Christen O'Brien
Partner, Market Development
My greatest personal growth arose from times I was most uncomfortable. From trekking the remote jungles of Indonesia to appearing live on national television, I do things that scare me because it's a 10x learning experience.
Christen O'Brien
A co-founder of 500 Startups and former CMO at NFX, Christen is a company builder who has led brand, marketing, growth, and content teams and built mass audiences globally. She is also a writer and essayist who has been interviewed live on The Today Show. Her essays have been selected for collaborations by Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull / BLKSHP, Ken Burns / Redglass Pictures, and have been featured on CNN, CNBC, Medium, and kottke.org.
Christen believes language shapes not only how we think, but also how we build products, recruit teams, and attract customers. At Scribble, Christen works closely with the Scribble portfolio on all things Market Development - GTM, brand positioning, content and channel strategy, audience development, and growth.
Since 2010, Christen has helped build venture funds that have backed companies such as Canva, Twilio, Grab, Credit Karma, Talkdesk, Intercom, Udemy, GitLab, The Real Real, and Mammoth Biosciences. She joined Scribble after becoming an LP, and can think of no better testament to how much she believes in the team, vision, and mission than investing some elbow grease too!
In her free time, she is passionate about protecting wildlife and wild places, and is an active investor in The Orangutan Project and The Shannon Elizabeth Foundation.
Christen has a BA in Communications from the University of Southern California. She served as an ESL elementary school teacher in the Peace Corps in Eastern Europe, where she learned to speak Bulgarian and brave long, cold winters…without heat!
A co-founder of 500 Startups and former CMO at NFX, Christen is a company builder who has led brand, marketing, growth, and content teams and built mass audiences globally. She is also a writer and essayist who has been interviewed live on The Today Show. Her essays have been selected for collaborations by Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull / BLKSHP, Ken Burns / Redglass Pictures, and have been featured on CNN, CNBC, Medium, and kottke.org.
Christen believes language shapes not only how we think, but also how we build products, recruit teams, and attract customers. At Scribble, Christen works closely with the Scribble portfolio on all things Market Development - GTM, brand positioning, content and channel strategy, audience development, and growth.
Since 2010, Christen has helped build venture funds that have backed companies such as Canva, Twilio, Grab, Credit Karma, Talkdesk, Intercom, Udemy, GitLab, The Real Real, and Mammoth Biosciences. She joined Scribble after becoming an LP, and can think of no better testament to how much she believes in the team, vision, and mission than investing some elbow grease too!
In her free time, she is passionate about protecting wildlife and wild places, and is an active investor in The Orangutan Project and The Shannon Elizabeth Foundation.
Christen has a BA in Communications from the University of Southern California. She served as an ESL elementary school teacher in the Peace Corps in Eastern Europe, where she learned to speak Bulgarian and brave long, cold winters…without heat!
Kevin is our operator in residence—an apt title because as Elizabeth’s husband, he’s truly “in residence.” Like our founders, Kevin is focused day-to-day on building a company and product (Novi, the digital currency effort within Facebook). He is an active contributor to Scribble Ventures, especially where his operational, strategic, and product/design/data background can help our portfolio companies.
My greatest personal growth arose from times I was most uncomfortable. From trekking the remote jungles of Indonesia to appearing live on national television, I do things that scare me because it's a 10x learning experience.
Christen O'Brien