Judge argues that Atlanta is poised to compete with Boston, Los Angeles, and New York to fill out the US's top three tech cities behind Silicon Valley, thanks to its airport ("I can leave here at 10am and be at a lunch meeting in San Francisco," he boasts), bevy of Fortune 500 corporations and concentration of engineering talent - in addition to Georgia Tech, the city is home to Georgia State University, Emory and the historically black colleges and universities Morehouse, Spelman and Clark Atlanta.

But in the early 2000s, Judge says, investors would hear that a company was from Atlanta and immediately say, "No." By 2007 or 2008, the investors might take a meeting, but they would demand that the company relocate to California.

"Now they're saying, `We'll come to you.'"