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Print Edition StoriesFriday, May 22, 2009
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
MHT's Efrain Viscarolasaga: Tech companies may have to wait for stimulus funds
MHT's Galen Moore: Two differing web-based news business models
MHT's Michelle Lang: Local tech execs tackle the Boston Marathon
Focus on closer competitors and not silicon valley
To the editor:
This “rivalry” topic (“Inside California & New England Rivalry,” May 8-14) seems to be a recurring annual theme in Massachusetts, closely aligned with opening day at Fenway Park. It is completely wasted energy. Here is why:
According to July 2008 U.S. Census data, California had a population of 36.8 million, while Massachusetts had 6.5 million. According to the National Science Foundation, in 2006 California spent $6.5 billion on academic R&D, while Mass. spent $2.2 billion. Publicly funded research and the University of California system are more important to the innovation discussion than the trite Stanford vs. Harvard/MIT debate.
According to Capital IQ, 594 venture capital firms are based in California, while 183 VC firms are based in Mass.
The answer to this “rivalry” question is one of pure and simple demographics. Only a tectonic plate shift cleaving off California would allow Massachusetts to win. As a Mass. resident, I urge my fellow techies to focus on fending off the Mid-Atlantic and Research Triangle Park for East Coast tech supremacy.
Paul Bowen
President, Bowen Advisors Inc., Cohasset
New England needs to accept failure as a learning tool
To the editor:
This week’s editorial mentioned that failure is more accepted in Silicon Valley. Maybe Massachusetts’ entrepreneurial community should address our “Failure Acceptance.” We can take a cue from high schoolers; they have a “reject wall” to post college rejection letters. It takes away the stigma of failure and allows people to commiserate, to accept it as normal, even necessary, when trying to do something important. The MHT website could have a “wall of misery” where people can post their failures, bad business plans, even lessons learned, and comment on others’ misery. It might salve the pain. It also might help move Boston past the “Failure Syndrome.” While business failure isn’t a mark of success, it should at least be a mark of learning.
Drew Hession-Kunz
Founder and president, i-Nalysis LLC, Concord
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