Innovation Isn’t Real Estate: Why Startup Hubs Waste Money
Thursday, 21 August 2025
The garage myth keeps fooling policymakers Innovation is not a real estate play, and your innovation district is likely disappointing entrepreneurs. Yet cities, universities, and corporations keep pouring millions into gleaming new “innovation spaces” and “hubs,” mistaking glass walls and free Wi-Fi for entrepreneurship. To some extent, understandably; startup folklore inspires us with stories of
- Published in Economic Development, Startup Ecosystems
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Why Startups and Cities Fail Without a Clear Narrative: ACES for Ventures and Ecosystems
Wednesday, 06 August 2025
Most of you don’t fail because they lack a great product, brilliant founders, or access to capital. You fail because you haven’t worked out how to tell your story. You fail because your narrative doesn’t build trust, urgency, or credibility; three things that must happen before you ever get to the sale. This isn’t just
- Published in Startup Ecosystems, Startups
Why Cities Should Invest in Startups: The Key to Economic Growth
Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Why Startups? Let’s Distinguish Why City Officials Should be Focused on Strategic Investment in Innovation-Driven Ventures (and why most are failing despite trying) It’s one of the most misunderstood yet consequential distinctions in economic development today: the difference between startups and small businesses. Cities talk about “entrepreneurship” like it’s a monolithic idea, but if we’re
- Published in Economic Development, Startup Ecosystems
Building a Tough Tech Venture Studio
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Welcome to the frontier of innovation that doesn’t get VC Twitter likes or SXSW panels, the mud-covered, steel-reinforced, and sometimes radioactive frontier of “Tough Tech” (my word, I’m trying to come up with something to distinguish not-consumer, not-university, not just-apps). This isn’t SaaS, crypto, or your fourth AI wrapper for ChatGPT, this is the real
- Published in Economic Development, Startups
The Startup Scorecard: How Governments Can Unlock Trillions in Innovation and Economic Growth
Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Nations that adopted startup-friendly policies mid-1990s or early 00s, and consistently implemented effective measures, are now reaping the rewards; seamlessly transitioning into digital economies and enjoying long-term benefits. Conversely, those that dragged their feet on economic development of startup ecosystems are now grappling with how (and in my experience, for the most part, are failing,
- Published in Economic Development, Startups
Argentina Unleashed: How Reforms Under President Milei Spark Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Monday, 25 November 2024
Argentina’s history is one of extremes — a nation that has swung from prosperity to crisis and back again yet always demonstrated an uncanny ability to rebuild and reinvent itself. In the early 20th century, Argentina was among the top 10 wealthiest nations globally, thanks to its fertile agricultural sector, booming trade, and a forward-thinking,
- Published in Regional Development, Startup Ecosystems
How Startup Ecosystem Builders Start Ecosystems
Tuesday, 10 September 2024
I’d bet, if you were to look to the ecosystem surrounding your work, you’d see some meetups, a local startup group on Facebook, a business or technology journalist at the newspaper as the person known for covering startups, some coworking spaces, and perhaps a distinct innovation hub supported by the City or Chamber, right in
- Published in Featured, Industry, Insights / Research, Startup Ecosystems, Startups
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