ecosystem Archives - Startup Economist

Put a Bow on your Startup Ecosystem

Friday, 31 October 2025 by Paul O'Brien

If startup ecosystems were a fashion statement, most cities would look like clip on necktie that everyone admires for the good intention of dressing it up. In reality, we’ve overserved accelerators that don’t accelerate, misunderstood venture studios as glorified R&D departments, push university IP commercialization on a market that doesn’t want to license, and host

Published in Startup Ecosystems

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Startup Investors, Let’s Get to Know Portland, Oregon

Wednesday, 29 October 2025 by Paul O'Brien

If cities were startups, Portland would be the one that never hired a PR firm, preferring instead to let its product (culture) speak for itself. For investors, that confidence has been both its charm and a challenge. Portland is inventive to the point of eccentricity, independent to the point of obstinacy, and so allergic to

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Published in Regional Development

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It’s Not the End of the World. It’s the End of Pretending.

Monday, 20 October 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Every generation believes it’s living through the end of the world. With all that’s on social media and in the news now, ours might finally be right, but not in the way we think. And you reader, entrepreneurs, investors, and economic development leaders, are the people we need rising to the challenges. R.E.M.’s It’s the End

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Published in Economic Development

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The Startup Frontier Hidden in America’s Supply Chain

Thursday, 02 October 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Imagine a modest Ozarks town (once underestimated) emerging as a national hub for retail, supply chain, and CPG innovation. Now imagine that the parent company is actively relocating talent, building a new urban HQ, and doubling down on ecosystem development. That’s Bentonville; once pigeonholed as “Walmart’s little hometown,” now staking a claim as one of

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Published in Regional Development

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How Hard Tech History Fuels Entrepreneurship – Austin’s Story

Wednesday, 03 September 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Amidst what seems to be a boom of chips in Central Texas, I want to share with everyone, everywhere, how the hard tech of Texas isn’t a result of a recent pivot, there is a history to study in how it grew up around Austin, a history from which we can learn how to build

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Published in Regional Development

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Bogotá, Colombia; Latin America’s Next Startup Ascent

Friday, 15 August 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Colombia has always been a country in motion; politically, culturally, and economically. But motion isn’t the same as progress, and progress isn’t guaranteed. For generations, Colombians have adapted to change not because they wanted to, but because they had to. It’s in this crucible of necessity that the country’s entrepreneurial spirit was forged and potential

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Published in Regional Development, Startup Ecosystems

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Startup Detroit: From Cranks to Code; How the Motor City Is Revving a New Engine

Tuesday, 29 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Steel-Belt Beginnings & Motown Beats: Why Detroit Built Everything from Ford to Funk Long before it became a symbol of rust a city off track, Detroit was a strategic settlement founded in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac at Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, a riverfront trade nexus between French Canada and the Great Lakes.

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Published in Regional Development

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