Hey.
Welcome to the first edition of 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.
Pitch Practice Buckhead (Dec 19) | Friday @ Atlanta Tech Village | More
Sharpen your deck before 2026 hits. A safe space to fail fast and get feedback from the ATV community before you face real investors.
Atlanta Ventures Office Hours (Jan 8) | Virtual | More
Direct access to the AV team. If you're looking to vet an idea, figure out your first 10 customers, or navigate a seed round, bring your questions to this open session.
Founders Live Atlanta (Jan 21) | Wednesday @ The Gathering Spot | More
A "Shark Tank" style pitch competition where the crowd votes on the winner. High energy, 99-second pitches, and a room full of potential backers.
Atlanta's new $500K fintech accelerator just picked 5 startups most people have never heard of.
The setup: Pinnacle Financial Partners, Tarkenton Companies, and gener8tor just launched the Pinnacle Atlanta Innovation Accelerator: a 12-week program investing $500K in women and minority-led founders across five fintech startups.
The startups:
Billseye — Mobile billing for plumbers and contractors
Blended — Financial planning / shared-expenses tool for divorced and single-parent families
LUXE AI — Credit card rewards optimizer + “card intelligence” platform
Guala — Social payments for street vendors and micro-sellers
Pagarva — Multilingual point-of-sale for immigrant-owned businesses
Why it matters: 70% of U.S. card transactions flow through Atlanta, but most people don't realize we're already a fintech capital.
The thesis: Instead of chasing shiny AI or crypto startups, they picked founders solving unglamorous, real problems:
Immigrant business owners who need POS systems in their language,
Single parents who need financial planning tools that work for their reality,
Contractors who hate invoicing.
80+ startups applied. These five got picked.
Demo day: January 15, 2026 at the PEER Center. If you're hiring, investing, or just want to see Atlanta's next wave of fintech talent, this is where they'll pitch.
Read more here.
Avize
Chef Karl Gorline's 2-month-old Alpine kitchen just earned "Best New Restaurant" honors from Eater Atlanta, and the Michelin Guide is already taking notes.
The Backstory:
The Mississippi native channels his Bavarian roots into a menu you won't find anywhere else in the city. Gorline sources from an 800-acre farm in Bremen and runs an in-house aging program for heritage meats.
What to Order:
The venison tartare with blueberries and walnuts is the conversation starter, but the hay-smoked duck is the closer.
The Tab:
Expect $150+ per person for the full experience - this is where you take the LP after they commit.
Who's hiring in Atlanta?
Featured Job: Account Executive, Financial Institutions at Greenlight.
Leading family fintech with 6M+ users. Sell B2B partnerships to banks and credit unions, scaling Greenlight’s partnership-driven customer acquisition and revenue channel.
Partners include JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley (plus brands like T-Mobile).
3+ years quota-carrying experience required (startup experience; community bank/credit union relationships preferred).
Want your job featured? Post a job.
Operations Manager, Ground Operations at Veho ($80K - $95K + equity). Lead warehouse facility operations, coach teams to hit KPIs, and manage P&L.
Manager, Account Development at Samsara ($149K - $171K). IoT platform for connected operations. Build and lead account development teams.
Senior SaaS Developer at GoGuide. Outdoor adventures booking platform. Design and scale software solutions. .NET, C#, Blazor, SQL Server.
Atlanta District Sales Manager at Toast ($181K - $290K). Restaurant tech platform. Hire and manage quota-achieving sales team.
Account Executive at Equity Prime Mortgage. Wholesale mortgage lending. Identify and onboard broker accounts.
Randy Adler & Babs Midtown: the Restaurant that knows exactly who it serves
Most Atlanta restaurants try to be everything to everyone. Randy Adler built Babs Midtown by doing the opposite, and created one of Midtown's most loyal followings in the process.
Context: Babs Midtown is a locally-sourced restaurant where the owner actively challenges guests to expand their palates. His bet: treating dining as a privilege and an adventure, not just a transaction.
The authenticity game: Adler's approach is direct - he'll recommend dishes outside your comfort zone, and if you don't like it, it's on the house. But the sincerity behind it is what builds loyalty.
"Be authentic. Be the problem solver and be sincere. Eating out is a privilege and we should treat it as one."
The proof: Their First Monday Supper Club books months in advance. The first Monday of the month, you’ll get a seasonal multi-course meal with wine and dessert for two under $100 in Midtown, something Adler noticed wasn’t available in the neighborhood.
Why founders should care: Adler pivoted hard during COVID, launching a frozen food line and doubling down on local sourcing when other restaurants were cutting corners. He also built a nonprofit alongside the restaurant.
Advice to operators: "If you don't follow your vision and standards, and aren't sincere in this, your guests will see you as a fraud. Look in, and see what you need to do when you look out."
While competitors chase consensus, Adler focuses on depth over breadth. Every detail at Babs "invokes conversation."
His daily send-off to guests: "Thanks for joining us today, please spread the gospel of Babs Midtown and see you soon."
In a city where new concepts promise universal appeal, Adler built a thriving business by staying true to a clear vision and serving it with conviction.
Learn more here.
For sale: A French-inspired Buckhead “hotel particulier” by artisan Thierry Francois, loaded with imported doors, windows, and hardware from France and topped off with that limestone exterior that makes the whole place feel like old-world money.
Includes: 1.3 acres with a 50-foot heated and cooled pool, turf soccer field, pickleball plus half-court basketball, and a terrace level built for hosting with wine cellar, home theater, bar, guest quarters, and an elevator to tie it all together.
Price: $10.5M. Not too bad.
Check it out here.
5 other headlines to snack on:
Carvana starts selling new cars in Atlanta after a move tied to a Stellantis-aligned CDJR dealership in Union City.
Park Bar in Downtown sold for $2 million, and the buyers say the concept (name/menu/staff) stays.
Small Business Expo hit the GICC on Dec. 10, a full day of workshops + networking that’s basically a lead-gen buffet.
Lewis Barbecue opened at Ansley Mall, adding another serious client-dinner option right off the BeltLine.
Alma Cocina in Buckhead is closing Dec. 20, while the downtown location remains open.
What's stopping you from getting more customers?
That’s it for the first edition.
What’d you think? Reply and share some thoughts.
See you next Tuesday.
Andrew