The Smart Business Dealmakers Dealmaker of the Year Awards recognize exceptional individuals who are shaping the landscape of business and innovation in Atlanta.
In addition, The Atlanta Dealmakers Hall of Fame recognized a class of dealmakers that has made an often-groundbreaking impact on their organizations, industries and the region over the course of decades in business.
We celebrated the accomplishments of the 2026 class of winners on May 6 at the Atlanta Smart Business Dealmakers Conference. Together, they provide a strong picture of the Atlanta business community.
Dealmaker Of The Year Honorees
Shila Nieves Burney, Founder & Managing Partner, Zane Venture Fund. Shila is reshaping what venture capital looks like in the Southeast through a dual-entity model that pairs a nonprofit accelerator with an early-stage fund. Her Zane Access accelerator has graduated 100 companies in four years — with a 100% completion rate — generating $20 million in raised capital, $14 million in revenue, and more than 70 jobs. Fund I has delivered a 2.40x MOIC, with standout returns including MDisrupt at 6x. Now raising a $20 million Fund II targeting women’s health and longevity infrastructure, Shila is proving that investing upstream of traditional healthcare delivery generates both competitive returns and real community impact.
Beatrice Dixon, Founder, CEO & Chief Innovation Officer, The Honey Pot Company. Beatrice built The Honey Pot Company from a vision in 2012 into a plant-based feminine care brand generating $121 million in gross sales and distributed across more than 33,000 retail doors nationwide. In early 2024, she negotiated a $380 million acquisition by Compass Diversified — while retaining a significant minority stake and her role leading the company. Beatrice didn’t just sell a brand; she secured both the wealth and the platform to keep driving its mission of democratizing wellness forward.
Barry Givens and Jewel Burks Solomon, Managing Partners, Collab Capital. Barry and Jewel co-founded Collab Capital on a straightforward premise: proximity to Black entrepreneurs is a competitive advantage, not a liability. In June 2025, they closed a $75 million Fund II — backed by Apple, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and the Leon Levine Foundation — bringing total AUM to $125 million. The portfolio spans economic mobility, healthcare access, and community infrastructure across the country — and their track record is making a clear case that closing the racial wealth gap and generating competitive returns are not competing goals.
Amanda Lucey, Partner & Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Alloy. Amanda spent four decades building The Partnership into Atlanta’s oldest privately held, full-service marketing and communications agency — and then made the strategic move to accelerate its future. In December 2025, she led the merger of The Partnership with Alloy, creating one of the top five largest independent agencies in the Southeast. The combined firm — with a 50% larger talent base and AI-powered data capabilities through the P360 platform — is built for national scale. Amanda now serves as Partner and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer of the combined entity.
Colin Meadows, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, o15 Capital Partners. Colin launched o15 Capital Partners in 2022 with a thesis that undercapitalized companies in healthcare, education, and business services could deliver both strong returns and broad economic impact. In February 2025, he proved it — closing o15’s inaugural fund at approximately $370 million, with total capital including co-investment vehicles approaching $400 million. The Atlanta-based, SBIC-licensed firm has already deployed more than 20% of commitments and supports over 1,200 jobs across its portfolio, establishing o15 as one of the most compelling debut vehicles in the Southeast’s middle market. Accepting on his behalf is Javier Davila, principal, o12 Capital Partners.
Vincent Myles and Daniel Myles, Co-Founders, The Myles Companies. Vincent and Daniel Myles built their family-owned enterprise — Myles Wrecker Service, Myles Truck Repair, and Big Rig Body Shop — into one of the most respected commercial fleet service operators in the greater Atlanta region. In 2025, they guided the company through its acquisition by True North Fleet Services, a Garnett Station-backed national fleet platform. The deal marks a meaningful exit for a father-and-sons operation built from the ground up, and positions the Myles Companies for continued growth under national ownership.
Will Seippel, CEO, WorthPoint Corporation. Will spent nearly two decades building WorthPoint into the world’s largest online resource for researching, valuing, and preserving antiques, art, and collectibles — a platform that now holds more than one billion archived prices and serves collectors and dealers across six continents. In February 2026, he closed the sale of WorthPoint to Waverock Software, a long-term capital partner focused on market-leading vertical software businesses, while remaining in his role as CEO. The deal positions WorthPoint to expand its data platform, develop new tools, and further scale pricing transparency across the global collectibles market.
Social Impact Award Honoree
Jon Birdsong and David Cummings, Co-Founders, South Downtown. Jon Birdsong and David Cummings are technology entrepreneurs — not real estate developers. That distinction matters. In December 2023, the two acquired 16 acres of blighted, boarded-up storefronts on the south end of downtown Atlanta and set out to do what urban developers had largely passed over. Through their South Downtown project, they have revitalized a neglected corridor, creating new businesses, generating local jobs, and dramatically transforming one of the city’s most overlooked blocks.
What makes their work stand out is the lens they brought to it. Birdsong and Cummings approached the project with an operator’s mindset — focused on activation, community return, and long-term impact rather than speculative appreciation. They’re not flipping a neighborhood; they’re rebuilding one. For two tech founders, that’s a different kind of deal — and arguably the most important one either has made.
Dealmakers Hall of Fame Honorees
Mitch Free, Founder & CEO, ZYCI. Mitch Free has spent more than three decades at the intersection of shop-floor expertise and strategic vision. He began as a CNC machinist, moved into aircraft acquisition and overhaul at Northwest Airlines, and then built MFG.com — the pioneering online marketplace for custom manufacturing that attracted investment from Jeff Bezos and transformed how OEMs source precision parts worldwide. He later founded Fast Radius, a global digital manufacturing company built around additive technology in partnership with UPS — and earned the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award along the way.
Today he leads ZYCI, a precision CNC machining company in Chamblee, Georgia, producing flight-critical components for aerospace and defense customers including SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Airbus. Mitch is also a published author and a sought-after voice on manufacturing innovation and aerospace supply chains. Few people in the industry have made the full journey — from the machinist’s bench to the boardroom to the frontier — and kept building at every stop.
Barrington Irving, Founder, Experience Aviation & The Flying Classroom. In 2007, at age 23, Captain Barrington Irving became the youngest person — and the first Black pilot — to fly solo around the world. His 97-day, 24,600-mile journey in a single-engine Columbia 400 he named Inspiration earned him a Guinness World Record and a platform he has been building on ever since. Born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in inner-city Miami, Barrington had once seen a football scholarship as his only path forward — until a Jamaican airline captain became his mentor and changed the course of his life entirely.
He has spent the years since making sure that story doesn’t stay rare. Irving founded Experience Aviation to bring STEM-based programs and career guidance to middle and high school students, and later created The Flying Classroom — a K-12 STEM curriculum that has reached students across 13 countries through 16 global expeditions. His legacy isn’t the flight alone. It’s every young person who looked up — and decided they belonged in the sky — because he did first.
Dan Van Horn, Founder & President, U.S. Kids Golf. Dan Van Horn didn’t start a company — he solved a problem. When his young children lost interest in golf because their clubs were simply too heavy to swing, the former golf professional and engineer developed a line of clubs up to 30% lighter than standard equipment. That insight became U.S. Kids Golf, founded in 1997, and today the company is the world’s leading provider of youth golf equipment — offering nine fitted sizes across multiple club lines, sized by height rather than age.
What grew around that product is equally significant. Dan built a tournament platform that now runs more than 1,600 events annually across 60-plus markets, culminating each year in a World Championship at Pinehurst. He established the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation, purchased and transformed Longleaf Golf & Family Club into a living laboratory for youth instruction, and helped bring a generation of children and their families into the game. His legacy is measured in every golfer who might never have picked up a club without him.
