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.

Companies Coming Up: A new logo is up at TechRise and this one represents a company in the NIL community building space. YOKE is leveraging the transformative shift in college sports occurring with the new name, image, and likeness legislation. Now universities and athletic departments have powerful software enabling teams to grow a business through building community and engaging with fans. YOKE’s software simplifies the process of launching and maintaining an online community while also handling automated payments and reporting for tax and compliance purposes. Led by CEO Mick Assaf, YOKE is growing fast. We put their link: Yoketeam.com in the show notes.

Event of the Week: This past Wednesday, the Technology Association of Georgia host their annual TAG Summit at the behemoth Georgia World Congress Center. 800 folks engaged with startups panelists and award winners. Two items of note. Kyle Porter was inducted into the Georgia Technology Hall of Fame and AdPipe, at Top 10 Most Innovative startup was awarded the People’s Choice award. Shout out to Andrew Levy on his presentation.

This week, on May 10th Women + Tech Meetup takes place at the Atlanta Tech Village. The title of the presentation: Pitching the Best You led by Jacey Cadet, a dynamic and talented colleague of mine. Jacey leads Pitch Practice every Friday at 1:00 p.m. in the ATV  and has helped countless startups not only hone their pitch but strategize around their message, storytelling, brand, and overall comms. The event goes from 12-1:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the ATV. Sign up link is in the show notes. 

Product of the Week: With our experience through Intown Golf Club and the renovate of The Killearn Club down in Tallahassee, some interesting golf applications come across our desk and this is one of them and it’s called Pinz (Pinz). This product of the week comes out of Mobile, Alabama from a proven entrepreneur. Mike Stashik, who is solving the problem of the complexity of on course competition. For the golfers listening, how many time have you played in a large group or outing and keeping tabs on the game is too much effort. Games either have to be kept simple or there is a calculator used at the end after you’ve thrown your $20 dollars in. Pinz seeks to bring even more fun to the game by providing software that integrates in the USGA’s handicap system and makes game creation, scoring, and competition that much more simple and livelier. If you’re in a weekly golf game, check out Pinz.  

Feature Release of the Week: Our friends at AnyDistance have launched their 4.0 version of the product this week and it’s big. This update is all around enhancing your community. The feature is called Active Clubs through AnyDistance and it’s designed to empower and support individuals on their active life journey while fostering a close-knit community of like-minded friends. If you’re looking to lead a healthier, happier life by embracing various activities and lifestyles with friends, we put the link to the Product Hunt launch in the show notes.

Raise a Glass: Two fantastic raises this week. First is from one we covered not that long ago called Mi Alma. The Arogeti’s Jordan and Scott, started a company to support families in need after a lost one. Mi Alma provides the tools and documentation methods to memorialize legacies of lost ones. They raised $1.5M. Congrats to the Arogeti’s on taking the next financial step in the Mi Alma journey. 

Second, Alan Pledger, the CEO of MakeSwift, announced they raised $3M led by Active Capital. MakeSwift removes the technical barriers marketers face when managing a complex enterprise website. They’ve done this by creating a visual builder for Next.js which empowers marketers to build and manage these sites using React components that act as custom building blocks in our no-code editor. The technical bar has been lowered so marketers can push copy, landing pages, and make swift changes. Congrats to Alan and team on the raise! 

Annnnnd that’s five minutes!

Companies Coming Up: Yoke‍

Event of the Week: Women + Tech Meetup - Jacey Cadet

Podcast of the Week: Pinz Golf

Product Feature Launch of the Week: AnyDistance

Raise a Glass: : Mi Alma and MakeSwift

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