Startup Atlanta is a community non-profit with a mission to connect, promote, and expand Atlanta’s vibrant startup ecosystem to bolster the creation of jobs, companies, and wealth.

Startup Atlanta achieves this by producing and publishing the annual Startup Atlanta Ecosystem Guide, a community resource featuring a comprehensive list of entrepreneur support organizations in the greater Atlanta region, and the annual Atlanta Startup Awards.

Atlanta Startup Awards

The Atlanta Startup Awards is the premier award ceremony celebrating the city’s most successful rising companies, startup pioneers, and disruptive innovators.

The 2023 Atlanta Startup Awards hosted 200+ entrepreneurs, investors, and community members that spotlighted 9 categories.

The Community Builder Award

The Community Builder Award recognizes a leader who has made a tangible and lasting impact in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The recipient of this Award best embodies Startup Atlanta’s core values: Make Connections, Add Value, Give Credit, Partner Freely, Promote Equally, No Excuses.

On October 5, 2023, Surthrive’s Founder, Justin McLeod, was announced as the winner of the 2023 Startup Atlanta Community Builder Award recipient.

2023 Atlanta Startup Awards, Justin McLeod, Community Builder Award Winner

Justin McLeod

Justin was awarded for the continuous work he has done within Atlanta’s startup community through Surthrive’s consulting, entrepreneurial programming and technical assistance services. Specifically, Justin has been the lead on partnerships and projects at Surthrive that has supported over 350 socially-disadvantaged businesses who have combined created over 700 jobs, and raised over $41.5 million in capital.

Justin McLeod (Surthrive), Aly Merritt (Atlanta Tech Village)

Doing The Work

Surthrive is a socially-driven marketing consultancy that partners with business serving organizations, government agencies, and social enterprises to provide technical assistance services, such as marketing strategy, business training & development and IT consulting, to help technology-enabled small businesses build the capacity to scale.

Surthrive’s 2023 Halftime Report highlights the community partnerships that have contributed to our mission to push society forward and develop our economy through entrepreneurship and innovation.

If your organization would like to become a community partner with Surthrive please complete this form to get started.