Episode 14 | Nick Miller

The Atlanta Story

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Nick Miller, Co-Founder of Gather Technologies.

Nick started Gather with his Co-Founder Alex Lassiter almost 9 years ago but it didn’t start out the way they imagined. After three pivots and on the verge of giving up, Nick and Alex forged ahead to build a company with over 100 employees before being acquired by Vista Equity. We talk about how to find product-market fit, what lessons he learned along the way, and what it’s like running a Vista-backed company.

The Atlanta Story is put together by the folks at Atlanta Ventures -- and we can’t wait to share some of the personalities behind the brand. Atlanta Ventures invests in entrepreneurs through community, content, and capital -- most notably through our Studio with companies like Greenzie and Intown Golf Club. We believe the best entrepreneurs learn from other great artists in different fields.

In this episode, we discuss…

• When you went to Bain, did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur? (1:39)
• When did the aha moment happen at Bain happen when you realized this is not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life? (3:02)
• Talk to us about the day to day of making the transition to full time entrepreneur? 5:03
• Did you plan financially to make the leap? (7:51)
• The earliest year or two of Gather may be one of the most interesting stories of finding product / market fit I know of. How many different companies and avenues did y’all try before settling on Gather’s core product? (9:30)
• When did you know you were on to something from a Product / market fit POV? (15:03)
• Did fatigue start setting in after your third pivot? (19:34)
• Did y’all ever think about giving up? (23:50)
• How did you know the economics would make sense with what you were building (26:19)
• What did y’all have to prove to investors out West to raise a round? (30:50)
• You all were pretty early in moving into Krog Street, relative to it’s popularity today. Can you share why you chose Krog Street, and if you were to start another company, where would you HQ it today? (33:01)
• You are one of the few companies in Atlanta to have the premier PE shop, Vista Equity, invest in Gather. What is it like running a company before Vista and after Vista? (34:41)
• How did y’all decide to sell a majority stake in Gather? (37:11)
• What is like running the Vista playbook? What was it like pre-Vista and post-Vista operationally? (41:20)
• If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently? (44:04)
• How did you maintain sanity while working 18 hour days? (46:32)
• Through the Gather experience did you gain the freedom and experience you sought starting out and was it worth it? (49:01)
• You’re a seasoned entrepreneur and still young. What’s ahead for you? (49:35)
• Why Atlanta and what has Atlanta done for you? (50:15)

How you can get involved:

Visit atlantaventures.com/studio if you’re interested in learning more about Atlanta Ventures and the Studio.

Where you can find us:

Website: www.atlstory.com

Twitter: @theatlantastory

Instagram: @theatlantastory

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