Guest speaker event: “Finding Your First Customer”
Please join us for our first event of the season! Entitled “Finding Your First Customer,” our speaker event features two very successful entrepreneurs who have faced a critical challenge when launching a business:
The first customer is absolutely critical for a new business’ survival, especially for goods or services in the B2B market. But how do you sell something that has no track record in the market? Two Austin-area entrepreneurs — Eric Hills and Jeff Connally — share their stories of first customers, as well as their impact on profitability, marketability, and strategic direction of their respective startups.
Date: Wednesday, October 18
Time: 6:00 - 8:30 pm
Place: University of Texas Campus, UTC 4.132 (map)
Our distinguished speakers:
Eric Hills is a VP of Marketing at Zilliant, a startup in Austin that develops and sells pricing software for businesses. He has 16 years of experience in the startup space. In 1999, Eric founded Partnerware, a company that developed a web-based software platform to manage partner relationships.
Eric holds a BS from Clemson and an MBA from McCombs, where he won the international MOOT CORP competition.
http://www.zilliant.com/company_management.html#eric_hills
Jeff Connally is a teacher at the Acton School of Business. He has over twenty years of leadership expertise in sales, marketing, business development and a range of operational functions. He owns and runs a consulting practice, Gener8Biz, and was a founder in Uplink Corporation.
Jeff holds a dual B.A. from St. Michael’s College and an MBA from McCombs, and is a past president of the UT Executive MBA Alumni Association.
http://www.actonmba.org/people_teachers.php?13
http://www.gener8biz.com/Jeff.html
Initial Timeline:
- 6:00 - Networking (Food and Drinks)
- 6:30 - Kickoff by Ruben Miranda. Brief welcome and introduction
- 6:35 - Eric Hills speaks (10-15 minutes)
- 6:50 - Jeff Connally speaks (10-15 minutes)
- 7:05 - General Q&A (45 min – 1 hour)
- 8:00 - Informal discussion
Other details:
- To help you find the correct room, there will be signage on the main floor of the UTC building, next to the escalators at the north end.
- Parking. After 6 pm, you can park for free at the state lot, or on the street at any meter. Parking is $8 at the Bob Bullock Museum. A complete map can be found here.
- Food will be hearty appetizers, drinks will be water and sodas.
Event is open to TEE members and McCombs faculty. We hope you can make it!