Startups Archives - SEO'Brien

How the “Bootstrap Culture” of a Place like Austin Changes Entrepreneurship From an “Equity Culture” of a Place Like Silicon Valley

Tuesday, 27 November 2018 by SEO'Brien

Bootstrap or VC? It’s a question on so many minds as entrepreneurship flourishes beyond Silicon Valley, in cities where venture capital seems inaccessible. It’s a question that not a day goes by in which it doesn’t come up for me, based in Austin, TX, having professional roots along Sand Hill Road. What strikes me as

Published in Insights / Research, Startups

13 Comments

Let’s Get Something Straight, ALL Entrepreneurs are Bootstrapping

Wednesday, 14 November 2018 by SEO'Brien

Do Venture Backed Entrepreneurs look down upon Bootstrapped Entrepreneurs? Asked of me, on Quora, and I thought, WTF?! Let’s get something clear because such distinctions are misleading, inaccurate, and aggravating. ALL entrepreneurs are bootstrapped entrepreneurs. Every single one. The only people who start out with funding are privileged and more rare than Unicorns. They aren’t

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Published in Startups

11 Comments

On the Challenges Facing an Angel Investor

Wednesday, 14 November 2018 by SEO'Brien

Angel investment is a distinct *source* of capital that it’s important to distinguish from “seed money,” funding from angel groups, venture capital, money from an incubator, or even an early investment from someone with later stage expectations. In my time in Silicon Valley, with New York, and in Texas, what is glaringly obvious is that

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Published in Startups

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As an Entrepreneur Do you Ever Struggle to Make New Friends and Keep Them?

Wednesday, 07 November 2018 by SEO'Brien

We’re all in this together, no? It has been an interesting year in consideration of mental health and entrepreneurship. I’ve seen an increasing number of startups focused on mental health issues from substance abuse to depression, and venture capitalists have been notably conscientious about the toll that being a startup founder takes. MediaTech Ventures‘ friends at

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Published in Startups

23 Comments

How Top Startup CEOs and VCs Find Time to Tweet so Much

Wednesday, 17 October 2018 by SEO'Brien

I was peppered with this question six ways to Sunday recently and honestly, I couldn’t help but wonder if the public attention on Trump and Elon Musk’s tweets, haven’t had something to do with everyone asking how (or really why) these people in presumably busy and important roles, manage the time to bother tweeting. In

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Published in Social Media, Startups

5 Comments

Startup Founders’ Mental Health

Wednesday, 26 September 2018 by SEO'Brien

Inspired by changes in professional sports, where a growing number of high-profile athletes have gone public with their mental health and psychological struggles, Felicis founder Aydin Senkut and partner Dasha Maggio, announced in September that Felicis Ventures will commit 1%, on top of every check the firm writes, in non-dilutive capital earmarked for “founder development”

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Published in Insights / Research, Startups

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Might it be Said that the Purpose of an Entrepreneur is to Create Problems?

Tuesday, 18 September 2018 by SEO'Brien

The Problem Solution Statement; a core tenet of Lean Startup and Customer Development. A phrase that conveys to founders and investors alike that the purpose of a startup is to solve a problem; an idea that leads many to believe that a pitch should lay out how the problem is being solved. With most new

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Published in Startups

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