After some moments thinking I guess the first character is an a (based on looking at the fifth character) but otherwise it is at first look hard to decide whether or not it may be a C or an O and I think first look is important . . . I am still not sure

Agree with Anthony about the ambiguity of the first letter. Also, I think the bottom unconnected swash is too small to support the whole wordmark (I like better the sketches where it’s part of a letter).

I agree that the "a" is ambiguous. Looking at your sketches, moving the gap up would go a long way to resolving that issue and making it clearer.

Also, when working with handwritten typography, I feel it's important to follow the logic of actual handwriting as much as possible since viewer's brains are "conditioned" to perceive a flow that is familiar to them. When you break that flow or do something counter to intuitive expectations, you set yourself up visual discord in the final product. The "a" is an example of that...the natural break is where the stroke is reversed, up at the top, not in the middle.

Related to that, the "s"'s look odd to me since they are not not cursive. I think the cursive "s" letters in your sketches work better, although perhaps since the client chose a different version you don't have a choice.

I'm also not comfortable with the left-leaning tabs or "ears" that you've put atop the ascenders. They run counter to the flow and energy of the graphic. I think you'd be better off, with a cleaner result, if you left them off and just left the tops slanted down to the right.

Lastly, the variation in the vertical height of the letters seems a bit off to me. It gives a "bumpy" quality to the mark. While I assume the point was to inject some informality to the mark, it does not have the right rhythm to me and ends up feeling a bit awkward.