If you are seeking early-stage capital in Georgia, and haven’t heard about this by now, you should check out what Sanjay Parekh, David Cummings, Allen Graber, Suleman Ali, Wayt King, and David Wright are doing with Shotput Ventures.

You can read more about it on their web site, but basically it is a clone (or close fascimile) of Y-Combinator.   They will invest $5K per team and $5K per founder into an idea, then provide you with additional resources and coaching to help bring your idea to fruition.

There has been some debate as to whether or not this investment model makes sense here in Georgia.  Personally, I think that it does, with some caveats.

Who it is good for: Young, aspiring technology entrepreneurs that can quickly prototype an idea into a tangible product or service.

Who Isn’t a Good Fit (IMHO): This list is a bit longer …

• Entrepreneurs that aren’t really entrepreneurs but are looking for a “job”, or individuals that think $250K (or even $100K) is a valid salary for a startup founder here.
• Entrepreneurs that are still trying to apply antiquated business school methods to startups (i.e. those who think pre-money valuations on pre-product, pre-revenue companies is anything over $250-500K)
• Entrepreneurs who still think that it takes $2-5M to get an idea off the ground (see above)
• Entrepreneurs in non-technology or capital intensive industries (manufacturing, nano-tech, bio-tech, and many/most consumer product plays)

Given that Atlanta has a nice cluster of (younger) idea-oriented technology/software-minded innovators, I think this model has a lot of applicability here.  The metrics make sense to me.  Short time-to-market, quick iterations, fail fast, and move on.  Time will tell, of course, but I’d bet on success.

There have been several successful exits from Y-Combinator companies.  They have proven the model that small investments can create large returns, especially in the web/software space.

I’m sure the founders might have some other thoughts, but these are mine.  Back to work now …

Cheers.