Introduction: Welcome to Five & Thrive: a weekly podcast highlighting the Southeast’s most interesting news, entrepreneurs, and information of the week, all under 5 minutes. 

My name is Jon Birdsong and I’m with Atlanta Ventures. 

Beta Product of the Week: Former Atlanta Ventures intern and Georgia Tech student, Aidan Pratt has a new and fun beta product called PinPoint. Here is how it works. You go to pinpoint.city and login with your Twitter account. After authorizing the app, you’re taken to a picture of the world and you immediately see where everyone you follow is located in the country or world. Now this data is not real time, it only records the static location from your Twitter Bio. It is cool to see where everyone who has publicly stated the city they live in, especially post-covid. If you’re looking for a fun, free rabbit hole to dive down for 15-30 minutes check out this neat product from Georgia Tech undergrad.  

Events of the Week: This week we caught up with Joe Colopy of Bronto Software fame which sold to NetSuite in 2015. Today Joe and his team started Jurassic Capital and he also helps run GrepBeat - which is a Triangle specific publication on all things startup. The dates for the 2nd Grep-a-palooza have been set and it is June 1st at the Durham Convention Center. Put that one on your schedule for the summer now.   

Raise of the Week: This week some strong national news occurred from Fortune announcing Atlanta-based Parable which raised $2.75M co-led by M13 and and Break Tail Ventures. Brian Davis is the Co-CEO and started the company nearly 2 years ago. Parable provides daily nutrients your brain needs in one scoop. The product is called Daily and comprises of eight active ingredients; including green tea extract, ginseng, lemon balm, and a few I won’t attempt pronouncing. Check their link out in the show notes. 

Also, out of Richmond, Virginia the HopDrive team raised an $8M round led by Cox Automotive as well as ACERTUS and Ally with existing investors, Overline participating as well. HopDrive provides short distance vehicle delivery solutions for automotive dealerships, independent service centers, and fleet management companies. Congrats to Nick Mottas and Rob Newton of Richmond on the raise.     

Podcast of the Week: This isn’t some form of inception promoting content other content we do but we did just launch a new Atlanta Story Podcast with a company that is hiring, more in the next clip. Lemon Perfect is the name of the business and it’s a CPG company that sells healthy lemon water and is the 4th fastest growing water brand in the country. If you don’t listen to the podcast, here are the main three takeaways: Yanni Hufnagel is the CEO and started the business after spending the first nearly 20 years of his career as basketball coach: point 1, it’s never too late to pivot your career. When identifying factories to produce his product, found a company with two partners in the plant. Those partners ended up splitting up but Yanni built the relationship with the one who still produces the product today: point 2, just like in basketball or any sports, business is a game of inches and you need the ball to bounce your way to be successful. Make sure to put yourself in a position for the ball to bounce one way or another and keep at it. When I asked him what is in store for the future of Lemon Perfect, his answer was simple: “wake up and win tomorrow.” Spoken like a true coach. Keep it simple and let’s all win today.  

Companies Worth Applying To:  Just yesterday, I ran into Joshua Silver the CEO of Rainforest and he has been hiring like crazy. We’ve covered them a few episodes ago after their raise. Josh is currently looking for a zero to one marketer and ideally someone who has already been in fintech. We put their company link in the bio. 

Also, Lemon Perfect’s team of 79 is also hiring. They are looking for several marketing specialists to bring their drink in the hands of more consumers.  

Annnnd that is five minutes!

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Beta Product of the Week: PinPoint
Events of the Week: Grep-a-palooza

Raise of the Week: Parable and HopDrive

Podcast of the Week: Atlanta Story - Lemon Perfect 

Companies Worth Applying To: Rainforest and Lemon Perfect 

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