Catching “Entrepreneur’s Disease”: A Sit Down with ATDC’s John Avery
“We hope to get everyone to catch ‘entrepreneur’s disease,’” says John Avery. Avery isn’t talking about an actual illness. He means the contagious excitement that comes with entrepreneurship. As director of Georgia’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), he has seen this occur firsthand. ATDC, the state’s technology incubator, has spent the last 45 years helping entrepreneurs transform big ideas into startups across the state.
For the past 7 years, John Avery, director of Georgia Tech’s ATDC, has led a team supporting technology entrepreneurs across the state, helping startups launch, scale, and connect with investors and resources.
Walk into ATDC’s main hub in Tech Square, and you can feel the buzz. “The environment is what makes ATDC unique,” Avery explains, noting how experienced mentors mingle daily with wide-eyed founders. That collaborative energy—seasoned entrepreneurs swapping ideas with first-time startup teams—is hard to replicate. And it’s by design: Avery has cultivated a community where advice, encouragement, and even the occasional tough love are always within earshot.
A Statewide Mission
Though housed at Georgia Tech, Avery is quick to point out that ATDC is much broader than a campus initiative. “As the state’s incubator, we work with startups across all of Georgia,” he says. In other words, ATDC’s reach extends far beyond Atlanta. Today, the organization operates programs in seven Georgia cities: Atlanta, Albany, Athens, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, and Savannah, each with its own startup catalyst office on the ground. This statewide presence means a tech entrepreneur in Savannah or Augusta can tap into ATDC’s resources without moving to Atlanta.
The statewide focus on serving innovators across Georgia is supported by partnerships with private and public universities throughout the state. “We’re eager to work with everyone from Georgia State and the University of Georgia to Columbus State, Emory University, the Atlanta University Center, and more,” Avery says, underscoring that collaboration fuels the whole state tech ecosystem. And the impact is tangible. ATDC’s portfolio companies have collectively created more than 14,000 jobs across Georgia, helping spread the wealth of the tech boom well outside the Metro Atlanta bubble. Last year alone, ATDC welcomed a record 34 new startups into its ranks, bringing the total number of active members to 141 companies.
Read ATDC’s 2024 Impact Report here.
Coaching and Collaboration Over Cohorts
Unlike a typical accelerator that runs fixed-length cohorts, ATDC’s incubation model is refreshingly flexible. “There are no cohorts. You are in and out of ATDC at your own pace,” Avery notes. Startups can apply whenever they’re ready and stay as long as they need to grow, without a graduation deadline looming. This open-ended approach lets founders focus on development instead of racing against a program clock. It also means companies receive support through the valley of death—that perilous phase that follows the launch of a product but precedes steady growth. This support is given for however long it takes a company to get over that hump.
Central to ATDC’s model is its team of full-time coaches. Avery emphasizes that these coaches aren’t just occasional advisors; they’re deeply embedded partners in each startup’s journey. ATDC’s industry-focused “practice areas” – from financial technology (fintech) and health tech to robotics and sustainability – each have a dedicated expert coach with a vast network in that sector. Those coaches meet with founders one-on-one, often on a weekly basis, to troubleshoot challenges, brainstorm strategies, and make valuable introductions. “Our coaches build relationships,” Avery says, describing how they might scout promising new startups in their field one day and help a portfolio company refine its sales pitch the next. It’s a hands-on, relationship-based coaching model that scales mentorship in a way that ad-hoc volunteer mentors often can’t match.
ATDC also keeps its doors open to any Georgian with a startup dream. Budding entrepreneurs who aren’t yet in the official portfolio can still dip their toes through the ATDC Educate program: a series of workshops and courses available to anyone, statewide. Every Tuesday, live startup classes are offered in-person at ATDC’s offices and virtually cover fundamentals such as customer discovery and product-market fit. (There are even self-paced courses for those needing guidance, but at their own pace and on their own schedule.) By offering free or low-cost educational programming to the public, ATDC helps cultivate future founders, ensuring that funding, geography, or affiliation are not barriers to entry in the startup world. Many participants in these intro programs go on to launch companies and join ATDC’s roster when they’re ready.
Check out ATDC’s events page here.
Thriving Amid Uncertainty
Running a startup incubator means riding out economic ups and downs, and right now, founders face headwinds – from high interest rates to tighter research funding. Avery isn’t overly fazed. “Recent NIH funding freezes have brought about uncertainty, but that’s where entrepreneurship thrives,” he says, his optimism shining through. In other words, constraints can spur creativity. That resilient mindset is reflected in ATDC’s recent results: even during a nationwide venture capital slowdown in 2024, roughly a quarter of ATDC companies successfully closed funding rounds. And many of those startups are tackling significant problems in demanding industries, from healthcare to manufacturing, where traditional funding sources may be drying up but new solutions are sorely needed.
Despite these challenges, Avery is focused on the road ahead. Georgia Tech and many members of Atlanta’s tech community have publicly set their sights on making Atlanta a top-five innovation hub in the U.S., and ATDC is gearing up to do its part. “Despite uncertainty, we are gearing up for scale,” Avery says of the teams’ future plans. That means recruiting staff, forging more corporate partnerships, and leveraging technology to support more startups faster. He even suggests that ATDC’s public-university hybrid model could serve as a blueprint for other states seeking to establish their own entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Above all, John Avery continues his mission to spread the startup gospel across Georgia. It’s a task he approaches with equal parts seriousness and humor. If Avery has his way, “entrepreneur’s disease” will continue to spread far and wide.