Why Did You Sponsor @rjurney’s Trip to Silicon Valley?
June 29th, 2009 Posted in Community, Start-Ups
How cool is that? The good folks at TechDrawl, Ben and Celia Dyer, rub some brain cells together and decide to ask some questions regarding the the impact of geography on a start-up. Who better to send on the mission than Russell Jurney? Armed with an AirTran ticket, Flip Mino, and some walking-around money, Russell set off to the Silicon Valley to get some answers.
So, what inspired you to part with your hard-earned dollars and sponsor Russell’s trip? Here’s my reasoning:
I had been following with interest the back and forth twitter of Urvaksh Karkaria, a journalist with the Atlanta Business Chronicle and author of the AtlanTech blog, and Paul Freet, a serial entrepreneur and Commercialization Catalyst at Georgia Tech’s VentureLab. Their conversations basically centered around the future of the dead tree (print) media in relation to “new” media. So, in the end, I viewed the call for sponsorship of Russell’s trip as a way to (i) help the Atlanta start-up community, and (ii) participate in a new media experiment.
What I expect to see from Russell’s reporting is an unabashed level of honesty and candor, a Linus-like level of sincerity, a tenacious dedication to the story, and a good dose of humor that is unique to the man.
Good business reporters like Urvaksh will always have an audience. A niche, however, is being carved out for stories that don’t fit the traditional print model. Pick up a subscription of the ABC – it’s well worth it. But also take the time to follow Russell’s reporting at TechDrawl.
4 Responses to “Why Did You Sponsor @rjurney’s Trip to Silicon Valley?”
By Amro Mousa on Jun 29, 2009
Well, why not? I’m not going to miss the money in 5 years and it was well worth it to learn something from his experiences.
By Peter Rosen on Jun 29, 2009
My support was for Ben and Celia, who in turn continue to support the Atlanta technology community.
By Celia Dyer on Jun 29, 2009
Angus, thank you for being one of the most consistent sponsors of Atlanta’s startup community on every front. Russell shot 9 hours of mostly riveting interviews in the Valley which we will are feverishly editing and will be publishing over the next many weeks on TechDrawl.
I won’t speak for Ben, but I personally wanted Russell (who pitched me the idea) to take this trip to see what Atlanta’s startup community might learn from the Valley to improve what we can. (I have my own hypotheses about Valley investor culture and they are being tested). One very real problem I see from a post and video interview with Konstantin Othmer we are publishing tonight is Atlanta startups must be very careful as they (and if they can) scale from 5 founders to a 100-person organization. If there is not a pool from which they can pull 95 people who share their passion and have experience with startups, they may need to relocate to the Valley where the supply of that kind of workhorse, passionate entrepreneur is plentiful.
I immersed myself full-time in the Midtown Atlanta startup community since last August as both an observer and a listener. I learned there is a real sense of disconnect between entrepreneurs and investors here, and there are unhealed wounds over Jeff Haynie’s departure. TechDrawl belongs to the community for research and discussions like Jurney’s Journey to Silicon Valley. Thanks to the generosity of those who gave money (including our generous site sponsors like MailChimp, and AirTran who supplied RT Business Class passes and GogoWifi for the trip), this unscientific study was made possible. Expect further studies and thanks for the link!
By Russell Jurney on Jun 30, 2009
Angus, thanks so much for your support!