Thinking about our hustle. How we're easily overwhelmed by the build, the marketing, selling, while worrying about social media, AI, taxes, funding, and regulation. Try something with me. Our future is shaped by founders ❤️ Business owners who deliver what we need and create jobs in our community. Startup entrepreneurs working to change things for the better. The founders of ourselves and our families. Whether for work, a new venture, or our lives, we hustle too much. Take a moment today and go through this. By yourself or with a team. Take a break from the hustle and the incessant tips, advice, blog posts, and podcasts telling you what needs to be done. I asked Daniyal Ashraf to turn an idea into an opportunity, and in thinking about what Founder Institute does for people, take 5 minutes with this. Stop pitching. Stop selling. Stop pushing. 1. Why do you do what you do that is economically inevitable? 2. Who are you? Warts and all. 3. Why now? What does the future hold? Think about timing. 4. Consider Where - where you live, why there, and where you work. 5. Only then, explain What it is and How it works for you and for others. Instead of pushing what you think matters, find your gaps, weaknesses, and where you need help. Then tell that story and ask for it. We put this infographic together to help. Print it. Share it. Often the path to success is not in what we can but what we can't. We're all founders. What helps is knowing how we need help 🙏 If feeling ready, share your story. Connect with @founding to help others, to learn, or think. Reach out to me, I want to help, and I need help.

This is how you serve entrepreneurs: @DMPEDDC, Golden Triangle BID, @GWtweets, @WDCEP, and @JoinBuildwithin, with @founding - a coalition in economic development of startups fi.co/insight/washington-s-b…

Grateful! Nominated as Rising Star of the Year in Government Affairs with @USLege_ai Newer in shaping policy; recognizing that Government allocation of resources and policy can be more meaningful to startups, with @founding and in understanding founders. h/t @VanceGinn too

Pulled more research from @BrookingsInst @OECD @nvca @BritishBBank @FTC to update the survey of Why VC is Unavailable in Your City. Published with @founding, this is what economic policy makers should be doing: fi.co/insight/venture-capita…

Cities don’t fail startup events because founders don’t care. They lose them because no one ever saw the invitation. I'm talking to essentially ALL OF YOU because I hear of events more often after the fact than when you want us to know. Let's fix this. Newsletters land in “Promotions.” Facebook throttles reach. LinkedIn buries half your posts. Your carefully funded pitch night or accelerator session feels empty, not because the community isn’t there, but because your distribution does NOT work the way it used to. For community builders, city leaders, and economic development teams, this is the rub: if you aren’t everywhere, you’re nowhere. What it takes now: ✅ Anchor hub – Every event needs one authoritative listing: your city’s innovation site, a @founding page, or a chamber registration form. All other links point there. ✅ Multi-platform mirroring – Eventbrite, Meetup, Luma, Facebook Events, LinkedIn Events. Not optional. They are the Google of local discovery. If you’re only posting on one, you’re invisible to half your community. ✅ Direct invitations – LinkedIn and Facebook both let you invite connections or group members directly. Few municipalities use this. It works because it feels like a personal ask, not a broadcast. ✅ Social strategy – One post is a billboard in the desert. Cities should plan multi-week campaigns: tag partners, tag mentors, tag sponsoring organizations. Ask staff and stakeholders to comment in the first hour—algorithms notice. ✅ Email = reinforcement – Not your lifeline. Assume most never see it. Use email to point people back to the hub and to join your Groups or Pages. ✅ Omnichannel as infrastructure – The student finds events on Meetup, the professional on LinkedIn, the family on Facebook, the journalist on X. A healthy ecosystem meets all of them where they already are. Think this way: Events are infrastructure. They’re where trust forms, investors meet founders, and sponsors validate your city’s ecosystem. If you want to be the city known for startups, it’s not enough to build the program. You must build the distribution muscle, so people show up. MORE ABOUT HOW, HERE: paulobrien.substack.com/p/us…

Entrepreneurship isn’t a pep rally. It’s infrastructure. Roads, grids, water systems, and now assessments, platforms, and programs that scale founder outcomes. That’s why I joined @founding. My policy guide here: fi.co/insight/the-missing-in…

Join me in Austin on Wednesday: Startup Founder & VC Forum with @founding @lathamwatkins @EveryBanking @LoyalVc @grasshopperbank -> fi.co/event/startup-founder-…

Bogotá, Colombia; Latin America’s Next Startup Ascent, featuring @hubBOG and @rockstart developing acceleration, @Seedstars bringing global competition to local talent, @InnpulsaCol driving government-backed innovation, and @founding launching over 100 companies here since 2011 linkedin.com/pulse/bogot%C3%…