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Now In Print: Startup Ecosystems

The UK has the Most Startup Accelerators Per Capita; And…?

Friday, 24 April 2026 by
This is one of those articles that you don’t really want to write but you know needs to be written.  An observation that will frustrate some, anger others, and more likely than not, draw ire toward me because there is no way to point this out without criticism, here we go.  Grab yourself a cup
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35 Comments

I Wrote the Book I Needed to Read Twenty Years Ago

Tuesday, 17 March 2026 by
There is a moment, somewhere between finishing a manuscript and holding the printed thing in your hands, when you realize the book was never really about the subject. It was about you. Not in the self-indulgent sense, not a memoir dressed up in economics. But in the sense that everything I have spent the last
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26 Comments

Only 10% of State and National Governments Distinguish Startups from New Businesses

Tuesday, 20 January 2026 by
A practical startup economic policy framework for governments that want venture-scale companies Governments around the world love the word entrepreneurship. They put it in press releases, name departments after it, fund “innovation hubs,” and cut ribbons in front of coworking spaces that end up being networking clubs for service providers seeking customers. What almost none
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15 Comments

Universities Aren’t Commercializing Innovation, They’re Taxing It

Friday, 19 December 2025 by
Everywhere I go lately experiences at some point, the same conversation. Different city, different state, different accents and startup hype, but the same whisper once the doors close and University administration is out of the room.  I was just in Phoenix, sitting with startup operators and ecosystem builders, and within minutes we were right back
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There Is No “Era of the Bootstrapped Startup,” There’s Math, Memory Loss, and Better Advice

Tuesday, 02 December 2025 by
Every few years, someone declares a new epoch in entrepreneurship. We’ve had the “Era of Lean,” the “Rise of the Micro-VC,” the “Democratization of Innovation,” and (God help us) the phase where every city believed a coworking space with a yellow logo and a couple late career bankers counted as a “startup ecosystem.” With AI
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35 Comments

Put a Bow on your Startup Ecosystem

Friday, 31 October 2025 by
If startup ecosystems were a fashion statement, most cities would look like clip on necktie that everyone admires for the good intention of dressing it up. In reality, we’ve overserved accelerators that don’t accelerate, misunderstood venture studios as glorified R&D departments, push university IP commercialization on a market that doesn’t want to license, and host
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42 Comments

How To vs. Experienced With: The Distinction of Startup or New Business

Monday, 06 October 2025 by
The opportunity isn’t that cities, chambers, and investors don’t support entrepreneurship, it’s that they have the chance to support the right kind in the right way. For decades, we’ve been celebrating every new idea in the same sandbox, mixing storefronts with startups, consultants with creators, and then wondering why only a few hold up when
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