Several weeks ago, Unblakeable and I spoke at the monthly gathering of the Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs group.  We provided a pretty thorough treatment of where we thought the Atlanta startup community was in terms of its maturity, and then presented a concept that we thought was pretty compelling at the time – the Atlanta Startup Cloud.  We put the call out to the community, and had a ton of people volunteer to help us build it.

We were pretty excited about the reception we received both at the event, and afterwards via email and other conversations.  Nevertheless, up to now, we haven’t had much time to get the ball rolling on some progress. Such is the joy of having day jobs

Fast forward a few weeks to now.  The ATDC announced a big revamp under the leadership of Stephen Fleming (of VentureLab fame).  As part of the revamp, the ATDC is proposing a number of new initiatives and policy changes.  Many of these initiatives either mirror or complement some of the things we were proposing as part of the Atlanta Startup Cloud concept.  As such, we don’t think it makes much sense for us to duplicate the effort.  Instead, we want to do our part to help ensure that the ATDC’s efforts are as successful as possible – and we ask that you get involved as well!

Note: I do think the first part of the Startup Cloud video is still worth watching, especially if you want some background on the Atlanta startup scene.

If you weren’t able to attend their open forum meeting, check out the video here.  It’s definitely worth the time.  Also be sure to read Stephen’s post (Why Are We Doing This?), and our most recent StartupLounge.com podcast featuring Stephen and David Sung (who manages the ATDC Seed Fund).

Mike and I both think that this new ATDC is going to have a profound impact on Georgia.  Stephen is the perfect man for the job, he has a good team in place, and we think his plan is pretty solid.  There has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur in Georgia, and we hope to see everyone at the upcoming CapitalLounge event in a few weeks!

Cheers.

If you’ve ever been curious about what Stephen Fleming and his crew are tinkering around with down inside the bowels of Georgia Tech’s VentureLab, you won’t want to miss this. Through countless hours of toiling over database schema and Maker’s Mark, Stephen has rolled out a really cool new site that lays out all the various research and commercialization ventures that are bubbling up down at VentureLab. Click on the link called “current technology projects and companies” for the lowdown.

Good stuff …. and a great resource for investors, entrepreneurs, and researchers looking for more visibility into the innovations on the horizon here in Georgia.

Cheers.