Tech startup Weekend Atlanta

Merrick Furst

Merrick is the founder of Georgia Tech’s Flashpoint, a first-of-its-kind startup engineering(tm) studio that develops and produces exceptional technology startup companies. He is Georgia Institute of Technology’s first “distinguished professor of computing”. The GT “Threads” program in the College of Computing was his creation, and he is one of the three producers of The InVenture Prize, a live-broadcast tv show that NPR describes as American Idol for Nerds. Merrick is a co-founder of the internet security firm Damballa and is an early-stage fund investor. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Merrick was the founder and CEO of Essential Surfing Gear, an internet software company, which was acquired in 2000. At the University of California at Berkeley he served as president and director of the International Computer Science Institute, and he established its Center for Internet Research. Prior to Berkeley, Merrick was a professor and associate dean in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Merrick is an inventor, recipient of the first Presidential Young Investigator Award in computer science, and early creator electronic post-it notes, which were best-sellers on PCs. In Flashpoint’s first year, it worked with 68 founders, 31 teams, two cohorts, 45 mentors, $800k from the Flashpoint Investment Fund, organized 90 startup engineering sessions and six demos days in Atlanta, NYC and the Bay Area, and saw the new companies receive over $10 million in investments from Andreesen Horowitz, Bessemer Ventures, 500 Startups, Sigma Partners, FFv, ATA and many angels.

Blake Patton

Blake brings 20 years of leadership in startup, venture-backed, and publicly traded internet, software, payments, and financial services technology companies. Blake also founded, and later sold, one of the first application service provider (ASP) companies in the online content management space.

Ed Rieker

Ed is a business owner and entrepreneur who has a successful track record starting, building and selling software businesses. During the last 25 years, he has been the founder or co-founder of four heathcare software firms, two of which have been acquired by public companies. Recently, he experienced another success when PbNation.com, a company he acquired in 2003, was purchased by a public company.

Currently, Ed owns and runs 151 Locust, a coworking and business incubator, located in the heart of the commercial business district of Avondale Estates, which helps emerging small companies grow.

He received his MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory. He is a member of international honor society Beta Gamma Sigma. He is co-inventor of a1998 healthcare software patent.

He currently serves as the Mayor of the City of Avondale Estates.

David Duncan