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From Socialist Roots to a Free-Market Startup Renaissance: Estonia

Friday, 03 January 2025 by Paul O'Brien

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

5 Comments

Argentina Unleashed: How Reforms Under President Milei Spark Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Monday, 25 November 2024 by Paul O'Brien

Argentina’s history is one of extremes — a nation that has swung from prosperity to crisis and back again yet always demonstrated an uncanny ability to rebuild and reinvent itself. In the early 20th century, Argentina was among the top 10 wealthiest nations globally, thanks to its fertile agricultural sector, booming trade, and a forward-thinking,

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Published in Regional Development, Startup Ecosystems

8 Comments

The Unfair Advantage: 10 Books Every Founder Needs Because Marketing, Teams, and Persuasion Matter Most

Monday, 18 November 2024 by Paul O'Brien

Success in startups, initial funding, and traction, don’t come from ideas and MVPs — it’s built on the pillars of marketing, team-building, and persuasion. These three areas consistently prove to be the leading causes of success — or failure — for founders. Yet, despite the endless lists of “must-read” startup books, founders continue to stumble

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Published in Startups

5 Comments

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s Domestic Focus: Implications for Startups

Monday, 11 November 2024 by Paul O'Brien

Monday Ventures: Weekly What’s Shaping the Startup Economy On November 5, 2024, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), valued at $950 billion, is increasingly concentrating on domestic investments as part of the nation’s Vision 2030 economic diversification strategy. This shift has significant implications for the startup ecosystem within the country. PIF’s Domestic

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Published in Monday Ventures

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When Entrepreneurship is Bad for the Economy

Tuesday, 05 November 2024 by Paul O'Brien

Entrepreneurship has long been celebrated as the ultimate engine of economic growth, innovation, and job creation. But what if the fervor surrounding “being an entrepreneur” has gone too far? The glorification of entrepreneurship as an end in itself may actually be hurting our economy. As with most cultural phenomena, the truth is more nuanced than

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Published in Economic Development, Startups

22 Comments

Startups Solving Founders’ Problems are Failing

Monday, 30 September 2024 by Paul O'Brien

Here’s a problem that you might address as a startup founder: other startup founders struggle to find problems to take on, to come up with ideas to address, and to expose issues in industries, so that they might launch a successful venture presenting a solution to that problem. How do I know this is a

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Published in Industry, Insights / Research, Startups

25 Comments

How Startup Ecosystem Builders Start Ecosystems

Tuesday, 10 September 2024 by Paul O'Brien

I’d bet, if you were to look to the ecosystem surrounding your work, you’d see some meetups, a local startup group on Facebook, a business or technology journalist at the newspaper as the person known for covering startups, some coworking spaces, and perhaps a distinct innovation hub supported by the City or Chamber, right in