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Success as a Startup Founder? Need for variety and novelty, reduced modesty, an openness to adventure, and heightened energy levels
A recent study conducted by researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the…
 • Paul O'Brien
Why Venture Capital Avoids your Startup Ecosystem
Thousands of investors and founders revealed the 10 real reasons venture capital avoids your region (it's not what you think, and it's not about the…
 • Paul O'Brien
6 Habits of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs
The research isn’t vague anymore.
 • Paul O'Brien
The California Tech Tax Is a Kill Switch. Texas Keeps Innovation Compounding.
California is flirting with a policy idea so aggressively stupid it reads like parody, except it isn’t.
 • Paul O'Brien
Michael Jackson and the Startup Delusion: Why Tech Isn’t What Creates Value
“Can a model perform well technically but fail to create business value, and why?” What a wonderful question; I was asked recently that perspective on…
 • Paul O'Brien
The IP Trap: How Licensing Knowledge Became a Tax on Progress
A couple of weeks ago I published Universities Aren’t Commercializing Innovation, They’re Taxing It with a challenge I knew would find support from most…
 • Paul O'Brien
5 Predictors of Startup Failure; One of Which Proves Conventional Wisdom Wrong
Okay, up front?
 • Paul O'Brien
Universities Aren’t Commercializing Innovation, They’re Taxing It
Everywhere I go lately experiences at some point, the same conversation.
 • Paul O'Brien
Why Riyadh and Saudi Arabia Are Rapidly Becoming a Global Startup Powerhouse
Riyadh didn’t become a startup ecosystem overnight.
 • Paul O'Brien
The Great Startup Delusion: What Web3 Failures Teach About Confusing Business with Innovation
There’s a nasty little lie that keeps getting passed around the economy like a like a VC quote on LinkedIn: that every new business built on a new…
 • Paul O'Brien
Chicago Startups Industrialized Innovation
This is a city that burned to the ground and responded by inventing the skyscraper.
 • Paul O'Brien
Better Startup Idea Validation
Despite countless articles and every startup program explaining how to validate a startup idea, one of the (surprisingly) still frequently most asked…
 • Paul O'Brien
Startup Economist
Startup Economist
In-depth analysis & opinion of startups, innovation, venture capital, & entrepreneurship. "This read right here is better than half the classes at most incubators and 1000% better than any entrepreneur course at a university." Nicolia Wiles - PRIMEPR
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