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Paul O'Brien

@paulobrien.bsky.social

Startup Economist

472 Followers  |  102 Following  |  172 Posts  |  Joined: 07.02.2024  |  1.8511

Latest posts by paulobrien.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Willie Wonka Inspired a Generation of Founders He was no wizard.

The more I sit with this, the more I realize how much pop culture influences kids toward what weโ€™ll see when their part of our working population decades hence.

Makes me curious how movies, TV shows, and music today, are setting up the 2050s
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31.10.2025 01:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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AI Runs on Yesterdayโ€™s Hardware โ€” Quantum Writes Tomorrowโ€™s Policy The Quantum Playbook

AI Runs on Yesterdayโ€™s Hardware โ€” Quantum Writes Tomorrowโ€™s Policy
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02.06.2025 22:05 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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New Collar Jobs and the Critical Distinction of Startups from Small Businesses Today at the Texas Venture Forum in Austin, TX, we had the honor of hearing from the 28th Administrator of the U.S.

New Collar Jobs and the Critical Distinction of Startups from Small Businesses
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02.06.2025 20:36 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Founders and Policymakers Need Us at the Tableโ€” Before They Decide the Future for Us BREAKING: DOJ Finally Cracks Down on Google Search... 20 Years Late

Founders and Policymakers Need Us at the Tableโ€” Before They Decide the Future for Us
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22.04.2025 01:22 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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This Is Why Itโ€™s Critical to Our Economy That We Distinguish Startups from New Businesses Not All Failure is Created Equal

This Is Why Itโ€™s Critical to Our Economy That We Distinguish Startups from New Businesses
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11.04.2025 21:42 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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If Youโ€™re Asking If You Can Start a Startup, We Know How Likely You Are to Fail โ€” And Itโ€™s a Lot Worse Than the Average This is one of those โ€œI did the mathโ€ posts, and it might inspire you, but it could also discourage you so before I let you go on into the depths of discouragement, let me point out that what weโ€™re ex...

If Youโ€™re Asking If You Can Start a Startup, We Know How Likely You Are to Fail โ€” And Itโ€™s a Lot Worse Than the Average
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09.04.2025 19:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Belgian Startups, Immigration, and Why your Definition of Innovation is Wrong Letโ€™s make something clear before we get into it, this is a discussion of beer from the perspective of an entrepreneur and economist, to explain to you something critical to your startup ecosystem: โ€œt...

Belgian Startups, Immigration, and Why your Definition of Innovation is Wrong
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01.04.2025 23:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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SX Sideways: More to Changing SXSW than Condensing the Weekends For those unfamiliar, SXSW is rather unique in the world for being far more than a conference, trade show, or film or music festival โ€” itโ€™s an economic engine, a cultural touchstone, and, arguably, th...

SX Sideways: More to Changing SXSW than Condensing the Weekends
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18.03.2025 22:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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How the Irish Saved Entrepreneurship The Future of Irelandโ€™s Startup Ecosystem: The Emerald Ripple?

How the Irish Saved Entrepreneurship
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17.03.2025 20:47 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Why Most Investors Are Wasting Their Time Ignoring Emerging Fund Managers 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, ...

Why Most Investors Are Wasting Their Time Ignoring Emerging Fund Managers
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13.03.2025 01:01 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Texas Drops a Bigger, Better Blueprint: Why the World Should Take Notes (and Copy It)

Texas Drops a Bigger, Better Blueprint:
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07.03.2025 22:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Startup Accelerators Fail Founders Too Often Letโ€™s talk about the dirty little secret of startup accelerators: most of them fail founders.

Startup Accelerators Fail Founders Too Often
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06.03.2025 18:59 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Portugalโ€™s Entrepreneurial Revolution: Why Startups and Innovation Thrive (And What Needs to Change) A Country Built on Bold Exploration and Innovation

Portugalโ€™s Entrepreneurial Revolution: Why Startups and Innovation Thrive (And What Needs to Change)
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03.03.2025 20:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Your Startup Pitch is Bad; Let me Explain How I Know 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 o...

Your Startup Pitch is Bad; Let me Explain How I Know
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27.02.2025 22:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Your Conference Event is Boring. Hereโ€™s How to Fix It in Austin (Especially for SXSW) So, youโ€™re hosting an event during a conference or trade show, perhaps a meetup, a happy hour, or maybe even some speakers with engaging content hosted by a dynamic moderator (you are at least getting...

Your Conference Event is Boring. Hereโ€™s How to Fix It in Austin (Especially for SXSW)
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24.02.2025 21:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

We had social media during the American Revolution. Paul Revereโ€™s ride is the shining example of it; get on your horse and get out there and tell people.

People can wait for the โ€œMediaโ€ to decide what to tell us and how. The consequence of that is being controlled.

24.02.2025 19:48 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

In startups collaboration is a requirement, so people like me can discern if cities, investors, advisors, etc. are going to fail in their work to HELP founders, because they keep their work isolated to their community or friends.

24.02.2025 19:43 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Quantum or Bust: The Playbook for Post-Silicon Economic Dominance Earlier this week, Philip Farah, VP of sales, industries and strategic relationships for IonQ and William Hurley (aka whurley), CEO and founder of Strangeworks, joined The Texas Tribune's Matthew Watk...

Quantum or Bust: The Playbook for Post-Silicon Economic Dominance
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22.02.2025 01:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The Bell Mason Diagnostic and First Principles Thinking in Venture Capital Why Venture Capital Needs a First Principles Overhaul

The Bell Mason Diagnostic and First Principles Thinking in Venture Capital
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20.02.2025 19:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

AI transcription of video, automatically parsing who is speaking... I just ran a 45 minute video on Otter AI and, respectfully, it's so inaccurate I can't even afford the time to go through it all to try to fix it. Anyone have a good alternative?

19.02.2025 17:43 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Your Startup Methodology is Whatโ€™s Failing: How the First Principles Approach Beats Lean, Agile, and Waterfall Your Brain Is More Agile Than Your Project Plan

Your Startup Methodology is Whatโ€™s Failing: How the First Principles Approach Beats Lean, Agile, and Waterfall
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18.02.2025 20:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I have a confession, when I was little, at Yellowstone, I was the one chosen to prevent forest fires.

17.02.2025 16:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

After the decline of Yahoo and the risk of Quora, I was surprised to discover Ask Jeeves is still a thing.

17.02.2025 16:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

2025 seems designed for us ENTPs ๐Ÿคฃ

09.02.2025 18:14 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

A great irony in the U.S. today is that many people argue and hate on the idea that the country is Free Market and Capitalist, and yet free market capitalists are active in the government now, proving that it isn't.

08.02.2025 21:03 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Where's Elon Musk is the new Who is John Galt

08.02.2025 16:22 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Why Doesnโ€™t Europe Have a Silicon Valley Europe is home to some of the worldโ€™s most brilliant minds, world-class universities, and a rich history of scientific and technological breakthroughs.

Why Doesnโ€™t Europe Have a Silicon Valley
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07.02.2025 21:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Time for Congress to Reform the SECโ€™s Outdated Accredited Investor Definition Public policy isnโ€™t just a framework for startups and investors, itโ€™s a gatekeeper deciding who gets to play the game.

Time for Congress to Reform the SECโ€™s Outdated Accredited Investor Definition
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06.02.2025 17:57 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I've heard it said that in Washington, among staffers, using the word "corruption," is taboo, like a curse word that will get you hauled before HR. The last thing any politician wants is to be affiliated with the word, true or not, so it's not to be said.

Time for this to change

06.02.2025 15:34 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

We learn to love others from families capable of great love

04.02.2025 21:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

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