Hey.
Welcome to ATL Grind.
I’m Andrew(your host) who’ll be showing you the best events, news, jobs, and more in Atlanta’s business world. Let’s get started.
Atlanta Startup Village runs Monday, June 1, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Atlanta Tech Village in Buckhead. Startups get 4 minutes to pitch, then take live Q&A from the room. Useful if you want to see who is still building before the deck gets polished. Read more here.
TiE Atlanta’s June Monthly Meeting: Tech Stack Acceleration lands Wednesday, June 10, at 6 p.m. at AC Hotel Atlanta. The room is built for founders, investors, operators, and technical leaders trying to decide which AI tools actually belong in the company stack. Read more here.
TAG Data Science & AI Society hosts Winning in the AI Era on Monday, June 15, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Georgia State University’s Buckhead Center, 3348 Peachtree Road NE. The panel is about AI skills, hiring expectations, and what companies now need from data teams. Read more here.
Agorgo
James Whitaker is building Agorgo around a gap most independent creators do not name until the money slows down: they have audience, production, managers, booking help, websites, podcasts, newsletters, events, and social reach. They do not always have a real sales operation.
Whitaker has spent nearly 21 years in advertising and marketing sales, with a career that started in Nashville, ran heavily through Los Angeles, and brought him to Atlanta four years ago. Agorgo is his partnerships rep firm for independent publishers, podcasters, journalists, and creators who now operate more like media companies than talent accounts.
The work is direct sales, not programmatic fill. Whitaker helps place podcast host reads, branded articles, social extensions, event partnerships, and website campaigns that fit both sides of the deal.
That means the brand has to fit the creator, and the creator has to fit the brand. One talent partner might accept a campaign immediately. Another might reject the same advertiser because the product does not match their audience, values, or public posture. Agorgo makes that filter part of the sales process instead of treating it like friction.
The company’s name comes from the Grecian Agora, the place where commerce, education, voting, and public life met. The logo carries the same origin story. McKenzie Ball, the flower girl at Whitaker’s wedding, hand drew the Agora map into the mark.
That detail fits the company. Agorgo is not trying to become another faceless ad network. Whitaker wants the independent media middle layer: the person who can call the creator, understand the brand, handle the campaign, chase the invoice, and still remember why both sides trusted him in the first place. Read more here.
Marcel
Marcel is the Westside fit when the meeting should feel like dinner, not a calendar hold. Ford Fry’s steakhouse sits at 1170 Howell Mill Road in Westside Provisions District, with Tye Carpenter leading the kitchen. The room is built around old-school steakhouse gravity: a 30-ounce porterhouse for two, lobster and brandy au poivre, and baked Alaska flamed tableside. Use it for a founder dinner when the person across from you can order wine without making it a performance. Read more here.
Director of Implementation at RoadSync. Own onboarding, activation, and early customer ramp for a logistics payments company serving warehouses, carriers, brokers, repair operators, and tow operators. Hybrid in Downtown Atlanta with a listed salary of $140K to $160K. Apply here.
Senior Data Science Manager, Growth & Retention Marketing at PrizePicks. Lead production ML, causal inference, and lifecycle marketing data science at the 550+ employee Atlanta sports-tech company. Listed salary: $180K to $210K. Apply here.
Senior Manager, Enterprise Product Marketing at Cox Automotive. Hybrid at 6325 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, translating Cox Automotive’s product portfolio into enterprise buyer language. Listed salary: $122.6K to $204.4K. Apply here.
Senior Finance Manager at PrizePicks. Build FP&A, forecasting, performance management, and AI-enabled finance workflows for a scaling Atlanta consumer-tech company. Apply here.
Trust and Safety Operations Analyst at Calendly. Remote role inside product operations, focused on platform risk, escalations, investigations, and user trust. Apply here.
Wheels Up is turning an Atlanta turnaround into a global aviation platform.
The Atlanta-based private jet company is planting its flag more firmly overseas by folding Air Partner’s U.K. jet charter services into the Wheels Up brand. The move completes a global brand transition that started in the U.S. earlier this year and now puts Air Partner’s private jet and group charter services in the U.K. and globally under one name.
The operating thesis is cleaner than the typical private aviation pitch. Wheels Up wants one relationship for private jet charter, group charter, membership travel, and hybrid trips tied to Delta Air Lines. The company says the new model gives customers dedicated sales and service teams across inquiry, booking, trip delivery, and support.
Air Partner brings more than 65 years of aviation history. Wheels Up brings the consumer brand, app layer, membership structure, and Delta relationship.
That is the Atlanta angle. Wheels Up is trying to sit next to Delta as the private aviation layer for executives, families, teams, and companies that move across commercial and private air. If it works, Atlanta gets another transportation brand with a global customer set. Read more here.
873 Inman Village Pkwy NE
The all-brick townhome sits steps from the Eastside Beltline Trail, Krog Street Market, restaurants, cafes, and shops. This is the version of Inman Park that works for an operator who wants a lock-and-leave house, a real garage, and the ability to walk to dinner without discussing parking. Check it out here.
5 other headlines to snack on:
The former CNN Center has been rebranded as The Center after investment from CP Group. The 1.2-million-square-foot Downtown complex is bringing more than a dozen dining tenants into the atrium through CTR Food Works in June. Read more here.
Bitcoin Depot is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and laying off all 109 employees who work at or report to its Atlanta headquarters. The company is shutting down more than 9,000 bitcoin kiosks across 47 states. Read more here.
Mayor Andre Dickens is pulling back from his earlier plan to extend all of Atlanta’s tax allocation districts through 2055. The Beltline and Perry-Bolton TADs would now end at their current dates, 2030 and 2041. Read more here.
Starbucks is closing four regional support offices, including Atlanta, and laying off 300 support roles nationally. Atlanta support staff will work remotely after the office closes. Read more here.
That’s it.
What’d you think? Reply and share some thoughts.
See you next week.
Andrew