Over the weekend, David Cummings shared the genesis of the SaaS Startup Studio with Atlanta Ventures. In the past ten years, five and a half of them being in the Atlanta Tech Village, I’ve seen many companies grow from small, founding teams to millions of dollars in recurring revenue and hundreds of jobs generated. Examples include: Rigor, SalesLoft, Terminus, CallRail, Calendly, QGenda, IO Education, PatientCo, ClockwiseMD, BrightWhistle, BlinQ Media, Pindrop Security and many more that have presented at Atlanta Startup Village along the way.
In addition to serving entrepreneurs through community, content, and capital at Atlanta Ventures, we’ve added another way: the Studio.
We’ve officially created a role titled Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) and are now accepting applications for 2-3 spots. This role is a full-time position that will transition into founding a new SaaS company.
Our team has identified numerous problems in industries with large markets that need more customer discovery. We’re looking for entrepreneurs who want to relentlessly explore these problems and solve them with software.
Why would an entrepreneur be interested in becoming an EIR?
This is an opportunity to have an “at-bat” with minimal downside, while still taking a sizeable swing for the fence. Plan for the next 7-10 years, assuming everything goes well, meaning you hit Product/Market Fit, likely raise additional rounds, and build a $100 Million business. Don’t chuckle, in the last five years, I’ve seen four of them alone that started at Atlanta Tech Village and have gone from pre-revenue to millions of dollars in revenue.
The role includes salary, benefits, and a seed investment.
If all fails, you’ve spent 18-24 months of your life learning new ways to solve a problem and created un-regrettable experiences with new career-long relationships. If you think like Jeff Bezos, at least you will have minimized regret through the regret minimization framework. I recently asked one entrepreneur, “How did you have the courage to start this company?” His response, “If worse came to worse—and I fail—I go back to getting a job, so I’d be right where I am right now.”
The best companies almost always go through a pivot or two, but when they find their groove, it becomes very clear that Product/Market Fit has been achieved and the path to $1 Million ARR is on the horizon.
The grind and sacrifices are very real to get to $1 Million ARR, but if you want to control your destiny and significantly test your abilities, the EIR position is a calculated risk worth your time.
In addition, you’ll have office space out of Atlanta Tech Village and join other EIR’s on a similar path.
To apply, reach out to me on LinkedIn or email me [first name] dot [last name] at AtlantaVentures.com.