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.

Company Company Up:

This week’s company coming up is called Bottle. Co-Founders, Andy Blechman and Will Schreiber have an obsession with solving the pains of local businesses to serve their customers and improve operations. How do they do it? Bottle makes it dead simple for a local vendor to launch a store, communicate with customers, and sell flexible subscriptions all in one place. Customers who use Bottle have a very simple and beautiful way to showcase their products, text and email customers, and batch the orders with suppliers so greater margins are achieved. Ideal customers range from bakers, to florists, to butchers. They launched this product approximately two years ago and customer satisfaction is off the star chart scale. They are currently hiring for sales reps and more. Check them out and keep an eye on their growth!

Announcement of the Week:

Hypepotamus ran a great article on Christy Brown who just took over the CEO role of Dr. Noze Best. I’m excited about this for several reasons: first, we are happy customers and can’t say enough good things about the product. Second, this company was started by an Emory Pediatric Otolaryngologist, Dr. Steve Goudy. This local, direct to consumer company helps suction the ever-present congestion out of babies and infants. This is a great example of commercialization in the healthcare space on the consumer side. It takes significant, fun work to even get a prototype out there, particularly while being a practicing doctor, nonetheless. Congrats to the Dr. Noze Best team on the next major chapter of the business. I’m very excited to see this grow and scale.    

Real Real Estate:

‍There’s been tremendous coverage on the MailChimp move from Ponce City Market into their new building in the Biz Chron but when it comes to real estate I’ve found it more interesting to get the take from the folks who make the decision. This is why when MailChimp Co-Founder, Dan Kurzius wrote a descriptive LinkedIn post on the decision making process, where they are going and why I was intrigued. The synopsis is they are moving 10 minutes down the Beltline in Jim Irwin’s New City Development. There are three major towers in the development and MailChimp is taking one entire tower and three floors in another tower connected by a sky bridge. In addition to more details about the building itself and the interior designers, Dan includes several images and videos of the new spread. There is a new sheriff in town among the office portfolio on the East Side Trail of the Beltline; the activity and excitement around that area will be even more energizing! No specific date on the move but they are in the test fit phase today.  

Beta Products of the Week:

‍Okay, this product isn’t even in beta yet, it is still being built and is pre-launch, but nonetheless, we’re going to cover it this week as their launch is imminent. The name of the company is called Gatsby and it’s founded by Alice Thacker. She is solving the pain point of getting several folks to coordinate schedules while keeping communication simple. How many times have you been on a group thread looking to organize a dinner or gathering, yet a busy recipient and a two-day later response and suddenly you lose all potential fixity. I’m intrigued in this market because I believe Gatsby can disrupt Doodle. I remember using Doodle 25 years ago in 8th grade…and we still use it today! Add to the fact the natural viral coefficient opportunity here and there could be some serious magic. As mentioned, the product is not out but sign up for the waitlist if you’re interested in being the first in the know. 

Lastly, one of the busiest weeks is on the horizon which is October 17th-October 21st. Techstars Demo Day to Venture Atlanta amongst several other events, happy hours, and more are sprinkled throughout the week. Lock in your plans now!   

 Annnnd, that’s 5 minutes.

Thank you for listening to Five and Thrive. We provide 5 minutes of quality information, so you can thrive in the upcoming week. Please subscribe to the show and spread the good word! Check it all out on the Atlanta Innovation Week site.

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Resources discussed in this episode:

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Announcement of the Week: 

Christy Brown Becomes CEO of Dr. Noze Best

Company Coming Up: 

Bottle

Real Real Estate: 

MailChimp Real Estate Update

Beta Product of the Week:

Gatsby