Over the past few weeks, anticipation has been building across Atlanta’s tech industry. The same question kept popping up at networking events and startup hubs: “Did you ask who’s coming back?”
The answer, told with great enthusiasm each time, was that Jennifer Bonet was back in Atlanta.
Bonet is a veteran of Atlanta’s technology ecosystem, having played key roles as a technologist, founder, executive, and community builder. After six years in Savannah, she returned to Atlanta and is ready to lead the city’s tech scene into its next era as Invest Atlanta’s new vice president of technology and entrepreneurship.
Atlanta’s long-standing tech ecosystem
Bonnett’s career provides a unique lens into the evolution of Atlanta’s startup landscape.
A self-described “recovering technologist,” Bonet had a career in coding, consulting, and software development at Fortune 1000 companies before transitioning to a startup in 1997. She was the founding vice president of technology at Atlanta-based eTour (acquired by Ask.com in 2016). (2001), joining CEO Roger Barnett in the company’s early stages.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the city lacked a “cohesive ecosystem” of startups, with only a few startup-focused programs in the city, including ATDC, eHatchery, TAG, and CEO Council. said Bonnet. However, most of the investor events took place “behind closed doors and behind the scenes.”
2008 was a turning point for both Bonnett and Atlanta’s broader startup ecosystem. Her mentor moved to California, lamenting the lack of local funding and the lack of a strong, supportive startup ecosystem in California. Bonnet said it was a “beginning to get involved” to energize the startup community.
She told Hypepotamus that her guiding question from the beginning was, “How can we make Atlanta a better place for startups?”
Bonnet speaking in the physical space of Hypepotamus in 2013
Ms. Bonnet founded StartupChicks in 2009 to connect and educate women entrepreneurs. The organization has grown to over 10,000 members. This led Mr. Bonnett to ATDC (Advanced Technology Development Center) at Georgia Tech, where he expanded the organization’s educational programs and activities throughout Georgia.
After serving as director and general manager of ATDC, Bonnett moved to coastal Georgia in 2018 to be closer to his elderly parents. She served as Executive Director of Savannah’s Creative Coast, a nonprofit organization focused on developing the Savannah region’s technology ecosystem. .
Bonnet’s next chapter
Bonnett was on sabbatical when the Invest Atlanta job came up, but she said people in her Atlanta network kept telling her to consider the position.
“The job description was very consistent with my background and my beliefs about ecosystem development,” she told Hypepotamus.
But there was another important thing that made it easy for her to say yes to returning to Atlanta. She recognized that Atlanta is “starting to align itself with the idea that[the city]has the potential to become a top-five technology hub.” There are many questions regarding understanding the “how”. But there is a unified consensus on why and the overall mission, from mayors to economic developers to Congress to those in power within the tech community, that this is what we want. ”
Preparing for the future
Bonnet’s goals as vice president are threefold. She will be responsible for managing and transforming the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI), attracting and retaining high-quality technology jobs in the city, and solidifying Atlanta’s position as a top-five technology hub.
She will work closely with Donnie Beamer and the city’s Office of Innovation and Technology to make that last point a reality. Beamer and Bonnet set KPIs (key performance indicators) together to ensure they are working in lockstep to achieve that goal.
Just a few weeks into the role, Bonnett said he’s been spending a lot of time on “listening tours” connecting and reconnecting with people across Atlanta’s startup ecosystem.
The Invest Atlanta role is a natural extension of Mr. Bonnett’s unique entrepreneurial journey. Now, as a key technology player, she is poised to lead the city’s startup ecosystem into its next chapter.
“There will be a lot of challenges in the details… but it’s an exciting time,” she added. “I was there at the start…and I want to be there the rest of the way.”
