entrepreneurship Archives - Startup Economist

Government Doesn’t Create Wealth, It Decides Whether Entrepreneurs Can

Monday, 26 January 2026 by Paul O'Brien

From the freezing tundra of Austin, Texas, this weekend I was asked, “Is it true that the U.S. became a leading industrial power through entrepreneurship, innovation, and mass production, creating immense wealth?” and it struck me that this city being quiet on a Monday when the northern part of the United States is at work,

Published in Economic Development

1 Comment

Only 10% of State and National Governments Distinguish Startups from New Businesses

Tuesday, 20 January 2026 by Paul O'Brien

A practical startup economic policy framework for governments that want venture-scale companies Governments around the world love the word entrepreneurship. They put it in press releases, name departments after it, fund “innovation hubs,” and cut ribbons in front of coworking spaces that end up being networking clubs for service providers seeking customers. What almost none

economic development entrepreneurship government policy public policy startups

Published in Startup Ecosystems

15 Comments

What Sinks Startups AND Democracies: The One Thing Founders and Voters Are Starting to See Might Save Us

Monday, 19 January 2026 by Paul O'Brien

We trained a generation to build tools, not understand consequences. Technology keeps revealing just how dangerous that gap has become. American courts have been undergoing an experiment by way of a study that might (should) heavily influence everyone in appreciating how important it is that decision makers are well informed. Finally seeing more light with

entrepreneurship government policy public policy

Published in Economic Development, Insights / Research

17 Comments

6 Habits of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs

Thursday, 15 January 2026 by Paul O'Brien

The research isn’t vague anymore. Decades of behavioral economics, psychology, and entrepreneurship studies have piled up enough evidence to stop pretending success is random. Whether someone builds alone or inside a founding team, outcomes track to a small set of repeatable human behaviors. Put the right skills and habits inside a young organization and it

entrepreneurs entrepreneurship habits personalities personality traits

Published in Startups

10 Comments

5 Predictors of Startup Failure; One of Which Proves Conventional Wisdom Wrong

Wednesday, 31 December 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Okay, up front? Most startup advice is recycled nonsense, passed around by people who’ve never actually watched hundreds of companies quietly die. Startup failure isn’t mysterious, it’s patterned. Predictable. Boring, even. The frustration is that founders keep making the same mistakes while congratulating themselves for “learning fast.” If you’ve been around accelerators, demo days, angel

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Published in Startups

44 Comments

Better Startup Idea Validation

Wednesday, 10 December 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Despite countless articles and every startup program explaining how to validate a startup idea, one of the (surprisingly) still frequently most asked questions is how to validate a startup. Reading the tea leaves, that tells me not that people actually don’t know (conventional wisdom is “talk to customers”) but rather, that that advice is less

entrepreneurship ideation marketing startups validation

Published in Startups

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Why Startup Ecosystems Fail at Scale: The Economic Development Playbook for Capacity Building

Friday, 05 December 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Cities everywhere are doing a lot for entrepreneurs, often sincerely and impressively, and what I’m finding in city after city is that the greatest opportunity is not in another startup program or even fostering a new investor but building capacity. They are supporting some founders, but not more founders. They are helping some investors, but

economic development economies entrepreneurship startup ecosystems

Published in Economic Development

40 Comments