Episode 8 | Sally Bethea
The Atlanta Story
The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode sits down with , the Founding Director and Riverkeeper of and author. Born and raised in Atlanta, Sally spent 30 years setting up and leading the non-profit that protects and preserves the 430 miles of our vital Chattahoochee river – which weaves through the state of Georgia and Atlanta. Topics in today’s interview include lessons on how the non-profit started, stories around Chattahoochee’s cleanup and turnaround, the best locations on the...
info_outline
Episode 7 | Brian McGowan
The Atlanta Story
The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode sits down with Brian McGowen, President of Centennial Yards. Born in the Bronx, raised in New Jersey, and educated in California, Brian McGowen has been bi-coastal for the majority of his life. His career has spanned between public and private sectors dating back to his time in California, to DC, and culminating in Atlanta. Now, he’s leading Centennial Yards which is an 8 million square foot mixed-use development preparing to bring a gravitational force of energy...
info_outline
Episode 6 | Victoria Lemos
The Atlanta Story
The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode sits down with Victoria Lemos, Founder of Archive Atlanta. Born and raised in New York, Victoria moved to Atlanta 18 years ago and since then has become a prolific podcaster through Archive Atlanta. Two hundred and thirty episodes later, Victoria has covered everything from the most underrated neighborhood – which we discussed, to the quirky stories in the cracks and crevices of Atlanta’s history rarely told. Other topics in today’s interview...
info_outline
Episode 5 | Kelvin Collins
The Atlanta Story
The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Kelvin Collins, Vice President of Economic Development of Atlanta BeltLine. Born and raised in Grenada, Kelvin moved to the United States for college and since, has spent the majority of his career in the public sector — mainly in New York City. Before getting the call to move to Atlanta, Kelvin worked for the Small Business Services Department, a major non-profit, as well as in the Bloomberg Administration. Just over 2 years ago, Kelvin...
info_outline
Episode 4 | Nate Hybl
The Atlanta Story
The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode sits down with , Founder of !. Born and raised in Hazelhurst, Georgia, Nate has spent the majority of his career experimenting, crafting, and serving life-giving food through his fast-casual food company, Gusto! What first started out as vast and obsessive research around menu design and branding during nights and weekends, has transformed into a 12 store company with plans to double in unit count over the next 18 months. In today’s interview, we learn how...
info_outline
Episode 3 | Nedra Deadwyler
The Atlanta Story
The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode sits down with Nedra Deadwyler, Founder for Civil Bikes. Nedra started Civil Bikes nearly 10 years ago as a way to preserve history while also experiencing Atlanta outside of the normal lens of a car. Her tours are experienced by visitors all over the country who want to learn more about the more silent parts of Atlanta history. When she’s not leading historical tours of Atlanta, Nedra is a social worker as well as serving on the Urban Design Commission for the City of...
info_outline
Episode 2 | Conor Sen
The Atlanta Story
The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode sits down with Conor Sen, Columnist for Bloomberg. Conor moved to Atlanta from California in 2010 and has documented several trends and market shifts through his popular Twitter account @conorsen. Conor parlayed his popularity into a weekly Column for Bloomberg where his thoughts on housing, economics, and technology can be read each week. In today’s interview, we get to escape the pay wall and hear Conor’s take on the...
info_outline
Episode 1 | Yanni Hufnagel
The Atlanta Story
The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode sits down with Yanni Hufnagel, Founder of Lemon Perfect. Yanni started his career in basketball. From team manager at Cornell to Assistant Coaching positions at Oklahoma, Harvard, Vanderbilt, and Nevada, Yanni is a student of building great teams, recruiting the best, and leaving it all out on the court. Five years ago a spark was ignited around the idea of building a premium, healthy, and delicious water brand. That brand, headquartered out of Atlanta, is called Lemon...
info_outline
Episode 10 | Zac Harrison
The Atlanta Story
The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode sits down with , Founder of . Over ten years ago, a cross country bike trip sparked the desire to deliver locally grown food to the doorsteps of consumers. Today, Fresh Harvest supplies Georgia grown food and produce to over 3300 households every week through their sourcing and operations. In today’s interview, Zac shares stories from Fresh Harvest’s beginnings, clever ways to raise food conscious kids, how he builds culture with over...
info_outline
Episode 9 | Cherie Kloss
The Atlanta Story
The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Cherie Kloss, Founder of SnapNurse. After spending 10 years as an anesthetist, Cherie transitioned careers to be a tv producer and then a technology founder. Through the personal pain she experienced finding, scheduling, and getting paid as a healthcare worker, Cherie started a software company learning how through online education and Youtube videos. Today, SnapNurse generates over $1B in revenue and is one of the fastest growing companies in...
info_outlineThe Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down Founder and CEO of The Illuminarium, Alan Greenberg.
Alan is a serial entrepreneur who has started companies in media, healthcare, education, travel, and technology. The Illuminarium is all about democratizing human experiences and just opened the first of several locations last month right off the Beltline. Before this latest venture, Alan co-Founded Avenues: The World School, sold a healthcare media company to WebMD, and was Publisher of Esquire Magazine. In today’s episode, Alan shares principles around starting successful businesses, what it was like being a publisher in the Mad Men era of advertising, sales strategies, and much more.
The Atlanta Story is put together by the folks at Atlanta Ventures -- and we can’t wait to share some of the personalities behind the brand. Atlanta Ventures invests in entrepreneurs through community, content, and capital -- most notably through our Studio with companies like Greenzie and Intown Golf Club. We believe the best entrepreneurs learn from other great artists in different fields.
In this episode, we discuss…
- How Alan became publisher of Esquire Magazine in his early 30’s. (1:43)
- If Alan would become a publisher in traditional print magazine today. (3:08)
- The lessons Alan learned as a publisher that he brought to the rest of his career. (3:48)
- How a University of Tennessee graduate gels with the ivy elites in New York. (5:48)
- How he changed the culture and belief for the community of New York writers. (7:28)
- Post Esquire, how did Alan make the transition to the healthcare space. (9:39)
- What frameworks were used to decide on the healthcare market, and who was involved in the decision to chase that market. (11:15)
- Things today that Alan does to stay relevant in terms of technology and seeing what’s ahead. (12:55)
- How Alan made the transition from healthcare to travel. (14:51)
- How Alan has been able to wear hats of operating and building business while also investing in deals outside his daily workflow. (17:39)
- How Alan got the opportunity to work in education, and how he created a global network of schools in Brazil, China, and the US. (19:16)
- What opened last month on the Beltline, and the thought process on Alan starting Illuminarium. (22:14)
- The process Alan went through behind building Illuminarium. (24:44)
- The key user flows and the different experiences that Illuminarium provides for its users. (27:36)
- How Alan is getting feedback from users and pivoting appropriately. (28:22)
- Some of the spectacles on the roadmap for Illuminarium. (29:55)
- How long each experience will be at Illuminarium. (31:15)
- Illumarium’s future expansions that are in the works. (32:04)
- How many employees are needed to run Illuminarium. (32:44)
- Alan’s tips for entrepreneurs on raising money. (35:00)
- Alan’s tips for sales. (37:27)
- How Alan has networked throughout his career. (39:10)
- Why Atlanta, and what has Atlanta done for him. (42:01)
Resources discussed in this episode:
Illuminarium:
https://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/greenberg-launches-flagship-illuminarium/
Avenues:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/nyregion/the-best-school-75-million-can-buy.html
WebMD Acquisition / Medcast:
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/01/business/healtheon-and-webmd-plan-to-buy-news-service.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB930832927560385683
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/1999/03/22/story6.html
Esquire: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/20/business/advertising-esquire-s-revivifier-moves-on.html
How you can get involved:
Visit atlantaventures.com/studio if you’re interested in learning more about Atlanta Ventures and the Studio.
Where you can find us:
Website: www.atlstory.com
Twitter: @theatlantastory
Instagram: @theatlantastory
YouTube: Here
Subscribe to the newsletter here.