We’ve reached a tipping point.
In a world awash in pitch decks, podcasted advice, and more bootstrapping encouragement than anyone asked for, the last thing we need is another startup program repeating what you can Google. If you read my work, you know that I have been pushing hard on challenges and gaps that still plague our startup ecosystems – be those failing to be meaningful to serve venture capital, misappropriating resources to startup development organizations that aren’t helping, addressing the implication of regulation and government oversight, or exploring newer models that can better serve innovation, my passion lies less in ensuring founder success (which is impossible) and more in removing the known, systemic, and avoidable reasons why startups fail to such a high degree. In one role that I’ve served for nearly a decade, it emerged for clarity for me that we must have better, capable, structured curriculum in place to support entrepreneurs – programming that should be readily available in every city, through Universities, and supported by local and national governments. Because of that role, I have decided to take on the role of Head of Public Affairs at Founder Institute, because they’re leading the way.
As innovation accelerates the ways in which our economy functions, businesses operate, and startup emerge, what we need is smarter, deeper, and more connected entrepreneurial education.
Activating Entrepreneurial Potential
Since its founding in 2009, the Founder Institute has supported more than 8,000 companies across nearly 100 countries, making it the world’s largest network of incubators and accelerators activating and empowering communities of entrepreneurs worldwide. When cities have called me in my capacity as an economist for our startup sector, asking how best to get an incubator off the ground, my reply has always first been to ask if Foudner Institute is in place and what’s being done with it. But it’s not only the size of Founder Insitute’s impact that makes it effective, it’s the structure. Unlike most Startup Development Organizations that focus on access to capital or mentor speed-dating, FI provides a holistic and structured approach that demands grit, real-world accountability, and high-stakes growth from people who want to build companies that last. It isn’t for dabblers or pitch-deck philosophers. It’s for founders.
I’ve lectured more cohorts than I can recall, and my ‘Welcome to the Program’ speech always drives home that everyone had better keep up and that by next week, I want at least 100 conversations had by each founder, with everyone they can meet, because we’re not going to waste time trying to develop a venture that isn’t going to work. In impressing upon entrepreneurs that expectation, we set the stage for the fact that entrepreneurship is grueling, but that it doesn’t have to be because with passion, ambition, and the support of experienced mentors and direction, we can ensure everyone gets off to a great start.
In a time when EdTech is exploding and AI threatens to make most online courses obsolete, what Founder Institute offers stands apart. This isn’t about learning how to start a business; it’s about becoming the kind of person who can.
Because here’s the problem: As I’ve written before, venture capital doesn’t avoid cities because they lack talent or ideas. It avoids them because of broken connections, weak communication, and, this is key, poor public policy. Founder Institute overcomes most of that just by being in place, and working together, we’re now going to help ensure 200 cities (and let’s add yours if FI isn’t yet there) are accomplishing even more, effectively, and meaningfully, to create jobs, to attract capital, and to launch enduring companies that improve the world. Nearly half of VC opportunity is either handicapped or enabled by how we govern, how we educate, and how we structure our communities. Which means if we want more thriving startups, we need to stop treating startup support as a hobby and start treating it like the economic development engine it is.
That’s where public affairs come in.
Startup Development Organizations, especially ones with the global reach and institutional credibility of FI, have a responsibility to shape policy.To influence university curriculum that still thinks a “business plan” is a final project. To show up when cities make zoning, broadband, or workforce decisions that will either unleash the next Canva, or kill it before it begins. To get in the room with legislators when they debate tax structures that disincentivize growth.
This isn’t some philosophical crusade, from my home in Austin, Texas, one of the most pro-business states in the nation, we can readily see how we sstruggle with the consequences of policy fragmentation, regulatory overload, inconsistent university programs or civic support, and a misunderstanding of what innovation really needs: streamlined governance, strategic infrastructure investment, and education policy aligned with entrepreneurial reality.
We’re also seeing, on a national level, that federal policy is lagging behind reality. The Small Business Administration is largely structured to serve main street, not moonshots, but we can change that to help both main street and new ventures thrive. Universities are under political pressure to gut entrepreneurship programs rather than expand them all while with Founder Institute, universities would be a greater catalyst for IP commercialization, for student entrepreneurs, and in greater connectedness with the community both local and global. While kids with billion-dollar ideas are still being directed that only path is college ? corporate ? retirement. It’s infuriating. And fixable.
That’s why FI is stepping up, and why I am too.
Founder Institute isn’t just an accelerator anymore. With operations in over 200 cities and a deeply connected mentor and funder network, FI sits at the intersection of education, economic development, policy, and capital. Our mission is now explicitly to become where policymakers craft regulation enabling entrepreneurs, universities embrace experiential learning, and founders to launch with validated direction and real support rather than office hours and encouragement.
“The future of our society will be found at the convergence of how we teach, how we govern, and how we serve entrepreneurs,” Jonathan Greechan, Founder Institute’s CEO. “Having worked at this epicenter for decades, Paul’s work with us will bring us all closer to that future.”
This work isn’t just about me, or even FI. It’s about what comes next. It’s about acknowledging that creating more entrepreneurs is no longer optional, it’s infrastructure. It’s public good. And just like roads, broadband, and water systems, it requires investment, design, and active stewardship.
So here’s what to expect from me in this role:
You’ll see Founder Institute more present in the halls of government. You’ll see our name in education conferences, university advisory boards, and policy working groups. You’ll see founders, investors, and legislators in the same room, because they should have been all along. And most importantly, you’ll see us fight for an ecosystem where entrepreneurial potential isn’t determined by your ZIP code, your LinkedIn connections, or your access to generative AI.
Entrepreneurship isn’t just for the chosen few. It’s for the builders. The challengers. The people who see the broken things in the world and can’t help but fix them. My job now is to make sure the system stops getting in their way.
If you’ve ever wondered why your city’s entrepreneurs can’t get funded, or why the smartest people you know are stuck in jobs they hate, maybe it’s time we stopped asking what founders need – and started building the systems that serve them. Founder Institute is doing just that.
So, what system should we start building together?
