Startups Archives - SEO'Brien

From Automobile to Innovation – Stories of Entrepreneurship

Sunday, 13 January 2019 by SEO'Brien

I didn’t grow up around incredible cars, nor in a family of enthusiasts, but a few of my earliest and fondest memories involve automobiles. The first was as a child, being driven to school by mom, when she shared a passing anecdote that she had always wanted to be a race car driver (that story

Published in Industry, Startups

11 Comments

How Venture Capitalists Venture

Monday, 07 January 2019 by SEO'Brien

Did you know? Venture Capitalists get paid to manage others’ money. If someone is investing directly in your startup, and they know and love the space, having more supportive than capital based intentions, call them an Angel Investor. If someone is directly investing in your business and they want to see customers and focus on

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Published in Startups

8 Comments

How Some Startups are Able to Attract Venture Capital Though They’ve Just Begun

Tuesday, 11 December 2018 by SEO'Brien

Three things matter most to investors. THREE. You read a ton of content about validation, MVP, customers, revenue, etc. All of those perspective are platitudes; they’re meant to inspire you that you CAN or teach you how you MIGHT. End of the day, three things matter, period: Outcome. Can this exit? Will it? No ROI

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Published in Startups

39 Comments

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

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Published in Insights / Research, Startups

14 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

1 Comment

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

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