I Wrote the Book I Needed to Read Twenty Years Ago
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
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
- Published in Economic Development, Featured, Startup Ecosystems
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Why Venture Capital Avoids your Startup Ecosystem
Monday, 14 July 2025
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).
- Published in Featured, Startup Ecosystems
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
Why Accelerators Fail Startup Founders
Thursday, 11 April 2024
Let’s take the two most distributed Startup Development Organizations in the world, and tease out what’s happening In a point of fact: overwhelming most Accelerators *fail* founders; but why? With such a bold assertion, let me properly set the stage by pointing out that when 90% or more of all startups fail rather quickly, it’s
- Published in Featured, Industry, Insights / Research, Startup Ecosystems, Startups
Why a Competitive Analysis is a First Step as a Founder
Thursday, 17 September 2020
There is a trick to entrepreneurship, to starting a venture, that no one really ever talks about. Not sure why they don’t talk about it… perhaps because they don’t understand how to do it… perhaps because everyone is selling something… perhaps because they’ve hired help and it sucked… regardless, I’m going to let you in
- Published in Advertising, Featured, Insights / Research, Startups
“A VC is asking 6% for acting as an advisor…”
Friday, 27 September 2019
As a startup mentor, that’s the start of the all too common question from founders trying to figure out if they should part with equity to get someone involved. As a venture partner, that’s a reflection of what too many startups are offered and it’s a turn of the phrase that ranks right up there
- Published in Featured, Raising Capital, Startups







