Building Cities Out of Song; the Creative Engine of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Tuesday, 14 January 2025
Music, a primary cultural cornerstone, plays a transformative role in fostering creativity, collaboration, and risk-taking — traits essential for entrepreneurship and innovation. A 2019 study by the World Economic Forum underscored the symbiotic relationship between the arts and innovation, emphasizing that creativity spurred by artistic engagement improves problem-solving and decision-making. Similarly, the National Endowment for
- Published in Austin, Economic Development, Startups
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Zagreb plus Istria: The Economic Development Plan for Croatia’s Future as a Global Hub of Innovation
Thursday, 09 January 2025
As I walked the streets of Zagreb, Croatia, not long ago, I couldn’t help but remark that I had a feeling that I was experiencing, Austin, TX, years ago. From my time in Michigan, Phoenix, Silicon Valley, and now Austin, my community knows well that the work I do is designing startup ecosystems; working with
- Published in Economic Development, Regional Development
The Foibles of Pivoting: Why It Fails
Tuesday, 07 January 2025
The idea of pivoting in startups is almost as entrenched in entrepreneurial culture as the notion of disruption itself. Popularized by Eric Ries in his seminal work, The Lean Startup, the concept of a pivot refers to a “structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of
- Published in Startups
From Socialist Roots to a Free-Market Startup Renaissance: Estonia
Friday, 03 January 2025
Estonia has long been hailed as the digital darling of Europe, a small Baltic nation that defied its post-Soviet limitations to emerge as a tech powerhouse. Yet, for all its acclaim, Estonia’s journey has been shaped by a tension between its socialist roots and a growing desire for economic liberalism. Today, with sweeping governmental reforms
- Published in Regional Development
Pipeline > Data > Community > Audience > Customer
Thursday, 19 December 2024
Why Pipelines Trump Customers: Rethinking Value Creation in Startups It’s often said that “every startup needs customers.” That’s true. Without someone paying for your product or service, you don’t have a business. But this oft-repeated mantra misses the mark entirely when it comes to understanding value creation—the kind of value venture capitalists care about. Owning
- Published in Data, Insights / Research, Startups
How to Get More Out of Entrepreneurs
Thursday, 12 December 2024
Whether you are an investor, a founder seeking advice, a business owner, or someone working through a city to encourage economic growth, we can be certain that you engage with people who are entrepreneurial. Certain of that, having read the body of works about entrepreneurship, the studies about entrepreneurs, and even the psychological works related
- Published in Insights / Research, Startup Ecosystems, Startups
Why AI Agents Will Build the Next Wave of Startups: The Death of Marketing Teams
Thursday, 05 December 2024
For decades, startup experienced professionals, researchers, and classically trained marketers, have been reinforcing as best we can that it is well established, proven, and certain, that marketing (aside from team) is the single greatest cause of a startup’s success or failure. We’ve been trying to explain this for the sake of the economy, of founders,