Episode 17 | Sandeep Ahuja

The Atlanta Story

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Sandeep Ahuja, Co-Founder of cove.tool.

Sandeep’s love for building and architecture started at a young age across several countries she lived in with her parents who were diplomats. After graduating from Georgia Tech’s esteemed architecture program, Sandeep and her co-founder started a consulting firm that eventually evolved into a software company, called cove.tool. In today’s episode, we talk about how to transition a business to a scalable software company, fundraising, clean energy and more.

The Atlanta Story is put together by the folks at Atlanta Ventures -- and we can’t wait to share some of the personalities behind the brand. Atlanta Ventures invests in entrepreneurs through community, content, and capital -- most notably through our Studio with companies like Greenzie and Intown Golf Club. We believe the best entrepreneurs learn from other great artists in different fields.

In this episode, we discuss…

1. From prior research, it sounds like growing up you moved quite a bit. Share your experiences and upbringing? (2:03)
2. During your upbringing, it sounds like you fell in love with buildings, which types piqued your interest? (4:49)
3. Buildings are huge emissions generators. Why is that and what has evolved? (5:35)
4. If a building has an “emission portfolio,” what does that look like? (7:35)
5. When I look at building, what should I be looking for in terms of efficiency? (8:45)
6. Walk us through how you went from New Delhi to Atlanta? (10:15)
7. During your graduate studies at Georgia Tech, were you thinking about starting your own firm or did you want to go work for an existing firm? (13:01)
8. Where do you get your drive? (14:03)
9. How did you break off and start your own firm? (15:25)
10. What systems or framework did you put in place to ensure enough runway to succeed on your own? (17:23)
11. What is building performance management? (18:45)
12. It sounds like y’all became an early leader in building performance management, how did that happen? (21:00)
13. How did you transition from a services company into a product company? (21:50)
14. When did you know it was time to burn the ship on the consulting firm and focus all your time on the product? (23:01)
15. Describe your launch strategy when the MVP of your product was ready? (24:30)
16. Talk to us about winning the Atlanta Startup Battle and what it felt like winning? (25:45)
17. Give a quick 30 second pitch on what cove.tool does and the value proposition? (27:15)
18. Who is your customer? (30:21)
19. Tell us about the fundraising process. (31:05)
20. What metrics did y’all highlight when going through the process? (31:55)
21. Tell us more about who y’all are hiring now? (33:40)
22. Tell us more about why you chose your current pricing model? (34:34)
23. What is it like building a company in downtown Atlanta today? (35:20)
24. What is the grand vision of cove.tool? (36:52)
25. What resources whether it be mentors or books have you leveraged to get where you are today? (38:35)
26. Why Atlanta and what has Atlanta done for you? (40:01)

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Visit atlantaventures.com/studio if you’re interested in learning more about Atlanta Ventures and the Studio.

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