Tag: founders | SEO'Brien

Startups: What Exactly is Execution?

Sunday, 03 December 2023 by SEO'Brien

I want to put your head on a specific focus as we explore this question. In the last few weeks, I’ve tackled the question of an ideal team for a startup, sharing new research about personalities, been critical of expectations, and proposed that understanding and avoiding how startups fail is more important than attention directed

Published in Insights / Research, Startups

7 Comments

Success as a Startup Founder? Need for variety and novelty, reduced modesty, an openness to adventure, and heightened energy levels

Thursday, 19 October 2023 by SEO'Brien

A recent study conducted by researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the University of Melbourne examined data from over 21,000 startup founders, formally identifying six key startup founder personality types associated with success. Notably, the research indicates that the collective personalities of a startup’s entire founding team significantly influence the venture’s

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Published in Insights / Research, Startups

16 Comments

Startup Founders, Focus! (Yeah, but on what?)

Thursday, 25 May 2023 by SEO'Brien

Focus. We hear that word and advice bantered about A LOT in the startup community but rarely is that mentorship capably followed up with WHAT to focus on and why. This is what contributes to founders to wasting time and failing. You think the advice is helpful; it’s not, it’s distracting. Focus? Yes. But on what?? Most

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Published in Startups

16 Comments

Entrepreneurs Struggle Beyond Startup

Tuesday, 08 June 2021 by SEO'Brien

Highly risk tolerant and constantly fixated on doing things better, entrepreneurs tend not to be found running companies. That’s not remotely a knock against entrepreneurs. Operating a company is a management skillset, it’s operational, it’s project based, it’s plan and execute…. and these are skillsets that, while valuable to a founder, are not typically consistent

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Published in Startups

38 Comments

The Stress of Running a Venture Backed Startup

Friday, 17 July 2020 by SEO'Brien

The expectations of investors, the demands of a company now more prominent in the market, but the ease of pressure in having resources available… Being venture backed doesn’t make it more stressful, nor less, it’s a matter of the stage, the expectations, and what that all means to you personally. Startup teams usually change from

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Published in Insights / Research, Startups

11 Comments

The Mental Health Burden of Entrepreneurship

Monday, 16 December 2019 by SEO'Brien

In 1985, management scholar Manfred Kets de Vries wrote in Harvard Business Review, “Entrepreneurs seem to be achievement oriented, like to take responsibility for decisions, and dislike repetitive, routine work. Creative entrepreneurs possess high levels of energy and great degrees of perseverance and imagination, which, combined with willingness to take moderate, calculated risks enable them

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Published in Insights / Research, Startups

34 Comments

I’m Thankful for Cofounders

Monday, 25 November 2019 by SEO'Brien

It’s a marriage. I’m a bit surprised by how many entrepreneurs start something merely hoping to have a business, solve a problem, or accomplish something. I can’t recall when I’ve ever seen that work, substantially. Launching a startup is like having a child, and finding committed cofounders is a marriage. The difference is that you

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Published in Startups

20 Comments

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