Current Perspective on the Birmingham Entrepreneurial Scene: Mid-2023

Current Perspective on the Birmingham Entrepreneurial Scene: Mid-2023

Birmingham and the Best Birmingham has a strange relationship with the concept and value of “the best.” Sure, we want to be the best place to live, work, and play; to have the best schools, best jobs, best houses. We want to hire the best. To my knowledge, no one in...
How Does the Story End?: The 2022 Birmingham Entrepreneurial Assessment

How Does the Story End?: The 2022 Birmingham Entrepreneurial Assessment

I have said this before, and I will probably say this again, but to grow our entrepreneurial economy, we need to directly invest in companies. We do not need to blindly invest in them, but we do not need to commission another study on the ecosystem. We need to be...
Current Perspective on the Birmingham Entrepreneurial Scene: Mid-2022

Current Perspective on the Birmingham Entrepreneurial Scene: Mid-2022

The best analogy that I have for start-ups and early stage companies in this time of tumultuous public markets is one of a submarine. A start-up shares the key benefit of being able to float beneath the surface — unaware and, to an extent, untroubled by the...
2021 Assessment Of The Birmingham Entrepreneurial Community

2021 Assessment Of The Birmingham Entrepreneurial Community

As always with the new year, we’re taking some time to pause and reflect. First Avenue does so by compiling our annual list of funded start-ups in Birmingham, which helps us analyze the health of the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. I also like to take stock...
Current Perspective on the Birmingham Entrepreneurial Scene: Mid-2021

Current Perspective on the Birmingham Entrepreneurial Scene: Mid-2021

“You need to make hay when it rains.” I first heard this axiom — in that instance, in connection to a business in high-end consumer goods — in my early days as a lawyer. Simply put, the goal is to make your money during the good times, knowing that the...