Tag: funding | SEO'Brien

Before You Start, Define the Outcome

Sunday, 10 March 2019 by SEO'Brien

How do you determine when your business is going to be successful? When it meets your definition of success. Many, I’ve found, start businesses thinking forward; the test and validate, customer feedback oriented development. I have a hypothesis or a business I want to start, what do I do first? That’s generally actually bad idea because every

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How Startups and Small Businesses Differ When it Comes to Funding

Monday, 04 March 2019 by SEO'Brien

Funding doesn’t determine a startup from a small business; the nature of the business determines the funding. Twist of logic perhaps, so let’s explore it. Very frequently, I find small businesses looking to raise venture capital; let me cut to the chase that such efforts are almost always wasting their time. The distinctions between small

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Funding a Venture Before Angel Investors

Monday, 04 March 2019 by SEO'Brien

This is a tough question to broach with entrepreneurs but it’s one that comes up almost daily. From where does the money come to start?? There is a reason most entrepreneurial success is found by people in their 40s… being able to leverage a network, drawing from experience, and having the money available to start

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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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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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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

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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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