venture capital Archives - Startup Economist

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

Published in Raising Capital, Startups

24 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

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Published in Regional Development

41 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).

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Published in Featured, Startup Ecosystems

127 Comments

Why Most Investors Are Wasting Their Time Ignoring Emerging Fund Managers

Wednesday, 12 March 2025 by Paul O'Brien

The most prevalent reason why I always raise my hand to speak, moderate, or host an event, is that while written content reaches millions or podcasting helps people see or hear your tone and passion, it’s only through live events that one can read the reaction of an audience, and in real time nuance the

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Published in Startup Ecosystems

20 Comments

Your Startup Pitch is Bad; Let me Explain How I Know

Thursday, 27 February 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been pushing us to question traditional startup methodologies such as lean startup or how venture capitalists discern investments, through an exploration with you of First Principles Thinking and the Bell Mason Diagnostic. In fact, I’m not inherently a detractor of either, rather frequently advocating that founders need to

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Published in Raising Capital

13 Comments

The Bell Mason Diagnostic and First Principles Thinking in Venture Capital

Thursday, 20 February 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Why Venture Capital Needs a First Principles Overhaul Venture capital is broken. Not in the “bubble’s about to pop” and certainly not in the sense that so many are pissed off because they aren’t getting funded, but in the “founders keep getting bad funding advice from firms still operating on outdated, ineffective methodologies” sense. In the

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Published in Raising Capital, Startup Ecosystems

50 Comments

Time for Congress to Reform the SEC’s Outdated Accredited Investor Definition

Thursday, 06 February 2025 by Paul O'Brien

Public policy isn’t just a framework for startups and investors, it’s a gatekeeper deciding who gets to play the game. And few policies are as restrictive as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) definition of an “accredited investor.” This definition has long determined who can and cannot invest in private securities offerings (i.e. startups), not

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Published in Startup Ecosystems, Startups

35 Comments