Boston Startups – Resources

Boston has a vibrant startup scene. If you’re looking for information on Boston startups, entrepreneur hubs, Boston startup events, or other resources, I hope you’ll find the following recommendations helpful…

Boston Startup Places (Neighborhoods, Coworking, Cafes)

One of Boston’s best startup ecosystem assets are the number of dedicated coworking spaces, and entrepreneur-frequented cafes in the area. Most coworking spaces have free days, or host public events, that are a great way to connect to the community in them. And in cafes, asking to share a table in packed places like Diesel Cafe has led to many great introductions to other startup founders.

Despite the Boston government’s efforts to create an “innovation district” near downtown Boston, the majority of entrepreneurial activity in Greater Boston takes place in Cambridge (and for many bootstrappers, Somerville).

• Davis Square - In Somerville, this area is one of the cheapest, best places for young professionals to live.
  • Diesel Cafe - A massive cafe in the heart of Davis Square, Diesel is an indie, laptop-friendly (power outlets everywhere, no rush to vacate your space) spot with good coffee and great atmosphere. The wifi isn’t free, but for $13 / month, it’s still affordable even if you’re a rice-and-Ramen bootstrapper. I’ve had serendipitous encounters with many startup founders, developers, and other startup folk here.
    • If you must have free wifi, or the atmosphere isn’t your thing, there’s a Starbucks right across the street that’s also laptop-friendly.
  • Startups: Davis Square is home to BetterLesson, Viximo, and The Echo Nest.

• Central Square - Cambridge’s meeting ground between corporate-heavy Kendall and academia-suffused Harvard. There’s cheap living space here, but it’s a bit less safe / less pleasant than Somerville.
  • Cafes: Andala Coffee House is a well-used venue for laptop workers thanks to its free wifi and tasty food. Clear Conscience Cafe, though it only provides free wireless for an hour, is close to the Barron Building, where many startups have their offices.
  • Startups: Shareaholic and Conduit Labs have offices in Central Square, in the same building as startup seed-funding & incubator program TechStars.

• Kendall Square / MIT- Home to some internet heavyweights like Akamai and Endeca, and Cambridge offices for Google, Microsoft, VMware, and many others.
• Coworking: The Cambridge Innovation Center, where many of the big corps have their offices, is also home to the newly-expanded Cambridge Coworking Center. A more networking-focused coworking space, The Venture Cafe, is being tested as a concept here as well. On the 6th floor of the CIC, another coworking space is run by Polaris Ventures: Dogpatch Labs.
• Startups: Though it’s no longer in the heart of Kendall, hot marketing startup HubSpot is here. The Cambridge Innovation Center, HubSpot’s former location, is home to over 240 companies, many of them web, hardware, and software startups.
• Microsoft NERD: Worth a special mention is Microsoft’s New England Research & Development Center, a space that’s incredibly supportive of the Boston startup community. They host many of the most interesting events organized in the area.
• Downtown Boston 
• Coworking: A three minute walk from South Station, WorkBar Boston is a shared office space, home to Boston startup Traackr and the Boston office of global entrepreneur network EFactor. Also a short walk from South Station, just across the bridge, is Boucoup Loft, an open-source hacker space with desks available on a monthly paid plan.
• Around Boston
• GlobeLab in Dorchester - Accessible by Red Line, the Boston Globe’s headquarters includes a high-tech space where innovators are building the future of journalism. It hosts a few startups, and there are plans for events and presentations at the space.
• Waltham, MA – Home to a dozen or more venture capitalists, Waltham is the center of Boston’s “old school” startup scene. Organizations like ENET and Mass Inno regularly host events here. An hour away by bus, 30 minutes by commuter rail. Earlier this year, a coworking space called Studio Crossings got started. They have $25-for-a-day option, but they’re only open 9 to 5.
• Other Boston Coworking
• GrabADesk.com – A Boston World Partnerships project, this site pairs companies interested in hosting startups with entrepreneurs that need office space. I’m not sure how active it is right now, but they’ve previously paired 50 startups with companies willing to host them.
• GeekOffices.com – Coworking facilities in Inman Square (Cambridge, MA) and Newton, MA.

Boston Startup People

Boston has many helpful, connected, knowledgeable people for those new to the area to reach out to. Please feel free to shoot me an email (jay [.dot.] neely [@at@] socialstrategist [.dot.] com) if you’re looking for advice, and I recommend all of the people below as well. These are people that make things happen in the Boston startup community, and get excited about connecting others to it.

• Jason Evanish, GreenhornConnect.com Founder and Boston events expert.
• Sean Lindsay, serial startup technologist and creator of Founder Mentors.
• Ali Powell, founder of BostonWomenPreneurs.com and marketing maven.
• Roy Rodenstein, founder of Going.com and Boston angel investor.
• Jake Cacciapaglia, founder of young entrepreneur group DartBoston.

Boston Startup Events

For people new to the scene…

• DartBoston events – Dart is a community of young entrepreneurs in Boston. They produce series of live-audience startup & investment webcasts, and frequently organize social mixers. If you want to connect with a young, friendly crowd of startup-interested people, this is the place.
• OpenCoffee Cambridge – Every Wednesday morning at Voltage Cafe in Kendall Square, web entrepreneurs and VCs gather for informal networking and discussion.
• BarCamp Boston – a yearly event that gets 400+ people from Boston’s geek / startup / tech community together for discussion sessions, workshops, and talks. I’ve been a co-organizer of this event each year after attending my first BCB, during which I made some of the best connections to the startup scene that I still have today.

For startup education…

• Lean Startup Circle Boston – focused, stimulating, and well-attended, this monthly meetup provides presentations and attendee-shared best-practices around the lean startup concept. They also have an excellent mailing list.
• Ultra Light Startups Meetup – Provides a wide-ranging series of presentations for those interested in web startups.

For startup action…

• Boston Startup Weekend
• Hackfests
• Boston Music Hackday (annual event)
• Boston Ruby Hackfests (twice / month)

For general networking…

• Web Innovators Group
• Venture Cafe
• PechaKucha
• BostonTweetups

Boston Startups News & Blogs

• Innovation Economy – The blog of Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner, this is a great source of news and opinion pieces from a professional journalist well-established in our community.
• Boston Business Journal Startups & Venture Capital – A fresh daily newsletter from the BBJ, this is a new report aimed at getting more national attention to the innovation and business achievements of Boston startups.
• The Greenhorn Connect Newsletter – This is a weekly newsletter that rounds up Boston startup events, and if you’re interested, startup jobs in Boston.