Venture Atlanta Day 2: It’s a wrap!
Venture Atlanta 2021 is now behind us. A few themes that rose to the top in conversations and panels today:
Cyber Security is HOT
With the increase in cyber-attacks, mandates for cyber insurance, and a significant talent gap of security professionals (3.5M job openings) — entrepreneurs are leveraging technology to solve inefficiencies and bring more clarity and sophistication to cyber security strategy.
A few of the presenting companies solving for that need — Apptega, Fortify Data, Cloud Range, and SupplyWisdom.
Cyber Pop-Up
While not a presenting company at Venture Atlanta, Cyber Pop-Up presented at the Atlanta Startup Battle — attention grabber.
Dr. Christine Izuakor, Founder, has created a platform to provide on-demand security for high-demand businesses. She brings a wealth of expertise, leadership, and charisma to be a leader in this market. Her vision to bring on-demand services to a highly sensitive industry was clearly articulated and she has surrounded herself with incredible mentors, advisors, and has positioned the company for growth. Dr. Izuakor is also the first black female to earn her PHD in Security Engineering. Powerful. Excited to see where Cyber Pop-Up goes.
She won the $100,000 Startup Battle, by the way.
Underrepresented vs Underestimated Founders
Arlan Hamilton, Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital was the guest of a fireside chat on the topic of — Resilience in the face of adversity. It was insightful to hear how she frames the conversation around underrepresented founders. Minority and female-led companies constituted less than 6% of total investment dollars in 2020. Arlon’s focus at Backstage Capital is 100% on what she characterizes as “Underestimated” Founders.
Reframing the discussion from underrepresented to underestimated opens the door to visualizing opportunity rather than ‘checking a box’ for HR / Marketing purposes. Speaking in generalizations, minority entrepreneurs can easily be underestimated, for no justifiable reason. It takes a mindset shift to open the door of opportunity for these founders.
Arlon’s background is quite amazing in and of itself — facing housing insecurity to building a nine-figure investment fund. Check out more of her story in this Verge Article.
Hybrid Events Are Incredibly Challenging
Navigating virtual meetings, virtual schedules (that may or may not sync with your calendar), and in-person activity proved to be quite difficult. Countless entrepreneurs and investors were struggling with merging both worlds. It was not a seamless experience and the majority of individuals concluded that it was best to focus on the in-person and transition to the virtual side after the event had concluded. Virtual will always be waiting for you, but in-person engagement takes priority, right?
There is still an opportunity in the market to further iterate on how these worlds are best merged.
That being said — the in-person schedule, events, networking, and accommodations were extremely well-orchestrated and highly effective!
Handshakes Haven’t Gone Anywhere
While all individuals at the conference were required to submit a negative COVID test or proof of vaccination, there was still a question around — how is this really going to go? From my vantage point, I can tell you that nobody was bowing or curtsying their way through the event. COVID didn’t kill the handshake.
It was refreshing to be back [in real life] around the energy, innovation, and excitement of an event like this. I had little trouble identifying folks that I had met on zoom month’s prior, in pajamas. The only challenge was — am I looking for someone who is 6'3" or 5'2" — thankfully, no major surprises :).
Overall, Venture Atlanta delivered a great experience to all involved and I’m excited to participate again in future years. Thank you to the organizing team and the folks who helped make it a quality event!
