startups Archives - SEO'Brien

Might it be Said that the Purpose of an Entrepreneur is to Create Problems?

Tuesday, 18 September 2018 by SEO'Brien

The Problem Solution Statement; a core tenet of Lean Startup and Customer Development. A phrase that conveys to founders and investors alike that the purpose of a startup is to solve a problem; an idea that leads many to believe that a pitch should lay out how the problem is being solved. With most new

Published in Startups

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How a Struggling Startup turns into a Successful Business

Tuesday, 04 September 2018 by SEO'Brien

You’re here meaning you’re in the great majority of founders who struggle. According to my last “study” *ahem* of the startup economy, that’s roughly 100% of us. Imagine that. Yep, we all struggle. It might be said that the very definition of being an entrepreneur is epitomized in the one who struggles. It’s our job

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Published in Insights / Research, Startups

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Your Startup, a CMO, and that Elusive Question of Equity

Tuesday, 28 August 2018 by SEO'Brien

First let’s establish as fact, a couple of assumptions. This is a key role in your organization, at a distinct stage in a specific type of new company; and as a team member so critical, we need to be on the same page as to our context in working through this question. Early stage =

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Published in Insights / Research, Startups

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Venture Capital in Texas

Thursday, 26 July 2018 by SEO'Brien

The last time I had an opportunity to do this at such a scale was during Amazon’s Startup Day. What is the state of the Texas venture capital ecosystem? Interestingly, personally, since speaking for Amazon, Austin has been hemming and hawing about HQ2 and while the merit of that happening or not, is fodder for

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Published in Conferences, Insights / Research, Startups

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The VCs I Read

Wednesday, 04 July 2018 by SEO'Brien

Last thought first: How do we follow all of these great mentors and writers? Here’s a Twitter List to Follow <- Subscribe there and you’ll get all of their posts I’ve spent years, week after week, dropping to entrepreneurs some of the names of VC blogs and bloggers I love. In every Incubator and session I

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Published in Insights / Research, Startups

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Accessibility > Inclusion > Diversity > Change > Innovation > Wealth Creation

Monday, 30 April 2018 by SEO'Brien

Many who follow me here or on Quora know that I’m a student of economist Peter Drucker. It’s Drucker who noted of the economy and business, that only two things create value: marketing and innovation – that everything else done is a cost of existing; that marketing and innovation create wealth, they create value while

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Published in Insights / Research

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How, not just Why, Startups Fail

Friday, 06 April 2018 by SEO'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

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