texas Archives - Startup Economist

SXSW 2026 Guide for Founders, Investors, and Ecosystem Builders

Monday, 02 March 2026 by Paul O'Brien

SXSW is here in as much as if you’re coming, you’re curious what to consider. If you’re still treating it like a trade show where you badge-tap your way through panels and collect business cards, you’re behind. The conference this year sprawls across Austin March 12–18, 2026 (before in fact), with all four festivals (Innovation,

Published in Conferences / Events

10 Comments

The California Tech Tax Is a Kill Switch. Texas Keeps Innovation Compounding.

Wednesday, 14 January 2026 by Paul O'Brien

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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Published in Economic Development

6 Comments

How Hard Tech History Fuels Entrepreneurship – Austin’s Story

Wednesday, 03 September 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Amidst what seems to be a boom of chips in Central Texas, I want to share with everyone, everywhere, how the hard tech of Texas isn’t a result of a recent pivot, there is a history to study in how it grew up around Austin, a history from which we can learn how to build

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Published in Regional Development

29 Comments

Startups Are Not Small Businesses: A Texas Startup Policy Blueprint for Unlocking Capital

Tuesday, 08 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Published in collaboration with the TexCap Policy Institute, this new white paper is more than another call for “more startup support.” It’s a public policy intervention – one Texas desperately needs if we want to lead the nation in innovation, venture capital, and the next generation of job creation. We titled it plainly:Startups != Small

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Published in Economic Development

18 Comments

Aerospace Adelaide

Monday, 30 June 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Adelaide’s not merely dipping a toe into space, it’s building its own launchpad, and during a recent whirlwind tour of the United States, I had a chance to share some thoughts with a few of the startups making the rounds and decided to dig in deeper to some possibilities. Under the radar, this ecosystem has

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Published in Aerospace, Regional Development, Startup Ecosystems, Uncategorized

24 Comments

Abilene Grit, Grid, and Genesis

Tuesday, 10 June 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Abilene, Texas, on the surface, might seem like the set of Fallout where a now-restored Texas Film Industry needs a set for a post-apocalyptic Western — a flat, dusty military town with a church on every corner and a Dairy Queen next to it. Scratch that desert veneer (and lack of nuclear fallout) and you’ll

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Published in AI, Data, Regional Development

22 Comments

From Texas to Tulsa: How Innovation Shifts to Opportunity

Wednesday, 04 June 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Differentiation If someone told you Tulsa was the next hub for startups, your first reaction might be to squint and wonder if they meant it ironically. Tulsa? Really? Isn’t that where Route 66 nostalgia and oil wealth go to retire? Here’s the thing: the people still asking that question are the same ones who laughed

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Published in Regional Development

11 Comments