The Impact of Startup Rally

If you’re going to make an impact, you might as well seek to make it as large as possible. That was our thinking back in early January when we formulated the concept known as Startup Rally. You can experience it yourself in this 45 second overview or four minute retrospective.

It all started when we asked ourselves, “What does the Atlanta tech community look like?”

One part startup exhibition, one part summer internship fair, and one part launch of Startup Georgia, Startup Rally gave 125 startups the chance to showcase their venture under the same roof during the same afternoon. Over 1,000 people came through the Georgian Ballroom at The Biltmore on a beautiful February 18 day – including Jermaine Dupri and a number of local news outlets.

But what impact did it have on the startups? We asked those who participated to share their answers:

Eugene Yukin, TranscriptsHQ (@TranscriptsHQ)

Startup Rally was the first opportunity we had to really demonstrate the product we were developing at the time. The energy and enthusiasm at the event was contagious and the feedback we got really helped with our development.

Kishan Bhoopalam (@kishb87), Genetik Ink (@GenetikInk)

We were originally unsure about the validity of our product. Would customers like it? Could we even get customers? Startup Rally helped ease our uncertainty. We got a chance to talk to hundreds of people, introduce our product and gather responses. The results helped us determine if we should move on and we did.

 

John Posey III (@slowkidatplay), Products for Robots (@TweetsForRobots)

Startup Rally gave me first hand insight to a lot of my regions peers and potential. Most of all It helped break me out of my dev bubble to get some much needed social practice. The business world and development world are like oil and water.

 

Sharron Battle, Derbywire (@DerbywireInc)

Startup Rally was a great forum to help introduce our business within the Atlanta Startup community. We connected with students, businesses and other professionals that was able to assist in our startup efforts.

 

Marcel Crudele (@mcrudele), Soket (@soket2me)

Startup Rally’s collection of great startups guaranteed an amazing turn out of potential partners, customers, investors, and thought leaders. Being part of it helped us meet some great folks. We met with several potential partners and investors and the fact that we participated in Startup Rally helped open doors months later.

 

Mario Montag (@mariomontag), Predikto

It provided exposure for us. At Startup Rally, a VC introduced us to a CEO of a large potential client. We also met with a partner company that we now collaborate with a lot by sharing marketing strategies.

Were you at Startup Rally? What impact did it have on your startup and you?