🌐 Website | ✉️ Contact → [email protected] or Timothy Motte on LinkedIn
The Realistic Optimist (RO) is a publication covering the global startup scene.
We publish in‑depth, written interviews with startup founders and VCs across Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
We focus on markets and founders that are under‑covered by mainstream business media, despite playing an increasingly central role in global economic growth.
Students who read us are studying:
Our readership is international by design, with strong engagement from students and professionals based in or focused on emerging economies.
— Firas Atoui, HBS Batch of 2026
"The Realistic Optimist adds a perspective that is unique. It gives me founder-level insight into how companies operate in practice, with a global lens that is especially valuable for someone focused on the Middle East. The RO’s coverage of emerging markets helps me connect what I learn in the classroom to real world dynamics in regions that matter to my work. It has become a key complement to my academic experience because it consistently offers concrete, execution-oriented analysis that informs how I think about building in MENA.”
— Abenezer Mechale, HBS Batch of 2027
"The first article I read on RO was about Renda, a Nigerian startup working in the African logistics & delivery space. I hadn’t heard about the company before, although it was bridging persistent supply chain gaps I knew were all too common on the continent. Since then, RO has been my go-to source for information and insights on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Global South. It is one of those resources I didn’t know I needed but is now a consistent part of my weekly reading list. ..I’m glad Baker Library introduced me to the Realistic Optimist.”