georgia
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Startup Büro makes a business of bringing Georgia together
From failure stories on stage to games built over a weekend, Startup Büro gives Georgia’s entrepreneurial community practical reasons to meet. Its longer programs give founders something to do once they get there.
Angie Leccese Is Selling the Story Behind the Square Footage
The Chief Marketing Officer at Newmark spent a career learning that in commercial real estate, the deal closes on the story - not the spreadsheet.
Atlanta's Biggest Family Car Business Started on a Prison Farm
Jim Ellis turned one Chamblee Volkswagen store into 22 dealerships and 17 brands - and built a half-billion-dollar business on a handshake rule he called the Jim Ellis Promise.
Drew Carroll
Drew Carroll is a Georgia-based Fractional CMO and creative director who helps founders, leaders, and teams turn fuzzy brand ideas into clear marketing systems and growth-driving content. He has led marketing and creative for the leadership community Catalyst for six-plus years and serves as creative director for Student Led Worship and First City Church, with campaign work spanning Barna, Orange, Convoy of Hope, and Erwin McManus.
Oleg Lola
Oleg Lola is the CEO and founder of MobiDev, a custom software development company he built from a startup in 2009 into a 334-person global operation serving clients across healthcare, retail, fintech, and beyond. Based in San Francisco and known for his pragmatic take on AI adoption, Lola is also a Forbes Technology Council member and co-founder of Treegress, an autonomous QA startup launched in 2023. He's the kind of engineer-turned-executive who will tell you straight up that AI is 'heavily overhyped' - and then show you exactly how to use it anyway.
Teddy Swims
Teddy Swims (born Jaten Collin Dimsdale) is a Georgia-raised soul-pop singer whose tattooed exterior and raw emotional delivery mask a voice that sounds like it was forged in a Pentecostal church and tempered by decades of Marvin Gaye records. After years in Atlanta metalcore bands and a viral YouTube cover career, he signed with Warner Records in 2019 and spent the next few years quietly building toward an explosion - 'Lose Control' (2023) became the #1 song in America for 2024, spent 112 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, earned Diamond certification in four countries, and accumulated 1.7 billion streams. His debut album project 'I've Tried Everything but Therapy' (Parts 1 & 2) earned Grammy nominations and festival headlining slots worldwide, cementing him as one of the defining voices of mid-2020s soul-pop.