Atlanta

Your startup doesn’t have to be based in Atlanta, but your startup is more likely to succeed if Atlanta is a part of your plan.

We make unicorns.
Mailchimp, Calendly, PrizePicks, and Flock are just a few of the many billion-dollar startups born and raised in Atlanta. It's probably because Georgia Tech runs the largest engineering school in the country.

We give you more runway for your round.
Lower salaries mean lower burn. The same $3M seed round lasts six months longer than it does in San Francisco. That extra time is often the difference between finding product-market fit and running out of money.

We have a talent pipeline for every stage.
Same caliber of employee as the coasts, lower cost, half the recruiting war.
• Top-ranked Emory and Georgia Tech lead a dozen universities within an hour of downtown.
• Alumni of Atlanta's unicorns are here, hireable, and hungry for round two.
• So are the operators from sixteen Fortune 500 headquarters, and from 70% of the Fortune 1000 with a presence here.
• From the first hire to IPO, the talent bench is here.

We lead in the leading industries.
• FinTech: They call us Transaction Alley. 70% of US credit and debit card transactions flow through Georgia companies like Global Payments, Fiserv, and NCR.
• B2B SaaS: Category-defining companies in Salesloft, FullStory, Terminus, LeaseQuery, and CallRail.
• Healthcare: Home to the CDC, top-ranked Emory Healthcare, and the American Cancer Society.

We know startups are hard. Community shouldn’t be.
ATDC has been turning Georgia Tech research into companies since 1980, longer than any university incubator in America, and Atlanta Tech Village, the country's third-largest tech hub, was built with one Atlanta exit to enable the next thousand. The Russell Center is the largest home for Black entrepreneurs in the world, and Engage pairs founders directly with the Fortune 500s down the street.

We are the center of the South.
People, companies, and capital are moving to the American South, the fastest-growing region in the US. Atlanta is its capital and the sixth-largest city, with a population that increases by 1 person every 8 minutes.

We work and play.
The Beltline stitches 22 miles of trails, parks, art, and restaurants through the middle of the city. Eight restaurants hold Michelin stars. Nine pro sports teams play year-round, Atlanta hosted eight World Cup matches, and the Super Bowl is coming back for the fourth time. Music tours don't just stop here; they stay three and four nights in a row. The same city that runs hip-hop also out-produces Hollywood in film and TV. Thirty-plus music venues, twenty-plus breweries, world-class golf, and a pickleball court on every corner. Nobody counters an offer with "but I'd have to live in Atlanta."

We don’t have everything, but…
Good thing we have the world’s busiest airport to get you anywhere, anytime. Every 39 seconds, a plane takes off or lands in Atlanta. 80% of the U.S. population is within a two-hour flight, and the rest of the world is one nonstop trip away, fueled by the nation's #1 airline that calls Atlanta home.

Your HQ can be elsewhere, but your plan must include Atlanta.
Keep your headquarters in New York or San Francisco if you prefer, but you cannot build a serious company in 2026 without Atlanta in your plans: the talent, the customers, and the industries that matter run through here. It’s never been easier to get to town.