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Atento Capital is an early-stage investment firm focused on unlocking unsung potential. From our offices in Tulsa and NW Arkansas, leading markets for innovation in the heartland, we identify high-potential ideas and individuals and then invest the early-stage funding and human capital needed to take ventures from 0-1 and 1-10. The BeAtento Podcast explores the founders, partners, funders, and systems that work together to transform the heartland into the nation’s most equitable tech hub.

Atento’s funding to expedite Tulsa-based Payfactory’s expansion and hiring plans

Remble, a new platform aimed at helping users build healthier relationships launched today with a $1.4 million pre-seed raise led by Tulsa-based Atento Capital.

Fast-Growing Bentonville Communication Platform Raises 740,000 Led by Atento Capital, The Validation Fund at Winrock InternationalFirst Investment from 412 Angels Network Connecting Tulsa, NWA Investors to Regional Tech Startups

Atento Capital, based in Tulsa, is launching 412 Angels, an invite-only network to connect entrepreneurs, investors and would-be investors with early-stage startups.

Atento Capital, based in Tulsa, is launching 412 Angels, an invite-only network to connect entrepreneurs, investors and would-be investors with early-stage startups.

Aaron speaks with Ashli Sims, Development Lead at Build in Tulsa. They discuss how Build in Tulsa is working to create a scalable, replicable tech-forward ecosystem in Tulsa to catalyze the creation of generational wealth.

Aaron and special co-host and producer Jesse talk with Devon Laney, President & CEO at 36 Degrees North.

Real-time 3D powers a vast array of immersive learning platforms and tools designed to advance the technical skills of the next generation, and increase access to quality learning experiences around the world.

Tulsa-based Oklahoma Life Science Fund Ventures (OLSF) recently led a $4.5 million Series A Preferred investment in Access Optics, a Broken Arrow-based global manufacturing leader of micro-scale surgical imaging products.

As schools across the country navigate in-person and remote learning models, Boddle Learning, a math gaming platform that was founded in Kansas City continues to grow, raising another round of more than $1 million and delivering its edtech solution to more than 450,000 students.

Latest round funded by Lightship Capital, Atento Capital, Cortado Ventures, Pharrell’s Black Ambition, and Google’s Black Founders Fund, among others

Sean and Aaron talk with Dominque Clarke, Director of Member and Alumni Experience for Tulsa Remote.

Mercury, Atento Capital and Cortado Ventures lead Seed Round for growing SMS start-up Respond Flow

In this episode, we talk to Jeanine Suah, Founder of Fynd, a platform for Black founders seeking capital, community, and content.

Atento Capital, Cortado Ventures Lead Pre-Seed Round for PatchRx’s Medication Management Platform

In this episode, we talk to Tammy Torkleson, the founder of Indigo Technology, which is a business that helps people with tech ideas turn them into tech products.

In this episode, we talk to Dominick Ard’is, the founder of The ACT House, which is a global platform for team formation and startup creation.

In many ways, but we're really the only Tulsa.

Areas are pulling out all the stops to attract premium talent. A new Airbnb partnership sweetens the pot with the ability to try out a new area before going all-in on a move.

With offers of cash, housing and a budding talent pool, smaller cities and states hope to get in on the ground floor of a new era for remote workers.

Today residents of Tulsa are among the first in the country eligible to apply to the Idea Accelerator, a program where those selected receive a “Pebble Grant” to fund a small scale test of their ideas.

In this episode, we talk to Malachi Blankenship, the Venture Advisor & Director of Business Development.

If you’re a newly remote worker planning to relocate this year, you might just find a destination willing to pay you thousands of dollars to do so.

For travelers looking to understand what it means to see “America,” perhaps there’s no better city than one like Tulsa, which is looking forward while reckoning with the legacy of its past.

In this episode, we talk to Libby Ediger, the Executive Director of Holberton School in Tulsa, a school for software engineering students.

Chandler is an entrepreneur at heart whose professional experience has taken him to St.Louis, London, Atlanta, and now Tulsa.

Susan Lyne, BBG Ventures managing partner and co-founder, has had a front-row seat to the ups and downs of venture funding for women.

Venture capitalists are a notoriously homogenous group that look nothing like the rest of the country and yet influence it profoundly.

MaC Venture Capital, a newly merged, majority Black-led investment firm that on Thursday raised an inaugural $110 million to double down on supporting overlooked tech startups on the brink of disruption, with participation from companies including Foot Locker, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Howard University.

Forget Austin and Miami - Tulsa is poised to emerge as an underdog for one of the U.S’s next big startup cities. In a state historically known for its deep roots in the oil, gas, and farming sectors, part of Tulsa Remote’s goal is to bring the city and its economy out of the last century and into the future.

In this episode, we talk with Shelly Bell, the CEO of Black Girl Ventures, a social enterprise for people who identify as Black women entrepreneurs.

Open since January 2020, Holberton School Tulsa is a two-year software engineering program based at 15 N. Cheyenne Ave.

Tulsa is paying people $10,000 to live there. 4 professionals who recently made the move from big cities like NY and Chicago say it's the best decision they ever made.

In this episode, we talk with Cioré Taylor, the director of entrepreneurial development and education at TEDC Creative Capital.

Gathering Place has been voted this year’s Best City Park in the country in a readers’ choice competition sponsored by the national media company USA Today.

A Crunchbase survey of rounds of $100 million or more to U.S. companies at Series A and B stage between January and mid-February found that 30 percent of these investments went to teams with female or Black founders.

If you want to live in a vibrant, large city without the price tag of places like New York of Frisco, you will be pleasantly surprised by Tulsa.

A Kansas City-generated gamified math education platform is expanding its user base this weekend as Boddle Learning debuts the high-profile startup’s long-awaited iOS app version.

As NYC and San Francisco continue to bleed business, the Sooner state emerges as a prime landing spot for one of the Israeli tech ecosystem's most accelerated sectors.

Ugandan-born Martinson co-founded Boddle Learning, a game-based learning platform, in 2018 to combat educational gaps and help improve student outcomes in elementary schools.

In this episode, we talk with Cecilia Wessinger, an ecosystem builder, community catalyst and collaborator.

It’s no secret that 2020 has been a challenging year. The ways we live, travel, and do business have been totally transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, as I reflect on the year, my biggest takeaway is one of gratitude.

In Episode 2 of Season 2 of the podcast Be Atento, hosts Sean and Aaron are joined by Michael Basch, Managing Partner and Founder of Atento Capital.

In the Season 2 premiere, our new hosts Aaron and Sean talk to Chandler Malone, former host of this podcast and founder of the Ideate Project.

The Be Atento Podcast shares some of the highlights of the amazing interviews we have done so far.

In this episode we talk with Dylan Gambardella, Co-founder of Next Gen HQ.

In this episode we talk with Ryan Lupberger, Co-Founder and CEO of Atento Capital portfolio company, Cleancult.

In this episode we talk with Atento’s most recent investment, Edna Martinson and Clarence Tan, the co-founders of Boddle Learning.

Cincinnati-based Lightship Capital, a rare venture-capital firm managed by black partners, is raising a $50 million fund to invest in underrepresented founders in the Midwest.

Foundry College Tulsa is offering free tuition for Tulsans experiencing unemployment, underemployment or looking to advance their career opportunities.

In this episode we talk with Martin Lien, CEO of Respond Flow.

I had the pleasure to meet Arlan and hear from her on topics ranging from founder self-care to allyship in VC to the decentralization of Silicon Valley.

Many of my Non-Black friends and colleagues have asked how I am doing, what I make of the recent events and what they can do to support as allies. Below is my candid and transparent attempt at answering those questions.

In this episode we talk with Mercedes Bent, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.

After major companies announce their employees won’t need to come in, many are recalculating the cost of living near the office.

At Harlem Capital, one of our slogans is “Data Drives Decisions.”

Edtech startup incubators? That’s so 2010. That’s the conclusion reached by Barbara (“Bobbi”) Kurshan, a long-time veteran of the education technology world.

As part of their post-Covid economic strategy, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and Arizona are stepping up cooperation with Israeli companies.

Early Childhood Education and K12 This is the first of two posts on the future of education after the onset of Covid-19 by Mercedes Bent, Partner at LightSpeed Ventures

As we kick off a new decade, Crunchbase and Dundee Venture Capital are launching the first America’s Mighty Middle Report to look at startup activity in locations between the U.S. coasts over the past 10 years.

Venture capitalists are constantly telling the entrepreneurs they invest in to make data-driven decisions. But as an industry, we haven’t been very good at doing it ourselves. Now that we have the analytics and numbers to take a closer look at ourselves and our business, we decided to give it a try.

It's called the Tulsa Responds Task Force. It's a partnership with the Tulsa Economic Development Corporation, the City of Tulsa, George Kaiser Family Foundation, Tulsa Community Foundation and Atento Capitol. The goal is to get Tulsa small businesses and nonprofits back on their feet by helping them apply for the loan programs available in response to COVID-19.

Higher Ed, Corporate Learning & Career Mobility

In the second episode of our Investor Series, Michael Basch, the Managing Director of Atento Capital, helps us unpack considerations Heartland entrepreneurs should take into account as they face the aftermath of COVID-19.

It used to be that the only way for humanity to grow — and progress — was through destroying the environment. Sure, the Industrial Revolution brought about the growth of our economies, our population, our prosperity; but it also led to our extracting more resources from the planet, more pollution, and some nightmarish human conditions as well. But is this interplay between the two — of human growth vs. environment, of protection vs. destruction — really a zero-sum game?

#BeAtento

Startups with ethnically diverse founders are eventually able to raise more operating cash and return more capital to investors than those formed by all-white executives, even as they were less likely to win funding in the first place, a study shows.

Reviewing Techstars applications from around the world is an amazing way to surface micro trends while also seeing the macro picture. And since my applications were open January-April, it’s been fascinating to see how founders responded and pivoted in the current environment.

The leaders changing the culture of innovation in 2020.

Why venture capitalists are missing out on the opportunity to invest in diverse entrepreneurs, how it’s hurting their returns, and what to do about it.

In this episode we talk with Erika Lucas, co-founder of StitchCrew.

Or as it’s known in certain circles, “The Paris of the Heartland.”

In this episode we talk with Dor Abuhasira, CEO and co-founder of Percepto.

In this episode we talk with Marlon Nichols, founder and Managing Partner of MaC Venture Capital.

In this episode we talk with Rodney Sampson, Founder and CEO of Opportunity Hub.

In this episode we talk with Michael Cardamone, CEO and Managing Partner of Acceleprise about how he evaluates early stage deals and what he looks for in founding teams.

In this episode we talk with Adrianne Court, Chief HR Officer at Alkami.

In our inaugural episode we talk with Anna Mason, Partner at Revolution Capital and the Rise of the Rest seed fund.

Meet the team at Atento Capital and hear about the incredible guests and fascinating topics that will be addressed in future episodes.