For some of us, dot.com doesn’t seem that long ago. It was full of big talk, lots of swag, disruptively simple ideas, huge investments and wildly aggressive marketing spends. We don’t need to speak of its implosion. It’s common knowledge like the carnage left from a hurricane. There are sad stories, lessons learned and ultimately a renewed spirit to rise from the ashes. What we can recall and continue to admire are those brands and leaders that launched, grew, survived and remained to live another day.
I remember a few trips to Chicago as we were working on the launch and scale of art.com. Elegantly simple in its idea and execution and despite competition, thrives today. When Mark Cuban’s Broadcast.com entered our offices, it was yet another huge opportunity. Imagine living in a digital environment where you can actually acquire the quintessential brand – art.com, broadcast.com, webmd.com (another brand in and out of our offices). Those were interesting times, stressful times, but more like the stress of jumping out of a plane. Enjoy the ride and hope you don’t splat.
With October’s Venture Atlanta on the horizon and the appearance of a 2.0 disruptive brand, Carvana, whom we have had the pleasure of working alongside since its launch and recent IPO, we couldn’t be more optimistic about the future of tech, Atlanta and this next community of mavericks, geniuses, pioneers and disruptors.
