What You Know About Startups is Wrong

Connecting with your customer base can be difficult. How do you build relationships while maintaining the professionalism needed to keep your business in good standing? Join Nirjary M. Desai, Owner & CEO of KIS Events for a webinar. She’ll discuss how you can make meaningful, human connections using virtual channels to better connect with your customer base. It’s a lot easier than you may think. Questions + discussion are encouraged!

Keynote by Colleen Chen (Innovation Project Manager) and Ashley Touchton (Design and Startup Strategist) of Orange Sparkle Ball. Testing new solutions, especially ones that have been sourced from outside an organization, is overwhelming and often involves many departments and stakeholders. Technology pilots provide small, short, low-risk tests that allow a jumping-off point for future partnership or testing. Join us for this post-Pitchathon event and learn from experts on how to deploy pilots with the startups you heard pitch.

Intellectual Property can be a daunting topic for many up and coming startups to face. Is your innovative concept protected so you, and only you, can leverage the value you are bringing to customers? The more startup founders know about whether and to what extent patents and other forms of intellectual property will–and will not–help them capture the value created from their hard work, the better they can integrate IP Strategy into their business strategy. You should be leading your IP team – as opposed to being led by them, which is often the case. Join Jackie Hutter, Principal of The Hutter Group, as she discusses.

Georgia's Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan stopped by Shadow Summit 2019 to talk about his plans for making Georgia the next great tech hub.

"AI Fact vs Fiction" a discussion, lead by Shadow Ventures CTO Matt Ohlman, to cut through the hype on what AI is and is not, how it is being applied in AEC and CRE today, and what the future holds.

At the start of this year, who would’ve expected a pandemic to sweep the nation? Definitely not startups. From public policy challenges, to simple and complex legal problems, small businesses have been under hard pressure thanks to COVID-19. What can you do to navigate this struggling economy, keep your startup out of legal matters, and emerge strong as ever? Join accomplished professionals from Squire Patton Boggs – one of the world’s strongest integrated law firms – as they provide the business-focused insights needed to stay out of the legal swamp COVID-19 has birthed. Join Amol Naik, Jonathan Picard and Pablo Carillo of Squire Patton Boggs as they discuss. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out via email: Amol - amol.naik@squirepb.com Pablo - pablo.carrillo@squirepb.com Jonathan - jonathan.picard@squirepb.com

During Shadow Summit 2019, co-founder of Great American Cookie Company and former CEO of Caribou Coffee, Michael J. Coles offered a snapshot of the wisdom for entrepreneurs he has gleaned after years of starting and leading companies. Through his story of personal and professional perseverance, Coles teaches that there are no limits to what an individual can accomplish.

Adam Quattlebaum of DHG breaks down how startups can work with their customers to leverage R&D tax credits.

We all wish our work teams could mesh like The Avengers. In the current economic climate, that may be a little far-fetched. Still – synergy is key when it comes to your small business/startup. Getting people working together is key – how can you facilitate teamwork in a work-from-home environment? What can you do to grow your team’s relations, chemistry and more? Most of all – how can you translate it to increased productivity?

From Autodesk, to Procore, Yardi, and RealPage; many startups don’t realize the plethora of software providers that can offer help to their growing business. First of all – why should you even care about these platforms? If you’re in the AEC/CRE startup industry, you NEED to be using these providers to your advantage. From 3D design, to enhanced creativity, streamlined communication and more – don’t sleep on incumbent software providers. How do you deal with them? Which platform will suit your needs the best and just how software-integrated does your business need to be? Join Matt Ohlman, CTO of Shadow Ventures; and Nick Durham, Senior Associate at Shadow Ventures; as they discuss.

Growth is an essential step in a startups life cycle – but legal issues can be a big bump in the road. What issues and cases should you be prepared to face, combat, and tackle in the early-stage processes of your business? Can you slay the legal dragons alone – or should you call for help? How can you best prepare your startup to smoothly sail to investments, profit, and exponential booming without legal issue? Join Jerry Cohen, Russ Korins and Larry Tauber of Cohen Tauber Spievack & Wagner P.C. as they discuss.

If you’re a startup, growth is definitely on the mind. Is your brand prepared to sky-rocket? From copyrights, to patents, to other intelletcual property matters, you need to have it protected at all cost. Shielding your startup can lead you down the path to success. How do you grow and foster your IP? What common hiccups so young startups make that you can easily avoid? Topics will include patents, trademarks, international considerations, and issues arising with co-founders, independent contractors, and employees. Dimitri Dovas is a registered patent attorney who focuses his practice on patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property matters. He founded Dovas Law, P.C. in 2006 to meet the needs of domestic and foreign clients including corporations, law firms and individuals. Prior to entering the field of law, Mr. Dovas was employed in the transportation and defense consulting industries with responsibilities including engineering analysis, product design, and project management. Mr. Dovas holds degrees from Rutgers School of Engineering (BS) and Rutgers School of Law (JD). This recording provides general information which is not intended as legal advice and not intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Before relying on any information contained herein, appropriate legal counsel should be consulted.

The COVID-19 pandemic is quietly shifting the future of live events as we know them. When social distancing ends, how will the parties, lunch & learns, corporate meetings, hackathons & more re-form? Changes will be made – but just how drastic will they be? Join Mike Walbert, Executive Director of A3C, as he shares his thoughts! Since 2009, Mike has been the executive director and co-owner of A3C Festival & Conference. He’s led the growth of the company from a local showcase to an internationally recognized institution in hip-hop culture and one of Atlanta’s most important annual events.

Angel investing is a boom or bust field. Do you have what it takes to succeed, especially in today’s questionable economic climate? Learn insight and strategy from an accomplished angel investor! Join Asher Leids, successful angel investor, as he discusses. A former attorney, Asher’s legal career was abruptly ended in 2001 when, while on his way home after completing the sale of a client to a foreign purchaser, he was rear-ended by a drunk driver who was travelling at over 70 MPH. After numerous spinal surgeries and medical procedures, this led him to angel investing where one focus is to look for new companies and technologies that can help with spinal and nerve injuries and pain management. He’ll be joined by Shadow Ventures’ own Nick Durham to provide insight.

Join David Nour, CEO of the Nour Group, for a virtual talk! If you’ve ever tackled a key challenge or an opportunity, only to find out half-way there that there is no one following you, you understand that crisis leadership is all about relationships. From a foundation of trust to clarity of the message, and the authenticity of the messenger, the likely leader, must be believed before she/he can be believed-in. You want others to follow you through the current crisis? Let’s take a closer look at the depth and breadth of your strategic relationships amid the crisis and the ten attributes of your brand. BTW, your strategy became obsolete last month when the global economy shut down! Crisis leaders are assessing and re-assessing their strategic priorities on a daily basis, making simple, clear, consistent communication more critical.

Do you have the right people in place to navigate the new rules and new norms? Learn how you can leverage a science-based approach to make sure you have a solid core team in place to to survive and thrive. Stay strong, keep a tight bond, and wield the right strategies to get your crew through the current craziness. Join Scott Henderson, Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach; community cultivator and world-class connector for a virtual coffee chat.

Not enough, just enough, more than enough. Do you believe in a world of abundance or scarcity? Shed your limiting beliefs by understanding why some people believe in a world of not enough, some believe in a world where there is just enough, and why the most successful people believe that we live in a world where there is more than enough for everyone to be happy. Join David Meltzer for a virtual town hall. David is the Co-founder of Sports 1 Marketing and formerly served as CEO of the renowned Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment agency, which was the inspiration for the movie Jerry Maguire. His life’s mission is to empower OVER 1 BILLION people to be happy! This simple yet powerful mission has led him on an incredible journey to provide one thing…VALUE. In all his content and communication that’s exactly what you’ll receive.

Join Sara Buxton, owner and co-director of the Chicago Center for Behavioral Medicine & Sport Psychology (CBM); and Nick Durham, senior associate here at Shadow Ventures; for a fireside talk via Zoom. At the CBM, Sara and her team strive to guide individuals, groups, and teams to reach their personal bests – physically, mentally and emotionally. CBM believes in the power of the mind to manage behaviors, find focus, commitment, and motivation to prosper in life. The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading fear and stress throughout the lives of millions, come gain insight on how and what you can to do better yourself – and not fall victim to the vulnerability that is oh-so present in the current world.

Join Kent Jones, instructor and sales team coach at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business, and the founder and managing director of MarketPlan Product Marketing LLC for a virtual town hall. Kent is a sales architect, college instructor, and award-winning sales coach on a mission to develop the next generation of sales and marketing leaders. He’s also a technology sales and product marketing specialist. He help startups and large enterprises supercharge their sales results, find new opportunities, and build winning solutions customers will pay for. Come hear him talk about sales, business, marketing and more!

Join Sean Devine, founder and CEO of XBE LLC – a Chicago-based startup offering a horizontal construction optimization solutions provider – along with Nick Durham, senior associate here at Shadow Ventures, for a virtual town hall. Sean is an entrepreneur, programmer, and logistics expert who has plenty of experience in marketing, business development, and more. Nick has been in the startup game since college, and has gone along to work in marketing, communications, and now venture capital. Come listen to them discuss a myriad of topics!