Aaron Szekel

Aaron currently invests, advises, and consults for many start-ups that focus on Future of Work, Healthcare, and Media. Aaron was the first business operations hire at Flatiron Health, a cancer technology company that sold to Roche for $2B in 2018, where he was the Director of Special Projects, Operations, and Finance. During his time at Flatiron, and through its acquisition, Aaron built the Finance, HR, Legal, Sales Ops, Operations, and Corporate Development teams. He was instrumental in buying and integrating Altos Solutions (oncology EMR), fundraising for Series A and B, and running cross-functional special projects with the product, engineering, sales, and operations teams. Prior to Flatiron, Aaron was at First Round Capital where he managed a team that consulted for and incubated over 75 First Round community companies. The team focused on assisting Founders with go-to-market strategy, building unit-economic financial models, introducing early employees, and accelerating customer development. Aaron also supported investment decisions through diligence, launched Dorm Room Fund, and assisted with venture operations. Prior to First Round, Aaron spent time in media, including working as an Associate on the CBS Corporate Development team, a Product Marketer at Simulmedia, and an Analyst at the Salter Group. In these roles, he was heavily involved with strategic planning, the $1.8B acquisition of CNET, the sale of Elvis Presley’s music library, and the valuation of film and television content. Aaron earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an undergraduate degree with High Honors from Brandeis University, and a certificate from the London School of Economics.

Articles by Aaron Szekel

How Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai As A Solo Builder

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Shaun Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Karrot.ai, a LinkedIn ABM tool. Shaun was kind enough to share a comprehensive breakdown of how...

7 Steps to Build a Product That Sells Itself

Learn the 7 steps to product-led growth (PLG) to build a product that sells itself. Drive activation, boost conversions, and scale efficiently with Wes Bush from ProductLed....
Balancing self-care and startup pressure as a founder

The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out

A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...

Startup Guide to AI Visibility Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....

Practical Uses of AI Automation for Startup Operations

Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations

In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...

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