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Atlanta is Braun

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A message from our graphic arts dept: make something this weekend.

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Putting the band back together

I’m happy to officially announce that Dave Payne will be joining me and Switchyards Downtown Club as a co-founder. Read Hype’s piece on it.

While we have our hands full right now curating the building, once the doors open Dave will be mostly focused on Switchyards Studios…our more systematic efforts to create more B2C winners in Atlanta (see below for more).

So how did this come about?

When I left Scoutmob last year to start Switchyards, Dave and I decided to keep meeting weekly (as we did at Scoutmob) so that we could talk startups…our favorite topic. Frequently those coffee chats focused on how to create more solid consumer and design-focused startups in Atlanta because Scoutmob’s success was so rare locally. But these were never more than casual conversations because Dave was still running Scoutmob and I was in the early days of Switchyards.

One Friday about four months ago, Dave mentioned that he might take a step back from Scoutmob since the business was growing, profitable and had a great team in place. Knowing that there was no one better in Atlanta to join me in helping to execute on the vision of Switchyards, I threw the idea out there that maybe we should work together again.

By the end of that weekend, we had decided that we were going to put the band back together and work on growing Switchyards together.

“Successful teams that have come back together to do another startup are often successful again — not from doing the same thing over and over, but because of the human element that comes with intense shared experiences.” — David Cummings, serial entrepreneur

The task of creating more B2C winners in Atlanta is a big one and we are as suited as anyone in town to have an impact. Whether is was TechCrunch the day Scoutmob launched, Mashable calling us one of the best mobile apps of the year, MODA calling Scoutmob one of the most recognizable brands in Atlanta over the last 25 years, CNN spending time in our office or just one of our local parties, we created some magic and now we want help other B2C companies in town do the same thing.

Dave and I created one of the most recognized B2C brands in Atlanta, raised over $8M in venture capital, scaled Scoutmob to a profitable company with over $5M in revenue and (most importantly) grew an amazingly engaged user base of millions of consumers across the country.

And Scoutmob wasn’t even my first project with Dave. Dave had started a Wi-Fi company before Scoutmob called SkyBlox where I first joined him eight years ago, so this is actually our 3rd project together. While SkyBlox wasn’t successful, we launched a decent product and had many paying customers. Going from a “lifestyle business” like SkyBlox to a high-growth business like Scoutmob was an amazing learning experience and we feel we’ve seen the path before and want to help as many as possible on a similar journey locally.

Dave’s focus

This might sound strange since Dave is joining Switchyards, but he’s never been a strong proponent of having our own building. He often says “if I quit my day job tomorrow to work on a startup, an office space wouldn’t be one of my first main needs.” This is exactly the reason why I wanted Dave to join Switchyards.

What makes Dave & I so like-minded is that “co-working” (ie giving flexible office space to startups) isn’t our vision at all for Switchyards. What we care most about is creating more B2C winners in Atlanta. The first step in this process is to pull together the best, most like-minded B2C people into a community under the same roof. But that’s only the start.

Dave’s focus will be on what we’re calling Switchyards Studios. Think of all the things that startups need in their first twelve months. Dave will be laying these out and designing programs around them step-by-step.

Over the next few months you’ll be hearing more about Switchyards Studios. As Dave said recently, “putting the pieces together for Studios feels like putting the pieces together for Scoutmob right before we launched…there’s something really big here.”

As many of you know, there’s no one in town more generous with their time to startups that are just beginning. For years, he’s been reaching out to young founders that he doesn’t know just to talk through their ideas or to pitch-in and help.

I’ve been saying recently that there’s no better B2C startup advisor in town than Dave and now he’s 100% focused on working with all of the companies at Switchyards to create more B2C winners. It’s a good match.

One other thing… after eight years starting three companies together, him and I just get each other. We’re very different but we know our strengths and weaknesses and overlap on a key topic — a huge passion for creating consumer and design-led startups. We’re simpatico.

Please join me in welcoming @davempayne to Switchyards. You can also send him a note at dave@switchyards.com. This is a great day for the B2C startup movement in Atlanta!

Michael Tavani

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Designing the basement pit with Flags of Origin. What was once (is) an eye sore is going to be one of the more interesting pets of the renovation.

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SDC Inspiration from @prestonattebery's #simplecity project, one of our favorite local design series'. Note: this is our rendition & not an official one.

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Hard to describe what a movement looks like at the beginning but it feels like something big is happening in Atlanta.

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Fun uncovering this conduit art on our ceiling. Someone had fun installing that in '79 (our last renovation).

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Looking down at our Williams St. alley as it meets Ted Turner Dr. Photography atlurbanist. Go follow him for great shots like this of Downtown.

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Switchyards Downtown Club in 1933. Map via Atlanta Time Machine

“It’s all about ‘placemaking’ today and if you can create a special place in an existing office building with great bones and character, you have a chance to bring something to the market. The impact can and will be dramatic as older buildings are preserved and repositioned and a new generation of users are exposed to some of Atlanta’s greatest architectural gems. It’s back to the future.” - AJ Robinson, Central Atlanta Progress

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View from our parking deck. From left to right: Ferris wheel, Tabernacle, Coke HQ, American Cancer Society HQ & Ted Turner's residence.

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Some observations: 1) SY is now at the corner of Ted & Williams ⚾️; 2) happy they kept historic Spring reference; 3) apparently we got upgraded - no more video surveillance; 4) the white borders are a big improvement design-wise but the old ones were so hand-done (off-centered, etc); 5) where can we get the old Spring Street sign?! We'd preserve that in the building forever!

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What is needed most in the earliest stages of a startup?

We’ve never thought of Switchyards Downtown Club as just a building. As a matter of fact, we’ve never thought of Switchyards as just a B2C and design community. While we have our hands full right now curating the B2C/design community in Atlanta so the building is filled with the best possible people, we’ve always known that this was just the first step. The real magic (and hard work) of Switchyards begins once the building is filled with the best consumer and design-focused talent in the city.

Once the building is full, how can Switchyards help create more B2C winners?

To create more winners, we need to focus on what matters most in the earliest stages of a startup. To get a sense for what founders think is most important (and in what order), we asked some of our favorite local founders.

So last week we asked eight founders this question…

“If you were having coffee with a new founder who just started working on an idea, what do you think are the top three things this person needs at the very beginning of their journey to give them the best odds of success?”

With twenty-four possible responses (three responses each from eight founders), we assumed there would be lots of variation in their replies. Much to our surprise, we only had eight unique responses with four responses mentioned by multiple founders.

Here are the four responses that were mentioned by multiple founders…

#1 Idea validation

This one was mentioned by all eight founders. It’s the notion that the single most important factor in startup success is product-market fit…do customers really (really) want what you are offering. This includes all of the initial customer interviews, industry analysis, conversations with trusted advisors, business model changes and testing that’s done before a line of code is ever written.

“Really, truly understanding the problem you’re solving and really, truly listening to potential customers, verifying that the problem is worth solving.” — Jesse Maddox, Founder & CEO at TripLingo

#2 Team

The next most common response was assembling the right team, particularly finding the right co-founder. This means understanding your weaknesses and surrounding yourself with the right team to build your vision. With very limited resources in the early days, this is particularly challenging, but the best founder can weave a powerful vision that can really engage early team members.

“A good co-founder will motivate you, validate that you’re onto something and make working a lot more enjoyable.” — Stanley Vergilis, Co-Founder at Hux

#3 Like-minded Community

The third most common response was being in a community of supporters, mentors and advisors who can do everything from help you figure-out how to acquire customers (tactical) to helping think through a business model change (strategic) to being emotional support during the tough times (psychological). The day-to-day swings in startups are many and varied, so having a strong community is what these founders recommended to manage the inevitable challenges.

“It’s vital to have a community of people to bounce ideas off of and to know that there are others on the same roller coaster as you are. You’ve really to got to believe in your idea and capacity to bring it to life. The day in day out uncertainty can really take a toll if you don’t have that community of folks to relate to. Staying power is vital.” — Jason Seagle, Co-Founder & CEO at Vayando

#4 Building the Product (MVP)

The last response that was common among multiple founders was getting your initial product built in the right way (ie quickly, cheaply and laser-focused on a customer need). Many new founders consider “getting my product built” to be the most important thing. While it’s important, the experienced founders that we asked believed that idea validation, team & community were first and then tackling the product.

“Get to MVP quickly…talk to users and prototype rapidly.” — Andy Blechman, Founder at Southfork

We believe that it’s our responsibility at Switchyards to support all B2C companies in Atlanta in the ways that create more winners. We began this effort by buying a building where the right people (#2 above) can gather together to support each other (#3 above) to create some truly amazing B2C companies.

But what about #1 (Idea Validation) and #4 (Building the Product)?

If validating your business model and developing an initial product are the other main early-stage founder needs, what will Switchyards do to help in those areas?

We have some big plans and couldn’t be more excited about them, so please stay tuned!

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"What Michael Tavani & Tony Riffel came up with is the first and only (as far as we know) membership coffeeshop in the country. Michael’s original vision was an updated version of a “downtown club.” Those early city clubs traced their origins back to the coffeehouses of 17th-century London. Coffeehouses became the place to meet and discuss the topic of the day. On top of that, both Michael & Tony wanted to explore new consumer use cases for cafes like not having a cash register, allowing people to place orders on an iPad themselves and giving members personal mugs…so turning the traditional cafe model on its head by getting really creative about the customer experience."

Our Medium post on Western & Atlantic

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Greetings from The Yards

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There are two "money" shots of the Atlanta skyline: Jackson St. bridge & this one. We're proud to be in it. You gotta look behind a tree but we made the photo. It's our neighborhood.

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Tuesday

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Hustle & get shit done. Is there any other relevant advice?!