Christen O'Brien
Christen O'Brien is Partner & GM of Business Development at 500 Startups, a global seed fund and startup incubator based in Silicon Valley. Christen leads events & corporate partnerships, and works strategically with companies such as GE, PayPal, Microsoft, Amazon, Rackspace, .CO, MailChimp, and many others in building a bridge with 500's portfolio of early-stage startups.
She also oversees the content and production of the firm's events, bridging the divide between the learnings at the 500 Startups incubator and the global entrepreneurial community. This includes worldwide events such as Geeks on a Plane' world tech tours (to Latin America, Asia, India, Eastern Europe, and Middle East), Demo Days (showcase of 500's incubator companies), Warm Gun (design/usability), LeanStartup SXSW with Eric Ries (data/metrics), SMASH summit (distribution/customer acquisition), unSEXY (SMB tech solutions), Inbox Love (email as a platform), & MamaBear (new tech for moms, kids, & families).
Christen graduated from the University of Southern California, and also served in the United States Peace Corps in Bulgaria. She has over 10 years of business development, conference production, and editorial experience across multiple verticals such as investment banking, legal, non-profit, and technology.
In her spare time, she loves cooking, wine tasting, and (most of all) spending time with her husband and their blue Great Dane, Virginia Woof.