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Startups: Avoid Competition (don’t neglect it)

Sunday, 03 May 2020 by Paul O'Brien

Years ago, Peter Thiel provocatively proclaimed in the Wall Street Journal that “Competition Is for Losers” and I recall loving the headline not for the negative connotation implied, but for the play on words that you’re going to lose if you set out to compete. “The airlines compete with each other, but Google stands alone.

Published in Startups

33 Comments

How VCs Make Money: the 2 and 20

Tuesday, 31 March 2020 by Paul O'Brien

In downturns in the economy, it’s then that Venture Capital Funds really come to the forefront of our startup communities because it’s then that entrepreneurship shifts from a buyers market to a sellers market. Buyers vs. Seller. Some time ago, I got a little bit of s*** for suggesting that founders think of Venture Capitalists

business models vc vcs venture capital venture capital firms venture capital investing venture capitalists

Published in Insights / Research, Startups

19 Comments

Explaining the Importance of Information to a Company

Thursday, 26 March 2020 by Paul O'Brien

A bit of what concerns me about society, our economy, is that this topic isn’t FAR more discussed. HOW you explain the importance of information to a company is actually really simple, in my experience. You SHOW how information will impact the business. I simply do this… And then I ask… What caused what happened

Analytics competitive advantage competitive analysis data information insight research

Published in Analytics, Insights / Research

5 Comments

Can the Languages of Love Help us Build Enduring Companies?

Thursday, 06 February 2020 by Paul O'Brien

In the mid and late ’90s, a book sparked a new way of thinking about love. Love has been distinguished in it’s various forms, likely since humans fell for it, and notable as far back as the Greek Philosophy that identified Agape (the unconditional love one experiences with family), Eros (you can probably guess), Philia

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Published in Insights / Research

25 Comments

The Best SEO Plugin for WordPress [really] [no, really this time]

Tuesday, 07 January 2020 by Paul O'Brien

What are the best SEO plugins for WordPress? I love these kind of questions where every plugin developer jumps in with a “hey check out mine which I build because the mist popular one didn’t do what I want… and here are some SEO services.” And it’s particularly amusing in this case because one could

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Published in Search

4 Comments

The Mental Health Burden of Entrepreneurship

Monday, 16 December 2019 by Paul O'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 Paul O'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