Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Atlanta Startup Community Gets Grants from City of Atlanta and Ford Foundation

  
Atlanta, GA night skyline


 ATLANTA, GA (July 9, 2013) – Invest Atlanta has been awarded two grants - $150,000 from the Ford Foundation and $50,000 from the City of Atlanta’s Community Development Block Grant program - to help the newly incorporated Startup Atlanta fulfill its mission to connect, support and expand Greater Atlanta’s entrepreneurial community.

Bess Weyandt
Invest Atlanta created Startup Atlanta in 2012 to cultivate the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and the organization recently became a standalone nonprofit organization.

“We are a city of innovators and risk-takers with a long history of starting and running successful companies of all sizes,” Mayor Kasim Reed said. “We are excited to be supporting our entrepreneurs through Startup Atlanta with the financial support of these grants.”

Brian P. McGowan, President and CEO of Invest Atlanta, said growing more successful startup businesses is critical to creating new jobs in Atlanta.

Mayor Kasim Reed
“Startup firms and new companies dominate net job creation in our country, and that is why we are focusing on how to encourage and support the creation of new businesses,” McGowan said. “Atlanta is already ranked nationally as a top city for entrepreneurship, but we know we can do more to make Atlanta an even better place to launch and grow a business.”

Bess Weyandt, Executive Director of Startup Atlanta, said the grants will enable the organization to create the infrastructure to support a thriving environment for entrepreneurs in Atlanta.

Brian P. McGowan
“We are grateful for the financial support from the Ford Foundation and the City of Atlanta, and we will continue to strengthen the ecosystem in Atlanta that helps startups succeed,” Weyandt said.
  
For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Tony Wilbert
The Wilbert Group
404.405.3656 

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