The RO's 2024 debrief

Dear readers,

In 2024, the Realistic Optimist published 54 articles. Two formats prevailed: interviews and opinion pieces. The intention was to extract knowledge from the ground rather than paraphrasing from afar. 

The RO’s goal is to make sense of the (recently) globalized startup scene, exploring the nuances that globalization brings. 

In today's special edition, I reflect on five themes I observed in 2024. It is the RO's last piece of the year.

I'm honored by your continued trust and readership.

Enjoy,

Timothy Motte, founder of the Realistic Optimist.

I) Closed economies & hidden opportunities

Regardless of religion, purchasing power or nationality, people have similar wants: more convenience, more money, more safety, more mental stimulation. A startup solving for one of those wants has a market.

The simplicity of that statement is matched by the simplicity with which some of the countries I covered this year are written about (Ethiopia, Venezuela, Sudan, Iraq...).

If a country is at war or under US sanctions, apparently their economic potential becomes null and void. That intellectual laziness is exasperating. 

These countries house millions of people with needs and purchasing power. Period. And there are startups building solutions to those needs. Period. Levels of complexity differ, that is all.

Placing countries in investable versus non-investable buckets is dumb. Founders are building everywhere, and understanding how they adapt to local conditions is this publication’s job. Fascinating insights are discovered in the process.