When I moved to Atlanta a few years back to start Jungle Disk, more than one person thought I was crazy for leaving California. However in addition to the personal reasons I had for moving, I really felt that Atlanta had all the raw ingredients needed to build a great Internet business. It has been amazing to see how much the startup community here has grown and come together in just the past few years. Through blogs, twitter, and local events like Open Coffee and Startup Riot local entrepreneurs have more opportunity than ever to network, share and work together.

Since Jungle Disk was acquired last year I’ve been looking for opportunties to give back to the community and help other local startups. One way that I’m planning on doing that is through Shotput Ventures, a startup accelerator fund modeled after Y Combinator.

Along with eight other local entreprenuers I’ll be helping guide a select group of web service companies from idea to launch in a three month program in Atlanta this summer. With my own success bootstrapping Jungle Disk, I know how far a great team with a small amount of capital can go in a short period of time with the right experience and resources available to them.

Applications for this summer’s program open up on March 6th. If you’ve got a great idea for a web company and a few friends to help I’d encourage you to apply. While the program will be held in Atlanta, teams from anywhere are welcome to apply.