Atlanta is fast becoming a thriving hub for tech, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Ranked as The Best Place to Live in the U.S. by Money, the city certainly has much to offer. It’s home to major corporations, leading Fortune 500 companies, and a new generation of unicorns such as Calendly, FullStory, and Kabbage.

Other factors also make ATL a good for work and play. The relatively low cost of living, a pipeline of diverse talent from the city’s top-tier colleges, and the collaborative culture fostered in the budding co-working scene.

“People are attracted to Atlanta because of the culture, business productivity, easy travel, and low cost of living compared to other tech hubs,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in a TechCrunch interview. “The city is a natural pipeline for talent and is home to Georgia Tech and historically Black colleges and universities, like Morehouse and Spelman. Companies are coming here because they can access all this great talent.”

Beyond the obvious talent that exists in Atlanta, there’s a new wave of ambitious innovators. The innovators have invested back into the community which has been the bedrock of their success. We featured these Atlantans in our inaugural UrbanGeekz 50 list.

Arian Simone is an Atlantan who is taking on the challenge of becoming the investor she wished she’d had when she was navigating her entrepreneurial journey. Simone is on a mission to inspire and finance female founders.

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Although the value of venture capital investments in the United States adds up to almost $548 billion dollars, Black women startup founders receive less than a single percentage point of that funding. This is the problem Simone is committed to solving.

She leads Fearless Fund, the first venture-capital fund built by women of color for women of color-led businesses as the Chief Executive Officer and President. The venture capital firm focuses on investing in pre-seed, seed level, and series A financing which includes institutional investors such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Mastercard, Ally Bank, and more.

Sherell Dorsey is another social impact storyteller, social entrepreneur, and data journalist who has been advocating for diversity, equity and inclusion in underserved communities in Atlanta. Her startup The Plug, founded in 2016, was the first Black data-driven tech news publication to syndicate on the Bloomberg Terminal. The platform was acquired in 2023 by ImpactAlpha.

While speaking on the impact of The Plug, Dorsey said, “The Plug team’s data helped founders raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, accelerators launch in new markets, and bring visibility to ecosystem leaders who largely remain overlooked.”

Another innovator who has contributed to the growth of the tech startup ecosystem is Joey Womack. He sits at the core of the Atlanta tech scene as the founder and CEO of the social impact organization Goodie Nation and as a board member of Startup Atlanta.

His non-profit tech startup helps to bridge what he calls the “relationship gap” between entrepreneurs and influential people in business by hosting weekly meetings for founders, assigning them a dedicated coach, offering group therapy sessions and industry roundtables, and introducing founders to potential customers and funding.

Goodie Nation is one of the partner organizations for the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. The tech giant launched the program in 2020 to support underrepresented communities with access to grants, mentorship and Google tech support.

When you think of founders who turn challenges into opportunities, think no further than Atlantan-based entrepreneur, George Azih. His startup, LeaseQuery, was founded in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis.

When the firm he worked at the time was audited there was an issue with lease accounting. Azih discovered that businesses need software that could help them with lease accounting. As a result, he used the knowledge gained from working with his tech-savvy brother to develop accounting software in March 2010.

Since its launch, over 10,000 accountants have used LeaseQuery software throughout the USA. In 2020, LeaseQuery appeared at the top of the Bulldog 100 list and is recognized as the fastest-growing business owned or controlled by an alumnus of UGA. Other notable awards for LeaseQuery include the CODiE Award for Best FinTech Solution, inclusion in the Inc. 5000 and Georgia Fast 40, and multiple top G2 Crowd rankings.