Kimberly Turner Archive

I tried to persuade Allen to move back to Atlanta at SXSW, but when I saw his recent “Where Should I Live Next” post, I knew I hadn’t been convincing enough. Time to try again. Though it’s a city that needs no introduction to Allen, who lived here for almost a decade, you might be surprised to hear that Atlanta offers much more than plentiful greenery, lazy afternoons on the porch swing, and some of the loveliest weather you’ll find anywhere. (And no, we don’t all wear giant belt buckles and eat grits…but we do say “y’all.”) Here are six great reasons for startup enthusiasts to head to Hotlanta.

1. Atlanta is affordable. According to CNNMoney.com’s fancy comparison calculator, in order to have the same standard of living that $50,000 will buy in Atlanta, you’d need $88,288 in San Francisco, $64,072 in Boulder, $60,220 in Portland, $63,938 in Seattle, $63,984 in Philadelphia, and $113,782 in Manhattan. This low cost of living makes it a great place to bootstrap a startup-and you’ll still have money left over for a beer.

2. Georgia is a great place for business. Last year, our state made a massive leap from fifteenth to fifth in the Forbes Best States for Business list-finishing in the top ten in four of six categories. Only New York, Houston, and Dallas have more Fortune 500 headquarters than Atlanta, which is one reason why the city’s population has doubled in the last twenty years and is expected to grow another 10+ percent by 2012. Forbes also attributes the dizzying growth to a “growing pool of educated labor, low business costs, and one of the best transportation networks in the country.” We’re educated and it’s cheap, but I’ve gotta be honest and say I have no clue where they’re hiding that world-class transportation system because I haven’t found it.

3. Atlanta is entrepreneurial. According to the 2009 Kauffman Report on entrepreneurialism (reporting on 2008), Atlanta had the highest entrepreneurial activity rate of any metro area in the nation. We’ve got lots of nifty startups to prove it: Band Metrics, Feedscrub, MaestroFM, Chirbit, Krumlr, Twitpay, Spitter, Cloud Sherpas, Skyblox, We The Citizens, and of course (self-promotion warning), Regator to name just a few. Atllogos.com run by TechDrawl has a much longer list of local startups and there are more starting every day as our community grows.
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