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Print Edition StoriesWednesday, January 6, 2010
How I See It
Boston: The perfect place for entrepreneurs
By Richard Banfield, Special to Mass High Tech
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When Paul Graham’s Y Combinator pulled out of Boston, there was an audible moan. Leaving Boston to focus on “Silicone Valley” opportunities was the reason Graham gave for the move. The media fallout would have you believe that the very core of entrepreneurship was leaving and that it was another blow to Boston dealt by Silicon Valley. It was a sad event but by no means the end of something core to Boston. The rivalry between Boston and Silicon Valley as the top choice for entrepreneurs is one of Boston’s mythologies, and it’s time we busted it.
While living in New York, I never once heard a local New Yorker mention the Red Sox. It seems the only people who care about keeping that rivalry alive are Red Sox fans. The same is true of the Boston-Silicon Valley debate. We’re trying too hard to compete for that top spot, and it’s distracting us from what is amazing about Boston.
I’ve been asking entrepreneurs what makes Boston an ideal city for them. My overflowing inbox convinced me that Boston still is the best city for entrepreneurship.
One of the first people who responded was Monika Desai, founder of Sole Envie, a custom designed shoe marketer. Somewhat ironically, Monika was in China to meet with her manufacturers. Monika pointed out that in the shoe industry it used to make sense to be in New York. Now that manufacturing and design have been largely exported, it makes more sense to be in a city that supports innovation. Access to mentoring and startup support programs has made Boston very attractive to Monika.
Mentoring came up a lot in my discussions. Monika is working with a group called the First Growth Venture Network, where she’s been assigned a VC, a successful entrepreneur and an angel investor to be her mentor.
Mentorship and support isn’t always that formal. Events held by David Beisel’s Web Innovators Group and Bobbi Carlton’s Mass Innovation Nights are somewhat unique to Boston. These events are difficult to find in other cities. Every person I interviewed mentioned events like these and how valuable they had been in finding partners, employees, investors and support for their ventures.
One such entrepreneur, Kate Brodock, CEO of The Other Side Group, said, “Boston has both a strong informal startup community and a formal group of mentors and support organizations, which makes it easier to get started and get help. Technology has made it easier to start a business.The only down side is that means there might be more immature entrants to the market and more failures.”
Amram Shapiro, founder of Book of Odds, gave me a perspective that I hadn’t even considered: “Boston is an ideal location because of its old-world, industrial-city attributes, like being small enough to walk across and a transportation system like the T. It gives startups physical access to thousands of young, educated, skilled staff.”
Shapiro said that those factors — combined with the proximity to traditional business accelerators, like tech-focused schools — provides the academic and thought leadership attributes required for startup innovation. These things might seem obvious, but when you’re in startup mode and every penny counts everything matters.
Greg Titus, founder of Avenue100 Media Solutions, was equally confident in Boston’s ability to create a sustained surge in entrepreneurial activity. “Mentorship and incubation is a cornerstone to entrepreneurship. No one can do this on their own and losing the Y Combinator is unfortunate but by no means a sign that Boston isn’t a good city for startups,” he said.
In my mind, Boston is the ideal city for entrepreneurs — but it also has a complex that it needs to grow out of. You can’t create a great startup culture without a great entrepreneurial culture. Boston has that by the truckload.
Richard Banfield is a regular contributor to Mass High Tech. He can be reached at richard@freshtilledsoil.
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