Industry Archives - Startup Economist

How Marketing Got Rewritten by the Ignorant and Why Startups are Paying the Price

Monday, 29 September 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Having sat through a few events and cohort launches this past week, I keep hearing people refer to Marketing as Advertising and Promotion. A little history explains how we got into this mess and why advertising and promotion are merely two things you might do when marketing determines that you should and how. Go back

Published in Advertising, Insights / Research, Startups

26 Comments

Why Most Accelerators Fail – And What Comes Next

Tuesday, 23 September 2025 by Paul O'Brien

On The Forge of the Unicorns with Michele Brissoni I’ve been in hundreds of cities working to support entrepreneurs and ecosystems. One thing I’ve seen over and over again, whether I’m in Boise, Bogotá, or Brussels, is this illusion that we can bootstrap startup economies by launching accelerators. We treat them like vending machines: plug

accelerators ai venture capital venture studios

Published in AI, Startup Ecosystems

49 Comments

Using Event Sites and Social Media to Grow Attendance and Registration

Monday, 08 September 2025 by Paul O'Brien

You’re hosting a startup event coming up, maybe a Founder Institute session or a local startup pitch night. You know it matters, you know it should be crowded, and you’ve sent out the obligatory newsletter to your mailing list. And now? Crickets. Here’s the reality of how the internet works: your audience didn’t even see

event marketing events marketing promotion startup events

Published in Social Media, Startup Ecosystems

6 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

austin australia brownsville houston midland space texas

Published in Aerospace, Regional Development, Startup Ecosystems, Uncategorized

24 Comments

The Age of Artificial Truth

Thursday, 19 June 2025 by Paul O'Brien

If Orwell predicted a future of authoritarian oppression, we missed the plot twist: truth isn’t being silenced, it’s being distorted, mass-produced, and flooded upon us like a knock-off Rolex that still ticks. The root isn’t the Press nor Politicians, it’s not the White House or foreign influence, it’s everyone, all of us speaking at once,

ai content influence journalism media seo Social Media truth

Published in AI, Insights / Research, Social Media

20 Comments

Abilene Grit, Grid, and Genesis

Tuesday, 10 June 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Abilene, Texas, on the surface, might seem like the set of Fallout where a now-restored Texas Film Industry needs a set for a post-apocalyptic Western — a flat, dusty military town with a church on every corner and a Dairy Queen next to it. Scratch that desert veneer (and lack of nuclear fallout) and you’ll

abilene agtech cleantech ecosystem electricity energy grit stargate texas wind

Published in AI, Data, Regional Development

22 Comments

AI Runs on Yesterday’s Hardware — Quantum Writes Tomorrow’s Policy; The Quantum Playbook

Monday, 02 June 2025 by Paul O'Brien

If artificial intelligence is the engine of the future, then quantum computing is the fuel. In the United States, Washington is waking up to that fact. While the headlines are still dominated by chatbots impersonating therapists and AI models hallucinating their way through customer service, the grownups in this room (policymakers, scientists, and defense analysts)

economic development government legislation public policy quantum computing regulation security

Published in Economic Development, Quantum

6 Comments