Startups Archives - Page 25 of 36

Why Should Anyone Fund Your Startup?

Tuesday, 12 April 2016 by Paul O'Brien

Referred to by a couple local financing executives as “the best seminar they have been to here in Austin,” I recently had the honor of moderating a discussion of venture capital funding, thanks to the support and hard work of Texas State University’s SBDC and Frost Bank. Why so compelling? That’s precisely the question we

Published in Industry, Insights / Research, Startups

12 Comments

Why Tech Startup Investors Expecting Revenue are Wrong

Monday, 04 April 2016 by Paul O'Brien

A far too frequently overheard conversation in the startup community goes something like this: “Apparently neither Instagram nor Snapchat had paying customers while receiving both seed and series A funding?! I couldn’t believe it. Investors, advisors, and incubators these days are constantly trumpeting that a monetization model (or at least an anticipated revenue trajectory) is

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Published in Startups

30 Comments

How Big Data is Finding its Market in Texas

Monday, 28 March 2016 by Paul O'Brien

Data. Statistics, measurements, and analytics are funny things, particularly in entrepreneurship, as if you think about it, data is invaluable but difficult to aggregate, informational but difficult to consume, technical but immensely educational. Why so hard when so important? Data geeks such as myself often find ourselves lost in the weeds; we love mining

Analytics austin big data data startups tech texas

Published in Analytics, Austin, Startups

5 Comments

25 Startup Lessons from Serial Startup Executives

Friday, 29 January 2016 by Paul O'Brien

Advice about startups is prolific as grains of sand on a beach. Heck, here I am, sharing advice and implying I have the answers. In truth though, classically trained and experienced as a marketer, I hope I also convey more than most that there are no answers, only insight, opportunity, experience, and potential. Everyone wants

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Published in Insights / Research, Startups

9 Comments

The NW Austin Tech & Startup Corridor

Thursday, 07 January 2016 by Paul O'Brien

There is a frequently heard mantra in Austin that we’re not like Silicon Valley (that we don’t want to be like Silicon Valley) and though I’m of the mind that disagrees with that, considering Silicon Valley an industry of which we’re a part rather than a merely a specific location, what you can’t refute is

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Published in Austin, Industry, Insights / Research, Startups

26 Comments

Why Where Matters

Monday, 09 November 2015 by Paul O'Brien

Some time ago, I shared some thoughts about how the size and scope of Silicon Valley eludes most entrepreneurs. That, challenging most startup communities, is the fact that comparing and contrasting one’s local economy to “Silicon Valley” easily misleads, as N. California’s startup community is much more than a city, more than a region even,

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Published in Brand Marketing, Economic Development, Industry, Insights / Research, PR, Startups

19 Comments

Are You an “Entrepreneur”? Are You Sure??

Thursday, 01 October 2015 by Paul O'Brien

Love this question as I think it’s far more important than people realize. People don’t like their time wasted. We have no problem wasting our own time but waiting in line, sitting at an unproductive dinner with coworkers, being unable to find a capable employee at Home Depot… people hate having their time wasted. What

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Published in Startups

13 Comments