More technology corporations coming into Atlanta means more talent for startups, top tech CEOs said.
It may seem counterintuitive at first. Those corporations create a fierce competition for local talent and often need to fill hundreds of local roles. But each new tech corporation means more executives flock to the area.
"All these big companies coming to Atlanta increases its credibility and raises its profile,” Calendly CEO Tope Awotona said during an Oct. 20 panel discussion at Venture Atlanta.
OneTrust CEO Kabir Barday and Greenlight Financial Technology CEO Tim Sheehan joined Awotona to talk about how their startups each surpassed $1 billion valuations while remaining based in Atlanta.
Barday called Atlanta a major "competitive advantage." The city’s international connectivity, operational cost efficiency and talent recruitment couldn’t be beaten by any other market.
Those strengths are growing with each new corporation that opens a major office in Atlanta. Global technology firm Cisco Systems Inc. is the latest to announce a 700-person center in Midtown. Credit card company Visa Inc., short-term rental giant Airbnb and tech giant Microsoft are also undergoing massive local expansions.
While those corporate centers could siphon talent from the innovation ecosystem, Awotona and Barday say they also attract people that could become senior leadership at their startups. Corporate workers may get the startup bug and join the innovation ecosystem instead.
“Once you pass $5 to $10 million of scale, it’s slim pickings anywhere on the East Coast,” Barday said of recruiting senior leadership. “It’s really heavy on the West Coast. The more those companies move their second headquarters here, it triggers unbelievable talent.”
Atlanta’s famed diverse talent pool mostly comes from Georgia’s university system, anchored by the Georgia Institute of Technology. Startups need young talent to fill engineering and sales roles, especially in their early stages. But not all roles can be filled by fresh graduates.
Competing with the corporations means rolling out new benefits and salary increases for workers, Barday said.
“A lot of the expectation of tech workers in Silicon Valley has come to Atlanta,” Barday said.
Calendly, OneTrust and Greenlight are a few of Atlanta's largest startups. The city has a record number of $1 billion startups and more than any other market in the Southeast. The CEOs don’t have many success stories to emulate or a network of mentors who have grown at a similar scale.
The new tech corporations in town could change that, Barday said, creating more advisors, board members or investors for startups.
“It’s going to be great for the ecosystem in terms of helping entrepreneurs and demystifying what it means to scale,” Barday said.
