No starter kombucha/innoculant.

Hey, I'm getting ready to brew my first batch of kombucha and I don't have any "starter" kombucha to inoculate my brew. I was wondering several things; what is the purpose of the starter kombucha and can I brew without it or use a substitute?

The purpose of the starter is so that you have fermentation with the desired culture vs. letting it go "wild" where you could end up with vinegar, or some other toxic soup that could be unpleasant to poisonous. If you can't get your hands on a bottle of the GT Dave's stuff, there are places online where you can order starter culture that is probably not unlike dried brewing yeast.
Kombucha is not unlike making your own yogurt or cheese - you want to know what's growing in the jar/bottle.

If you can't get your hands on a bottle of the GT Dave's stuff

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There are several local kombucha brewers in my area, but they all produce carbonated kombucha, would that still work? Should I just let it go flat/is carbonation harmful to the SCOBY? I know in brewing beer, yeast can survive carbonation, hence bottle conditioning, but I'm not familiar with the bacteria involved in brewing kombucha.

As long as the kombucha is raw vs. pasteurized, you would be okay to use a bottle of the carbonated stuff (that's what the GT Dave's stuff is btw).

It's a bacteria culture, a healthy one (like what one finds in yogurt). Again, as long as the kombucha you start with is raw, you can grow a SCOBY from that.

as long as the kombucha you start with is raw, you can grow a SCOBY from that.

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Well I can GET a SCOBY, I don't need to grow one. And yeah, pasteurized kombucha seems like it defeats its purpose (other than tasting delicious). I've had GT's Kombucha many times, the particulate in it seems a lot different, texture wise, than others I have had, it seems more grainy and less SCOBY like. Why is that? (I know, tangent). But okay, local carbonated kombucha it is, thanks for the help, the Kombucha thread is a lot smaller than the beer thread.