venture studio – Impact Lab

future predictions, future report, future scenario, future tech

Finding The Right One-Person Business For You

June 20, 2026

Why solopreneurship isn’t one path — it’s at least fifteen

I get asked some version of this question constantly: “I want to start a one-person business, but I have no idea what kind.” It’s a good question, and it deserves a better answer than “follow your passion.” Passion is a starting point, not a strategy.

Here’s the thing most people get wrong about solopreneurship. They treat it like a single destination — as if “starting your own thing” is one job description with one shape. It isn’t. A solo consultant and a solo product builder live in almost entirely different worlds, with different skills, different risk profiles, and different daily lives. Picking the wrong shape for your personality is why so many promising solopreneurs burn out in year one — not because the idea was bad, but because the format was wrong for them.

future predictions, future report, future scenario, future tech, future trends

The Von Neumann Engine: Rebuilding Cities That Build Themselves

May 4, 2026

By Futurist Thomas Frey

For decades, cities have been built like static machines. We zone them, finance them, construct them—and then we wait. We hope businesses show up. We hope talent sticks around. We hope downtown revitalization plans somehow take hold.

Hope is not a strategy.

What cities actually need is a system that doesn’t just exist—but one that continuously creates new economic life from within itself. That’s where the Von Neumann Engine comes in.

Borrowed from the idea of self-replicating systems, the Von Neumann Engine isn’t a piece of hardware. It’s a way of thinking about cities as living systems—systems designed to generate startups, attract talent, and reinvent themselves over and over again.

City Planning, Economy, People Making a Difference, Startup

The Future of Regional Innovation: Why Venture Studios Are the New Economic Engine

August 19, 2025

For decades, regional economic development followed a predictable playbook: attract a major employer, offer tax incentives, build a business park, cut the ribbon. But that era is ending. Today’s economy is driven by smaller firms, distributed innovation, and talent that no longer defaults to coastal hubs. Instead of chasing yesterday’s employers, forward-thinking regions are building tomorrow’s companies.

The model leading this transformation? The venture studio.