data Archives - Startup Economist

When Markets Learn Faster Than Governments

Tuesday, 04 November 2025 by Paul O'Brien

The debate over “market failure” has raged for decades, rooted in a false premise that the economy should behave like an equation rather than an ecosystem. This isn’t just academic. The idea of ‘market failure’ keeps resurfacing in policy debates over AI, climate, and housing, as if the lessons of the last 25 years never

Published in Economic Development

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Canada’s New AI and Data Act Sets High Standards for Startups

Monday, 14 October 2024 by Paul O'Brien

Monday Ventures: Weekly What’s Shaping the Startup Economy Canada moved forward with the introduction of its AI and Data Act (AIDA), a landmark piece of legislation aimed at regulating artificial intelligence and machine learning systems. The AIDA marks Canada’s most significant attempt to regulate emerging technologies, setting a high bar for transparency, accountability, and ethical

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Published in Monday Ventures

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An Internet Bill of Rights

Tuesday, 25 May 2021 by Paul O'Brien

In 2018, some, in the U.S. Congress, proposed an Internet Bill of Rights that though well intentioned, was essentially a set of regulations proposed to adhere companies to obligations with regard to data, security, and privacy. At the time, I thought little of it; the notion didn’t get a tremendous amount of attention, but nagging

bill of rights data internet online privacy rights security Social Media

Published in Industry, Insights / Research

7 Comments

Explaining the Importance of Information to a Company

Thursday, 26 March 2020 by Paul O'Brien

A bit of what concerns me about society, our economy, is that this topic isn’t FAR more discussed. HOW you explain the importance of information to a company is actually really simple, in my experience. You SHOW how information will impact the business. I simply do this… And then I ask… What caused what happened

Analytics competitive advantage competitive analysis data information insight research

Published in Analytics, Insights / Research

5 Comments

Justifying Analytics – How Every Business Knows What to Do

Tuesday, 21 May 2019 by Paul O'Brien

Not long ago, I shared a tweet that went a bit viral, noting that in our exuberance of things like “Big data” and “Machine Learning,” and through our Education system’s increasing focus on STEM, we’d do well in society to ensure merely that everyone has a basic understand of the data that’s available thanks to

Analytics business intelligence data data warehouse

Published in Advertising, Analytics, Insights / Research

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Learning from Google Analytics in Workforce Development

Tuesday, 05 June 2018 by Paul O'Brien

Recently, Trevor Boehm, program Director at the Techstars Impact Accelerator and founder of Assemble, had me stand in a line. Not just any line mind you, I stood in a line with the exceptional entrepreneurs of Impact Hub’s Workforce Development Accelerator. At one end of the line, those who felt “metrics” were of great importance in

Analytics classes data education impact incubator jobs metrics tracking training workforce development

Published in Analytics, Local

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The Rhythm of Austin Innovation

Monday, 08 August 2016 by Paul O'Brien

I had the honor of joining Austin Inno’s Billy Utt today on The Beat. His usual host, the resplendent Brent Winstom, was I’m sure preparing to cheer Dwyer or Haas to the 200m freestyle gold tonight, so I was called up from the deck to chat live about the latest in Austin innovation, via The Beat newsletter.

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Published in Startups, Local

3 Comments