Sean OMalley
Sean O’Malley has worked with dozens of entrepreneurs and participated in the inception of six startups from initial concept to funding. Since 2007, he has managed Venrock’s entrepreneur in residence accelerator where he has worked side-by-side with entrepreneurs in the consumer internet space to germinate new businesses. Before Venrock, Sean was a product leader at Yahoo! where he managed products like Messenger — growing its user base to over 100+ mil users across the globe. He has also worked on global products like Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo! Front-page, Yahoo! Video and Yahoo! News. You can find Sean O’Malley’s blog at http://seancomalley.com
Recent Posts
Three keys to a remarkable product
(Editor’s note: Sean O’Malley manages Venrock’s entrepreneur in residence accelerator. He submitted this column to VentureBeat.)
I was sitting down with a seasoned angel investor last week discussing what really matters for startups when he summed up his thoughts by saying “I’ve come to the conclusion that having a remarkable product is what really matters most. It’s what I look for before investing.”
This got me thinking about my own experiences and asking, “What makes a… Continue Reading
Future-proofing your company’s vision
You’ve heard time and time again that vision matters. But ‘vision’ is a loaded word. Everyone thinks they know what it means, but everyone’s definition varies slightly.
In fact, I rarely use the word but instead ask the question: ‘What do you hope the future will hold for your company and customers?’ What’s so remarkable about this question is that it asks an entrepreneur to take a perspective on what the world will look like several… Continue Reading
The delusion of the perfect product
I’m going to tell you something you may already know: There is no such thing as a perfect product.
While it’s a pretty obvious fact, it’s still something that any manager can (and often does) forget – and the results can be like quicksand for the company, turning your lean start-up into a lumbering beast.
I’m as guilty as anyone of not noticing this. Back in late 2003 I managed Yahoo!’s messenger client. When we conceptualized version… Continue Reading