Spotlighting the accomplishments of the up-and-comers who are new to the game bringing unique and innovative ideas to the business world. This is the driving force behind the creation of Startup Atlanta, a recently-formed non-profit organization devoted to shedding light on the startup community. This year is a landmark of their own with their First Annual Atlanta Startup Awards successfully held at downtown’s The Gathering Spot on Friday, May 12th, 2017. Over 150 of Atlanta’s startup ecosystem members gathered together for the celebration. The room of the ceremony was packed full of brilliant young minds hoping to share their ideas while celebrating the achievements of other nominees. Every business represented that night was different from the other and it was this diversity that allowed for such a creative environment. It was the embodiment of everything Startup Atlanta stood for.
We had the opportunity to speak with the Executive Director for Startup Atlanta, Charlton Cunningham. He was sporting an H&M suit with a Forever 21 shirt and a tie stolen from his roommate’s closet.
“We recognize that there are a lot of start-ups…there’s no one specific area for start-up activity. We are a community non-profit and our job is to grow and connect the start-up ecosystem. So, we wanted to put an event that celebrated the start-up community which is why we had open nominations with over 20 judges…along with public voting,” said Cunningham.
A variety of different categories were represented based on social impact, providing solutions for businesses or consumers, adapted business models, etc. Much of these were based on what could be accomplished within that initial year of creation to reality. The Scrappiest Startup Award was presented to a startup that has achieved significant milestones over the past year without ever raising equity or debt capital. Six different startups were nominated for this category including yours truly. Although coding bootcamp DigitalCrafts took home the trophy, it was a pleasure to be nominated at such a prestigious event.
Atlanta Startup Awards
Written by Adam Darby
When asked what was involved in the nomination process, Cunningham replied, “We created some criteria to allow the judges to choose…we were really looking on what were the milestones that they achieved within the past 12 months. In terms of employee growth and revenue growth…and what impact they had on the community…We have no bias, our bias is Atlanta…we like to promote and like to connect across these different silos.”
The awards closed with a Lifetime Achievement Award going to a startup business/organization that has been going strong for 15 years or more. This was awarded to Grace Fricks, founder and now CEO and President of ACE, who leads the 20-person nonprofit team to provide small business financial institution loans to underserved entrepreneurs. Afterwards, emcee Rickey Bevington of Georgia Public Broadcasting closed out the night by congratulating all the winners and the celebration continued with an after party. Let’s hope this will be the first of many award ceremonies for Startup Atlanta as they strive to consciously celebrate Atlanta’s most creative minds.