10 Reasons why Boston was a great start-up town in 2011 – Looking forward to a great 2012

Posted by Brad on January 5th, 2012

In alphabetical order:

  • Artisan's Asylum  – now with 31,000 square feet on the Somerville/Cambridge line, wood shop, welding shop, machine shop, lots of how-to classes and a great mix of artists, machinists, electronic hobbyists, carpenters. You can finally, for little money, build whatever your mind can imagine minutes from Boston.
  • BostonInno , GreenHorn Connect, Scott Kirsner, VentureFizz, Xconomy and many more that I forgot to mention keeping us informed second by second on the local startup scene.
  • Cambridge Innovation Center – The CIC is an incredible space for launching companies and always a friend to the start-up community.
  • Microsoft NERD Center – The NERD center has hosted for free thousands of events in their spectacular spaces. Great to see the corporate giant doing so much for the local start-up eco system.
  • Mass Challenge  – One million dollars in prizes, free awe-inspiring office space. Attracting worldwide talent to Boston. Yowza.
  • TechStars Boston –  A fantastic accelerator program, $100K guaranteed funding, an exceptional training/mentoring program, friendly advocates for entrepreneurs and they are not in California.
  • MassInno – Month after Month, Massinno has enabled hundreds of Boston area companies to show their stuff in a festive supportive atmosphere.
  • Ice Chimes on the Greenway – The Greenway has transformed Boston and enabled great new public space and in this case cool winter art.
  • The Universities – We are blessed with many great business, tech and creative schools and more than 250,000 college students in Boston and Cambridge alone.
  • The investors – $2.4B (B as in Billions) Venture Capital invested in Massachusetts companies during the first three quarters of the year coupled with a vibrant and growing angel community.

 

I am sure I forgot many other compelling reasons to be here and launching businesses, please feel free to add your favorites below in the comments section.

Looking forward to a good year,

Brad

 

4 responses to “10 Reasons why Boston was a great start-up town in 2011 – Looking forward to a great 2012”

  1. Anonymous says:
    January 5, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    Thanks for including VentureFizz on your list.  I appreciate all of your support!

    No doubt – 2011 was a great year.  I am very bullish (and hopeful) that 2012 will be even greater! 

    Cheers!

  2. MikeBurtov says:
    April 12, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    Great list! I thought I would add:http://www.masshightech.com/http://www.wpiventureforum.org/http://webinnovatorsgroup.com/