“No Valley” and “Startups for Grownups”

Stephen Fleming is a great Atlanta startup thought leader. Today, he put up an incredible blog post, “Startups for Grownups.” The post takes his moniker from the last four years, “No Valley,” and wraps around it a deep level of understanding about what makes Atlanta startups successful and how startups are killing it in Atlanta without Valley-level fanfare. Atlanta enjoys a mix of experienced founders, though we have our fair share of 20-somethings too.

I generally try to avoid reblogging other people’s content, but I can’t help it today. Fleming’s post is a gem!

For many years, Fleming has popularized the moniker around Atlanta of, “No Valley,” meaning that Atlanta does not need to try to replicate the Valley to succeed. Instead, we can magnify the wonderful attributes of our own city to build our own great startup ecosystem. In practice, this often means that Atlanta-area startups succeed as B2B substantive businesses that employ customer-driven, organic growth principles and get farther along before raising money (often turning the corner on success without ever needing to raise venture capital).

Because I’ve seen a few of our people leave Atlanta to chase opportunities in California only to question the choice a short while later, Fleming’s post is particularly salient for me. The lure of the Valley is powerful to 20-somethings. It’s a draw sensationalized by the media. Hot startups founded by 20-somethings are great for journalists who want to sell advertising with sensational headlines, but do not represent the majority of successful startups that fly under the radar. This is especially important for young startup founders or employees to understand as they read Reddit, Hacker News, or Techcrunch.

Chasing opportunities in CA is no different than aspiring actors that leave their life behind to hound the casting calls of Hollywood. In his post, Fleming talks about some “infamous” advice Guy Kawasaki gave to Atlanta entrepreneurs in 1999. Fleming closes out his post with a rebuttal to Kawasaki, saying, “The median actor in Hollywood is a waiter. The median Silicon Valley entrepreneur is broke and disillusioned. If you’re 43 years old, and haven’t grabbed the brass ring of a multi-million dollar exit, and you’re still living in Mountain View in a million-dollar crackerbox… well, you’re just a darned fool.” He digs deeper with a photo portrayal of the incredible home purchasing disparity between the Valley and Atlanta.

I love Atlanta and the huge opportunities available here. I may never hit the front page of Techcrunch and I could not care less. I’ll keep building substantive businesses and keep enriching the lives of those that take part with me.

What are your thoughts on Fleming’s post today? Do you agree that Atlanta is great at building substantive startups?

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