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How Venture Capitalists Venture

Monday, 07 January 2019 by Paul O'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

Published in Startups

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Why Businesses Neglect Advertising (and why you shouldn’t)

Monday, 07 January 2019 by Paul O'Brien

Why do people think they don’t need to spend money on advertisements? It’s a great question and as one first posed to me in the new year; it felt like a calling to answer it. Why don’t businesses readily advertise?? Strap it, I’m going to criticize us all. Two reasons The internet has led a

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Published in Advertising

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How Silicon Valley Really Got Its Start: In Fashion Tech

Friday, 21 December 2018 by Paul O'Brien

It was in 1848, that a carpenter by the name of James Marshall spotted gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, Calif. Soon hopeful prospectors flooded the Golden State in search of their fortunes. Today’s gold rush is, of course, the venture capital discovered in them thar hills; with entrepreneurs flooding the Valley in search of their

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Published in Industry, Insights / Research

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How Some Startups are Able to Attract Venture Capital Though They’ve Just Begun

Tuesday, 11 December 2018 by Paul O'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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Published in Startups

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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 Paul O'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, Regional Development, Startups

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Let’s Get Something Straight, ALL Entrepreneurs are Bootstrapping

Wednesday, 14 November 2018 by Paul O'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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Published in Startups

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On the Challenges Facing an Angel Investor

Wednesday, 14 November 2018 by Paul O'Brien

Angel investment is a distinct *source* of capital that it’s important to distinguish from “seed money,” funding from angel groups, venture capital, money from an incubator, or even an early investment from someone with later stage expectations. In my time in Silicon Valley, with New York, and in Texas, what is glaringly obvious is that

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Published in Startups

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