Startups Archives - Startup Economist

Startup from the Soul: Grace Is What Matters

Monday, 17 November 2025 by Paul O'Brien

There’s a thought Jeff Buckley once shared, half-interview, half-confession: “Grace is what matters in anything. It keeps you from pulling the trigger too soon. It keeps you from destroying things too foolishly; it sort of keeps you alive and keeps you open for more understanding.” You could hang that on the wall of every entrepreneurs’

Published in Startups

2 Comments

Lean Startup Is Wrong… or You Are

Wednesday, 12 November 2025 by Paul O'Brien

This is an article I have been sitting with for years. Incessantly pointing out to founders that they’re getting the MVP wrong or that Lean Startup misled them, I want to throw out provocative notion to challenge us all to ask why, with the clarity of what to do in Lean Startup, and so many

customer validation Lean Startup mvp product market fit startup ideas validation

Published in Insights / Research, Startups

34 Comments

Willy Wonka Inspired a Generation of Founders

Wednesday, 29 October 2025 by Paul O'Brien

He was no wizard. Magic is the soft word we use when we can’t explain how someone bends the laws of reality. Willy Wonka bent them with sugar, steel, and science. His factory wasn’t a place of spells, it was a cathedral of chemistry, a machine that turned the imagination of children into industrial-scale production.

entrepreneurship film inspiration movie startups storytelling

Published in Startups

19 Comments

The Customer of Venture Capital Isn’t the Founder, It’s the Investor

Wednesday, 22 October 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Until Cities Get That Straight, Startups Will Keep Starving for Capital It’s a weird day when the world’s entrepreneurs sound like customers complaining about a bad product. “We can’t find funding.” “Investors aren’t taking risks.” “There’s no capital in our city.” You’ve heard it a thousand times; it’s the economic equivalent of Yelp reviews from

angel investors funding investors startup funding venture capital

Published in Economic Development, Raising Capital

23 Comments

Fixing Startups’ TAM/SAM/SOM: Why Your Market Slide Sucks

Wednesday, 08 October 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Every pitch deck has it. Every investor rolls their eyes at it. It’s that pastel-colored inverted pyramid labeled TAM, SAM, SOM, stuffed with fake numbers you copied from a McKinsey PDF you didn’t read. If your “market slide” claims your startup is chasing a $300 billion opportunity, congratulations, you just told investors you don’t know

competition go to market marketing pitch deck slides

Published in Insights / Research, Startups

14 Comments

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

Monday, 06 October 2025 by Paul O'Brien

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

economic development ecosystem development ecosystems new business startup

Published in Startup Ecosystems, Startups

31 Comments

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

customer discovery customers growth leads marketing sales

Published in Advertising, Insights / Research, Startups

26 Comments