Happy new year, Atlanta! ‘Twas the season to be jolly, and for good reason! 2005 was a banner year for doing business in Georgia, and we are positioned very nicely for an even greater return in 2006.

Over the past year, we’ve seen some great Georgia companies continue to build momentum, including MfgQuote.com, Procuri, Orasi Software, Clearwave, and EZ Prints. My old friend, Mike Kilgore, is taking care of business over at Chainalytics LLC - if you have messy logistics or transportation inefficiency, then a healthy dose of Chainalytics is just what the doctor ordered. Fellow Atlanta entrepreneur, Warren Bare, has gotten his latest excursion off the ground - JobKaBob - which provides an e-Harmony type approach to matching employers and candidates. Former ISS executive, Kris Klaus, is doing some great things over at Kaneva, Inc (formerly Klaus Entertainment). Personally, I have a tremendous affinity and passion for the gaming and entertainment sector, and I’m terribly excited about what they’re up to.

We saw increased venture capital activity, with folks like Arcapita announcing a new $200M venture fund that will be managed from their Atlanta offices. Earlier in the year, H.I.G. Ventures announced the raising of a $300M fund that will be at least partially managed out of their Atlanta office. There were a sizable number of successful venture deals for metro-Atlanta firms as well including. Dan Myers and the good folks over at Alimera Sciences closed a whopping $31.8M Series B round. But they weren’t the only winners. A host of other Georgia companies also became beneficiaries of investment activity, including HowStuffWorks, Witness Systems, Insectigen, MedAvant, CoakTek, IntercontinentalExchange, and Cbeyond.

The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) down at Georgia Tech recently published a fantastic report documenting the resurgence of venture capital in Georgia (through 2004) - a good read. We have a long way to go to catch California’s $9B+ investment community (ranked 1st), but we’re still ranked fairly highly (7th in 2004). I can’t wait to read the ATDC’s 2005 summary to see where we are now.

We do have some preliminary 2005 numbers coming in, though. According to an annual year-end analysis by Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureOne, VC investments sustained its momentum in 2005. Venture capital fund raising activities increased significantly in the first three quarters of 2005, with $15.9B raised. M&A activity also remained strong! The report added that “a strong trend toward later-stage financings suggests that investors are confident in the prospects of their portfolio companies and optimistic in regard to exit opportunities.”

Internet ad revenues are getting back up to respectable levels, and the overall interactive marketing climate has shifted from stabilization to growth. This is good news, as it serves as fuel for Atlanta’s interactive marketing, publishing, and new media markets. And this, of course, serves to drive other spending, such as information technology. Speaking of which, Georgia, Texas, and Florida are expected to have the fastest growth rates in business IT spending over the next five years, according to a new study by the technology market research firm IDC. The three states accounted for 30% of total spending on business IT within the U.S. last year.

The general mood is up, and the buzz on the street is alive and vibrant with activity. A little bird tells me that there are some veteran Atlanta entrepreneurs who are ready to get off the sidelines and step back onto the field - the pre-game warmups are underway.

Me (left), with Tom Scardino of TechLINKS

And to top it all off, our neighbors at TechLINKS are rolling out their TechLINKS Exchange (TLX) offering, which will strive to bring Georgia-based buyers and sellers of information technology products and services together in an easy-to-use community-based portal. I spent a day last week with Mike Adkinson at TechLINKS, and I can tell you firsthand, he is incredibly excited about the prospects of infusing more community-related content and tools within their site at techlinks.net.

Those of you that know me personally will attest to my being labeled the “eternal optimist.” However, I am reminded of the quote by Winston Churchill, who said “For myself, I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.”

I think this is a great time to be doing in business in Georgia. Bring on 2006!

Cheers.