Where to Be Seen In The Boston Tech Scene

Boston is a great place for tech businesses.  What we have is that wonderful thing called "Density" - an environment rich in the resources that are needed to start and flourish. From schools to IPO lawyers!

Our Boston Innovation Challenge series is a great example of a successful hackathon where companies worked with the techies to benefit each other and orgs like the Red Cross.

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Here is an update of new resources:
Start with the Hitchhiker's Guide to Boston Tech - http://bostontechguide.com/
www.assemble.vc is building a community of entrepreneurs and investors
www.kauffmanfellows.org - Educate to win 
https://www.ventureapp.com/ - Business exchange out of Bostinno team
www.FounderDating.com - matchmaking
Founders Institute http://fi.co/
foundersgrid.com - newsletter
www.mossaichub.com - biz network based in Boston

Boston-centric

Startup accelerators and incubators such as TechStars, Future Boston, Mass Challenge, and Harvard Innovation Lab offer capital and mentorship opportunities in exchange for small amounts of equity. Coworking spaces including WeWork,Workbar, Koa Labs, Idea Space, and Cambridge Innovation Center provide rented spaces for solo founders and growing teams to work on their projects. For those interested in sharpening their skills, groups such as Boston New Tech Meetup, Girl Develop It, Rails Bridge, and General Assembly offer classes, workshops, and events on a wide range of topics including coding, digital marketing, data science, and project management.

 There is also a hub of the hub... Bostinno 

Before the list... we know Boston is one of the best locations to find the startup experience... but we also play well with others. Check out THIS interactive guide to over 30,000 startups... wherever they are (many are in Boston of course).

 Also see who is getting funded at VentureFizz
Regional Clusters:
Large Tech Meetups:
  • Web Innovators Group: Quarterly Demo-Style meetup in Cambridge draws over 1000 members of the startup community each time.  The Grand-daddy. Alumni have been funded by Sequoia, First Round Capital, Accel, Trinity Ventures, and others. For example: Dropbox, Reddit, and Birch Box, to name a few.
  • Mass TLC Unconference: Large annual conference put on by the MA Technology Leadership Council
  • MITX - Interactive Agency folks and their "Exchange" 
  • Mobile Mondays: Boston chapter of the world’s largest Mobile professional community.
  • Founder Dialogues: Eric Paley plays talk show host on this recurring fireside chat style event with Boston area founders.
  • RubyRiot: Not recurring events, but seems like there is a few big parties every year organized by a small group of folks who are very active in the tech community.
Online Resources and Newsletters:
  • Bostinno: Great coverage of local startup happenings with a growing network of local writers.  Quickly becoming one of the best sources of information on the local tech scene
  • Greenhorn Connect: Excellent hub of BOS tech events and resources. Currently, this seems to be the most popular and most comprehensive event calendar.
  • DartBoston: A vibrant community of young entrepreneurs.  Join their online community and attend their excellent events.  They’ve been a bit quiet of late, but still a good resource.
  • OnStartups: One of the largest online startup communities founded by HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah.
  • VentureFizz: Good newsletter with funding announcements, best local blog posts, and other local tech happenings.
  • Startups in Boston: Listing of Startups by category, neighborhhod, etc.
Acquisitions:
Recent IPO’s:

 University Resources
Smaller and High Quality Meetups
  • Open Coffee - Weekly meetup started by Bijan Sabet and Nabeel Hyatt.  No agenda, just come by and talk tech at Voltage
  • http://foundermentors.com– Not a meetup, but a great mentorship program started by serial CTO Sean Lindsay
  • WebInno Supper Club – Regular, small dinner series around very specific topics.  Topics have included “Leveraging Pinterest”, “Mobile Commerce”, and “Facebook Advertising”
  • Future Forward and Nantucket Conference – Two high quality, invite only conferences for tech leaders and executives, both increasingly open to bringing in young blood.
  • EdTechup – Well run meetup focused on the emerging edtech scene.
  • Intelligent.ly - Classes on startups and tech run by practitioners
  • General Assembly – Boston branch of tech classes and workshops started in NYC
Coworking Spaces and Accelerators
  • CIC - High quality, flexible office space.  Higher cost, but great facility.
  • TechStars Boston – Boston chapter of TechStars.  Now doing 2 classes each year!
  • Dog Patch Labs - Free workspace run by Polaris Ventures.  No cost, not formal strings attached.
  • Startup Leadership Program – International mentorship program with over 100 startups participating
  • WorkBar Boston - Flexible co-working space near South Station.
  • MassChallenge - Startup competition and accelerator.  Beautiful space in the South Boston Innovation District.
  • Startup School – Professional accelerator program for recent graduates
  • Encandle – Co-Working space on Newbury Street
  • AngelHack – Hackathon with cash prizes
  • Hack/Reduce – Big Data Hackspace
Entrepreneurial Development Firms
Places to Hang
  • Crema Cafe - Great coffee in Harvard Square.  Favorite spot for Eric Paley, Antonio Rodriguez, and Rich Miner
  • Andala Cafe  - Central Square hangout.  Free wifi.
  • Henrietta’s Table - In the Charles Hotel.  General Catalyst is right upstairs.
  • Paramount - Favorite breakfast spot for the Beacon Hill VC crowd.
  • VentureCafe - Networking venue within the CIC
  • Voltage - Coffee shop in Kendall.  Home of OpenCoffee Cambridge
  • Tatte Bakery – New Entrant accross the street from Voltage
  • Area 4 – New Coffee Shop and Eatery in Kendall
  • Thinking Cup – Popular coffee Shop for the Park Street / Downtown BOS crowd. My personal favorite, but no wifi
  • Barrington Coffee – Fort Point Channel
Journalists and News
Looking for Office Space?
  • T3 Advisors: Real estate brokers with deep VC relationships. Talk to Greg Hoffmeister
  • Cushman and Wakefield: Global commercial real estate services. Worked with Kyruus and Tripadvisor. Talk to Matt Malatesta
  • Jones Lang Lasalle: Global commercial real estate services. Worked with .  Talk to Bryan Sparkes.
Scaling Companies To Watch (ie: probably hiring)
  • Care.com – Just raised a monster round from IVP
  • Gemvara - Online retailer for customized jewelry.  Founded by recent Babson Alum
  • Wayfair - $350M + revenue, 300 employees. Recently raised their very first VC round from Battery and Spark earlier this year.  Amazing company, and one of the biggest private online retailers.
  • HubSpot - Inbound marketing pioneer.  The current talent magnet of Boston tech companies. Recently raised money from Sequoia Capital
  • Dataxu - Demand Side Platform for Real Time Ad Buying.  Led by serial entrepreneur Mike Baker.
  • Nanigans – Facebook Advertising Platform. Just hired Yahoo’s VP Media Sales.
  • Most of our portfolio companies are hiring too, so I won’t single any particular one out:
30 To Follow (Being edited on the fly, so not exactly 30 anymore)
Investors:
Entrepreneurs and Thought Leaders:

Ranking innovation at a bunch of Boston darlings (by a bunch of Boston Darlings)
BONUS LINKS:

- Venture Capital hot shots and hot deals
- Why Boston rocks for entrepreneurs in Fortune by EverSave
- Bostinno's roundup of the Boston Tech Scene
- General (not tech) Boston Demographics Infographic
- For a recent list of the top National Twitterers (tech and others), go here.
- Here is Forbes' National list of the top 50 Social Media power influencers
- More.... and most relevant to you... contact me

Thanks for the inspiration RobGo!