Boston “is a bit of the Rodney Dangerfield of cities,” according to Paige Arnof-Fenn, founder & CEO of the Boston-based Mavens & Moguls. After all, the Bay Area and NYC get all the good press but “truly Boston is where a lot of the tech and VC world started.”
Boston offers plenty to love: MassChallenge Boston’s four month accelerator program gives global entrepreneurs the resources they need with no equity taken and helps them compete for the chance to win a share of a $1M prize. MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, on May 24 this year, offers the Innovation Showcase which features 10 outstanding early stage companies with cutting edge solutions that combine both value and innovation to Enterprise IT. The city is also home to Kendall Square, known to some as the most innovative mile on the planet due to the caliber of business it’s attracted over the last decade. The Bay area might have the name recognition, but Boston’s clearly no slouch.
I reached out to Arnof-Fenn, along with 14 additional Bostonian founders and CEOs, to find out the benefits and disadvantages to basing a startup out of The Hub. Here are their reasons for loving the city:
Plenty of Brainpower
Boston-based entrepreneur Ted Chan, founder and CEO of the online healthcare portal CareDash.com, runs the startup out of Kendall Square:
“When our chairman, Dave Blundin, and I were picking where to start a company, we decided on Kendall Square for one main reason; In terms of pure brainpower, it’s the densest in the world. The fact that you are between Harvard and MIT, and the minds that Boston/Cambridge attract really means you have access to the best of the best. Also, the quality of life relative to Silicon Valley or New York is fantastic.”
Expect Plenty of VC Funds
Here’s Ted Chan again:
“There’s plenty of funding at the angel, seed, and VC level if you have a well-thought through plan. Boston has one of the most supportive and thoughtful early stage investing communities.”
There’s less competition that you could expect at Silicon Valley, according to Vienne Brown, founder of VienneMilano:
“The best part about having a startup in Boston is that we are a hub for both new ideas and bright minds who want to learn, yet we do not need to share our resources with 9 million people like some other cities.”
…But Boston Investors Are Less Likely to Take a Chance
From Jonathan Kay, co-founder and COO of Apptopia:
“There’s a lot of success in mobile from Boston such as mCube, Quattro, Wireless and Localytics. But we actually found that New York and San Francisco investors were more willing to take a chance on us when we were smaller and less proven. Now that our business is growing and defined, we will likely close our Series A round from a Boston investor.”
And Some Find Resources Scarce
GSX Solutions started their business in Boston about two years ago. Jean-Francois Piot, VP of Product Management has been in charge of jump-starting the company in Boston, and offering some refreshing feedback on the challenge:
“It is expensive and it is challenging to find resources, because you compete with so many companies that have plenty of funding.”
There’s a Focus on Health and Medicine
From Dan Beeler, CTO of SyncThink:
“Boston is still the place to be as a new medical technology. The human knowledge and resources in this city are amazing. If you need regulatory experience; it’s here. If you need world-class medical opinion; it’s here. If you need top flight engineering; it’s here. Medical technology is complex, but Boston knows which questions to ask and they are passionate about solutions.”
Janet Kosloff, CEO and co-founder of InCrowd, agrees that it’s a popular niche:
“Boston is an especially rich startup community for health tech companies with many smaller, under-the-radar life science firms as well as big pharma, medical device, and healthcare-related advertising agencies. These companies all strive for the ability to be quick and nimble in decision making and value innovations like ours. This is my fifth healthcare-oriented startup. As the previous two had strong exits, when it was time to start my own firm, my co-founder and I were fortunate to have access to a thriving investor community, along with ancillary experts such as legal and financial advisors. There is also a rich talent pool for analytics, data, and…