The startup world is inherently future-oriented. Investors are looking for the next big thing. Founders are constantly thinking about how to stay ahead of the competition. Pitches and demo days are about what new technologies will hit the market next.

From revenue forecasts to customer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV), many of a startup’s most important metrics revolve around preparing for and envisioning the future.

The reality is that the fast-paced, forward-thinking startup world leaves little time for hindsight. How often do we as a startup community look back to understand our origin story?

What is our origin story anyway?

If we take a step back, we see that the roots of Atlanta’s tech startups go back more than 125 years. In the late 1800s, companies like Retails Credit (later Equifax) and several telecommunications companies laid the technological foundation for the growing city. From there, the city grew into the fintech, software and communications technology hub we know today. But over time, Atlanta’s homegrown technologies have done more than just build the local economy… they have become the building blocks of our modern and global digital age.

Here are some names and companies you should know:

Atlanta’s origins in hardware and software

Some of the first true technology startup giants emerged just as mainframes and microcomputers were gaining popularity.

To start with, there was Management Science America Inc. (MSA). It was one of the first Atlanta-based technology companies to go public, but was on the brink of bankruptcy when Georgia Tech graduate John Imlay came on board as CEO in 1970. Under Imlay’s tenure, MSA grew into one of the largest mainframe software vendors and cemented its place in technology history (Imlay’s papers are held at the Computer History Museum in California). MSA was acquired in 1989, in what was, according to the New York Times archives, a merger of rivals worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The 1970s also saw the founding of Peachtree Software, a major early software vendor in the microcomputer field, and American Software, founded by former MSA employees. While American Software began as a sales forecasting platform for the textile industry, it evolved into one of the most important early business-to-business (B2B) software systems and laid the foundation for the city’s strong supply chain industry.

Atlanta connects the world

The city’s talent pool in telecommunications and digital communications grew alongside the software scene. Companies like BellSouth (acquired by AT&T in the 2000s) helped bring a new generation of technical talent to the city. But as early as the 1950s, Scientific Atlanta (acquired by Cisco in 2005) was producing cable television, telecommunications and broadband equipment. The company also developed the technology that made video on demand possible.

Then there was Digital Communication Associates, Inc. (DCA), maker of Irma boards. This important piece of infrastructure helped connect PCs and Macs to IBM mainframes, making it easier for companies to communicate and share information. The city was also home to Quadram Corporation, a startup that made expansion cards for personal computers. Hayes Microcomputer, founded in 1981 by Dale Heatherington, made modems and gave millions of Americans their first Internet access. At one point, the company had over 85% market share. Today, almost all modems use some variant of the Hayes instruction set.

The list of influential companies that have changed the way we communicate online is long. Intelligent Systems, founded in Norcross in 1973, was instrumental in building the first video terminals before eventually moving into the fintech space in payment and credit software. AMI (American Megatrends Incorporated) started in the 1980s in a suburb of Atlanta and is now responsible for the firmware used in about 40% of all personal computers and 80% of all servers. In 1980, Ted Turner changed cable television when he launched the United States’ first all-news channel, CNN, from its Atlanta studios. Mindspring, an Internet service provider, was founded in the 1990s and eventually merged with California-based Earthlink, laying the foundation for our modern communications systems. WebMD, founded in Atlanta in 1997, changed the way people think about communicating health issues.

Securing our digital world

With Atlanta’s roots in hardware and software, cybersecurity was a natural next industry. And the city’s first cybersecurity industry leaders will be familiar to many, as their companies went on to create a more robust, secure digital world. Marc Gorlin co-founded email and data encryption software PGP Corporation before founding Kabbage and Roadie in the fintech and supply chain sectors.

Perhaps one of the most prolific names in cybersecurity, Jay Chaudry founded Secure IT (acquired by VeriSign), CipherTrust (acquired by Secure Computing/McAfee), and AirDefense (acquired by Motorola) in Atlanta before founding security giant Zscaler in the Bay Area.

Construction of the flywheel

Gradually, outside firms like Manhattan Associates and NCR moved their corporate headquarters to metro Atlanta to capitalize on the region’s growing talent pool. Such moves helped build the local tech industry “flywheel” as talent development, corporate successes, and outside investment fueled continued growth in the tech sector. Over the decades, employees who cut their teeth at companies like MSA, Scientific Atlanta, Peachtree Software, ISS, BellSouth, Mindspring, and AirDefense founded countless local fintechs, cyber startups, healthcare companies, and software giants.

This flywheel would grow as local talent continued to invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs in the city. Sig Mosley, who was with MSA for decades, became the “godfather of tech investing” in Atlanta, building the next generation of young companies. Other tech leaders in the city, like David Cummings, have not only invested in startups but also provided countless early-stage founders with their first office space with Atlanta Tech Village. Located at a popular intersection in Buckhead, ATV has become a central gathering place for the local startup community over the past decade.

Mapping the history of technology

Years ago, the Atlanta ecosystem worked to write its local history and show how a few companies quickly grew into a dynamic ecosystem. A fan chart developed by leaders in the local tech scene helped people trace the origins of the local tech scene back to the 1890s. “It was a collaborative effort to put it together,” said John Yates, a partner at Morris, Manning and Martin. Yates showed Hypepotamus the chart and walked us through the moments he considers pivotal in Atlanta’s tech history. Today, it’s hard to imagine how many more layers that fan chart has added with success stories of new startups.

The startup scene has survived recessions, funding shortages, and the dot-com boom and crash. It has produced several unicorns. It has attracted new talent and lost talent to more established places like Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York because they lacked the capital for later stages.

If we pause for a moment and look back at Atlanta’s technology history, we can understand exactly why the city became known not only as a software, fintech, and cybersecurity hub, but also as a city that laid the foundation for the modern computing age. Giants like Coca-Cola, The Home Depot, UPS, and Delta Air Lines undoubtedly put the city on the map as a business hub. But let’s turn the clock back a few decades, and we’ll see that at its core, Atlanta has a long history as a startup city.

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Special thanks to John Yates, Ashish Mistry, Sig Mosley, Joe Berklund, Aly Merritt and David Cummings for sharing their perspectives for this article.