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Scoutmob co-founder Michael Tavani leaves company to focus on new startup space, other ventures

‘All I ever want to do is start companies. So I’m excited about diving right back in.’

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Michael Tavani, one of Scoutmob’s founding partners, is leaving his current position with the company to pursue several new projects.

Earlier this morning, Tavani, who was named one of CL’s 20 People to Watch in 2014, announced that he’ll no longer be involved with the Atlanta-based online deals startup on a daily basis. He plans to keep working with the company, namely helping with its branding and product strategy efforts, but will shift much of his time and energy toward ideas outside the startup that he co-founded in 2009.

Over the past year, Tavani has been looking to launch a co-working space for consumer-facing startups - one that could potentially be located at Ponce City Market. Tavani tells CL that his startup lab will help incubate more companies through “an accelerator-type program” that’s “part betaworks, part 37signals.”

Tavani elaborates on his future plans in a blog post:

When you find your calling, you follow it. All I ever want to do is start companies. So I’m excited about diving right back in. In fact, I’ll be working on a few projects simultaneously - and hatching them at Scoutmob HQ. My Evernote file on future projects is gigantic. The goal is to start a lab where I can quickly crank out new products - it’s so cheap to get to launch nowadays. Combine this with driving pre-demand before launching a project and there’s something disruptive I want to test.

But, I only want to invest my time in things I get. So, it’s all consumer companies for me. In the early days, startups need an unfair advantage in one area. For me, that’s design, brand and product.

Also, I think there’s a special moment in time right now for Atlanta and I’m excited about the types of companies talent-wise you can start here. We’ll do that with a few amazingly branded consumer startups. A few wins begins a movement.

The announcement, which Tavani says has been in the works over the past several months, follows a number of recent layoffs at the online deals and e-commerce startup.