[00:01] What’s hot this summer is AI startups in the South.
[00:06] Tune in to our latest podcast to learn all about what’s going on in AI in this region.
[00:12] You’ll get perspective on the rapidly evolving role of the CTO, how the most successful startup founders are selling six- and seven-figure contracts to enterprises, and what it takes to raise a strong first round in this environment.
[00:31] All right, so Devin—the AI software engineer—apparently just landed a new job.
[00:37] Yeah, and get this: its first task was debugging its own onboarding process.
[00:43] Talk about eating your own dog food, right?
[00:45] That’s pretty good.
[00:46] Classic AI loop.
[00:47] Exactly.
[00:48] Welcome everyone to the Atlanta Startup Podcast.
[00:51] Feedspot ranked us in the Top 100 Podcasts in Atlanta, which is awesome.
[00:55] That is pretty cool.
[00:56] We’re here to cut through the noise and get straight to what’s really driving tech—especially right here in the South. This region’s innovation is often seriously underestimated.
[01:06] It really is.
[01:07] Today, we’re zeroing in on that. This is a deep dive.
[01:10] It’s all about the current state of play for AI across the whole Southern region.
[01:15] We’ve pulled together some key sources: Valor Ventures’ latest AI Startups in the South report—that’s a big one—plus their mid-year updates on AI startup sales and the changing role of the CTO.
[01:27] OK, so the mission for today is clear.
[01:29] We’re digging in and pulling out the most important nuggets—the actionable stuff—for founders, investors, and anyone curious about tech.
[01:36] Yeah, this isn’t just theory.
[01:38] We’re talking practical insights.
[01:40] What’s actually working now?
[01:41] What’s next for enterprise AI—especially in our region?
[01:45] Stuff that could genuinely impact your next move.
[01:48] OK, let’s ground this.
[01:49] Valor Ventures. Why are they the ones to listen to here?
[01:52] They have a unique and frankly, very credible position in Southern VC.
[01:58] Lisa Calhoun, their founder and Managing Partner, was just named Atlanta Investor of the Year 2024 by Startup Atlanta.
[02:06] Wow, OK.
[02:06] And Business Insider listed her among the Top 30 Women Seed Investors nationally last year.
[02:12] So yeah, their track record speaks for itself.
[02:15] And the firm itself? What’s their reach?
[02:18] They’ve got over $50M in assets under management, currently investing from their second institutional fund. Their portfolio employs over 1,000 people across about 25 countries.
[02:28] And they’re kind of famous in VC circles for VIC, right? Their own AI platform?
[02:33] Exactly—VC famous for VIC.
[02:35] They literally use AI to help find the best AI investments. Very meta.
[02:42] Love it.
[02:42] They’re not just talking the talk—they’re walking the walk.
[02:47] Valor led five seed rounds in local AI startups, all with enterprise revenue, in just the last 12 months.
[02:56] Who are we talking about?
[02:57] Companies like Autonoma, Visalla, Rueatta, Acuity, and Updraft.
[03:04] Their existing portfolio is strong too. Sale AI made G2’s Top 100 Fastest Growing Tech List for 2025, and Visalla.AI won the 2024 American Legal Technology AI Innovation Award.
[03:18] OK, so they’ve got the cred. What are the headlines from their latest report—Q2 2025 data?
[03:24] They used the term “sonic boom.” The top-line numbers are stark: 36% of all U.S. VC so far in 2025 has gone to AI startups.
[03:35] But here’s the kicker: almost all of that cash went into just five companies.
[03:41] Valor sourced almost 500 AI startups in the last year—206 of those were just in Q2.
[03:54] But competition is changing. A year ago, a Southern AI startup might face just one coastal competitor. In Q2 2025, that number doubled.
[04:15] So where is this Southern AI activity happening?
[04:25] Washington, D.C., is a massive outlier, but among states, Virginia leads at 2.84 startups per million residents, followed closely by Florida, Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina.
[04:46] Top cities for AI startup sourcing in Q2? Austin (28), Miami (16), and Atlanta (15).
[04:58] This leads to a common question from West Coast VCs—one Lisa Calhoun calls “tremendously uninformed”: Why bother building AI in the South?
[05:09] The South would be the 6th largest economy if it were a country. But more than that—it’s about the mindset.
[05:22] Southern founders are expertise-driven. They build grounded, applied AI companies that large corporate partners use and scale.
[05:38] It’s less hype, more substance.
[05:44] Applied AI today is fundamentally different from SaaS. Think compression of entire verticals of expertise—not just 10x collaboration tools.
[06:14] It’s a shift to efficiency. Valor calls this the “wisdom economy”—human-centered, ethically grounded, creatively generative AI that augments, not replaces, people.
[06:49] Valor points out two Southern-specific headwinds for founders: Corporate AI Flu and ICP Paralysis (ideal customer profile paralysis).
[07:23] Corporate AI Flu refers to unpredictable enterprise partners—feverish enthusiasm one week, chills the next.
[07:26] ICP Paralysis means trying to sell to SMBs, mid-market, and enterprise all at once. Valor’s advice? Pick one.
[07:52] Final Q2 advice: show results. Short payback periods, clear ramp-up plans, simple pricing, dashboards, and case studies.
[08:26] On enterprise deals, Erin Levy of Box says enterprise AI adoption will move faster than cloud adoption did.
[09:17] Case in point: Goldman Sachs buying hundreds of Devin AI developer agents.
[09:44] Founders must tackle governance, compliance, and workflow integration head-on.
[10:01] Lisa Calhoun’s playbook? Most are selling too low. The real decisions are made in the C-suite.
[11:06] 92% of companies plan to spend more on AI, but only 1% are mature—yet 63% of failed projects blame poor executive alignment.
[11:54] Founders should offer things like AI readiness assessments or 90-minute advisory sessions to get buy-in from the top.
[12:20] Half of employees want AI training, but only 20% receive any. Building trust means more than hype—it requires enablement.
[12:55] AI also empowers startups. Tools like Cursor, Gamma, Canva AI, and Delve help build fast.
[13:09] Levy suggests the seat-based pricing model is being disrupted. A hybrid of base subscriptions plus usage-based AI fees makes more sense.
[13:35] Internal tools are also exploding. Huge opportunity for low-code platforms.
[13:45] Jean-Lucc Van Holst of Valor: “Coding is solved by AI.” The CTO role is evolving into Chief Automation Officer.
[14:40] Examples include using MPC to connect AI to production databases or API documentation.
[15:33] Hiring is shifting. It’s not about perfect code—it’s about guiding AI and validating its output. Prompting is the key skill.
[15:54] Eric from a Valor portfolio company uses a paid 6-hour hackathon followed by a 1-month internship to find AI-native talent.
[16:34] Julian warns: AI can lead to technical debt if not validated properly.
[17:04] The CTO now orchestrates AI across departments—from sales to customer success. Zach reused an AI chat tool to generate tailored sales scripts.
[17:30] At Valor, every call, email, and interaction is turned into structured data using AI. It’s a major leap in decision-making efficiency.
[18:04] The CTO is becoming the architect of the business of tomorrow.
[18:31] This all leads to the core of the wisdom economy: using AI to augment humans, not replace them.
[18:41] So ask yourself: Are you selling high enough? Are you hiring the right AI-native talent? Are you embracing the Chief Automation Officer mindset?
[19:01] Want to dig deeper? Get the full AI Startups in the South report at www.valor.vc.
[19:20] Check out blog posts from Lisa Calhoun on sales and Jean-Lucc Van Holst on CTO leadership under “Grit” on the Valor site.
[19:28] And don’t miss Cesar, Valor’s AI-powered B2B sales coach—free on their homepage, highly rated on OpenAI.
[19:50] Great resources. Valuable insights.
[19:55] Keep innovating. Keep that Southern courage going strong.
Thanks for being a part of the community of courage by listening to the visionary founders and investors on the Atlanta Startup Podcast. Subscribe now so you don’t miss a single episode of the over 200 investors and founders sharing their insider tips and secrets to growth. Our regular listeners tell us we’re the briefing room for the innovation economy in the fastest-growing region of the country, the South –and when you subscribe, you become part of the inside circle.
The Atlanta Startup Podcast is proudly hosted by Valor VC. Valor is a venture capital firm that leads seed rounds in AI and B2B SaaS startups. If you like the podcast, check out more of Valor’s programs for courageous founders and investors, like Startup Runway.
Over $100M in early-stage venture capital and counting is catalyzed through Startup Runway’s grant-making program for pre-seed startups. Go to StartupRunway Dot ORG to learn more and apply directly for non-dilutive capital.
Valor celebrates VC DAY, the largest early-stage private capital conference in the region, at the end of the year. The top founders in the region, leading VCs, endowments, and family offices focusing on venture capital outperformance attend. Learn more at VC.Day.
At Valor, courage is the currency of innovation and the heartbeat of our culture. Thanks for listening and come back next week.
