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Haynie: ATL’s entrepreneurs must give back

Monday, February 09, 2009

Haynie: ATL’s entrepreneurs must give back
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Urvaksh Karkaria Staff Writer
URL: http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/02/09/daily3.html

Six months ago Jeff Haynie traded in the fishbowl for the ocean when he moved his open-source software startup Appcelerator from Atlanta to Mountain View, Calif.

Since then he’s not gotten much sleep.

Being a technology entrepreneur in the valley means being always-on, Haynie said at SoCon 09, a social media conference at Kennesaw State University on Feb. 7.

“You’re just another guy with an idea and nobody gives a s**t about your idea because their idea is better than yours,” Haynie told a group of entrepreneurs during one of the sessions he led.

Recruiting, for instance, is challenging when your free donuts-and-foosball perks are up against Google and its gourmet kitchens and on-site dry-cleaning.

The intense competition “has a certain amount of cadence that it creates in your execution,” the boyish-looking Haynie said. “I haven’t gone to bed before 3 a.m. and gotten up [after] 9 a.m. in more than a month.”

Being a startup guy in Atlanta, however, can be more family-friendly, Haynie said.

“If you’re an interesting kinda startup here,” he said, “you can have a little bit easier time to recruit and generate buzz among the Atlanta technorati.”

Haynie’s departure from Atlanta in August 2008 triggered cathartic debate on why the city could not keep this entrepreneur—a local boy—from building his future here.

While the West Coast venture funding Appcelerator received from the West Coast had a role in the move, Haynie struggled with finding the resources—business contacts, customers or local money—he needed to succeed, locally.

“In our sector ... there [are] no people connected to money that have that influence,” Haynie told Atlanta Business Chronicle at the time of his move.

Haynie called for a creation of a “social contract” among Atlanta’s tech entrepreneurs to give back to the community. He noted how Google’s Sergey Brin takes the time to attend startup events in the Valley, even though he is not obligated to.

Indeed. Atlanta’s entrepreneurs are giving back as evidenced by events such as Startup Gauntlet, CapitalLounge and Startup Riot.

Atlanta must do more to leverage its assets, Haynie added.

While Turner has spun out successful entrepreneurs, Haynie said, “it’s a shame we were not able to capitalize on that and make Atlanta more of a media town.”

Atlanta is home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has a world-class medical school in Emory, he noted.

“People from all over the world to come to Emory,” Haynie said. “But we have no really sizable ... biomed companies.”

Atlanta’s tech entrepreneurs sometimes lack the drive to go back to work after a successful exit, Haynie said, echoing a recent Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) survey of out-of-state VCs that claimed Georgia was light on serial entrepreneurs.

“If you make $5 million you can live like a king—you can move into a nice house in the suburbs or downtown,” Haynie said. “Atlanta will put you on a pedestal, you’ll speak at every TAG event… and be a rock star.”