Economic Development Archives - Page 2 of 19

Why Startups and Cities Fail Without a Clear Narrative: ACES for Ventures and Ecosystems

Wednesday, 06 August 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Most of you don’t fail because they lack a great product, brilliant founders, or access to capital. You fail because you haven’t worked out how to tell your story. You fail because your narrative doesn’t build trust, urgency, or credibility; three things that must happen before you ever get to the sale. This isn’t just

Published in Startup Ecosystems, Startups

13 Comments

Stop Funding Accelerators. Invest in Venture Studios Instead.

Monday, 04 August 2025 by Paul O'Brien

The most underwhelming moment for an entrepreneur in a startup ecosystem is the ribbon-cutting on yet another accelerator. Confetti flies, politicians pose, local media snaps a shot of the logo on the wall, and everyone goes home to wonder why venture capital still doesn’t show up. If you’re not familiar with why your region isn’t

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Published in Economic Development

75 Comments

Why Nobody Understands Startup Growth

Wednesday, 30 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Startups don’t grow like businesses. Not in the traditional sense. They don’t scale by adding headcount, expanding inventory, or renting more retail space. They grow by discovering, and then systematically proving, a revenue-generating system that works before it collapses. And yet, here we are, in 2025, with startup advisors, development organizations, investors, and even policymakers

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Published in Insights / Research, Startup Ecosystems, Startups

34 Comments

Startup Detroit: From Cranks to Code; How the Motor City Is Revving a New Engine

Tuesday, 29 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Steel-Belt Beginnings & Motown Beats: Why Detroit Built Everything from Ford to Funk Long before it became a symbol of rust a city off track, Detroit was a strategic settlement founded in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac at Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, a riverfront trade nexus between French Canada and the Great Lakes.

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Published in Regional Development

5 Comments

Entrepreneurship: The Illegal Move Economics Can’t Explain

Thursday, 17 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

"Galileo Facing the Roman Inquisition" by Cristiano Banti

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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

41 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

120 Comments