Is Georgia really the best place to start a business?
I was somewhat surprised recently to read that Buford, Georgia (which despite our address is actually the closest city to our current office) was named by Fortune Magazine as the #3 best place in the country to start a business. Of course, that’s not really a surprise to me. When I moved to Georgia from California (where I had lived and worked for 10 years) to start Jungle Disk a year and a half ago, more than a few friends thought I was crazy. Why would anyone leave California to start a technology company? Although there were personal reasons as well, I saw a great opportunity to build a company in Georgia and Gwinnett County specifically. There are the factors that Fortune points out like cost of living and quality of life (yes, the people here are actually nice), but Atlanta also has a strong backbone for technology, with schools like Georgia Tech, Emory, and UGA close by. The venture capital opportunities, while the best in the southeast, still don’t come close to California, but the software business isn’t capital intensive and we’ve been extremely successful without outside funding to date. There is a small but growing community of technology startups here, and you can really feel things starting to happen.
Of course, I still had concerns about building a business here - would I be able to find the best people? Would they even want to work for an Internet startup in Atlanta? The answer so far has been yes - we’ve recently hired some great people and I’ll be introducing them shortly. We’re moving to new offices in nearby Suwanee soon, and Jungle Disk 2.0 coming up fast. Lots of excitement here to say the least. I’m looking forward to sharing more news about Jungle Disk 2.0, as well as a preview of some of the new features later this week. Stay tuned for more!
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Todd Vierling said,
March 31, 2008 @ 9:33 am
I’ve heard that before, and indeed, Atlanta does have a good chunk of technical expertise available in the form of current and former telecom and Internet company engineers. My employer managed to pick up two of EarthLink’s layoffs.
What I find unfortunate — and please don’t take this as a knock on you — is that many of the companies are taking a shine to areas that are 30-40 miles outside of Atlanta proper. This has appeared to be cyclical since about 1998. At that time, it was northwest Cobb that was the “up and coming” area; then about 2002, it was the north Fulton/GA-400 corridor; then in 2006 it became the Gwinnett I-85 strip.
The justification I usually hear is that “the employees are all there” — but funny that, better than 80% of the technical candidates I’ve found live near or within the 285 perimeter. It’s the *business folks* who live out there en mass. I think we, the engineers at heart, mostly find the city a little more comfortable than sprawl.
Jungle Dave said,
March 31, 2008 @ 9:56 am
As far as suburbs versus city goes, most of the candidates I’ve talked to so far have been in the suburbs - not necessarily Gwinnett, but few from actual downtown. Office space here is less expensive, as is housing for anyone who wants to live close to work.
However as I see it, some folks are going to have to commute either way, and a commute out of the city is a LOT easier than one into the city, since you are opposite traffic flow. From downtown/buckhead to our new office is only 20 minutes. The same commute the opposite direction will run you an hour or more in the mornings.
One of the things I hated about Southern California is that there was really no “reverse” commute - every direction on every freeway was slow at rush hour in at least some area.
Michael said,
March 31, 2008 @ 10:30 am
Dave,
Congratulations on making your home in Gwinnett. I was surprised to find that JungleDisk was based out of my own backyard and am glad to support a good product. Currently I enjoy coding for my employer out of my Gwinnett home which is really nice given the rising cost of gas. While working close together as a team is great you can cut down your teams everyday commute by allowing telecommuting and have a specific team meeting days and face time. Of course this does take a special type of employee but should you really have hired them if you can’t trust them?
Your employees will love you and so will the environment.
Just my thoughts, and glad you are here.
Michael
Gary said,
April 22, 2008 @ 5:53 pm
I have had great experience in Atlanta as a venture capitalist, including with web based companies such as www.securetax.com, and in spinouts from Georgia Tech’s ATDC such as Lancope (www.lancope.com). So, who do I contact to talk to Jungle Disk. I was the lead investor behind EVault.com, the leader in online data protection and archival (now a Seagate Company - see www.evault.com).
Gary
Brian said,
April 23, 2008 @ 10:55 am
I had no idea that this product I use and endorse ad nauseum to my friends is developed in Atlanta. More than that, you guys are apparently also close to where I live and work. I’m glad that by buying this product, I’m supporting a local business. That is great and one more reason I’m happy to be a customer of Jungle Disk.