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Switchyards Downtown Club is a "members-only gathering place to accelerate learnings, build beautiful products, and be around the consumer startups creating the future of Atlanta." | PHOTO: Jason Seagle
If you read my blog and haven't found your way to Switchyards or an installment of the Consumer Show yet, what are you waiting for? I write about this every month, people. You know where it is, and you know how awesome it is. Get yourself to downtown already. It's where all the cool kids are.
PSA over. Let's get down to the pitches!
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Singer-songwriter Adron performs at the Aug. 13 Good Gracious show. PHOTO | Ann Packwood Photography
One of the things I truly love about Atlanta is all the little hidden gems that pop up when you're in the right place at the right time.
A few weeks ago, the two correctly intersected for me at the Plaza Theatre on Ponce: I caught an old-fashioned variety show with a theater-junkie friend of mine (after prying her away from her Dragon Con costume prep ... hi, Alyssa!).
As someone who grew up on "A Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor, the Good Gracious variety show sounded right up my alley, but I had no real idea what to expect. I told Alyssa so. She came anyway — like I said, she loves her some theater — and we were both blown away by how amazing the show was!
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The Consumer Show: Bringing entrepreneurs together and selling out for two months straight! | PHOTO: Jason Seagle
I was going to open with the fact that this was the second sold-out Consumer Show in a row (which it was), but turns out that it was also the last of four sold-out events in a row, counting the July Consumer Show and the last two "On Doers" episodes into that total. Clearly, Michael Tavani and Dave Payne are doing a lot of things right with Switchyards events.
If the awesome videos and previous recaps aren't enough for you, sign up now for the September Consumer Show to catch it in person before it sells out, too!
Read moreIs your to-do list prioritized? Or is it procrastinated? Is there something on there you know you should be doing, but you've let it go on so long that it seems insurmountable? (Hello, mountainous pile of clean, unfolded laundry, I see you!) Have you ever found yourself watching B-list stars on Bravo and wondering just how expensive a personal assistant would actually be?
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The Consumer Show. Which may or may not start at 7:03, 7:00 or 7:10 p.m. Eh, somewhere in there. Don't be late! PHOTO: Jason Seagle
I've been talking about packed houses for months now at each Consumer Show, but it turns out I was underestimating what that actually means. Last Thursday, the ATL startup crowd exceeded even my expectations and sold out the fifth Consumer Show — and, in fact, sold it out more than once, as organizers Michael Tavani and Dave Payne raised the seat limit several times to accommodate the companies actually pitching. (Who, you know, kind of needed to be there.) Not to mention some very quiet appearances by some very heavy hitters on the ATL founder and venture capital scene.
Read moreThe Eastside Trail, one of the first finished sections on the old rail corridor, connects Piedmont Park to Inman Park and Old Fourth Ward. And it has become especially popular. Really, really popular.
To the point where, sometimes, it feels like half the city is walking, biking, skating or jogging from the park to Ponce City Market. I live in Midtown, so I use the BeltLine a fair amount, and recently I've begun to realize that these hordes of people, while overwhelming en masse, actually fall into several clearly defined categories.
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The Consumer Show. Always a major event, always the first Thursday of the month. PHOTO: Bhargava Chiluveru of Chil Creative
Nothing makes me happier than seeing startups really nail their pitches. And last week, I got to see three companies I already follow take their pitch game to a whole new level, and discover two new (to me!) companies bring it like they were born to it. Switchyard's monthly Consumer Show: Giving you the chance to confirm and discover which ATL-based B2C startups to keep an eye on since ... okay, March 2016, but every good thing started somewhere.
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What do you do when you start a new role? You read. A lot. Blog posts, Medium, books, you name it. Learn from others' mistakes and successes.
Just over a month ago, I moved from a Client Success position to the Product department at SalesLoft. Even with a solid background in supporting our application, working directly with our customers, and decent writing and technical skills, it's still been a really steep learning curve (and I truly don't know how people successfully make this leap if it includes a whole new company and product). So, of course, I thought I'd document this journey, all of the ups and downs and what-the-heck moments, and share it with the world. Maybe it'll help someone else. It'll certainly be good for a laugh later, when I'm a grizzled veteran of The Product World.
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"Product Chiefs" panel featuring Chidi Afulezi, co-founder of aKoma; Melissa Proctor, Atlanta Hawks CMO; and Junior Gaspard, SVP- Product, Sales & Marketing at Experience, with an introduction by Amelia Davis, Local Marketing Producer at General Assembly. (And a window glare because I am clearly not a professional photographer. #knowyourstrengths)
We're halfway through Atlanta Startup Week, "a new type of conference that builds momentum and opportunity around entrepreneurship," and it's been a really interesting mix of events, locations and topics so far. One of my favorites was a Tuesday morning panel at General Assembly, titled "Product Chiefs: How to Make It in Atlanta."
If you follow me on social media, you may have noticed that I've recently changed roles atSalesLoft and moved from Client Success to Product. As a blog reader, you probably have noticed how I love networking, learning new things, research and startups (not necessarily in that order). So when an event checked every one of those boxes, you know I signed up immediately.
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The Consumer Show + Tacos. Because, Cinco de Mayo, of course. PHOTO: Bhargava Chiluveru of Chil Creative
Somehow we're already in May (I don't know about you, but my April was merely a blur of Yellow Pollen Hell), which means we're also already up to round three of The Consumer Show (hooray!).
Not to be deterred by the fact that the first Thursday of this month also happened to be Cinco de Mayo, the Switchyards team looped in the Tex's Tacos food truck to provide appropriately themed fare. Event planners take note: Tacos and beer are a great way to loosen up a crowd.
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