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!