venture capital Archives - Startup Economist

Bootstrapped Startups Don’t Win More Often; You’re Reading the Data Wrong

Tuesday, 21 April 2026 by Paul O'Brien

Every few months, some founder-influencer reposts a chart “proving” that bootstrapped startups succeed at higher rates than venture-backed ones, and a thousand frustrated founders forward it like scripture. Occasionally, I’ll get into an impassioned discussion there, trying to help everyone understand what’s really going on, why everyone is frustrated with VC, and how misinterpretations are

Published in Insights / Research, Startups

13 Comments

Why We Teach Startups to Pitch to Investors Even If They Don’t Want Venture Capital

Friday, 06 February 2026 by Paul O'Brien

I realized this week, that this is a discussion point I have with almost every founder, and yet I’ve never bothered to write it up. Every founder. Particularly in our work in Founder Institute, when teaching or mentoring dozens of founders in the same room, the question is always posed, “why are we working on

funding fundraising pitch decks pitching venture capital

Published in Startups

14 Comments

The Customer of Venture Capital Isn’t the Founder, It’s the Investor

Wednesday, 22 October 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Until Cities Get That Straight, Startups Will Keep Starving for Capital It’s a weird day when the world’s entrepreneurs sound like customers complaining about a bad product. “We can’t find funding.” “Investors aren’t taking risks.” “There’s no capital in our city.” You’ve heard it a thousand times; it’s the economic equivalent of Yelp reviews from

angel investors funding investors startup funding venture capital

Published in Economic Development, Raising Capital

23 Comments

Why Most Accelerators Fail – And What Comes Next

Tuesday, 23 September 2025 by Paul O'Brien

On The Forge of the Unicorns with Michele Brissoni I’ve been in hundreds of cities working to support entrepreneurs and ecosystems. One thing I’ve seen over and over again, whether I’m in Boise, Bogotá, or Brussels, is this illusion that we can bootstrap startup economies by launching accelerators. We treat them like vending machines: plug

accelerators ai venture capital venture studios

Published in AI, Startup Ecosystems

49 Comments

Bootstrap or Raise Capital: How to Decide What’s Right for Your Startup

Monday, 01 September 2025 by Paul O'Brien

If you’re like me, it might have been Labor Day in the U.S., and it was a beautiful one here in Austin, not putting in any work is more or less impossible; besides, entrepreneurs throughout the world were working and so with the focus on work, I couldn’t help but put thought to this frequently

boostrapping bootstrap funding investors raising capital venture capital

Published in Raising Capital, Startups

29 Comments

Botswana’s Startup Paradox: Why Africa Searches for Venture Capital

Wednesday, 16 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

This is a country with the continent’s most stable democracy, solid credit ratings, one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa over the past fifty years, and the world’s largest diamond producer. Having just released our research into why venture capital avoids regions of the world, my attention turned to Africa because the continent is arguably

africa botswana economic development ecosystem funding startups venture capital

Published in Regional Development

43 Comments

Why Venture Capital Avoids your Startup Ecosystem

Monday, 14 July 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Working with cities throughout the world, developing startup ecosystems, every one of them echos the same in their effort to encourage entrepreneurship, “we’re focused on bringing investors to the table.” What they’re doing is typical, ironically, of founders, who hear a problem and the focus on the solution (which by the way founders, is wrong).

angel investors economic development economy ecosystem funding venture capital

Published in Featured, Startup Ecosystems

127 Comments