ecosystem Archives - Startup Economist

I Wrote the Book I Needed to Read Twenty Years Ago

Tuesday, 17 March 2026 by Paul O'Brien

There is a moment, somewhere between finishing a manuscript and holding the printed thing in your hands, when you realize the book was never really about the subject. It was about you. Not in the self-indulgent sense, not a memoir dressed up in economics. But in the sense that everything I have spent the last

Published in Economic Development, Featured, Startup Ecosystems

26 Comments

What if the Poorest Places Are Actually the Best Places to Start a Startup Right Now?

Friday, 06 March 2026 by Paul O'Brien

I was asked this past week, by someone in a very economically challenged city, how they can start something without the resources so many others have when starting out. Data on this is more encouraging than the startup world wants to admit so the question drove me to want to help make sure everyone knows

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Published in Economic Development

33 Comments

Startup Cities Need to Measure and Expect Outcomes, Not Activity. Here’s How.

Wednesday, 25 February 2026 by Paul O'Brien

Cities love to count things that are easy to count: events, meetups, demo days. “Startups Launched.” Celebrating press releases. If activity were the same thing as value creation, every city with a monthly pitch night would be a company building machine. It isn’t. The discipline gap in startup ecosystem development is measurement, not dashboards full

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Published in Economic Development, Insights / Research, Startups

13 Comments

The Texas Aerospace Space

Friday, 20 February 2026 by Paul O'Brien

Synonymous with space, Texas is far more than Houston being informed of a problem, and after an incredible tour of Firefly’s rocket facilities in Briggs, Texas, with Space Force Association, I needed to dig in. Texas got into aerospace the way Texas gets into anything: by building a messy, expensive, politically complicated machine that becomes

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Published in Aerospace, Regional Development

No Comments

Florida, Miami Startups, the Startup Ecosystem: Innovation, Invention, and Building Sustainable Entrepreneurial Capacity

Tuesday, 17 February 2026 by Paul O'Brien

Miami, known for its beaches and nightlife, is far more than the art deco and the party destination rightfully earned wherein you’ll find something that feels like a real startup ecosystem: vibrant, international, and increasingly respected on global rankings. This is the story of how Miami and Florida evolved from a tourism-centric economy into a dynamic

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Published in Regional Development

18 Comments

New York’s Sector Machines, Explained: The Real Drivers of Startup Economic Power

Wednesday, 11 February 2026 by Paul O'Brien

I’ve found that one of the strengths and distinctions of New York City, from which we might all learn for our own local economy, is that it doesn’t have an ecosystem the way people say it at conferences, like it’s a single organism. A couple weeks ago, we explored here that New York is what

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Published in Regional Development

8 Comments

New York Isn’t a Startup Ecosystem, It’s a Set of Sector Machines

Friday, 30 January 2026 by Paul O'Brien

With such a substantial and dense population, it’s difficult to say that New York City has a startup ecosystem as though a monolithic slice of the economy and yet, it’s precisely because of New York’s urban density that it’s a leading example of an advanced startup community. New York is a rotating set of sector-specific

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Published in Regional Development

10 Comments