William Leonard
For the last 15 years, Venture Atlanta Conference has been a premier conference in the southeast, helping founders connect with investors and ecosystem stakeholders. Today, I sit down with the CEO of the conference, Allyson Eman, who talks about her unique path to becoming the conference CEO. She assumed a leadership role with Venture Atlanta back in 2007 and had no venture or techy experience. But Allyson had an incredible marketing background and was entrusted by the early board members of Venture Atlanta to carry out the grandiose vision for what the conference could be. Now, 15 years later, the conference has seen thousands of companies present. They’ve connected founders with billions of dollars in capital, and the conference is continuing to reach new heights year after year. Tune in to hear how Venture Atlanta is continuing to evolve in what attendees can expect from the conference in the fall of 2022. Allyson, thank you so much for joining me today.
Allyson Eman
Thank you for having me, William. I’m excited to be here.
William Leonard
I know this is an interesting time of the year, right? We are just a few months out from the conference happening in the fall and I’m excited for you to talk about some of the things that will be happening throughout the conference this year. Equally, I want to give our listeners some context on who you are as a leader of Venture Atlanta. I would love to get the Allyson story on how you became the CEO of Venture Atlanta.
Allyson Eman
It’s actually a pretty fun story. I’ll try to make it quick. My background was in marketing and financial services. I was one of those people that worked in the financial services, and real estate industry back in the early 2000s. And in 2007, I was working for a company that really, if you think about it was a startup that I worked for. I was employee number eight and when we went bankrupt, we had 850 employees across the country. So I worked for a mortgage company that shut down during the subprime crisis back in 2007. And then, I kind of was trying to figure out what was my next thing. I will say running a technology conference for 15 years absolutely was not what I thought I would do. I was thinking about maybe opening some sort of consulting practice and I did that for a couple of months and realized I needed a little bit more money to support my family. My best friend, still my best friend, works at Noro-Moseley Partners, one of the most active funds in the southeast, and she’s the controller over there. It was really one of those water cooler stories of Allen Mosley’s partner over there going, “I need someone to run this conference that we’re creating, does anyone know anyone?” It was kind of like that and she called me and said, “Give me a resume.” And I was like, I know nothing about venture capital or technology; I’ve never run a nonprofit. Absolutely, I should give you my resume. This is ridiculous. Like, what am I doing? I gave him my resume and long story short, they did hire me. I was very excited about it and really what was so cool is the reason they hired me was because of my marketing background and the passion I brought. I kind of had the conference plane in my head during my interview I was just sort of like ready to go. The interesting thing is, William, that I had another job on the table, a very corporate job, a job that was going to make me be on an airplane all the time, a job that was going to be away from my children who were seven and five at the time. And I was like, “You know what? No, I don’t want that. I’m going to take a chance and do this other thing.” I’m glad I did. 15 years later, it’s become one of the strongest venture capital conferences in the country. I’m very proud of it.
William Leonard
That’s a very fascinating story. Had no experience of even working in venture capital, or running a nonprofit, but you were rather hired because of your marketing expertise. You had this other job on the table, turned that down to kind of step into the unknown, right? And a conference that hadn’t happened before. I’m curious as you assume this role, how did you ideate your vision for what Venture Atlanta could and would be eventually?
Allyson Eman
I will say, I think that took me a long time because I really like had to get my feet wet for a couple of years. My first year was, this is what we’re going to do, kind of being really told by the board and by the founders, who are the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the Technology Association of Georgia, and the Atlanta CEO council, was we want to bring a first-class venture conference. We want to bring more money to Atlanta. And I was like, alright, okay, I can do this. One of the big biggest things I was challenged with was raising money and doing sponsorships. That was another thing I had never done. I remember when I went home, I told my husband, I’m gonna have to fake it till I make it because I have no idea how to sell sponsorship. 15 years later, I’m pretty darn good at it but as I sat there and looked at it the first year was really let’s see what we can do. I really kind of rely on the team. I relied on everyone else because I was just learning. I was very fortunate to have some incredible people and incredible leaders that stepped in to help me people like Mark Johnson, Tom Hopkins, Glenn McGonagall, Melanie Leaf, Linnea Guyson, Tom Porter and so many others. It was because of these incredible board members that we were able to continue to grow Venture Atlanta. As I started over the years, I was like, this could be bigger than I thought. This doesn’t need to be a smaller conference, this could be a national conference, and this could be something that could really impact a lot of people. We just kept going and looking at how to really have the board be a working board and that is just the key to life. There are so many companies that have board members, they’re like, “Well, I’ve got this great board.” What do they do for you? If your board doesn’t do anything for you then fire them, and get rid of them. Our board is a working board. We have them in committees, they have accountability, and there’s ownership of it. I certainly still oversee everything and look for everything but you need to have the right people and the right team in place, just like anyone needs to have the right team in place. You gotta have the right board.
William Leonard
It’s kind of very similar to a startup, right? The right team to get the vision off the ground, and then continue to grow from there.
Allyson Eman
When we started, it was really like, let’s see what we can do in Georgia. And honestly, well, you mentioned a long time for the founders who are Georgia organizations to get on board with it being a Southeastern Conference but then we really looked at your background of a picture of Atlanta, Atlanta has truly become the technology hub of the southeast. As we kept looking at it, we’re trying to have more focus on Atlanta, have people open additional offices here, have companies grow here and help companies, but also look at our surrounding states and how we can truly grow the southeast and bring more dollars to the southeast. Everyone really got on board. Our conference is truly a national conference and has a significant footprint, but the companies that we select, they’re from Texas to DC, right? Georgia is just one state of 15.
William Leonard
I was gonna ask, at the time when you all were getting ready to start and ideating, were there other conferences like this happening in the southeast? Or were they concentrated in San Francisco, New York?
Allyson Eman
That’s a great question. I was hired in November of 2007 and in January, I went to the Florida Venture Conference. I remember sitting with Tino Mantella, who ran TAG at the time, and Frank Dalton, who works for Fulcrum Equity Partners. And they were like, “This is what you have to go build in Atlanta”, and this conference had been around at the time for close to 20 years. They had like 1000 people there and really kind of had their things together. It’s so funny, I am, by nature, not only did I have a marketing background but I’ve done hundreds of events and that was a big thing. I remember sitting at the table for lunch, and there was always learning, and I don’t like fish. I’m not a fish person. I don’t like fish, chicken, tuna, steak, whatever. I sat at a lunch with 12 people and the lunch entree was salmon and not one of us at the table liked salmon. We all wanted the vegetarian option. It took an hour and a half for us to get our lunch and for us to get our vegetarian option. I remember going, “Note to self, no salmon, don’t ever have people sit and wait for an hour and a half.” Do you just start thinking about how can I do? What can I do better? The Florida Venture Conference is a wonderful conference, and they’re still around, and I partner with them and we work with them but I was always looking for what can I do? What else can I do? What learnings can I take? And then there was another conference called the Southeastern Venture Conference that was in town and they kind of kept pinpointing in Atlanta, they went to DC, they went to Raleigh, and long story short, it’s gone. We’ve kind of surpassed it then there’s also the CED conference in North Carolina, again, a very solid organization that was around well before Venture Atlanta. There are some others up and down the East Coast but for me, I was always trying to look at how can we be different and I’m really proud of the reputation that Venture Atlanta has because people across the country especially funds in Silicon Valley, will say if I’m coming to one thing on the east coast, it’s Venture Atlanta.
William Leonard
Venture Atlanta has definitely garnered a reputation as one of the top conferences, not only in the southeast but nationwide now. I would love for you to talk to us more about the conference itself. Who are the stakeholders that are attending the conference for some of our listeners who may not know?
Allyson Eman
The conference is really for technology companies of any size in any shape. You could be a founder that has an idea and just wants to come to the conference. We do offer entrepreneur tickets for $300, you need to attend everything, up to companies that are raising a ton of money and want to perhaps participate in our application process and be on stage. We’ll talk about that in a minute but the conference is really for investors of all sorts, angel investors writing those early checks because we have several levels of companies. Companies we call our seed or showcase companies to our early stage ventures to our growth stage companies. We want those angel investors that are writing those first checks, venture funds, to private equity funds. We want the gamut but also, those who come to Atlanta are our supporters. I mean thank heavens for people, the Morris Mannings of the world, Aprios, and funds like Noro-Moseley Partners, Fulcrum Equity Partners, NEA, Accel, and Vocap. We’ve got sponsors, William, that had been with us for 15 years. A lot of them, Silicon Valley Bank, and many more. Without those supporters, we wouldn’t exist, right? We wouldn’t exist. Thank God for them, they helped us get through COVID. They made sure that we were still in it. I remember having calls during COVID and my sponsors going, we’re gonna keep supporting you. We know you need us, we’re gonna keep supporting you. It’s also an ecosystem builder. It’s people from Atlanta Tech Village, ATDC, and incubators all over, the southeast government officials, students come to Venture Atlanta, the aspiring entrepreneurs come to Venture Atlanta, sometimes they’re volunteers, sometimes they’ll just attend. It’s a really mixed gamut. It’s definitely a fully open conference. We don’t exclude anyone but the majority is technology companies and investors.
William Leonard
Got it. I love that background. I was on LinkedIn earlier this week and saw tickets are now available, I believe.
Allyson Eman
They are and people are buying up. I will tell you, last year the demand was insane because it was one-year post-COVID. I probably turned about 200 people away because if you think about it, a lot of people wait until the last minute, they’re like, oh I can just stroll in, but they couldn’t. There were big companies that wanted to sponsor the week of that I turned away and they were like, “You’re seriously not going to take my sponsorship?” And I was like, “No, I’m not.” What I’m excited about, William, this year, because you’re asking about the conference, is we are actually going to The Woodruff Art Center, which is the third largest art center in America. It’s absolutely beautiful. They’re doing a million-dollar renovation right now. It’s going to just be just beautiful looking and the pitches are going to be on stage at Atlanta Symphony Hall. Literally this incredible venue with this huge LED wall behind you and companies pitching why you need to invest in them, incredible speakers, incredible things going on, and it’s our 15-year anniversary, so we’re like ready to have some fun to blow it out. I don’t want to divulge our fun secrets but we always have Venture Atlanta T-shirts. I’m sporting one today and people love them. We’re fortunate to have the Savannah College of Art and Design right in Midtown Atlanta and they’re actually going to design our T-shirts this year. They help us with a virtual reality station or gaming section or an art show or things like that. We really want to look at how technology and art intersect and make the content extremely tactical so that investors and entrepreneurs walk away learning something. You want to not only have great connections but learn something about leadership, about the sales funnel, and about what’s happening in the economy. I mean just I feel like there are so many questions out there right now, and we want people to walk away going, “That was really worth my time.”
William Leonard
Wow. I’m excited.
Allyson Eman
You better come this year.
William Leonard
I’m gonna be there. I have my own Venture Atlanta anecdote, which is pretty fascinating. Last year, 2021, Venture Atlanta always falls on the week of my birthday and I was actually out of the office celebrating my birthday but I had some downtime when I was chilling one day and I just kind of went to the Venture Atlanta website and saw some of the companies who were pitching. I saw this interesting company, STEMuli, led by Taylor Shead. I was so fascinated by what she was doing in the world of education and how she is reimagining the classroom taking shape for students across the country and across the world. Super fascinated by what Taylor was talking about on stage so I reached out. And now months later, Valor Ventures actually just co-led her seed round.
Allyson Eman
That’s the best story ever. She was super impressive. She’s from Dallas, Texas. That’s what happens in Venture Atlanta. There are incredible stories and incredible connections. I had so many people go out and say, by the way, we met our lead investor in Venture Atlanta. That’s fantastic. That’s what happens, people who come to Venture Atlanta and a company that has chosen to participate can end up meeting with 25 or 30 investors. But without Venture Atlanta, maybe they wouldn’t have been on your radar or maybe wouldn’t have been looking through and finding it. How fantastic for Taylor, and she’s a female founder so even more awesome. Valor does an incredible job of supporting female founders. I know Vital4 is one of your companies as well and they were on our stage many years ago. Kristin Stafford, and for us, we want to support underrepresented, female founders and we partner with groups like LaunchPad, Zane Access Fund, VLC, KBC, and so many others. I feel like we worked very hard to make sure that everyone gets a chance.
William Leonard
I’ve certainly double-tapped that message there. The last couple of years has been an interesting time in private markets where investors were almost just kind of throwing capital at startups. I’m sure that happened to a lot of Venture Atlanta companies. Some of the top companies are presenting at the conference but now we’ve seen this pullback, in the sense. What is the opportunity now for startups that’ll be pitching at Venture Atlanta?
Allyson Eman
I think that’s a great comment. You look back in 2020, we still put on our conference, but it was all virtual. Everyone was like, it was great but you didn’t have that connectivity and that face-to-face. There were certainly deals made, but maybe not as many. But investors got comfortable doing deals across Zoom or across Teams, or across these different platforms. There was so much money out there that funds were going, “I got to deploy capital.” Certainly over the years, sometimes we’ve gotten, “I don’t need to take time to present. Everyone’s coming to me.” The top has flipped. What’s happening is a lot of funds right now are having to use their capital to continue investing in their portfolio companies to make sure that they get the runway they need like maybe a company raised 2 million, but they thought they were going to raise 10 in a year. Those growth stage companies that are raising that 10 to 20 million are having a little bit harder time finding those dollars. I am not a venture capitalist, nor am I an economist, so everyone takes my knowledge with a grain of salt, but Venture Atlanta will take companies and put them on our stage and market the crap out of them. We do an incredible job with our marketing, you’re on our website, and we do our announcement but then what we do is put you at our conference where the company or fund will sit and meet with you. You’re having these incredible meetings and just like STEMuli, just like Bark, and all these companies that have raised money that has been on our stage, you may be a little bit more on people’s radars. We’ve got funds from across the country that comes to Venture Atlanta. We’re targeting 300 to 400 investors to be in the room. We already have a ton of sponsors. We have funds like Andreessen and Lightspeed, NEA, Accel, and Bessemer, and some of the biggest funds in the country looking to come already which is fantastic. For an entrepreneur, if you want to get on an airplane and go over to San Francisco and then go to New York and Boston all over the place, have at it. But you know what, you could sit at Venture Atlanta and have them all be there and have them all come to you. Imagine how much time you’re saving but not only that, the whole opportunity with Venture Atlanta is free, right? I’m not making a dollar off an entrepreneur, I sure wish I had put money in so many of the companies that have done incredibly credibly well. If I just have like a tiny little percentage I’d be doing well but that didn’t happen. For our companies, we have our open applications that just opened on June 1 and they’re open through August 12. Everyone needs to look at it as a no-risk opportunity. You fill out the application, let’s see what happens, maybe you spend 5 to 10 minutes on it, you know what it’s worth spending a few minutes on your company. You’re putting in revenue numbers, the problem you’re solving, the solution, all that good stuff, creating that business background, and then you hit send. We’re going to evaluate all the companies. But if you get selected, it’s free, you come to the conference, you get on stage or you participate in our showcase. There are two different things. We’ve got an incredible investor dinner that’s going to be at the High Museum of Art, at 6:30 at night, and you get to network with everybody. You’ve taken 10 minutes and fill out an application which perhaps led to your next funding round.
William Leonard
Exactly. That’s so fascinating because you mentioned some of the top-tier funds that will be in attendance. Valor will be there as well. We are actively sourcing investments and still writing seed lead checks for startups here in the southeast. We are excited about where Venture Atlanta will be in just a few months. You mentioned applications for founders opened on June 1 and they closed on August 12. It’s completely free for founders to attend. It’s the 15th anniversary of Venture Atlanta at the Woodruff Arts Center, which will be newly renovated, how can we get tickets? Where do we sign up?
Allyson Eman
https://www.ventureatlanta.org/. I will tell everyone that I’m pretty darn excited because we got a new website coming out in about seven weeks, so late July. But right now all you do is go to the website, and at the top, you’ll see Register or Apply To Pitch. If you’re a company and you want to apply, you click Apply to Pitch. If you want to buy a ticket yet, click Register. We do have early bird pricing right now and the ticket prices will go up on August 1. Again, the demand has been there, the demand has always been there for Venture Atlanta. Don’t think the day before you’re gonna buy a ticket because it’s just not going to happen. We are very mindful of the size of the audience. I mean, last year I told people it was going to be smaller, and it was, but we were very diligent about having the right people in the room for the right curated conversations. I think that’s so important. For valor, you want to meet those great companies, you want to continue to support these founders, and y’all have done an incredible job. This podcast is awesome. I’m so excited to be on it. I think I was on it with Lisa, maybe three or four years ago. She’s definitely been having this going for a long time. That’s incredible. We’ve got about five and a half more months. A lot that’s going to happen, we already have 75 sponsors lined up. They’re pretty much almost full. That’s another thing that is still open for a little bit, but I’m kind of hoping to close the book on those sponsorships in a couple of weeks.
William Leonard
I’m sure that’ll happen very soon here. Allyson, as we wrap up this conversation here since you’ve assumed leadership of running an organizing Venture Atlanta, how have you seen the city of Atlanta really blossom into the premier startup hub in the southeast?
Allyson Eman
It is so incredible to see what’s happened. When I started, the true story, there was ATDC, for funds, maybe that was it. That was the biggest thing is that they wanted to bring more capital to Atlanta. I was amazed at how little was here for such a big city. I was like, how many VC funds are there? I don’t know if anyone’s been out to Silicon Valley. I finally went out to Silicon Valley a couple of years ago and I had this grandiose idea of what Silicon Vally was. I thought you pulled up to this area with these beautiful buildings and it was just gonna feel like this Mecca, it’s not. It feels like the middle of Marietta where I live and not even high rises. I’m walking down Sand Hill Road meeting funds for coffee and it was really funny. I went out with Philip Lewis years ago from Fulcrum Equity Partners and he was like, “You’re gonna be severely disappointed when you see it.” Now, granted, the one thing that was on every quarter, there were 40 funds. And again, we’re back to our four. Fast forward, William, and my God, especially since post-COVID, the corporations that have opened here, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, the Nike building something here. It’s just incredible what the enterprise companies have done, what’s happened in Tech Square, the explosion around Georgia Tech, with the innovation hubs, and then programs like Cox bringing Techstars to Atlanta, the engaged fund has been an unbelievable thing that I think around the country is going to end up being modeled at some point. And then groups like Launchpad, funds like Zane Access, I mean opportunities for Black founders, for women, for Latinx founders, for Asian founders, there have been so many more opportunities. You take those four funds, that’s 30 or 40, or 50, or 60 right now, it’s way higher. You look at Atlanta Tech Village is open and Switchyards, Curiosity Labs, Russell Center, and Atlanta Tech Park, where I was the other day. None of that existed. Even the companies or the service providers that have supported us, you think about people like Bank of America and Truist, they didn’t support me 15 years ago. Now, they’re both big sponsors. I would call on DLA, Morris Manning, Aprio, and Bennett Thrasher. And again, the awesome thing about those companies is they’re still supporting us. Huge thank you to all of them.
William Leonard
That’s awesome, Allyson. You mentioned just the contrast of the energy here in Atlanta versus a place like Silicon Valley, where it’s not really what you hear, read about, and hear about. I think the energy is here in Atlanta and also the action is here as well. There are cities in the southeast that have the energy but maybe lack some of the action. But I think a city that has both; you’ve got like you said enterprises opening a second headquarters here, companies that are relocating people here because this is a city that has a relatively affordable cost of living. I can’t say much anymore.
Allyson Eman
It’s not as good anymore as you think about that. There is something about the airport, too. I mean it’s easy to get in and out of here. I did have the opportunity to spend time last week in Austin and last month in Miami, and they’re doing some great stuff in those two markets. I mean we fully support Charlotte, North Carolina, DC, Nashville, and Knoxville everywhere, but Atlanta still has its definite secret sauce. I just think there’s some great stuff going on here. One of the things too is collaboration. There is a little bit to that southern hospitality. Someone reaches out to someone in the Atlanta community and magically, you’re connected to 50 people within an hour. There’s a new fund opening, it’s called Sakana Management. They are opening an office here. They looked at Boston, they looked in New York, they wanted an East Coast presence, and they picked Atlanta, and how exciting for us. But he said it was unbelievable. He goes, I reached out to a few people and my calendar filled up instantly. There’s definitely a little bit of southern hospitality and community. We’re all very proud of what we’ve built, what we’ve seen, and what we’ve done. There’s a little bit of that, I don’t think in Silicon Valley or Boston or even New York, that there is that. I just think there’s a little bit of a look at what we’ve built here in Atlanta.
William Leonard
I can resonate with that. The community and connectivity here are unmatched. I think on that note, Allyson, this was such a fascinating conversation to hear your background of how you went from a marketing genius to now the CEO and leader of the Venture Atlanta conference. Really excited about what will be taking place this year in the fall and I’m gonna go buy my ticket here after we get off this meeting here. I’m looking forward to it, Allyson, and really appreciate you joining me today on the podcast.
Allyson Eman
I loved it. Thank you so much for being here and if there’s anything I can ever do for you, please reach out.
William Leonard
Awesome. Cheers, Allyson. Take care.
Lisa
We’re thrilled to have you as an Atlanta Startup Podcast listener to help you get the most out of the experience. Let me invite you to three insider opportunities from our host Valor Ventures. First, want to be a guest on this amazing show. Reach out to our booking team at atlantastartuppodcast.com. Click on booking, It’s a no-brainer from there. Are you raising a seed round? Valor definitely wants to hear from you. Share your startup story at valor.vc/pitch. Are you a woman or minority-led startup valor sister program? The Startup Runway Foundation gives away grants to promising startups led by underrepresented founders. The mission of the Startup Runway Foundation is connecting underrepresented founders to their first investors. Startup runway finalists have raised over $40 million. See if you qualify for one of these amazing grants at startuprunway.org. You can also sign up for our next showcase for free there. Let me let you go today with a shout-out to Startup Runway presenting sponsor Cox Enterprises and to our founding partners, American Family Institute, Truist, Georgia Power, Avanta Ventures, and Innovators Legal. These great organizations make Startup Runway possible. Thanks for listening today and see you back next week.
