Over 60 techies took part in the Startup Bike Ride on Tuesday in conjunction with The Atlanta Cycling Festival hitting Atlanta this week. The sweaty bunch dodged streetcars, Marta buses, and PARKAtlanta nincompoops in an epic quest to seek out some of the city’s startup, technology, and civic innovation centered spaces.
The Voyage:
The pack converged at Woodruff Park to hear from Katie Ryan about the up-and-coming startup space in the historic Flatiron, FlatironCity. Next, Rohit Malhotra shared his infections enthusiasm for civic entrepreneurship at the Center of Civic Innovation. Our last downtown stop was Switchyards where Dave Payne dished on Atlanta’s in-the-works consumer and design social club.
After huffing and puffing the 2.5 miles to Midtown, the bikers were treated to cold water and a chat with James Coleman who gave us the lowdown on Flashpoint, a well-known customer discovery accelerator. Then we heard from Sarah Brooks about the new kid on the block that’s planning on creating two billion dollar companies in the next 10 years, Tech Square Labs.
Before throwing in the towel and drinking our weight in cheap beer at Cypress, we hung out in front of the Centergy Building (arguably the epicenter of Tech Square). Here we saw a demonstration of Thad Oviatt‘s Parkent Cycle, heard from Jenn Bonnett on the work of ATDC – Georgia Tech’s famous incubator, got the scoop on the area’s history from Scott Henderson of Sandbox Communities and give away some nifty prizes (including a case and bike mount for the Bose SoundLink Mini from AudioActiv. leather skirt secures from Forest & Fin and a bike mounted bottle opener from WiseCracker).
Check out what you missed:
[Photo Credit: Tucker / Hypepotamus]
