With a shared mission to expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem and help small businesses grow and create jobs, NOW Corp’s Lara Hodgson has signed the Startup Atlanta CEO Pledge, joining NOW Corp partners Invest Atlanta and Metro Atlanta Chamber, as well as a select group of Atlanta leaders including CEOs Paul Bowers of Georgia Pacific, Hala Moddelmog of Metro Atlanta Chamber, Jim Hannan of Georgia Pacific, Larry Gellerstedt of Cousins Property, Kat Cole of Focus Brands, and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

“Atlanta is uniquely positioned to foster entrepreneurship. In many ways, Atlanta is an entrepreneur,” said Lara Hodgson, president and CEO of NOW Corp, citing the city’s ambitious achievements, such as hosting the 1996 Olympic Games, despite limited natural resources under its control.  “Atlanta is a contrarian and should not exist as a major city given the historical evolution of major cities along a significant trade waterway or port.” Neither of which exist in proximity to the city.

“One of Atlanta’s greatest assets for fostering entrepreneurship,” explained Hodsgon, “is the breadth of industry that calls Atlanta home.”  In contrast to the common premise that cities should focus on an anchor industry such as biotech or software, she continued, “Entrepreneurship thrives on diversity and depth of ideas – and fuel (capital)! I believe Atlanta’s breadth is its most valuable and underutilized asset.”  

The focus of Startup Atlanta is “to introduce, connect, support, and expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem within the greater Atlanta region to bolster the creation of jobs, companies and wealth.”  Likewise, NOW Corp was founded in 2010 by Atlanta-based serial entrepreneurs to help small businesses monetize their largest asset, accounts receivables, in order to fund growth with capital from operations.  This is particularly helpful for growing organizations and startups that may find it more time-consuming and expensive to access traditional sources of capital such as debt or equity.

To date, NOW Corp already has helped entrepreneurs and small business owners in Atlanta and across the country double and triple revenue growth within the first year of enrollment in its flagship offering, the NOWaccount® Revenue Accelerator Program.  As a result of this growth, in just a few short years, the NOWaccount program has enabled small businesses in Georgia alone to create or retain more than 1,500 jobs, as tracked by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

“The Startup Pledge is a way for business leaders at established companies to help strengthen the Atlanta startup ecosystem,” said Adam Harrell, executive director of Startup Atlanta. “The two biggest things a new startup needs are new customers and access to business networks that will help them grow. This pledge helps on both fronts.” As part of the commitment required of leaders who take the Startup Atlanta CEO Pledge, they promise to evaluate at least one new product or service from an Atlanta-based startup and at least one of their senior executives will seek to join a board of advisors of a local startup.

“We are proud to join Startup Atlanta in this initiative to make Atlanta a premiere region for entrepreneurship and growing small businesses,” said Hodgson. “At NOW Corp, as a matter of course we automatically look first to our client base, which is made up of entrepreneurs and small business owners, for the products and services we need to run our business, and we will continue to do so.  Our executives also sit on the boards of a number of startups, as well as non-profits and other organizations focused on supporting local entrepreneurs, such as Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs or ACE.

Some of the NOW Corp clients that also serve as its suppliers include A-Z Sophisticated Solutions, Brainstorm Creative, Carrot+Stick, and LogoSurfing.