So today I’m gonna share my little adventure trying to figure out this Steve Kaplan dude in Atlanta. I kept hearing his name pop up in business circles, especially from startup folks near Piedmont Park. Figured he might be useful to know about.
My First Steps
Started simple – just typed “Steve Kaplan Atlanta” into Google like everybody does. Got flooded with law firm pages and some university stuff. Weirdly hard to pin down what exactly he does. Felt like chasing ghosts.
The Deep Dive
Switched tactics and hit up LinkedIn. Found a bunch of Steve Kaplans – lawyers, professors, some guy who sells insurance. Filtered for Atlanta and finally spotted him: venture capital type connected to Emory University. Profile said “serial entrepreneur” which made sense.
What I did next:
- Dug through old Emory event calendars (their website’s messy)
- Searched YouTube for conference recordings
- Checked business registration databases (Georgia’s portal sucks)
Took me three coffee runs and two headache pills before I found the jackpot – podcast where he explained how he funds tech startups around Buckhead. Guy loves using baseball metaphors when talking money.
The Realization
Finally understood why he’s important here: apparently helped launch like twenty local companies including that parking app everybody uses. What surprised me? Dude started in the 80s selling fax machine parts before internet was a thing. Talk about surviving multiple tech winters!
Key takeaways from this rabbit hole:
- Atlanta’s VC scene is way more active than people realize
- Old-school investors actually back cool tech stuff here
- Finding anything concrete takes serious detective work
Bottom line? The whole experience felt like assembling IKEA furniture blindfolded. Took forever, pieces didn’t seem related, but eventually clicked together. Next time someone name-drops him at Ponce City Market, I can actually contribute to the conversation. Worth the effort I guess.
