The fifth installment of the Startup Stories speaker series brings comedian, author, and early-stage Facebook employee, Paul Ollinger to Athens on Thursday, September 29th. Hosted by local economic development nonprofit Four Athens, Startup Stories is a unique opportunity to hear directly from startup founders and employees about their individual experiences with entrepreneurship. This fall, Startup Stories features Paul Ollinger, first-250 Facebook employee, stand-up comedian, and author of You Should Totally Get an MBA: A Comedian’s Guide to Top U.S. Business Schools, his first book.

Currently living in Atlanta, Ollinger is a graduate of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. He served as VP of Sales for the Western United States as one of the first 250 employees of Facebook, and spent two years performing stand-up comedy full-time in Los Angeles. Today Ollinger writes, performs comedy, and speaks widely to different audiences on the subjects of work, wealth, and purpose. He describes his first book by saying, via his website at paulollinger.com, “Earning a top-tier MBA is a serious process. And that’s precisely why you need a book with both honest insights and stress-relieving jokes,” such as “why it’s important to know the difference between alumni, alumnus, and aluminum.”

Also taking the stage for Startup Stories V is Ty Frix, former UGA football center and founder of Athens-based fitness tech startup Ichor. Ichor develops customized monitoring systems for tracking physical activity and fitness levels for sports teams, individual trainers, and wellness coaches working with a broad spectrum of clients to minimize risk and maximize performance.

A student startup founder will also share a story on the stage. Speaking to the combination of storytellers, Four Athens Director Jim Flannery explains, “We want to show the Athens community the vast range of experiences people have when considering joining a young company. There isn’t one way to successfully launch a business. People launch and join startups for a myriad of personal reasons. Those are the stories you don’t often hear.”

Startup Stories V will take place at Live Wire in Downtown Athens on Thursday September 29th. Doors open at 6:30pm, and stories will begin promptly 7pm. The event is free and open to the public. Additional event details and updates can be found on the Facebook event page at https://www.facebook.com/events/1744722815776899/.