Atlanta Startup Podcast

With the rise of Airbnb over the last decade, there's been an everpresent demand for complementary solutions that ensure safe and enjoyable experiences for guests. Atlanta startup Safely steps in to address this need by offering a modern insurance solution for individual homeowners and professional property managers. By integrating with various property management systems, Safely has amassed a substantial amount of data, totaling more than two million nights' worth, establishing itself as a leading solution in the globally thriving short-term rental market.

In this podcast episode, Safely's founder and CEO, Andrew Bate delves into Safely's origins and the mental exercise of crafting the company's initial GTM strategy. As a second-time founder in this domain, Andrew highlights the sector's recent tech-driven evolution and outlines specific growth and innovation opportunities within today's broader property management industry. Reflecting on the company's 10+ year journey, you'll hear Andrew unpack the importance that relationships played in raising over $12M in capital and how he navigates the challenges and turbulence that have impacted Airbnb's business model.

Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Valor for an upcoming event.

Courtney Schickel is no stranger to building and scaling successful sales and revenue operations, bringing over 20 years of experience leading teams at startups such as IngeniousMed and Assursign, which was later acquired by Nintex. As a former Chief Revenue Officer for two local Atlanta startups, Courtney brings her brilliance and expertise to the podcast offering valuable insights on:

• The evolving role of the CRO over the past decade
• Practical advice for CEOs seeking to build revenue operations functions
• Demystifying misconceptions surrounding early-stage sales and more

Courtney emphasizes the significance of achieving internal alignment at the executive level and provides tangible takeaways for founders to implement. With her vast knowledge and practical guidance, she becomes an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs and founders, equipping them with the necessary tools and strategies to optimize revenue operations.

Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Valor for an upcoming event.

Using its proprietary fintech AI that accesses behavior, not balance sheets, Funding U is the national leader in no-co-signer student lending, a $30B+ annual market. Now is a pivotal time for college and university students. The Supreme Court's decision ending race-based admissions policies at colleges and universities sets a tone that leaves a gap in confidence for the millions of students who do not have family wealth to draw on to fund rising education costs.

In conversation with an early investor, Lisa Calhoun at Valor VC, CEO and founder Jeannie Tarkenton of Funding U dives into:
1) How big an impact the new post-affirmative action Supreme Court ruling will have on students of color
2) The scale of the student lending opportunity
3) How to help more students access non-predatory lending as they prepare to finish college
4) How AI-based lenders like Funding U stack up against traditional FICO loans in terms of rates, loan payments, APRs, re-payment, and loan terms.

Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Valor for an upcoming event.

Investing out of their $170M Fund 3, Bonfire is a different type of investor. They are a lead-only seed VC with a high conviction approach which means each partner only does 2-3 deals a year and spends weekly time with each founder coaching them through the ups and downs of the startup journey. In this episode, Valor managing partner Lisa Calhoun leads a conversation with Brett Queener, managing director of Bonfire Ventures. Brett began his career at Seibel, back when enterprise software "came on CDs." He later joined Salesforce as an early employee, contributing to the creation of one of the most valuable enterprise software companies on earth for over a decade. He then joined a pre-revenue startup, Smart Recruiter, and helped that become the fastest-growing firm in enterprise recruiting over a 9-year journey. In this episode, you'll learn how Bonfire and Brett look at developing relationships with founders.  You'll come away with deeply insightful approaches to building out sales teams that work well, and what Series A investors are looking for now.

Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Valor for an upcoming event.

In this episode of the Atlanta Startup Podcast, host Mecca Tartt interviews Rachel Wilson, Head of Operations at Collab Capital. Rachel shares her unconventional journey into venture capital, driven by her exposure to entrepreneurship from her entrepreneurial family. She discusses Collab Capital's investment focus, which includes tech-enabled black-owned companies with a particular interest in network capital. Rachel highlights the importance of social and human capital for African American founders, emphasizing the need for access to contracts with major corporations. Collab Capital supports founders in navigating challenges that often stifle their growth through resources such as playbooks, growth partners, and connections with their LPs. Rachel also shares a bit about Black Women in VC, a supportive community for Black women in the venture capital industry.

Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Valor for an upcoming event.

In this episode of the Atlanta Startup Podcast, host William Leonard interviews Gabby Fong, an investor at First In, a DC-based firm focused on cybersecurity & data companies. Gabby shares her background as a former United States Navy officer and intelligence professional, highlighting her journey of breaking into venture capital. She discusses First In's mission and investment focus, which includes cybersecurity, defense, and dual-use technologies, and the firm's goals of leading seed-stage rounds and providing operational expertise to portfolio companies. Gabby also discusses emerging trends in cybersecurity, such as exciting use cases for operational technology and critical infrastructure security, vendor consolidation, and the challenges and opportunities of utilizing AI in cybersecurity.

Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Valor for an upcoming event.

Charles Robinson is the Partner at 1888 Ventures, one of Atlanta’s newest venture funds focused on capitalizing early-stage founders in the Southeast. 

1888 seeks to invest $250-500K checks in startups outside of the major hubs that leverage emerging technologies. Before 1888, Charles was the founding partner of North Carolina startup Teamworks which is an operating system for sports, military, and public safety organizations globally. With deep regional roots, Charles shares his insights on the importance of relationship building in VC/startups, and navigating bottlenecks early-stage founders often face, and he outlines the unique traits that make Atlanta’s and broader southern startup ecosystem special.

Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Valor for an upcoming event.

On this episode of the Atlanta Startup Podcast, we take time to understand the inner workings of Startup Runway. Joining us is Mecca Tartt, the program's Executive Director, who provides valuable insights and helps us unpack Startup Runway's core mission of providing grant funding to underrepresented founders at the pre-seed stage. In this convo, we'll learn about specific criteria for founder participation and highlight the many milestones the program has already achieved including, awarding over $350K in grant capital to underrepresented founders. Moreover, we explore the opportunities for future sponsors to join the ranks of existing partners such as Cox, PIN, Innovators Legal, and many others in supporting and underwriting Startup Runway's initiatives.

Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Valor for an upcoming event.

Hawks Ventures is the latest venture capital fund in Atlanta investing inclusively, following Valor's start in 2016 along and other local legends including Collab Capital and Fearless Fund. What's fresh about this foray into inclusive venture capital from the Hawks is their deep sports expertise and $50M capital commitment, one of the larger funds in this region focused on women and founders of color. In this episode, William engages with Hawks Ventures VP Felipe Arias to get the inside scoop on the inner workings of the fund's strategy, how to get in touch with the fund, and the strategic levers Hawks Ventures pulls to support its portfolio of companies. 

Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Valor for an upcoming event.

Funding for climate tech startups grew 89% recently, to pull in over $70B. Enter Atlanta's climate-tech legend Thomas Stokell, CEO of Love to Ride (aka Riderr). Valor recently led the seed round for this startup, which has a global hybrid team that's won favor with 800 customers on 3 continents. Thomas sheds light on his thought process for building software with behavioral change at its core, bootstrapping Love to Ride to $2M in revenue, the process of selling software for climate change, and his approach to building/scaling a globally distributed team.

Let's take this conversation to real time. Join Valor for an upcoming event.