hour and the technology and the learnings from that. But we wanted to bring it, you know, to commercial applications. And I figured if, you know, if it’s something that I could use, there’s probably at least one other wheel out there that might need the same thing. And, you know, that was the case. And we were able to get customers and start to expand.
And as we did, we really found that the problem we were solving—of testing and validating and de-risking complex operations—extended much further than autonomous vehicles. It applied to, you know, all parts of our society, whether that’s airports and airlines, where I happen to run into you all the time. Whether that’s in big cities with congestion, or whether that’s defense, where there’s, you know, complex logistics and robotic applications there as well. You know, that ability to have a virtual sandbox to test through new technologies—whether that’s robotics, whether that’s AI, whether that’s just optimizing operations—to do that before investing tons of capital or before, you know, having real-world deployment. So there’s a lot of risk. So that’s really the origin story and where we are today.
Well, your sales engine and momentum has really taken off. What kind of growth rate are you guys seeing now year over year?
Yeah, well, since the end of last year—not even a full year—in the last nine months, our ARR has actually tripled. So over 300% increase in ARR. And we’re really hoping to continue that momentum and close out the year really strong.
And from what I understand, your contracts—these are not the cheap seats. I mean, six figures, seven figures. What kind of contracts work in Autonoma these days?
Will Bryan
Yeah. So all of our contracts we’ve closed this year have been six- and seven-figure contracts, which is always fun. You know, it takes a lot of work to get those. But we think that, you know, it’s validation that we’re solving really important problems, you know, really difficult problems. And some of our new customers this year are, you know, very large organizations such as the U.S. Air Force, the Navy. On the defense side, we’re working with Delta and Cisco a lot. And then some, you know, cities—especially around Atlanta—like Peachtree Corners.
And so we’re just really excited that, as we’ve expanded beyond autonomous vehicles, which really started at the beginning of this year, we’re already picking up, you know, a lot of momentum and really starting to get a lot of the, you know, signals of product-market fit. And so we’re just trying to continue to double down and expand on that to, you know, validate that result.
Lisa Calhoun
You know, it’s a fascinating journey you’ve been on. And I’m curious: what is an insight you’ve had from your customers about the application of this type of high-fidelity testing environment that wasn’t even obvious, maybe, to you a year ago? I mean, maybe there isn’t anything like that. And I know I’m pushing, but I’m always so curious about insights from the real customer journey that develop as time goes by.
Yeah, I would say the biggest insider surprise is really into kind of the scale of what they want to test and validate. So when we’re working with, you know, an airport or an airline on, you know, optimizing some of the operations there, I don’t want to, you know, develop too much But, you know, it’s all about reducing delays, reducing, you know, canceled flights. It’s something that affects all of us—even, you know, even the best airlines, you know, have a lot of flights that are delayed. And a lot of that happens on the ground. It’s the operations. It’s not that they’re running into traffic in the skies. And so, you know, that’s something that we believe is a solvable problem. But to be able to fix those problems, you have to test and simulate at a massive scale. They can’t shut down an airport to test things. They can’t shut down Atlanta airport to test out, you know, something new like that. And so we can allow them to test days and weeks and months and, you know, maybe a year of simulation on what that looks like and what those effects are, and how, you know, weather is one of the biggest, you know, factors and things like that. How that can affect it.
And so, you know, it’s the scale at one location, but it’s also how the multiple locations interact—kind of the network effects, whether that’s an airport or whether that’s the Air Force. These are giant logistics operations moving between different places. And so, you know, there’s a lot of interest in how it— I mean, a seven-figure contract is great at one location, but then, you know, how does that scale up to every airport or every base, or, you know, if it’s logistics?
Well, let me ask you: I mean, one of the big benefits, right, is that you can kind of collapse time.
Even though you’re taking on as massive a scale as you have the data for, I think that the Autoverse, last time I was checking, was running at 20 times reality. Is it something along that nature today, or do I just misremember?
No, you’re remembering correctly, but it’s even better than that. So, you know, with some of our customers that are on the racing side, they’re running at more than 20 times faster than real time. But that’s us calculating everything at a thousand times per second, because it’s racing—it’s down to a fraction of a millimeter. When we’re talking about airports and bases and distribution centers, we don’t have to simulate at a thousand times per second. We can simulate it 10 times per second or one time per second. And so now, all of a sudden, we’re able to test, you know, a thousand times faster than real time.
Wow.
Or more.And we can run a bunch of those in parallel, you know, distributed. So you can run through a year of simulation in maybe hours or a day and test all kinds of variations. So now it’s not just, you know, one contingency or one edge case. But, you know, if this weather event happens, or if these things happen, how does that affect the whole system. And then testing through, you know, for an airline, it’s testing through what are all those cancellation packages or rerouting? And what’s that look like, and what has, you know, kind of the best outcome?
It’s one of the funny things about AI. You know, you read the consumer headlines, and they’re about, “Oh my God, AI is going to make decisions.” And I’m like, well, it might make some, but people have to make a lot more with AI. So, you know, everybody hold your horses. There’s plenty of decisions to be made because time is coming down. Anyway.
It’s all about helping people make the right decisions. And whether that’s a decision that AI—like an optimization that AI was able to come to—you still need to validate it before you disrupt our entire supply chain or transportation.
Oh, 100%. Well, listen, I know that you’ve got a ton going on, so I’m going to be really quick.
I’ve just got a couple more fast questions. One of them is on the road to Venture Atlanta. You know, we’ve got investors from both coasts, and a lot of them have not had the privilege of meeting a fast-scaling AI startup from Alabama before. In fact, I can imagine that they might say Alabama and sort of, like, choke on their coffee a little bit. Alabama, though, is the perfect place to launch this startup. And I wonder if I know you and I believe that. I wonder if you might say a little bit more about why Alabama has just been fantastic.
It’s a great question. And it’s one that we get. And I think when we don’t get it, people are probably thinking it and are just a little shy. But, yeah, it’s a great place. So we’re based out of Auburn, Alabama. But from the very beginning, we’ve been a global team. Our first, you know, employee was remote. And we’ve been working, you know, with customers that are based all over. So it’s not like we’re going after a customer base that is in one region. I mean, it’s a global customer base. And so from that perspective, it doesn’t matter where we are. We’re a little over an hour from Atlanta Airport. So we can get anywhere in the world really quickly.
You had a multinational customer base before we led your seed. I well remember. Because it was, I mean, when we did customer diligence.And it’s like, oh, no. I mean, this is the only thing that does what it does. We need it. We love it. We want it. Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, just being so closely located to Atlanta, which is also where I grew up. We’re right next to the university. Georgia Tech’s down the roads. There’s a ton of really good talent. And I would say that the talent that comes out of places like Georgia Tech and Auburn, you know, the top students are super, super smart. But they also have a mix of humility and scrappiness that I think makes them really dangerous. And then, yeah, I mean, just the ability to scale, be really capital efficient and work as a global team. So we’re about a 50-50 hybrid of people that are in office and remote. And it’s worked really well for us up to this point. It’s certainly working amazingly well.
And one final question, like a lot of AI startups, your revenue per person is extremely high. And I know that you prioritize that and you really focus on that. So capital isn’t necessarily one of your top three concerns. And that can put VCs a little bit on the back foot.
What are you really prioritizing when it comes to potential next investors to join you on the cap table?
Yeah. You know, I think that, obviously, if you decide to fundraise, you want the check. But, really, that money isn’t worth—I mean, that money goes away, and it’s temporary. What brings a lot more value is kind of that strategic investor that has experience in scaling up and helping, you know, software companies like us distribute around the world. You know, we think we’ve really validated a great, you know, ideal customer set. And so how do we go and take over every airport in the world, every city in the world, you know, all of the defense needs that we can serve? So, having those deep networks in infrastructure, government, transportation.
And I’d say, you know, the network is one piece, but also the understanding of how kind of public and enterprise sales work. It’s really slow. It’s painful. There’s a lot of minutia and process to it. So I think having that understanding, to be able to help us through those processes, to help us find those shortcuts and cheat—whether that’s through, I call it cheating, but, you know, whether that’s through a channel partner that maybe has a contract so you can avoid a 24-month procurement cycle because they’re already, you know, on paper, or, you know, selling through others or special types of contracts that can kind of speed up those procurement cycles.
I think, you know, that’s what we’re looking for: people that can help us get in. And once you’re in to these types of industries, these big contracts, the flip side is it’s really hard to get in, but it’s also really hard to get out. So it’s a really sticky product. We can provide a lot of value, and then you’re in there for the long haul. And, you know, I think what we’re solving—you know, you mentioned that it’s a global problem, a global customer base—but it’s also, I think, really important problems that affect all of us: traffic, delayed flights, you know, safety on the roads. All of those things, you know, impact basically everyone around the world.
And so we want to be able to scale it up. And so, from an investor, it’s someone who can strategically help us, you know, scale and work through some of those really big challenges in scaling up.
Well, you’ve certainly put a nice shopping list out there for VCs who would like to go shopping with you. So I love that. And I really appreciate your time. Is there anything you’d like to talk about before I let you go or that I should have asked?
I mean, no, I think you had great questions. Looking forward to seeing you in just a couple of weeks.And also, you know, making a lot of new connections at Venture Atlanta.I’m looking forward to it as well.
I will see you there. You have a great weekend ahead. And thanks for your time.
Thanks.
# # #
I am really excited for the Venture Atlanta special series to welcome Bianca Frails, Managing Director at Startup Runway, which is, of course, Fowler’s in-house secret sauce nonprofit. Bianca, tell us a little bit about Startup Runway and also a little bit about you and your role.
Sure. So Startup Runway, we are a nonprofit 501c3 foundation, and we host pitch competitions all across the South. Our footprint is from Virginia all the way to Texas. And we have founders from diverse backgrounds, and we help them get on their very first pitch stage. Our mission is to introduce them to their first investors, and we have a real stake on the line. There’s a $10,000 grant check that goes to the winner of a Startup Runway showcase. Like I said, we focus on minority and women founders, and we are trying to get them introduced to their first investors and really trying to bridge the gap of that runway.
I’ve been with Startup Runway for coming up on a year now, and it’s been a great journey. My background is in nonprofit program management, and being able to support these founders in their journey has been very rewarding, and I’m excited about what’s coming up next.
I am, too. I’m especially excited about this October 17th showcase that you’ve lined up at Cox Enterprises‘ corporate headquarters. Tell us a little bit more about the Venture Atlanta edition that’s less than three weeks away. I mean, how do people get involved? Why should they get involved? What’s going on?
So first off, all the information you need is on our website at startuprunway.org. We’re really honored to have Cox Enterprises hosting this showcase. They have been a longtime supporter of Startup Runway. They typically have their own checks that they give out at a showcase. We’re very excited to have this longstanding partner be a supporter for this upcoming event.
We’re going to have some mentors and judges straight from the Cox Venture team, and we’re very excited to have their support. It’s going to be in their beautiful rotunda at their Atlanta headquarters, and we are going to have founders in every vertical. A lot of times people think Startup Runway is just tech, but it’s not just tech. We have retail. We have software. We have a lot of medical devices come through Startup Runway. Any type of business that could be investable, we’d love to see them there.
Lisa Calhoun
So let’s break this down because the Venture Atlanta week is crazy busy. People are thinking about their time. I want to help them prioritize this if this is a fit for them. So let’s cut this two ways. If you’re a founder and you want to meet investors, maybe you didn’t make the application process. Are you welcome to come? How do you get there? What does that process look like? What does it cost?
Bianca Frails
So it’s completely free. Even parking is included this time. If you are a founder and you’re going to be in Atlanta, we’d love to have you in the room. There’s going to be investors there. There’s going to be mentors, people who have scaled and possibly sold successful startups. And you want to be in the room where it happens. So if you’re a founder, even if you didn’t get a chance to apply, we’d love to have you because it’s a great opportunity to see what the showcase is like. And it’ll help you be prepared when you do get to apply to Startup Runway.
Well, there’s about 10 pitches. How have Startup Runway finalists in the past fared when it comes to fundraising? What are some of the bullet points about the success of the program in general?
Bianca Frails
So one in three founders have raised capital after participating in Startup Runway.
Lisa Calhoun
Wow. Okay. I don’t even… Venture Atlanta stats may not even be on that level. I mean, I should say.That’s going to be amazing
Bianca Frails
No, no.. We are pre-pre-seed. So very early-stage founders. A lot of times this is their very first stage. And to date, they’ve raised almost $100 million for everyone that’s come through.
Lisa Calhoun
Wow. At the pre-pre-seed?
Bianca Frails
At the pre-pre-seed. Almost concept level.
Wow. Okay. So now let’s talk about the investors. What is the type of investor that really gets a lot of benefit out of coming to a Startup Runway showcase? What are they typically looking for?
Yeah. So if they’re not judging, because we always have investors that are judging the showcase, if they’re not actively judging, they are actively investing in minority founders and women founders, founders from diverse backgrounds. We know that they get less than 2% of funding, of venture capital funding. And if they are looking to see founders that aren’t typically seen in traditional pipelines, Startup Runway showcases are a great venue for that.
Awesome. Well, how do they get a ticket? And what’s the timing like? On the 17th, is it all day? I mean, what kind of time commitment are we talking about?
Bianca Frails
So if you’re interested in mentoring, it’s one hour. If you are coming to attend the showcase, it’s two hours. We eat from five-minute pitches. We do some Q&A with our investor judges. And then we also give the checks in that time frame.
Two hours on Friday, October 17th. Come and hear some great pitches. Hear some of the amazing startups that are coming up in the South. And be in the room where it happens.
Lisa Calhoun
Absolutely. You know, one of the things I love about Startup Runway, and yes, I’m totally biased for Startup Runway, okay? I’m not even pretending, is the sense of community in the room.
Bianca Frails
Yeah.
Lisa Calhoun
Because you have angels, mentors, VCs, pre-seed founders. Everyone is there to lift each other up and see innovation thrive and succeed. All the types of innovation, inclusive innovation. And so the ideas are usually off the chain, cool and creative. It’s not the same old crypto, whatever, da-da-da-da-da. I mean, some of the stuff that you see at a typical pitch competition, it can get a little old. You can really expect fresh pitches from unusual founders at Startup Runway.
So I love it. I’ll be there. Look forward to seeing you there. And score a ticket. Do it now while seating is available.
Bianca Frails
It’s available, yes. Go to startuprunway.org slash events, and you can reserve your seat there. It’s completely free. I will be looking for your registration.
Lisa Calhoun
I’m going to be looking for your name on the list. Sounds great. Thanks, Bianca.
Bianca Frails
Thanks, Lisa.
# # #
Welcome to the Atlanta Startup Podcast. I’m Lisa Calhoun, your host today. And I am so excited to welcome to our Venture Atlanta special series, Josh Waddell. Josh is the CEO and founder of Visalaw. Josh, since Valor led your seed round in January, it has been an absolute rocket ship that you are leading. Tell everybody what you’re doing at Visalaw.ai and what Visalaw.ai does.
Josh Waddell
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks again for having me on this morning. Yeah. So Visalaw.ai, we are an end-to-end AI platform for immigration lawyers. So we are focused on this very specific, specialized area of law. And we’ve been doing this for a long time, at least in the industry of immigration, and are really excited about where the company is headed and what we’re working on.
Now, Visalw.ai, speaking of that rocket ship, less than two years old, last time I checked in, you guys are sailing past two million within two years. So with that kind of momentum, what is driving the growth?
Josh Waddell
Yes. Several things are driving growth, I would say. You know, one of them is our team, right? I would say our founding team is made up of immigration professionals who have been in this space, again, like I said, for 30-plus years. But it’s not just about being immigration lawyers. They’re thought leaders. So, you know, early adoption, I would say, among law firms and among legal. Different companies have seen different challenges there. But I think we’ve been able to convey something of trust, you know, something of a safety, kind of trusted advisor for these firms as they’ve been trying to navigate. And it’s now a very complex practice area. So I would say if there’s any factor that’s really playing into, you know, the necessity for our product at this moment in time, it is just the ever-changing landscape of immigration and the growing complexity of the practice area.
There’s a new headline every day.
Josh Waddell
That’s right. Curating the data set that we maintain is, let’s just say, it definitely takes several eyes looking at it all the time to make sure we’re, you know, getting everything in and that it’s working properly. So, yes.
Lisa Calhoun
Now, even though Visalaw.ai is really young, you know, haven’t even had your second birthday yet. It’s right around the corner. You mentioned you’ve been doing this a long time. Say more about that.
Josh Waddell
Absolutely. So our three co-founders, we all come from the industry. Two of our founders are immigration lawyers by trade. Greg Siskind being the most, I would say, the most notable, again, practicing 30-plus years. First immigration law firm on the internet. You know, just this track record of innovation. Publisher, thought leader. And again, just getting a glimpse of generative AI pre-ChatGPT, pre-legal research applications. We were able to, the light bulb came on for us. We just saw it, it was a moment that we just realized it’s like, we need to capture this. We need to go for this. And here we are two years later. Yeah, it’s absolutely, absolutely crazy.
Lisa Calhoun
So just for those who are listening and now thinking, oh, I have a friend who needs immigration help. Are you providing, I mean, I know the answer, but I really want you to explain it because you do it so beautifully. Are you providing immigration help to people, to practices, to companies? I mean, what kind of service, a solution are you selling with the AI?
Josh Waddell
Absolutely. So we are, I like to say, B2L, B2Lawyers. So we are focused specifically on immigration lawyers at the moment. However, there are other customers that are accessing our products specifically, think corporate HR, nonprofits, universities. So there is, you know, there is a use case for other industries. But for now, our focus specifically is direct to law firms, elevating the profession of law. That’s our goal.
And the law firms that seek you out, describe a typical customer for you today.
Absolutely. So our, I would say our ideal customer is definitely sort of like a mid-market specialized immigration practice. Now, these firms can be varied. You know, immigration is, as I would like to say, very multifaceted. But we do have a comprehensive coverage. So think business, you know, global, family-based immigration, and then more humanitarian-based immigration practice areas. We cast a wide net when it comes to the practice of U.S. immigration law. And so we do have that more comprehensive coverage.
Lisa Calhoun
So how many law firms today are using Visalaw.ai?
Josh Waddell
Right at 400 firms. And we believe that tracks well over 600 individual lawyers. So yeah, we’ve seen, we’ve seen, again, really strong adoption. And it’s just, we’re learning every day about how these firms are using our product in all these different interesting ways.
Lisa Calhoun
How long does it take you to be helpful to an immigration law firm? So they find you, someone listens to this podcast, they reach out, they’ve got 80 immigration lawyers, and they’re buried. What happens then?
Josh Waddell
Absolutely. So the way we promote our product, or at least explain our product to potential firms right now, is we have two key areas of focus. One is research, and the other is drafting.
Research is not a, you know, I think that’s a very well-known use case now for generative AI as it relates to legal. The unique thing about our product is we have a proprietary data set. So the data that immigration lawyers really need is not your conventional case law.
Lisa Calhoun
Can’t scrape it off the internet.
Josh Waddell
That’s right. That’s right. There is a bulk, there is a large amount of it when it comes to the primary materials, like what’s coming from different government agencies that can be scraped. But the more, I would say, the more challenging component of practicing immigration is like, what is the interpretation of that law? Or what does it actually mean for me and for my clients?
So we have what we believe to be the largest immigration legal data set in the world. And that is what fuels our sort of research engine.
Lisa Calhoun
How did you come by that enormous proprietary advantage?
Josh Waddell
Right. Yeah. So it’s the number one question we, I would say we get when people start using our product. And it starts with early, early collaborations and partnerships.
So early on, we made an arrangement with the Immigration Lawyers Association, the immigration bar essentially. And they are the single largest publisher of immigration content. We have an exclusive arrangement with them so that we can access that content and utilize it for our AI use case. Very, very, very massive, you know, part of what we’re doing.
We also write content. And we also have other third-party publishers that provide content to us as well. So taking all of these different sources, compiling them all together, you know, is what makes our product, I think, so compelling.
Lisa Calhoun
And it sounds like that moat is just growing at quite a clip. I mean, with 400 law firms already on the system, does that also contribute to the practice knowledge set in your AI?
Josh Waddell
Absolutely. So a lot, a lot, a lot of feedback that we get from our customers. We have—it’s really interesting. There is obviously an advantage of using technology to, you know, around the data, whether it’s scraping or automatically pulling content.
But there’s just a large amount of still, like, you want the legal expert to be the gatekeeper, right? So we still—we’ll get feedback from our users about, oh, there’s this new thing that just came out today, we need to write something today.
And so we will, like, we have a team, a legal team that are just like, okay, we’ll write this practice alert and we’ll put it in. And then, you know, the responses will update accordingly. So it’s really, really interesting times.
Lisa Calhoun
It is, you know, and I think there can be the perception that immigration might be shrinking given some of the U.S. stances, but that’s actually not the case for immigration law. Could you dig into that dichotomy a little bit?
Josh Waddell
Yes. So the data we have around immigration filings in the United States is that, and again, going back to the end of 2024, it’s up like 25% year over year. And since, I think, 2022, up over 50% in terms of just sheer number of immigration filings in this country.
I would also say, you know, the other kind of indirect relationship between number of filings and complexity is also there. And so, what I mean is like, even if there was a period where the filings were lower, it likely means that the types of work that the firms are having to do is way more complex. So obviously way more demanding of their time.
In other words, leveraging AI would provide as much or more cost savings and efficiency. So those things are both sort of simultaneously true.
Lisa Calhoun
So immigration is a growth industry, growing double digits year over year for several years now and no end in sight.
Josh Waddell
That’s right. Absolutely right.
And then the follow-on. I think there’s just something, again, to be said about how many—we call them like requests, additional requests, audits that happen, things that have to be resubmitted or redrafted. And so there’s just so much additional work that goes into any single petition that like, yeah, even gross numbers up, amount of work required for any single petition is up. So it’s like both ways.
So, you know, Valor is absolutely honored to have backed you at seed, but with the kind of growth machine that you’re on top of, we know there’ll be next investors. What type of next investor stands out to you from where you sit today and as you come to Venture Atlanta?
Josh Waddell
Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, we are obviously open to conversations. I would say with our current growth trajectories and the, frankly, the cost efficiency of our team and of our product build, it’s not a forced thing.
So like, you know, we do have runway, I would say for several years, and our utilization of our current fund is really low. So we’re not looking to make any decisions in the short term, but it’s really great to make good connections.
We’ve been really—I’ve been really thankful to work with Valor. It’s been an amazing experience. And having someone who respects your domain expertise, like someone coming from the industry in which you work, I think it’s really awesome to have been backed by someone also in the Southeast, you know, is really meaningful for us. So yeah, I think that’s—it’s just been a great ride.
Lisa Calhoun
Oh, thank you, Josh. We think you’re an absolute hero, by the way. Your name comes up absolutely every day. And we’re just, you know, even on LinkedIn, it’s like, did you see the newest post? So you’re definitely one of the heroes at Valor and our whole team is super proud of Visalaw.ai and your team.
I will point out, one of the things we love about it is we were looking for the right deal to do in Memphis for years. I personally came to Memphis three times and didn’t even find a term sheet that I could write. And you stood out so much, head and shoulders above the rest.
I wonder for some of the investors, especially who come to Venture Atlanta from the coasts, they don’t think of Memphis as a place where you launch the world-class startup that, indeed, you have launched. Could you share a little bit more about why Memphis has actually been the perfect place for Visalaw.ai?
Josh Waddell
Absolutely. I mean, I’ll say, off the top here, if you look at data, maybe if these VCs are saying like, oh, how many deals are done for startups in Memphis? It’s like, oh, maybe—or in Tennessee or whatever. It’s like, sure, maybe those numbers might not immediately just jump off the page.
Memphis historically has been a place of entrepreneurship. If you read your history, pre-Yellow Fever, Memphis was supposed to be the largest city west of New York or something, right? Like it was this really geographically perfect location along the Mississippi River.
What are the industries we have? Logistics, right? Again, geographically located in a great place, like Midwest, Southeast kind of ideal location. Healthcare was really prominent, obviously after the Yellow Fever. So we have some of the best healthcare logistics.
And yeah, so geographically, I would say it’s ideal for us.
It’s always been such a global-looking city. One of the things that always occurs—I mean, so Memphis has its own music history. And of course, that’s very prominent in modern times. But when you walk the city like I have, what really stands out is that it’s always been a port city, even though it’s inland, and it has such a global outlook. I mean, do you find that still a bit real for you today?
Josh Waddell
Absolutely. I mean, our company, again, our team, it was really spun out of a law firm that was also based in the Southeast and in Tennessee. So for us, it was a natural sort of just next step to launch our company where we already were.
But I would say our focus is global. We are not head down, oh, regional in the Southeast or even in the United States. Immigration is obviously global. The term that’s often used is global mobility, right? So we are about the movement of people.
Our software is currently focused on U.S. immigration law. But obviously one of the near verticals for us is global. So adding immigration for other countries as well is definitely on our roadmap. So yeah, we’re really excited about this sort of global expansion of our product. And yeah, I think Memphis is indicative of that in so many ways.
Lisa Calhoun
Truly is. This has been a great conversation, Josh. Is there anything somebody needs to know about you? If they come up to you at Venture Atlanta, how should they kick off a conversation? Is there a favorite sports team? Is there a favorite food? What kind of coffee do you drink? What should they know about you on a personal level before they say hi?
Josh Waddell
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I love music. Obviously Memphis just plays true to. I’m also—I grew up in a place called Muscle Shoals, Alabama. They’ve been known to pick a song or two for anyone who listens to classic rock.
So yeah, I grew up loving music, was a broke songwriter once upon a time. And so, you know, that whole narrative rings true for me. Obviously also love sports as well. Unfortunately, the state of Tennessee has not historically done well in the area of professional sports. But I’m still happy to talk about it.
Lisa Calhoun
But I love the broke songwriter hits it big in AI.
Josh Waddell
Yeah, I can be a broke songwriter writing about our struggling sports teams. You know, it’s the kick-in-the-can, like country song or whatever. Yeah, no—we’re, yeah, plenty to talk about. Obviously love food and love everything Memphis and everything kind of Southeast in that way culturally.
But yeah, any of those things would be really fun. And also my two daughters—talking about kids or the little ones—is also something exciting for me right now.
Lisa Calhoun
Awesome, Josh. Thank you so much for making the time. I’m excited to see you again in Atlanta and also back in Memphis. And just cheers, man. It is an amazing journey. You are riding that rocket ship. You are changing the practice of law. And it was great to spend a few minutes and catch up.
Josh Waddell
Thank you so much. It was so great to be here.
# # #
Lisa Calhoun
Welcome to the Atlanta Startup Podcast. This is our special Adventures at Venture Atlanta series. And I, your co-host, Lisa Calhoun am so glad to welcome to the program, Christina Riboldi from Global Corporate Venturing. Welcome, Christina.
Christina Riboldi
Thank you, Lisa. Thank you for this great invitation to join you.
Lisa Calhoun
Well, you know, I have been a fan of yours for years. I’ve been to events. Global Corporate Venturing is held in New York, San Francisco, Atlanta. And now I’m so excited that you’re coming back to Atlanta for the Venture Atlanta ecosystem window that week. First, let’s take a big step back and talk about what is Global Corporate Venturing, because it’s quite a platform. And I’d love for you to get into it a little bit more with our audience.
Christina Riboldi
Sure. Thank you. So Global Corporate Venturing, GCV, is an organization that leads in the opportunity to provide insight as a service to corporations. So for many years, corporations have had active in-house venture capital programs, which invest externally to the parent to support startups, to also benefit their innovation strategy. As corporations became more and more sophisticated in that practice, GCV really leaned in to be a safe haven and a conduit for connection, community engagement, and knowledge transfer. So over the last decade, particularly, as we saw with corporates rising up as strategic investors, as board observers to startups, we thought there was a huge opportunity to go in and to provide an opportunity, again, with those corporates to come together under the banner of GCV, whether it’s through our events or through the different vehicles and the different mediums that we offer up globally for that information connection.
Lisa Calhoun
So big picture, give everyone a sense of just how large and interconnected the international community is around GCV.
Christina Riboldi
It’s huge. So I think when I started doing corporate venture capital conferences back in the early 2000s, we had like 14 that joined us. I think I was at a VC conference and I saw Kodak show up and I was like, what are you doing here? And they said, well, we invest in a fund off the balance sheet. And then 20 years later, that 14 multiplied to like 2,400. Right. So as we think of the world and local investment based off of parents headquartering, I mean, they have had to look beyond their backyard and they’ve had to invest in companies that provide option for competitive advantage, product expansion, product pipeline expansion. And so even though a corporation that might be nestled here within the US has invested in US based startups, they’ve been having to look outside the US, right, and vice versa, to access different innovation. Because with disruption or the convergence of different industries, it’s forced their hand to have to look beyond their borders and beyond their backyard. So when we think of the global playing field, it’s so interconnected right now. And whether you sit in Asia, in Latin America, in Canada, in Europe, in the US, everyone’s playing in the same sandbox right now, especially within the venture capital community, because startups need a lot of handholding. They need a lot of support and corporates have been able to provide those resources, those access to customers, those global ranges. And so, yeah, the global corporate venture capital community, I think has somewhat of like 2,100 plus active CDC programs right now, which is unbelievable.
Lisa Calhoun
That’s amazing.
There were 14 of them.
I know.
So tell me, what brings you back to Atlanta? Why is Atlanta one of the hubs that you’ve been back and forth to several times?
Christina Riboldi
Several times. So this is our fourth year kind of dabbling into Atlanta. So at the suggestion of the community, actually, it was that we were tipped off that there was a growth opportunity of corporations in the Southeast. Venture Atlanta was happening. It was an event that the corporates nestled within Atlanta and in the greater Atlanta region were attending year over year. But they were kind of fragmented. They were segmented. They were segregated. They definitely did not feel as though they had a place to go where they could be with each other peer to peer and speak openly and candidly about some of the struggles, right, that they were going through. Because most CDCs live the same life. Like, they were all dealing with the same thing, regardless of where they were sitting within industry. So because GCV exists to support connection with corporates, we were recommended to visit Venture Atlanta. And by way of that event itself, offer up a space for corporates to come together for just a few hours that can allow for some sort of like group therapy without a tissue box or a couch, right? But give them a place to go and just to be in community with each other. And we did this at the suggestion of some of the corporates that we have worked closely with in Atlanta, like Cox, like Stanley, Black & Decker, like Milken, that were, you know, already in our network. But they were inviting us to come with them to their home to be able to bridge those relationships and give that opportunity to others. And so year over year, we actually saw it grow. So whether or not you had an active CDC program, word spread. And so we would like, which is awesome.
Lisa Calhoun
Yeah. You curated such an interesting room that really draws strategics from across the South, talking about their corporate development goals, their technology opportunities, as well as struggles. And what I love about the group you’re curating, and really this is whether or not it’s in Atlanta, even in other cities, is the absolute transparency. When people are in a room of people who are doing exactly what they’re doing and facing a lot of the same issues around sponsorship and championship and changing priorities quarter to quarter. They really peer coach each other. And it’s amazing.
Christina Riboldi
I totally, I’m just like trying to jump in because everything you’re saying is so true. Like, I don’t want to poo-poo on venture, but I have, in my experience, found there to be some more sharp elbows in traditional venture. With corporate strategics, it’s, we’re all trying to do better together, right? So corporates want to come together to learn. Like I said before, they’re living the same life. Meaning, the struggles they face in-house when speaking to their parent, regardless if you’re in food and bed, right? Or if you’re in climate and energy, or if you’re in full-on AI. It doesn’t matter. Communication to the parent and the ways in which you’re bringing value back to the parent because of your strategic investments. That is the number one issue that keeps these CBCs up at night. It’s measuring that strategic value. It’s landing that value with those investments that you’re making. And how you communicate that to the mothership. That’s basically at the crux of like what we do with these sessions. And getting people in the room together and talking about what their pain points are. And the number one topic is how are you measuring that? How are you managing your portfolio against the Gen AI revolution right now?
So let me just interrupt you because this series is all about quick little teasers. And I want to give you some quick popcorn questions that you can give me. You know, I call it a one to five sentence answer. I don’t want to cut you off. But think short answer because what I’m hoping is that we’re going to be able to publish a link or a way for potential strategics who haven’t encountered global corporate venturing to raise their hands and come into the room. And so I want to give them a sense of the bigger picture a little bit. So number one, what should a strategic coming into your network for the first time focus on? And who should come to a GCV event?
Christina Riboldi
I think for any corporation that’s never been a part of our network or what we offer, I think benchmarking is really important. I think understanding how other corporates operate as a direct investor, as an indirect investor, how they communicate to their parents. I think that’s one of the biggest takeaways is you’re going to be with like-minded individuals. You’re really sitting alongside of your peer. And whether your peer is performance tested and has been in the CBC ecosystem for five plus years or they’re just growing up and in the teething stages, it doesn’t matter. Everyone’s got shared learnings. Everyone can share information about the way they’ve operated or where they’re planning to go in their investments, right? So I think that’s another component here is it’s benchmarking, not just in your operational approach, but it’s also benchmarking as to where your peers are planning to invest.
Lisa Calhoun
So let me stop here because we all hear about the kind of the backward-looking numbers, what PitchBook says corporates invested in six months ago. But you get to hear a lot about what they plan to invest in two years from now.
Christina Riboldi
Yeah.
Lisa Calhoun
So let me ask you, are there, is there a lot of regional variance in what you hear, you know, Europe versus U.S., Northeast versus West Coast? Do you find that different corporates per region tend to cluster in some of their perspectives or not at all?
Christina Riboldi
I think there’s been universal trends of late with where corporates are investing. Obviously, AI is top of mind for everyone, right?
Lisa Calhoun
You’re noticing that too.
I think I would imagine so, right? You have corporations that sit in the Southeast that have been sitting on hundreds of plus years worth of data. Like, yes. We get knocks on the door from global buyers of AI all the time in our portfolio. The pace of that is unbelievably intense right now.
Christina Riboldi
No shock.
I think climate, sustainability. If we go back, you know, to where you were saying three years from now, those were huge trends. I think corporates are uniquely sitting on individuals in-house that are recognizing where the next trend of disruption is going to be or where they need to spend their time and focus. And so if we look at, like, space, right?
You know, it seems so foreign to think, like, that’s what we’re thinking about space, right? Because data sensors are being built up in space. And potentially the next cyber attack will happen in space. Like, there are things that you need to be thinking about. So space, if we take a crystal ball, and if I could be so bold as to forecast, again, where I think corporates are going to be looking to invest. You know, while AI is very much top of mind right now, maybe where climate and sustainability was what they were thinking about three years ago, my bets are on space.
Lisa Calhoun
That’s fascinating. Okay. So you can’t offend me about this. You’ll just be wrong if you don’t love it. But tell me, are you hot or cold on CDC in the South? Is this a growth industry? Is it a shrinking industry? What’s your take?
Christina Riboldi
No, I’m totally hot. I think that there are these innovation hubs, right, all over the place. But there is an appetite and an opportunity for increased partnership, not just B2B, but B2C. And I think as we think of, like, the mega locations, the huge metropolitan locations of the U.S., particularly, like, whether it’s the Bay Area, right, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, or even, like, New York City, the next big and hot hub is Atlanta. Like, we saw that, of course, with, you know, Austin and South by Southwest, but look at Atlanta. Atlanta has so much to offer, right? And the corporations that are nestled within Atlanta and in the Southeast, they have so much to offer. And I think if I’m a startup or if I’m a founder, do I want to get lost in the shuffle of, like, the Bay Area and, you know, New York City or, you know, Texas and what’s going on within Austin? I want to be a part of something that’s right on the cusp of exploding in terms of innovation.
Absolutely
Christina Riboldi
So, actually, I would say, you know, and this is echoed by a lot of the corporations that are in the Bay Area. I’m not going to name names, but they’re definitely sending people to Venture Atlanta this year.
You know, the economic trends all support that, kind of the macro picture. You know, the net population growth in the South. The South as a region has the lowest unemployment. The South as a region has the highest rates of entrepreneurship. And that’s been a multi-year trend just going up and up. So, it’s not just, of course, that I love it, which I do. I’ve been preaching this for a while. But all of the macro indicators really point that wealth is being made in this region. And the people are coming here and staying here like they never have before.
So, let’s cut to, if you’re a strategic or in corp dev or you have a CVC or you’re going to probably launch one, but it’s just coming together. How does someone score an invite to your gathering during the Venture Atlanta week?
Christina Riboldi
So, we have curated a tight grouping of corporate strategics. We want to make sure it’s really pure and concentrated for that community particularly. So, the best way to score an invite is probably to find me on LinkedIn or look at my contact information that’s published on the website for globalventuring.com and ping me. We do hold this group therapy session, as I called it, in the morning. And so, there’s limited seating, but definitely nothing’s off the table. If we can make it work, my motto is let’s try to make it work as long as it’s relevant and you’re the right person to have in the room.
Lisa Calhoun
Fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing more about Global Corporate Venturing, your incredible expansion into Atlanta more and more. And I look forward to seeing you again in Atlanta really well.
Christina Riboldi
Definitely. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you for hosting us again.
Lisa Calhoun
Thank you. My pleasure.
# # #
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