Venture Atlanta announced that Zach Nelson, former CEO of NetSuite and one of the most successful software CEOs in Silicon Valley history, will be a featured keynote at this year’s Venture Atlanta conference. Now in its 11th year, Venture Atlanta is widely considered one of the top technology entrepreneurial and investment events in the Southeast.
 
Currently an active and successful investor in the technology, media, entertainment and hospitality sectors, Nelson’s expertise runs the gamut from startups to IPOs to venture investment. During his tenure at NetSuite, the company grew from a start-up with annual sales of $1 million to revenue of $1 billion in 2017 with a global customer base of some 24,000 mid-size and enterprise companies and 5,000 employees.NetSuite was ultimately acquired by Oracle for $9.3 billion, making it the largest SAAS acquisition in history and the third largest software company acquisition by enterprise value in the industry.
 
“With Zach’s long tenure of successful leadership at NetSuite, he is sure to offer valuable insights and inspiration at this year’s event,” said Mike Becker, 2018 chairman of Venture Atlanta and managing director of Vocap Investment Partners. “Considering his passion for entrepreneurship, we’re especially pleased to welcome Zach to this year’s Venture Atlanta conference and look forward to what will be a uniquely engaging keynote address.”
 
In April 2018, Venture Atlanta also announced Dave DeWalt as the conference’s opening keynote speaker. DeWalt is managing director of AllegisCyber and former CEO of FireEye and McAfee. DeWalt and Nelson join an impressive roster of top-level Venture Atlanta speakers over the last several years, including:
 
Mark Cuban - owner, Dallas Mavericks / “Shark Tank”

Scott Dorsey - CEO, ExactTarget (sold to Salesforce.com for $2.5B)

Brad Feld - founder, Foundry Group

Ernie Garcia - CEO, Carvana (startup to IPO to $3B+ market cap)

John Marshall - CEO, AirWatch (sold to VMWare for $1.5B)

Tom Noonan - CEO, ISS (sold to IBM for $1.3B)

Ted Schlein - general partner, Kleiner Perkins

Jay Simons - president, Atlassian (startup to IPO to $12B+ market cap)

Jeff Sprecher - chairman, NYSE / CEO, Intercontinental

Rich Wong - general partner, Accel
 
Nelson’s keynote address will close the Venture Atlanta conference on Wednesday, October 17, 2018.
 
Now accepting applications for companies to take the stage and present, the 111h annual Venture Atlanta has relocated to a larger venue to accommodate more attendees and has also expanded its company showcase as it continues to successfully connect the Southeast’s best and brightest innovators with top-tier investors. This year’s conference will take place October 16-17 in the heart of downtown Atlanta at the Southern Exchange at 200 Peachtree. Atlanta technology innovation hub Tech Square Labs is returning as the event’s premier sponsor.