Economic Development Archives - Startup Economist

Entrepreneurship: The Illegal Move Economics Can’t Explain

Thursday, 17 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

"Galileo Facing the Roman Inquisition" by Cristiano Banti

Published in Economic Development, Startups

24 Comments

Botswana’s Startup Paradox: Why Africa Searches for Venture Capital

Wednesday, 16 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

This is a country with the continent’s most stable democracy, solid credit ratings, one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa over the past fifty years, and the world’s largest diamond producer. Having just released our research into why venture capital avoids regions of the world, my attention turned to Africa because the continent is arguably

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Published in Regional Development

39 Comments

Why Venture Capital Avoids your Startup Ecosystem

Monday, 14 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Working with cities throughout the world, developing startup ecosystems, every one of them echos the same in their effort to encourage entrepreneurship, “we’re focused on bringing investors to the table.” What they’re doing is typical, ironically, of founders, who hear a problem and the focus on the solution (which by the way founders, is wrong).

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Published in Featured, Startup Ecosystems

114 Comments

We Already Know How to Do This: Stop Reinventing Startup Development Organizations

Friday, 11 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Recently, someone asked me, “How do you make a training center for entrepreneurs to be self-sustaining and not just dependent on investors?” And I nearly threw a stapler. Not because the question isn’t valid, because it is, but because we’ve been answering it for decades. The model exists. It’s tested. It’s been done over and

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Published in Economic Development, Startups

27 Comments

Startups Are Not Small Businesses: A Texas Startup Policy Blueprint for Unlocking Capital

Tuesday, 08 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Published in collaboration with the TexCap Policy Institute, this new white paper is more than another call for “more startup support.” It’s a public policy intervention – one Texas desperately needs if we want to lead the nation in innovation, venture capital, and the next generation of job creation. We titled it plainly:Startups != Small

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Published in Economic Development

18 Comments

Aerospace Adelaide

Monday, 30 June 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Adelaide’s not merely dipping a toe into space, it’s building its own launchpad, and during a recent whirlwind tour of the United States, I had a chance to share some thoughts with a few of the startups making the rounds and decided to dig in deeper to some possibilities. Under the radar, this ecosystem has

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Published in Aerospace, Regional Development, Startup Ecosystems, Uncategorized

24 Comments

Why Cities Should Invest in Startups: The Key to Economic Growth

Wednesday, 25 June 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Why Startups? Let’s Distinguish Why City Officials Should be Focused on Strategic Investment in Innovation-Driven Ventures (and why most are failing despite trying) It’s one of the most misunderstood yet consequential distinctions in economic development today: the difference between startups and small businesses. Cities talk about “entrepreneurship” like it’s a monolithic idea, but if we’re

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Published in Economic Development, Startup Ecosystems

60 Comments