founders Archives - Page 4 of 5

When an Economy needs Co-Founders – And Seems to have a Tech Talent Gap

Tuesday, 11 September 2018 by Paul O'Brien

A characteristic of local economies that I never experienced much before leaving Palo Alto, California: “we can’t find co-founders!” Many know that I’ve spent half of my professional life in Silicon Valley and the other half in the new economy’s most appealing innovation region: Central Texas. I’ve touched a few times on the stark differences

Published in Startup Ecosystems, Startups

19 Comments

How, not just Why, Startups Fail

Friday, 06 April 2018 by Paul O'Brien

Article after article, study after study, offers Buzzfeed style insight to why startups fail. It’s such a popular and frequently recurring tweet that I’ve started chewing on WHY the question of why keeps coming up. As founders, perhaps we’re asking the wrong question and shouldn’t be seeking to know why but rather how (or, how

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Published in Featured, Insights / Research, Startups

93 Comments

What to Expect: The Week by Week Activities of a Top Tier Startup Incubator

Tuesday, 20 March 2018 by Paul O'Brien

This question stumbled across my Quora and I was struck by the notion that too many incubators fail to incubate viable companies. I found myself wondering, what does it really mean to be a startup incubator? Are such programs actually doing something, week after week, so that the founders therein develop something? Why was the

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Published in Startups

17 Comments

So How do I Decide if I Should Join an Accelerator?

Friday, 19 January 2018 by Paul O'Brien

Let me cut to the chase: MOST are businesses selling you services, using you as their product, to promote their brand while leveraging the word “accelerator.” As you consider such programs, head into them first being clear about what Accelerator means and validate that they actually do that. Then look to what the founders and

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Published in Startups

33 Comments

The Three Things a CEO of a Startup Should Do

Monday, 20 February 2017 by Paul O'Brien

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Published in Startups

10 Comments

Perfect Startup Founding Team: The Butcher, The Baker, and The Candlestick Maker

Friday, 10 April 2015 by Paul O'Brien

The question of the perfect team is timeless and yet the answer seems obvious as most successful startups are renown with their famous duo, or sole founder. Larry Page and Sergey Brin come to mind. Mark Zuckerberg seems to have done it alone, no? That media fervor for the unicorn startups and their celebrity founders lead

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Published in Startups

2 Comments

The Tale of Two Founders

Tuesday, 24 March 2015 by Paul O'Brien

Yesterday, famed New York Times cartoonist Kaamran Hafeez featured a sketch that has garnered quite a bit of attention in the startup community. Implied by one “faction” (a term I’m using not to be critical but to distinguish) to offer a tongue-in-cheek jab at founders and investors who arguably embrace market share and scalability over

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Published in Startups

2 Comments