Complaint Review: Andrew O'Brien -

If you are Veteran or currently serve in the Military, you are reading this and have been warned! Beware, there are people that prey on you because you served. They will scam you, they will abuse you, and they will take advantage and you will not even realize until it’s too late.

By most peoples standard you can call bogus and misleading claims a form of scam.

You need to be aware of a man named Andrew O’Brien who setup a group and website called Vetpreneur Tribe.  https://vetpreneurtribe.com

Vetpreneur Tribe

1033 La Posada Dr

300

Austin, TX 78752

Why you need to be warned: Andrew O’Brien makes false and misleading claims about his experience and track record. 

His goal is to get you into joining his coaching program. This coaching group is where you have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to join his Warriors Council, a so called mastermind for Veteran entreprenurs. He claims his expertise and training will help you start a business making hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars.

Andrew O'Brien also makes claims to have setup a University within Vetrepreneur Tribe. Andrew O'Brien a high school drop out. He vever obtained a degree. Has no professional certifications. But he did pop pills and abuse acohol. An article publish in LAWeekly states "On Nov. 22, 2010, he swallowed four bottles of pills. " 

-"He scrawls his name for them into copies of the 32-page book he has written, Welcoming Your Soldier Home. He wrote it in one day, the day he heard the statistics from the Department of Veterans Affairs: 22, laweekly.com/arts/army-veteran-andrew-obrien-saw-something-terrible-in-iraq-so-terrible-that-he-attempted-suicide-4183122

So a book written by a high school drop out, pill popping, sucidial veteran - 32 pages long and written in 1 day is what he has accomplished. I can only imagine how poorly written this shorty story is. 

In a news cast on KVUE on Nov 16, 2016 he is featured"

"O’Brien tried to get help for his PTSD, but says he faced ridicule from his First Sergeant. So one night, he swallowed four bottles worth of pills, drank alcohol, and prepared to die. But as he felt himself dying, O’Brien said he realized he had made a mistake. He called 911."Two days later I wake up in the ICU with machines connected to me…and the first thing I thought when I woke up is 'Thank God I'm alive,’” said O’Brien.", kvue.com/article/news/investigations/charlie-foxtrot/two-central-texas-soldiers-struggles-with-suicide/351260929

This statement connects his suidcide attempt with his First Sergeant, which probably means he was still in service. When you attempt suicide in the military, you typically receive an immediate discharge from service for medical seperation, or general discharge. I asked for Andrew OBrien to show me if he was honorably discharged - to which he got very angry and aggresive on why I was questioning his service in the Army. I wanted to know if he had a dishonarble discharge or not. To which he wouldn't reply. 

So the reason why I posted this to Rippoff Report is Andrew O'Brien is targeting Veteran entreprenuers with his scam. He wants you to pay hundred or thousands of dollars for his consulting services and fake university courses. He makes claims on how he can grow a business in 90 days and be profitable within 90 days. He continues to make false and misleading claims to trick Vets into joining his supposed University or Mastermind. Andrew O'Brien is not qualified to even attened a university and the only thing he mastered was popping pills and abusing acohol. 

According to his own written account, his videos, and interviews this guy has given, you can piece together the bullshit. I took the liberty to put together the time line with links for you to make up your own opinion.

First, according to Andrew he joined the Army when he was 19

(https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/302896 )What branch did you serve ? 

“I served in the Army from 2007-2011 and was deployed to Iraq from 2008-2009.”

So if joined in 2007 at 19, in 2018 that makes him 11 years older. About 29 or 30. Apparently some time between 2011 and 2015, according to online blogs and comments, O’Brien claims to have a PR company he claims he founded the , thepublicityguy.com or may somehow be related or to be connected.

So between 2012 in 2013 Andrew O’Brien is supposedly touring the country, promoting his “ 32-page book he has written, Welcoming Your Soldier Home” and the PR company didn’t exist. He doesnt make any claims of any business before or during his 4 year enlistment.

According to the statesmen “He tried a semester at DeVry Institute studying computer science, but decided school wasn’t for him. He tried his hand at a number of jobs and briefly started an errand-running business, but nothing seemed right. After about four months, he left his brother’s place and over the next few months moved eight times, living briefly with old Army buddies and on the couches of friends in Texas and Chicago.”

“He eventually landed in Austin, a place he had visited and loved, in the spring of 2012, renting a room in South Austin from a woman who had advertised on Craigslist.”

So up until 2012, he is not doing so well. Job hoping and bouncing from city to city trying to get his s**t together. Although he does seem to be doing some good in the world by speaking to Vet groups and parents about suicide prevention. And maybe his book is promoting something helpful to suicidal Vets and parents who are grieving. But for some reason, he seems to have stopped that book promtion and public speaking.

Now according to his website thepublicityguy.com, (if that is his, that he owns outright, without any partners) they were founded in 2015.  The next year, in a Huffintonpost interview it is published that “Andrew launched his company, The Publicity Guy, in the start of 2016 and today has seven employees and is on pace to do over $1M in revenue for the year.” That article was written in September of 2016 so it is possible that Andrew’s company made a million that year. However not likely as there are many red flags that show they are not actually  making one million in annual revenues.”

So which is it, did the company start in 2015 according to their website or did they start in 2016 according to O'Briens interview? 

So now somewhere between September 2016 and November 2017 is where the bullshit comes to light.  According to Andrew’s interview in , entrepreneur.com/article/302896, he makes this statement “My biggest problem in business was passion -- or lack thereof. I built a successful seven-figure publicity business. Money was flowing, revenue was increasing, credibility was growing and yet I was miserable. I hated waking up every morning and checking my email. I did not believe in what I was doing. I decided to fire myself as the CEO of my publicity business and hire someone else.”

At his own company “I did not believe in what I was doing”  Wow is all I have to say. Is that a scam or what? You don’t believe in what you are doing but you are selling that to your customers? Who does that? Who sells something they do not believe in? 

So Andrew O’Brien fired himself as the CEO from an almost making 7 figure company prior to November of 2017. Yet somehow Andrew O’Brien claims in Vetrepreneur Tribe that he has run many 7 figure companies and can help if you pay him thousands of dollars to join his coaching program.

So his PR company store goes on:

The new CEO of The Publicity Guy claims to start working their as of March 2017. So that means that Andrew setup a company in 2016 and had to have made at least 1 million in revenue in his startup year to be truthful to his online claims and interviews.

I expected that to be easy to prove since he makes so many claims that he is a 7 figure CEO. So I called him out and requested proof.

Where, When I said about his many 7 figure companies. I was interested in joining the Warrior Council but I needed this guy to back up his claims both on the battlefield and in the board room. Some of the people on his website in video seem credible but Andrew didn’t actually work with them. They are just guest speakers on his video blog and podcast. 

According to , thepublicityguy.com, they currently have 4 employees as of March 2018. The CEO started in March of 17. Apparently in 2016 they claimed to have 7 employees for a growing PR agency but less than a year later they lose the founder/CEO and have 4 few employees. Does that sound like a well running company? 

Andrew O'Brien sent out an email stating " This course is all about how to build a business from non-existent to profitable within 90 days."  This is another false and misleading statement. 

He uses stories from other entrepreneurs who were successful but didn’t go through his company or training. They were already successful on their own without Andrew O’Brien, but he tries to take credit or piggyback of their success and use them in his marketing, videos and blogs on the ,vetpreneurtribe.com website and Facebook group page. Including using Marc Cuban's image and quote to make someone believe he is part of the mastermind. 

If you ask for proof, or any type of documentation to substantiate his claims, he gets real angry and aggressive. He makes claims like he has owns and runs 7 figure companies. He claims he has the expertise and turned this into training methods to grow your business to make millions of dollars a year.

Andrew O’Brien could be named many things. A few names that come to mind might include: fraudster, scammer, snake oil salesmen, swindler, hustler, charlatan, crook, imposter, trickster, deceiver, fake, masquerader. I’m certain more names could come to mind if you thought longer, and harder about it.

Bottle line, this guy Andrew O'Brien is full of s**t, making completely false and bogus marketing claims and he has being doing so for years.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he is making Stolen Valor claims given his laundry list of bullshit from civilian life. He has probably never ran a 7 figure company but has definitely not run multiple million dollar companies as he proclaims, there is zero documentation to show otherwise. If he fired himself from his own company in the beginning of 2017, that means that the new startup business Vetreprenuer Tribe turned a million dollars in less than 9 months, which is also bogus and can not be substantiated.

These types of individuals are easy to spot and easy to callout. When someone makes claims and promises that are too good to be true, they probably are. When people make claims, just ask them for the proof. Either put up or shut up.

Now God created a special place in hell for people that screw others over. Especially when Veterans screw over Veterans. This guy is preying on young, unknowing Veterans because they are probably easy targets. Check your facts and do your due diligence. Don’t trust people that make claims they can not substantiate or that have holes in the story and time line.

Watch out Vets, this guy is at your 6 and you are his target. Be Aware. Be Vigilant. Be Prepared.