There were about six people at the Four Athens February Lunch & Learn at its headquarters on Hancock Avenue on Wednesday, lower than the typical turnout.
Tiffany Rainey, the new executive director of the nonprofit, said she thought the low turnout was due to poor planning and unpleasant weather.
“Since we originally had another company scheduled to speak that had to cancel at the last minute, we didn’t publicize nearly as far in advance,” Rainey said.
Lunch & Learn events are held monthly and co-sponsored by Four Athens and Georgia’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC).
The specific goal of Four Athens and its events is to help people with ideas bring their startup businesses to life. The nonprofit supports its mission through four pillars: talent, education, community, and high growth resources.
Chris Hamilton, a serial entrepreneur and ATDC’s “catalyst” in Athens, took over as the presenter of the event and focused on the topic of landing the first customer.
Hamilton said he believed the topic was hard to put into presentation form, so he created an interactive game to mimic the act of selling a product to customers.
It took a while for the attendees to get an understanding of the game, but many of them, including junior economics major Andrei Mocanu, eventually found that it was helpful.
“As customer discovery is done, it still helps in the process with talking to random people who I need to get feedback,” Mocanu explained. “It’s just a different approach and just different insight into what the customer sees, not just what I’m seeing.”
There were multiple phrases that Hamilton emphasized throughout the event such as “truth is counterintuitive” and “convenience trumps all.” The attendees wrote down those tips, but Hamilton gave one piece of advice that stood out: “Don’t ever take it personally.”
Andrew Walsh 