⏳ About the past few months...

A comprehensive update for my loyal readers

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Hey everyone! I figured it made sense to send out a quick email to update you on what's been going on in the past few months. Needless to say, it's been quite a rollercoaster personally and professionally. You may have noticed that my posts have been somewhat less consistent and that I've introduced a new format (ahem, video) with a completely different brand. There are many good things to come, but a challenging start to the year combined with new content experiments has led to some inconsistency that I wanted to address.

There are three main changes that have had a significant impact on my life:

1. a family crisis

2. a new job

3. a burgeoning partnership

Let's walk through all three. Hopefully, I can give you a sense of the direction I'm taking my media projects and provide some clarity on what (and where) to expect my output moving forward 👍🏼

Family Crisis

Admittedly, this is a tough one to talk about. It's still fresh and inexplicably painful. I was planning to share something earlier, but I quite simply couldn't come around to putting pen to paper. So here we go.

My Mom passed away on March 4th after a year and a half battle with cancer. Despite knowledge that this was a likely outcome based on her diagnosis, there's nothing that can really prepare you for such an event. Clichés aside, my Mom was my number one supporter on this project from day one. For those who’ve followed along from the beginning, my very first post had a dedication to her and her work as a journalist in France in the 1980s. She was an inspiration for me as I pivoted into the media space with virtually zero experience (aside from genetics, perhaps?). During her early stages of chemotherapy, she became my editor-in-chief, marking up my drafts from the oncology ward and sharing feedback over Facetime. I was fortunate to spend the final few months at her side, back home in St. Louis. There wasn't a day that passed where she didn't remind me how proud she was of me and my budding (quasi)-journalism career. In Paris, of all places. Her favorite city in the world. I'm choking up just writing this.

When I lost my Mom I lost many things, among them was the creative energy to keep writing this newsletter on a weekly basis. Nevertheless, it's a project that will continue to flourish, just on a different cadence. My objective moving forward is to publish a monthly article on French Tech, peppered in with content I'm producing elsewhere (see part 3). It's such a privilege to have a wonderful audience — your feedback, words of encouragement and general enthusiasm make it all worthwhile.

My Mom questioning the gendarmes following a terrorist attack on March 20, 1986 in Paris (normally, the interrogation is the other way around)

For anyone who is curious, here's her obituary from St. Louis Public Radio. She was a fearless, intelligent, curious and deeply caring woman. I hope to embody a fraction of that in my work and life moving forward.

New Job

Like any modern VC worth his salt, I announced my job update via Twitter:

Kyle O'Brien @RoiStartup

📣 Quick announcement: I'm joining @Revaia_Cap as an Operating Partner leading Content & Community strategy. Excited to be part of a dynamic & innovative team led by @AlbizzatiAlice & @ElinaBerrebi ! Full Post on LinkedIn: bit.ly/3odTqrv

Through the startup community in France — and in large part due to my writing — I was introduced to a number of VCs in Paris interested in content partnerships. I found the Revaia team to be genuine, sharp and ambitious which made the decision fairly straight-forward. As an operating partner (behind closed doors, I'm referred to as the Head of Content & Community), I'm responsible for developing and implementing a media strategy. To date, that means re-vamping their newsletter, creating original editorial pieces, managing their social media presence, collaborating on research projects, getting involved in localized events across European tech hubs and potentially developing multi-media projects (podcast/video series). At the moment, it's a part-time gig (so I can keep working on my existing projects) but as you can probably tell from the scope, it has the potential to be a full-time position, and then some…

A quick insight into Revaia:

• Formerly known as Gaia Capital Partners (imho the rebrand is 👌🏼)

• They are a growth equity fund with an ESG focus (read: Series B and beyond, predominantly software startups with product-market fit that have a mission & core values that align with ours)

• Crossover investing is their specialty, meaning they play in the private and public markets and continue to double down on investments through IPO

They've got a great set of existing portfolio companies (Aircall, Welcome to the Jungle, Yubo to name a few) and hope to expand with Fund II (which is in the works!). You can find my contribution to their blog on Medium — follow me there for alternative, VC-oriented content!

A sampling of my work for Revaia Voice

Burgeoning Partnership

If you're still paying attention to this niche corner of the internet, you probably saw a few recent emails come through titled: 🧠 Finding Genius. This is not a mistake! Not too long ago, I was introduced by a mutual friend (s/o Hassan 👋🏼 ) to Kunal Mehta, a venture capitalist & content creator based in NYC. He wrote a book (by the same title) and extended the brand through a YouTube series where he has candid conversations with founders and investors.

(Left) The suave, Kunal Mehta; (Right) his book

We hit it off during a coffee meetup in Midtown and left with a partnership. I'm now responsible for developing the brand in Europe and so far it's been a blast. I've recorded conversations with three fantastic individuals in the scene here and already have a backlog of upcoming interviews. Check out the first few below:

• Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, Founder & CEO of Alan (full-circle moment, Alan was the subject of my very first Startup ROI article)

• Sam Levy, Founding Partner of Lauxera Capital

• Hugo Amsellem, VP of Community at Jellysmack

I'm really excited about this opportunity and would love your feedback. If you or someone you know should be interviewed for the series, hit me up!

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✅ Update complete

Stay tuned for upcoming articles, video, audio, VC commentary & more!