September 8, 2022

🚀 Beta Product: Keep Technologies (The Knight) 🧑‍💼 Jobs: RedTeam, Lasso 🗓️ Events: Metro Atlanta Chamber ❓Question of the Week: Can entrepreneurs be made?

E15 | Knight, RedTeam, Lasso, Metro Atlanta Chamber

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:

This week’s Beta Product of the week is led by serial entrepreneur, David Moeller. The name of his company is called Keep Technologies and their main product is called Knight. If you live in a major city, car break-ins are a dime a dozen. Keep Technologies has built a hardware product that sits in a cup holder and does everything from deterring thieves from approaching the vehicle, to record video of the crime, to notify the owner, and provide continual monitoring after the break-in. Knight’s design is simple with a natural logo - a chess knight – and the pre-orders are racking up. Keep an eye out for Keep Technologies. Link in bio.

Companies Worth Applying To:

An exciting opportunity in the construction software space has opened up. RedTeam headquartered in Orlando, which recently acquired paskr out of Nashville, is looking for a VP of Sales. I remember speaking to the founder of paskr years ago and remembering how good their product was and solving a deep and validated need in the market – and most of the sales then were founder-led. Now through an acquisition and growth capital provided by Braemont Capital, RedTeam is ready to step on the gas with the addition of a talented and experienced VP of Sales. This role is remote and a superb opportunity to take a strong product to market.

Another company worth applying to is also out of Nashville and this company is called Lasso. Angela Alea is the President and CRO. Lasso’s software helps run live events. Their customers produce events including the Super Bowl, The Oscars, The Grammys, Dreamforce, and more by offering 6 different products that unify event staff management tasks into one easy workflow via scheduling, communication, onboarding, time tracking, and more. They were on this year’s Inc 5000 list and looking for a VP of Sales, Engineering talent, Dev Ops and more.

Events to Put on the Calendar:

I know we’re only in September but what better time to start planning for October as it is a very busy one in Atlanta. The Metro Atlanta Chamber put together a good list of several keystone events including Venture Atlanta, Fintech South, A3C, TechStars Demo Day, and much more. We put a link to the list. Pick and choose as there are plenty of great options.

Question of the Week:

Can entrepreneurs be made? This is a topic we discuss a lot out of Atlanta Ventures and with our friends. Here’s my take: entrepreneurship levels are on a continuum, almost no different than athletes. Can athletes be made? Sure. Are some predisposed to winning championships because of natural God-given ability? Absolutely. However, when we hone in on entrepreneurs, I believe there are thousands who would go start a company if the mechanisms were there. For example, this past weekend, I spent all weekend with a new friend from Nashville. He is one of the top sales reps at a large enterprise SaaS company, does very well, yet in addition to trouncing quota, he has several AirBnB’s, a side blog on food, traditional real estate, and a few other entrepreneurial outlets. So he is already an athlete, he is already an entrepreneur. Now the question resides with every person who wants to build a company or any athlete pursuing a sport, how much sacrifice and commitment is one willing to make to achieve their ambitions. So now we just brought in three other factors: ambition (which is a huge one), commitment, and sacrifice. If you are a top sales rep or performer, it doesn’t have to be in sales, at a premier SaaS company, and you have the itch to start something, those are all factors weighing in on your decision to startup something. Fortunately in today’s environment, where companies are started quickly in thousands of niche markets, there are several options than traditional routes. More on that in due time!

Annnnd, that’s 5 minutes.

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