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
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Why Most Startups Fail to Get Enough Attention
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Most startups don’t die because they lacked funding. They don’t die because of bad code, poor vision, lack of a business plan, or the boogeyman of “not having product-market fit.” They die because no one noticed they were alive in the first place. We romanticize startup failure as some noble rite of passage (cue the
Startups Are Getting Crushed by Politics, Not Product; Here’s the Hire That Can Save You
Thursday, 05 June 2025
You’ve probably heard it in every startup pitch deck since the dawn of Lean: “We’re hiring a killer PM to build the roadmap.” Or worse, “Our Head of Product will drive user adoption and retention.” Bless their hearts. That mindset is the startup equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, blind to the reality
- Published in Startups
What Startups Can Learn from Utility Regulation: How Northwestern’s Five Prisms Reveal the Blueprint for Disruption
Thursday, 15 May 2025
Having recently discovered Lynne Kiesling, my attention was drawn to Northwestern University’s Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics‘ Five Prisms, which she shared online and which I’ve included here (granted, without asking, I hope they don’t mind). Economic regulation in our rapidly changing world faces challenges I find legislators and local leaders ill equipped to
- Published in Economic Development, Startups