I listened today to a founder discuss his marketing strategy. He has an established company that’s doing over $10 million in annual revenue—so, not a start-up. His strategy involves growing the company’s online community—he wants current customers, prospective customers, employees, and anyone else passionate about his space to participate.

I’m a fan of online communities and believe community-led growth will become an effective long-term growth strategy for companies. My conversation today is another data point that supports this belief.

Digital communities have been around for quite some time, but I think we’ll see them go from nice to have to must have for growing companies. I’m not sure how long this will take to play out, but I’ll be following the evolution closely.

I connected with a fellow investor this past week. He recently moved to Atlanta from the Northeast. During our conversation, he shared a few thoughts about the city:

• Quality of life – He loves the quality of life in Atlanta compared to the big city he came from. It offers many things you’d expect in a major metro area but also plenty of quaint neighborhoods.
• Home – He purchased a home, and he sees himself being in Atlanta long-term. Housing prices in the city are very affordable compared to his previous city.
• Trend – Other people in his Northeast network are considering relocating to Atlanta.
• Entrepreneurship – Atlanta has smart founders and a pool of talented people. He sees more great companies coming out of Atlanta.

I’ve always thought Atlanta is a great city with a lot to offer. I’m happy it’s finally getting the credit it deserves and that others want to call it home!

Happy Labor Day!

I hope everyone had a safe and healthy holiday!

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Over the past year I’ve spoken with many people who are taking advantage of remote work. They’ve left their home cities and are working from new locations for extended periods of time. Just this week, I spoke with a founder who’s working from New Mexico for the next few months. A few months ago, I spoke with a founder camped out in Mexico City.

Where people work from has begun to shift. Major metropolitan areas will continue to attract skilled workers, but I think we’ll start to see a rise in such workers moving to second-tier cities. If companies continue offering remote work as an option, employees will be untethered from offices in major metros and able to live in places more aligned with their personal priorities. Instead of seeing family for holidays, you can see them every weekend. Instead of visiting the lake during the summer, you can live on the lake year-round. Housing costs have increased rapidly and will likely continue to increase. If you can live someplace with a lower cost of living and earn the same or close to the same salary as you would in a major metro, that can materially improve your quality of life by relieving financial pressure.

We’re probably at the beginning of a major workforce shift. How we work and where we work have changed, and that will have ripple effects. Second-tier cities are in position to benefit tremendously from these changes. I’m excited to watch this play out and hope it has a positive and lasting impact on these communities.

I’ve been having conversations with friends who’ve returned to the office. I was curious to understand what they’re experiencing and how they feel about it. One friend summed up what I’ve been hearing: “There’s no way I can go back to doing five days, but one or two feels good.” Going back to pre-pandemic office life isn’t resonating with friends, but neither is no in-person interaction. Face time for certain situations and just to stay connected in general has value.

I know the return-to-the-office situation is fluid, but I’m interested in seeing how this plays out. My gut tells me that decisions made during this period are likely to shape how we work for the foreseeable future. We’re in a period of change that will have a lasting impact.

Happy July 4th!

I hope everyone had a safe and healthy holiday!

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One of the things I enjoy most about holidays is that many people are off work at the same time and have a mindset of fellowship and celebration. As a young founder, I didn’t appreciate the significance of holidays and often spent the time catching up on work instead of being present. As I matured, I learned to appreciate holidays and spend them with people who matter to me.

I hope everyone who’s fortunate enough to have time off is having a great holiday weekend!

I hope everyone had a safe and healthy Memorial Day with loved ones!

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I shared my excitement about where Atlanta is headed in this post over the weekend. I’m excited to see numerous founders complete eight- and nine-figure liquidity events. I’m even more excited that they want to give back and help emerging founders. And I keep thinking about this founder group.

From a race perspective, Atlanta is unique, and I love that. A group of diverse (non-white) founders have sold their companies or raised funding rounds of eight or nine figures. That’s huge and a testament to what makes the city special. I personally know some of these founders, and it’s an amazing thing to see up close. They’re inspirations to so many other founders of color not only in Atlanta but around the country. In Atlanta, they help provide much-needed proximity to success for diverse founders. I have no doubt that their success will lead to many others being successful.

It struck me, though, that I know of only one female founder who’s exited or raised eight or nine figures. I can name a few men who’ve done it in the last eight months, but women? One in the last 5 years. I reached out to an investor and founder to find out if I’m missing something or just out of the loop. They both confirmed this is likely accurate (although a few women have raised seven figures—I commend them!). Atlanta is full of amazing female founders, so this realization is extremely disappointing.

People way smarter than me have put in years’ worth of groundwork in Atlanta to address this problem, and I salute them for those efforts. I’m looking forward to being part of the solution as well and can’t wait until Atlanta’s female founders are experiencing eight- and nine-figure acquisitions or capital raises!

I chatted with another investor who’s also a former founder. We shared our founder experiences and how the cities we lived in affected them. In doing so, we discovered another thing we have in common: though our journeys were different, they were both shaped by safe spaces with good people in them.

I was a nontechnical founder building a tech company who didn’t know what an API is. I needed help! And I found it. Through my relationships with technical founders, I began to understand technology and the possibilities it could unlock. Meeting those peers was great, but that alone wasn’t the game changer. Being able to interact with them in a safe environment was the real boon. Everyone could let their guards down because we knew we wouldn’t be judged for not understanding something. A deeper level of knowledge sharing than I’d ever experienced was possible. There were no dumb questions. People just shared all they knew in hopes that it would help someone else be successful.  

If you’re a current or aspiring founder, consider looking for a safe space where you can learn from other founders. You’re more likely to succeed if you can learn from others who’ve done something similar!