Atlanta’s venture scene is growing. To give you a look at the market’s strengths and areas of improvement, TechCrunch caught up with two local VCs as part of TechCrunch’s virtual spotlight on the city.
Zane Venture Fund founder and managing partner Shila Nieves Burney and Overline co-founder and managing partner Sean O’Brien both told TechCrunch what they love about investing in the Southern city.
Nieves Burney talked about how the city’s diverse talent pool and strong education system help lay the foundation for the city’s growing venture scene. O’Brien added that many in the city prefer being collaborative over competitive, which makes it a healthy environment for companies to grow in.
“We just have a different way of doing things down here in Atlanta,” O’Brien said. “And there’s a lot of resources that come together to support founders on the earliest stages all the way through their growth stages of their companies. So it’s a great city to build in and a great moment in time for our city.”
Plus, having a mayor who is pro business and pushing for local innovation isn’t bad either. Learn more about what Andre Dickens had to say about the space here.
They also talked about the fact that one of the biggest issues in the Atlanta scene currently is that it is often overlooked in the emerging tech scene when compared to cities like Austin or Miami.
“I think that’s one of our biggest flaws is that we have not been able to tell the Atlanta story,” Nieves Burney said. “What’s our secret sauce? Because there is one here.”
Watch or listen to the entire conversation with O’Brien and Nieves Burney here.
