Christen O'Brien

Christen O'Brien

Christen O'Brien is a Partner and Head of Market Development at Scribble Ventures, an early-stage venture firm started by operators and investors from Twitter, Instagram, Dropbox, and a16z.123

As a co-founder of 500 Startups and former CMO at NFX, Christen is an experienced company builder who has led brand, marketing, growth, and content teams to build mass audiences globally.12 She is also a writer and essayist whose work has been featured on CNN, CNBC, Medium, and kottke.org, and has been selected for collaborations by Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull and filmmaker Ken Burns.1

At Scribble, Christen works closely with portfolio companies on go-to-market strategy, brand positioning, content and channel strategy, audience development, and growth.13 She believes language shapes how we think, build products, recruit teams, and attract customers.1

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.12 She joined Scribble after becoming an LP, seeing it as a testament to her belief in the team, vision, and mission.1

In her free time, Christen is passionate about protecting wildlife and wild places, and is an active investor in The Orangutan Project and The Shannon Elizabeth Foundation.1 She has a BA in Communications from the University of Southern California and previously served as an ESL teacher in the Peace Corps in Eastern Europe.12