So we banded together to create START Atlanta, a non-profit to fill exactly this void.  The goal of START Atlanta is to get the funding and support that Atlanta’s young startups need to cultivate their ideas, build great teams, and “graduate” them to the next level (whatever they define as the “next level”.)  We will achieve this by bringing the community together and creating a site that acts as a hub for investors and high-net-worth individuals to match up with early-stage companies and entrepreneurs.  We hope that low friction and high visibility will foster the kind of growth Atlanta’s startup sector desperately needs.

We’ve already arranged some great sponsors and excellent buzz around the idea, now we just need to build the site!  So we’re holding a weekend event to do just that.  So if you’re an investor, an entrepreneur, a developer, a designer, a blogger, or a potential sponsor, we’d like you to participate!

We created a Facebook event where you can go to RSVP for the weekend.  Here are the details and schedule breakdown for the weekend:

Open Discussion: Friday, September 19th, 6:30pm

The first night is dedicated to listening to the community.  We want the ultimate customers (entrepreneurs and investors) to participate in helping us gather requirements for the site.  What functionality do you need?  What features do you wish other investment sites offered?

Everyone is welcome on this night.  We want a spirited discussion that sets the stage for the whole endeavor.  As investors and entrepreneurs talk out their mutual needs, legal and insurance will be offering advice, developers and designers will be gathering requirements, and you lovely bloggers will be covering the birth of this magical new entity in loving detail.

Development Jam: Saturday-Sunday, September 20th-21st, All Day

The rest of the weekend is devoted to construction of the actual site.  The development team is made up entirely of local designers and developers, many of whom are also (of course) full-time entrepreneurs, volunteering their time, talent, and effort to seeing this vision realized.  We have all manner of product management roles filled, and with many Startup Weekend Alumni in attendance the weekend promises to produce the amazing results we’ve come to expect from this community.

Location: The Appcelerator Offices in Buckhead

Here is the map to the address, but i understand that directions from there are still pretty difficult.  The best i can tell you is cross-reference the map with this image, and be nice to security:

If you have any questions or concerns, just drop me a comment!

What this means is that, above all, the point is to learn and teach, not to immediately get rich (but someday!)  So we necessarily create a lot of great artifacts, such as stock presentation videos and investment guidance commentary, so now we have a place to put them.  We even share a spreadsheet with all of our current and past holdings!  (We’ve been beating the market for more than 2 years, by the way…)

We would also like to eventually get around to opening up more information about how to start an investment club yourself, such as incorporation, choosing good members, managing the funds in various accounts, and basic stock research methodology.

I am particularly excited about the blog because it gives me a better platform for my stock videos than just leaving them on my channels at YouTube or Vimeo.  Not that there’s nothing wrong with those sites, it just makes good sense to have all of our videos about stocks in one place.

So what are you waiting for?  Go grab the RSS feed and stay ahead of the market with BenHur Investments!