BEHIND THE SCENES OF #VA2017
Venture Atlanta 2017 had 35 presenting companies, 16 showcase companies, 200 investors, and 880 attendees. Catch up on what you missed, and get excited for #VA2018.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Mark Cuban | 2017
Since the age of 12, Mark has been a natural businessman. Selling garbage bags door to door, the seed was planted early on for what would eventually become long-term success. After graduating from Indiana University - where he briefly owned the most popular bar in town - Mark moved to Dallas. After a dispute with an employer who wanted him to clean instead of closing an important sale, Mark created MicroSolutions, a computer consulting service. He went on to later sell MicroSolutions in 1990 to CompuServe.
In 1995, Mark and long-time friend Todd Wagner came up with an internet based solution to not being able to listen to Hoosiers Basketball games out in Texas. That solution was Broadcast.com - streaming audio over the internet. In just four short years, Broadcast.com (then Audionet) would be sold to Yahoo for $5.6 billion dollars.
Since his acquisition of the Dallas Mavericks in 2000, he has overseen the Mavs competing in the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history in 2006 - and becoming NBA World Champions in 2011. They are currently listed as one of Forbes' most valuable franchises in sports.
In addition to the Mavs, Mark is chairman and CEO of AXS tv, one of ABC's "Sharks" on the hit show Shark Tank, and an investor in an ever-growing portfolio of businesses. He lives in Dallas with wife Tiffany, daughters Alexis and Alyssa, and son Jake.


Ernie Garcia | 2017
Ernie Garcia, III co-founded Carvana and has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since the inception in 2012. Mr. Garcia is also Chairman of the Carvana Co. Board. Prior to founding Carvana, Mr. Garcia held various roles at the DriveTime Automotive Group, Inc. from January 2007 to January 2013. From January 2007 to December 2008, he served as a financial strategist. He was a managing director of corporate finance from December 2008 to November 2009. From November 2009 until January 2013, he served as a Vice President, Treasurer and Director of Quantitative Analytics. As Director of Quantitative Analytics, Mr. Garcia was responsible for the firm’s ongoing development of consumer credit scoring models, and its utilization of those tools in retail vehicle sales deal structuring and vehicle price optimization. Prior to DriveTime, Mr. Garcia was an associate in the Principal Transactions Group at RBS Greenwich Capital from 2005 to 2006, where he focused on consumer credit based investments. Mr. Garcia holds a B.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.


Scott Dorsey | 2017
Scott Dorsey is a highly admired entrepreneur, speaker, and innovator. He was the co-founder and CEO of ExactTarget, which was acquired by Salesforce for $2.5 billion in 2013. He is now the co-founder and managing partner at High Alpha – a venture studio that conceives, launches, and scales enterprise technology companies. Join us at Venture Atlanta to hear more about Dorsey’s story and how innovation is shaping our future.


Tripp Crosby | 2017 Host
He’s most widely known as the director and taller half of Tripp and Tyler, a world famous YouTube sketch comedy duo whose shorts have amassed over 60 million views and made headlines on some the world's largest publications (Today Show, Late Show, CNN Headline News, Huffington Post, Mashable). You might be familiar with their most popular sketch 'A Conference Call in Real Life," which is arguably the most influential workplace comedy short in internet history. In 2016, Tripp directed and appeared with Tyler in four episodes of TruTV’s Late Night Snack, and they are currently developing their own unscripted travel related television show. Most of their time is spent working on digital content campaigns for a number of major brands like Fuze Ice Tea, Ford Mustang, Constant Contact, GoDaddy, and Zoom just to name a few.

PEOPLE ARE TALKING
See what our attendees have to say
One of the best weeks of the year!
Kudos to Venture Atlanta for a great event. The companies, investors, and rooftops were fantastic.
Best event of founders and funders in the Southeast!
Venture Atlanta was great! We made so many connections.
I’m pitching in front of hundreds of investors. Thank you for the opportunity Venture Atlanta. You are helping break barriers!
Kudos to Venture Atlanta for pulling together such an amazing lineup of companies.
I changed my trip and my flight so that I could make it here in person!
Allyson you crushed Venture Atlanta this year. It was an amazing conference and the networking was unbelievable. Thanks for all you and your team do to put on one of the best conferences of the year.
The pitches were fantastic!
Thank you Venture Atlanta for the opportunity to present. It was an honor to share the stage with so many impressive and innovative companies.
Love seeing all of the companies featured at Venture Atlanta. It’s cool to see so many incredible ideas and amazing people coming together in a shared space.
So many awesome startups and insightful content!
Always a great event!
We had the BEST experience connecting with investors and learning from other founders.
Thanks Allyson for all of the energy you put into making #VA2021 an amazing conference for us all!
The Southeast venture scene was hugely welcoming. Did dozens of meetings both days.
Presenting at the Venture Atlanta conference last week and sharing ‘my why’ with hundreds of people was the ultimate honor and has me back and more passionate than ever to continue to execute.
This is definitely the place to be if you’re a hungry startup founder!
Gets better year after year!
PRESENTING COMPANIES
These are the companies that presented on the #VA2017 main stage.
Interested in joining this group of Venture Atlanta alumni? Learn how.
SHOWCASE COMPANIES
These are the companies that participated in the inaugural Venture Atlanta Showcase for early stage or pre-revenue companies. Interested in participating in this year’s Showcase? Learn how.