marketing Archives - Startup Economist

How Streaming Shows That AI Is Making the Product a Commodity, Here’s How Startup Founders Survive

Sunday, 01 March 2026 by Paul O'Brien

I find myself more oriented to media than most. I am a huge live music fan extending well beyond concerts and festivals into even musicals and Broadway. My career started in advertising by way of Yahoo! when “online” was little more than a concept. I was among the first with Netflix, familiar with The Pirate

ai distribution marketing mediatech musictech spotify storytelling streaming

Published in Startups

7 Comments

Forget STEM, The Future Ready Skills Curriculum is ECPM

Sunday, 22 February 2026 by Paul O'Brien

Articles and perspectives considering the end of STEM education, given the rise of AI, have been filling my inbox lately. And in fairness and to be clear, STEM professionals are pointing, “of course not, Math will always be a critical skill, and Science is clearly more than an LLM doing research,” no indeed, STEM isn’t

communication curriculum economics edtech education marketing psychology skills

Published in Education

21 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

3 Comments

Fixing Startups’ TAM/SAM/SOM: Why Your Market Slide Sucks

Wednesday, 08 October 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Every pitch deck has it. Every investor rolls their eyes at it. It’s that pastel-colored inverted pyramid labeled TAM, SAM, SOM, stuffed with fake numbers you copied from a McKinsey PDF you didn’t read. If your “market slide” claims your startup is chasing a $300 billion opportunity, congratulations, you just told investors you don’t know

competition go to market marketing pitch deck slides

Published in Insights / Research, Startups

14 Comments

How Marketing Got Rewritten by the Ignorant and Why Startups are Paying the Price

Monday, 29 September 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Having sat through a few events and cohort launches this past week, I keep hearing people refer to Marketing as Advertising and Promotion. A little history explains how we got into this mess and why advertising and promotion are merely two things you might do when marketing determines that you should and how. Go back

customer discovery customers growth leads marketing sales

Published in Advertising, Insights / Research, Startups

26 Comments

Using Event Sites and Social Media to Grow Attendance and Registration

Monday, 08 September 2025 by Paul O'Brien

You’re hosting a startup event coming up, maybe a Founder Institute session or a local startup pitch night. You know it matters, you know it should be crowded, and you’ve sent out the obligatory newsletter to your mailing list. And now? Crickets. Here’s the reality of how the internet works: your audience didn’t even see

event marketing events marketing promotion startup events

Published in Social Media, Startup Ecosystems

6 Comments

Why and How a Venture Determines It Is “Uniquely Better”

Thursday, 14 August 2025 by Paul O'Brien

In business strategy and marketing, “Uniquely Better” is more than a slogan, it’s the distillation of why a venture deserves to exist. The term sits alongside other well-known ideas such as competitive advantage, differentiation, and “moat,” but with a crucial twist: it forces you to define why customers should choose you over all other options.

competitive advantage distinction marketing moat product sales unique

Published in Insights / Research, Startups

7 Comments