Our Mission
Practical mental models for founders, startups, and investors.
Practical mental models for founders, startups, and investors.
Cairns are landmarks that guide climbers on mountain paths. They mark the way, signal safe passage, and help travellers avoid getting lost. In the same way, Startup Cairns curates mental models and frameworks to guide founders, startups, and investors — so you can make better decisions, anticipate inflection points, and avoid common traps on the journey from base camp to summit.
Entrepreneurs begin an ascent when they launch a business. Advisors and investors offer perspective and pattern recognition to guide startups. Startup Cairns brings together insights relevant to entrepreneurs and investors as guides to position and expand businesses. May you achieve all your summits.
Startup Cairns is authored by Paul Asel, a global venture investor and long-time student of pattern recognition in innovation. Over decades of investing, Paul has partnered with founders from early concept through global scale, helping them navigate inflection points, market shifts, and the uncertainty that comes with building something new. Startup Cairns reflects his belief that insight compounds when shared — and that founders, startups, and investors all climb farther with a clearer map.
Like cairns marking a mountain path, these insights help startups achieve their summits.