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Now In Print: Startup Ecosystems

The Hidden Policy Crisis Behind America’s Startup Decline

Friday, 22 May 2026 by
Research across Cato, Brookings, Mercatus, Kauffman, the SBA, and the Congressional Research Service increasingly points to the same conclusion Cato Institute policy analyst, Solveig Singleton, published a paper this week titled Addressing Civil Investigative Demand Overreach at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and I fear that approximately zero people in the venture community read it.
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San Marcos Startups Sit on Top of Texas’s Biggest Problem

Friday, 01 May 2026 by
Humans have lived in San Marcos, Texas, longer than they have lived almost anywhere else on the continent. An archaeological fact, I might concede we can’t be sure, but that fact doesn’t matter to what got my attention; it should matter to entrepreneurs, investors, and economic development professionals. People have been here for 12,000 unbroken
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The Best and Potential States for Startups: A Policy-First Look at Who’s Helping Founders

Monday, 09 March 2026 by
If you ask most people which states are best for startups, they’ll rattle off California and New York because that’s where the money has historically pooled, understandably now too, Texas. That’s a bit like saying Las Vegas is a great place to build wealth because rich people go there. The concentration of capital in a
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Government Doesn’t Create Wealth, It Decides Whether Entrepreneurs Can

Monday, 26 January 2026 by
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,
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Only 10% of State and National Governments Distinguish Startups from New Businesses

Tuesday, 20 January 2026 by
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
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What Sinks Startups AND Democracies: The One Thing Founders and Voters Are Starting to See Might Save Us

Monday, 19 January 2026 by
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
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The California Tech Tax Is a Kill Switch. Texas Keeps Innovation Compounding.

Wednesday, 14 January 2026 by
California is flirting with a policy idea so aggressively stupid it reads like parody, except it isn’t. It’s drafted law; it’s real. And even if it never passes, the damage is already done. The proposed “Billionaire Wealth Tax” ballot measure is not merely a tax and it’s far more than California’s tech tax; it is
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