Vasant Kamath, a long-time Atlanta technology investor, joined early-stage investment firm Tech Square Ventures as a partner earlier this month.
Kamath previously served as director of Primus Capital Funds and the director of corporate development for Cox Enterprises, where he invested in technology companies for the Cox family.
It was during his time at Stanford University Graduate School of Business that Kamath became more familiar with the startup ecosystem and how to build strong companies and business relationships, he said. After he graduated, he came to Atlanta and has invested here for the past decade.
Atlanta Inno sat down with Kamath to talk about why he thinks Atlanta could emerge as a top tech market and advice he has for local founders.
Atlanta Inno: You’ve invested in technology companies most of your career. Why do you like it?
Vasant Kamath: Technology is exciting. There’s always interesting innovation happening and interesting markets you’re unlocking, creating or disrupting. It’s the leading growth part of the economy. It’s been that way for a while, and I think it will continue to do so in the future. It’s important to invest in technology, to not only help places like Atlanta and the ecosystem here but also the overall economy.
Inno: What do you see as the next big trends in innovation?
VK: That’s what we’re looking for. There’s been several breakthroughs in the last decade and a half — the move to cloud computing, virtual environments, large-scale e-commerce, retailers embracing the developer community. With that, there’s also an increased focus on security, both to protect consumers and businesses. There are a lot of major themes there that are constantly evolving.
The great thing about Atlanta and Tech Square is that Atlanta has so much going for it because it has great infrastructure to support the technology that backs those trends. For example, Georgia Tech as a top research institute with strong engineering and computing, where you have great research happening on all these technologies. Then you have all these major Fortune 1000 companies and Cox, that are investing heavily in technology and committed to innovation. The startup ecosystem has also really developed since the decade I’ve been back. Those three things make Atlanta an exciting place to be.
Inno: We’ve had a lot of exciting announcements of big tech companies coming here and large funding rounds. Why is Atlanta having this tech boom now?
VK: The ecosystem has been building for 10 or 15 years, at least. To get all those things to work together — educational institutions, corporations, the startups — that takes time. Building an ecosystem takes repetition — growing, funding, selling, repeat. Eventually you get critical mass. Now is that time. We’ve had a good amount of funding, but also really great exits. Those things feed on each other.
Inno: What are the challenges you see for the city or startups here moving forward?
VK: Sustaining investment is important — dollars coming into the ecosystem and staying in the ecosystem. People who have been successful here need to continue to invest and build the community. That’s part of the reason it’s important to have investors based here.
So long as these different groups I mentioned work together, we’ll be in good shape. I don’t see why Atlanta can’t be one of the top couple of tech hubs in the United States.
Inno: What do you look for when investing in an early-stage startup?
VK: A strong founder and team that has a compelling vision and the ability to execute on that vision, whether through a network they have, industry experience, deep expertise or a combination of those. Another one is market opportunity — whether existing, new or a disruption. There are other things we look for that are more specific and based on our own expertise that depend on the sector, technology and business model.
Inno: What advice do you have for startup founders?
VK: Have a good sense of what your business hypothesis is and how you have or will test it. How are you going to measure success? How have you already achieved steps to product/market fit? That’s important to demonstrate to investors, and it could mean a lot of different things for different companies.
