When Entrepreneurship is Bad for the Economy
Tuesday, 05 November 2024
Entrepreneurship has long been celebrated as the ultimate engine of economic growth, innovation, and job creation. But what if the fervor surrounding “being an entrepreneur” has gone too far? The glorification of entrepreneurship as an end in itself may actually be hurting our economy. As with most cultural phenomena, the truth is more nuanced than
- Published in Economic Development, Startups
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Rethinking Startup Ecosystems to Build What Investors Really Want
Monday, 28 October 2024
In most of the world, startups are in disrepair. No more effectively can we just reboot or defrag a computer to actually fix it, than we can try again and again to host demo days, networking events, and run incubators, expecting different results, when there is a virus in the system. Begging the question, that,
- Published in Economic Development, Industry, Insights / Research, Local, Startup Ecosystems, Startups
Seek the Contrarian: What to Expect of a Good Entrepreneurship Program
Tuesday, 15 October 2024
In a speech in Paris, in 1910, Theodore Roosevelt remarked the often encouraged, “Comparison Is the Thief of Joy.” That, when we compare ourselves to others, we rob ourselves of our own happiness as, through comparison, we either feel a sense of inferiority or superiority. What we see in entrepreneurship and among founders is this
- Published in Insights / Research, Local, Startup Ecosystems, Startups
The Quantum Corridor
Thursday, 03 October 2024
For too long, cities across the U.S. have attempted to define their startup communities by adopting monikers like “Silicon Prairie,” “Silicon Hills,” or “Silicon Beach,” an approach that inadvertently undermines their efforts to establish distinct, innovative identities. By labeling themselves after Silicon Valley, cities unintentionally (and likely unwittingly) put themselves second to an established technology
- Published in Industry, Insights / Research, Regional Development
Founders, North Texas is the World’s FinTech Hub
Friday, 20 September 2024
“You’re really seeing a whole new North Texas ecosystem,” noted H. Ross Perot, Jr., son of the former presidential candidate, about the phenomenon other investors have termed a finance invasion making me cringe a bit (if I’m being honest) at being termed Y’all Street. Perot Jr. sold the Dallas Mavericks basketball team to Mark Cuban
- Published in FinTech, Industry, Insights / Research, Regional Development, Startups
How Startup Ecosystem Builders Start Ecosystems
Tuesday, 10 September 2024
I’d bet, if you were to look to the ecosystem surrounding your work, you’d see some meetups, a local startup group on Facebook, a business or technology journalist at the newspaper as the person known for covering startups, some coworking spaces, and perhaps a distinct innovation hub supported by the City or Chamber, right in
- Published in Featured, Industry, Insights / Research, Startup Ecosystems, Startups
The 6 Considerations of the Economic Development of Startups
Thursday, 29 August 2024
In my work with cities throughout the world, guiding how to foster entrepreneurship, few realize or fully appreciate that the experiences of my life inform what works and what doesn’t, in a region of the world trying to help startups. Raised in Michigan, I spent years exposed to what it means to have a city
- Published in Economic Development, Featured, Insights / Research, Startup Ecosystems, Startups