Boston startups should be focusing more on creating strategic partnerships with big companies.

An “if we build it, they will come” mindset appears to dominate the Boston startup scene. Too many startups also rely mostly on a pricing and plans revenue model combined with implementing the latest inside sales and marketing 2.0 tools to “get found” while driving demand. A complementary and proactive approach in targeting big companies for strategic partnerships is needed.

Wake up… Most big companies have realized that their current set of technology providers lack the innovation and speed to deliver new competitive solutions. There are new sets of problems that need to be solved that may not have existed even a few years ago. As a result, new innovation programs and budgets have been established, led by senior executives. Their motivation is to fund pilots with emerging technology providers that most times lead to a much larger transaction and partnership strategy. Interesting areas include mobility, social, analytics, and cloud computing.

Take advantage of these customer-funded opportunities as these dollars may also complement your angel and VC funding efforts. Plus, for those leveraging lean startup principles, incorporating a big company “voice” to validate your product development roadmap may commit them to buy additional products and enhancements in the future.

If big companies are approached correctly, senior executives leading innovation programs will make swift decisions. Unfortunately, there are major challenges I see within the startup community to take advantage of these budgets. These include:

• Little focus on proactively targeting big companies. Also, the startup team and their mentors may not possess the sales skills or experience to effectively connect with and relate to big-company senior executives.

• Boston startups are too focused on the product and technology. Big companies are also evaluating their ability to work and collaborate with the startup team. Chemistry is important to these executives.

• You are not the center of the universe. There may be additional value in extending and leveraging existing ecosystem investments.

What I am describing here is not an outdated sales process where the cost to acquire a customer is high and the sales cycles are very long.

Keep in mind that big companies would rather … Next Page »

Comments (5) | Reprints | Share:          

There’s a new big tech company in town. In fact, it’s arguably the world’s biggest technology company (by revenue), and it’s joining the ranks of IBM, EMC, Microsoft, Google, and, most recently, Amazon, in expanding to the Boston-Cambridge area.

Palo Alto, CA-based Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) has set up a new office in Cambridge, MA. The operation will serve as a center for technology development, licensing, and outreach to local startups, investors, and researchers. The 37,000-square-foot facility at 150 CambridgePark Drive, near the Alewife subway station, is spread over two floors. The building serves as the new headquarters for Vertica, the Boston-area big-data analytics firm that HP bought last winter. Vertica is in the process of moving its 150 employees from its offices in Billerica to the Cambridge facility this month, and it is currently hiring.

HP already had a sizable presence in Massachusetts, with its campus in Andover. But the new Cambridge office represents an unprecedented investment by HP in outreach and partnerships with local entrepreneurs, venture capital firms, and the academic research community in the Boston area. The company hasn’t specified a firm commitment of future dollars, but just setting up the new space—including a state-of the art lab and all its associated infrastructure—has cost more than $10 million, says Chris Lynch, the chief executive of Vertica. (His HP title is vice president and general manager.)

Lynch, who is leading the new facility, calls it a “big-data center of excellence” for HP. The idea is it will be a technology hub for the firm, a bit like HP Labs in Palo Alto—but different. (Lynch wouldn’t go so far as to call it “HP Labs East.”) The center will be a base from which HP could make deals to license its technology or invest in early-stage startups alongside venture firms, he says. The center also plans to bring in students and early-stage entrepreneurs for hackathons and other tech-themed events. And it will serve as a base for other types of outreach, such as to local K-12 schools, Lynch says.

So why Alewife instead of, say, Kendall Square? “We wanted to bridge the gap between getting access to the younger people living in Cambridge … Next Page »

Comments (3) | Reprints | Share:          

I didn’t know the full extent to which the Boston area has a thriving data and analytics startup scene.

I had always associated the city primarily with biotech innovation. My company, Chart.io, provides hosted business dashboards to help companies visualize their database data. We’re based out in San Francisco (we were part of the 2010 Y Combinator class), but our investors, Avalon Ventures, call Boston home. When my friends at Avalon-backed Kinvey (mobile backends as a service) and Boston-based SessionM (a platform to spark deeper consumer engagement with mobile content and ads) and I decided to co-host a data visualization and analytics meetup for the local community, we expected to get 20-30 RSVPs at most. Instead, we broke 100 in a flash and saw a steady torrent of emails from data enthusiasts pleading for admission.

In fact, a deeper look into the Boston tech scene reveals quite a rich history of data and analytics companies, including Netezza, Endeca, ITA, EMC, and other giants. And it turns out, the startup scene is equally rich, with companies innovating around NoSQL, data storage, search, healthcare, and a variety of cloud computing ventures. Here’s a quick tour of the Boston- data landscape. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

As data volumes have exploded in the past decade, so have the number of companies building tools to store, retrieve, analyze, and generally manage the deluge of data.

Two Boston-area companies, Cloudant and Basho, are tackling the big data problem through non-relational databases (NoSQL), designed to handle hundreds of gigabytes and even terabytes of data and enable applications to elastically scale out to meet the demands of millions (or hundreds of millions) of concurrent users. In this vein, Cloudant offers tools to help companies use Apache CouchDB, while Basho developed its own data store called Riak.

Meanwhile, other local firms are focusing on the next generation … Next Page »

Comments (3) | Reprints | Share:          

When last we checked in with Gordon Jones, it was six months ago and he had just been appointed the inaugural director of the Harvard Innovation Lab. It was May, the birds were singing, the Red Sox had pulled out of their season-starting slump, and anything seemed possible.

Now the cold, dark days are upon us, and we need a place to rejuvenate our spirits as we gear up for the holiday season. Students and young entrepreneurs especially need such a place. The Harvard i-lab, as it is called, might be that place—a $20 million center whose mission is to support all Harvard students interested in entrepreneurship. And it is officially open for business as of today, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, school administrators, and politicians.

The important news is that the i-lab is real, and it marks a serious and ambitious effort to foster entrepreneurship on a grand scale. The unstated goal is to keep the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg from leaving town (and Harvard) and building a multibillion-dollar company somewhere else. Will it work? Who knows, but you have to start somewhere.

Back in May, Jones talked with me about just trying to get his baby to first grade—the idea being, walk before you run. He has been heads-down since then, but I recently caught up with him about the i-lab’s opening, and the progress and challenges to date. (And yes, he hosted Zuckerberg’s recent visit to the lab.)

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised so far,” Jones says. “It’s genuine, the interest here, and the level of engagement across the Harvard schools is strong.” He says that the overall support from the university and the enthusiasm from the academic and business communities “exceeds what I expected.”

Jones adds, “When we first talked six months ago, there was this question of, ‘Is Harvard late to the game?’ I think this is a great time to be doing what Harvard is doing.” And that is, in his words, “trying to bring the best of Harvard’s knowledge and network and make it available to students. And being part of the Boston innovation community.”

Here are my takeaways going into the first day of school at the i-lab:

1. Jones isn’t going anywhere. Yes, he has an extremely challenging job. (You try being accountable to seven different deans across Harvard, for starters.) The fact that he’s still alive and kicking—not to mention attending lots of entrepreneurship events and getting to know students and the local business community at every turn—bodes well for the lab’s future. “You’ve got to pick your battles,” he says.

2. The lab is already active. It officially opens today, but stuff has been happening there for months already: a “startup weekend scramble,” guest speakers (the series includes Eric Ries, Peter Thiel, and Jeff Taylor), Harvard courses on entrepreneurship and global innovation, special panels, startup workshops (Alex Taussig led one about mistakes entrepreneurs make; Eric Paley did one on career choices), and one-on-one consultations with “experts in residence” and “innovation partners” … Next Page »

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

When I entered Harvard as a freshman, there was no central focus on startups or entrepreneurs. Student groups were splintered and stagnating, and there were no main faculty members whom I could approach about entrepreneurship. I was intimidated to approach students or faculty from Harvard’s graduate schools, and there was no cross-campus collaboration. Harvard’s startup scene was almost completely underground. Students worked on their “side projects” alone in their dorm rooms. As far as I can tell, that pattern of the insular Harvard entrepreneur has been true for years.

Yet despite all of these hurdles, Harvard has graduated some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. Everyone knows of Zuckerberg and Gates dropping out. But what about Tony Hsieh (College ’95), co-founder of LinkExchange and CEO of Zappos.com? Or Tim O’Reilly (College ’75), founder of O’Reilly Media? And what about Scott McNealy (College ’76), co-founder of Sun Microsystems, or social entrepreneurs like Paul Farmer (HMS ’88, Ph.D. ’90), founder of Partners in Health? Do we consider Trip Hawkins (College ’76), founder of Electronic Arts; Mark Warner (HLS ’80), co-founder of Nextel Communications; or Thomas Stemberg (HBS ’73), co-founder of Staples?

These individuals demonstrate two distinct facts about entrepreneurship: first, it’s not necessary to drop out of school to found and grow an amazingly successful enterprise. Second, Harvard has been the birthplace of innovations across industries since its inception.

On Friday, Harvard enters the next era in its quest to graduate successful entrepreneurs, when the Harvard Innovation Lab officially opens its doors. It is both a new facility and new programming that promises to help Harvard students take their ideas as far as they can go. The 30,000 square foot space features a large and easily re-configured space for students to work on their ideas. Nearly every wall is covered with whiteboard paint for students to sketch out their plans. Conference rooms give students more privacy, and a large classroom will host workshops and classes that help students hone their entrepreneurial abilities. Programs already underway include workshops, classes, access to experts-in-residence, mentoring, and student co-working areas. Many of the events and resources are open to the Boston community as a whole.

There has never been a more exciting time to be a student entrepreneur. College is inherently an environment ripe with new connections. During a conversation at 2 AM or a random meeting with a professor, ideas are born. And in a city as alive with innovation as Boston, students have no excuse not to find an idea and run with it.

It’s easy for new university initiatives to launch and be forgotten. The innovation lab is different. The i-lab wasn’t only created to generate interest in entrepreneurship; it was developed to serve the immense interest already present in the student body. The i-lab is here to stay.

So on Friday, welcome the Harvard innovation lab to the Harvard and Boston communities. Stop by and take a look around. Most importantly, speak to some of the students working there. You’ll like what you hear.

Comments (3) | Reprints | Share:          

[Editor's note: Cross-posted from The Economist, 11/2/11]

New York Mayor-entrepreneur Michael Bloomberg, not known for shyness, recently proclaimed New York City as America’s new entrepreneurship capital, roaring past Boston in venture capital and soon to leave Silicon Valley in the dust as the “go to” destination for entrepreneurs. Indeed, the world media are awash with proposals to kick start entrepreneurship as a strategy for economic revival, with support for venture finance at the heart of many programs. Yet the title of Harvard’s Josh Lerner’s recent book, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” is no coincidence, because proclamations are one thing, actual success is quite another.

Fortunately, there is a lot of experience around the world about what works and what doesn’t. Here are some practical principles that the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project have been identifying and developing for public leaders who have, correctly in my opinion, identified entrepreneurship as an essential plank in economic policy.

1. Be clear that the objective is to foster an entrepreneurial finance ecosystem, not to directly provide capital to entrepreneurs. Over time, a healthy entrepreneurship ecosystem makes available capital to ventures that deserve it, while denying it to ventures that do not. This does not mean that governments need to revert to selecting the deserving. This idea has regained currency recently, but we learn time and again (Solyndra anyone?) that it does not work. It does mean that the availability of capital, and other resources, needs to be part of a natural process in which the ecosystem elements—in this case, deal flow and capital—continually evolve and adjust to each other, a concept that is consistent with Smith’s “invisible hand.” But the concept goes further by suggesting that enlightened and skillful leadership can play a critical role in encouraging the evolution of a self-sustaining ecosystem, but leaders have to understand how and when to get in, and how and when to get out.

2. Stimulate financing, but stay off of ventures’ balance sheets. Presence of government and government-owned entities as direct debt or equity holders of ventures should be a red flag. The only reason government should be on a venture’s balance sheet is in the rare case when it is absolutely necessary to entice private, profit-oriented entities to get involved as the natural selector of investment targets, and in those cases, government should have a clear plan to get out. Governments can, as have Israel, Finland and some other countries, provide smart, off-balance sheet funding in the form of repayable grants, matching grants and so forth. But presence on ventures’ balance sheets ultimately leads to a conflict of interest between governments’ social priorities and obligations, and the need to provide a positive return to invested capital. Overall, there is evidence that a moderate amount of this kind of financing can be beneficial, but as it gets to be too great, the benefits rapidly turn into liabilities.

3. Make sunset clauses for financial support programs the rule, not the exception. Permanent, or evergreen programs of government-supported venture capital, loan guarantees, startup grants, angel tax credits and so on, risk becoming white elephants and/or political assets, not economic ones, and in the process risk squandering public funds. Sunset clauses, or “sell-by dates,” help focus policy-implementation programs on (a) achieving results, and (b) creating self-sustainability by building capacity and mutually reinforcing systems (for example, by showing private sector players that they can actually make profits.)

4. “Pulse” incentives to foster discovery. An implication of sunset clauses, in general, is that if providers and consumers of risky capital can “discover” that it is profitable to engage, then they will accelerate self-interested behavior when the “visible hand” is removed. Seeing if providers and consumers of entrepreneurial capital “discover” the correct pricing mechanisms to allow them to engage in a profit-seeking transaction is one test as to whether the problem is really a market failure or not, and is not just … Next Page »

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

Another year, another MassChallenge class. The sophomore edition of the startup accelerator and $1 million business plan competition did not disappoint. Nor did the final event of the program. Tonight was the big awards gala, held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston—a cavernous and sprawling, impersonal space—but it did the job.

I’ll have more on the ceremony tomorrow. But in the meantime, here’s the news from the evening:

Three of the MassChallenge finalist teams won $100,000 each. They are:

—Alkeus Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company working on new treatments for blindness

—Sanergy, a green tech company developing sanitation services for urban slums

—Tinfoil Security, a startup working on Web security software for small businesses

And 14 teams won $50,000 each:

—Artaic, a custom tile mosaic company

—ArtVenue, a marketplace that connects artists with local businesses

—Casa Couture, which makes shoes for pregnant women

—Cocomama Foods, a gluten-free food brand

—Drync, a wine search and ordering service

—EverTrue, a startup that connects schools and organizations with donors

—Her Campus Media, an online magazine and marketing firm targeting college women

—Invup, which makes a Web platform for managing volunteer and donation programs

—Lynx Sportswear, which makes better-fitting sports bras

—Resolute Marine Energy, a seawater desalination company

—SmarterShade, a window-darkening tech company

—SocMetrics, a Web startup that helps businesses engage key influencers

—Therapeutic Systems, a company developing a sensory vest for autistic kids

—UberSense, which makes video software to analyze sports techniques

Rounding out the field of 26 final startups:

—ARO Medical, which makes an implantable brace for back surgery patients

—Bioarray Therapeutics, a cancer diagnostics company

—Circumventive, a stealthy security tech startup

—Driveway, which connects drivers with auto insurance providers

—Finalta, a company specializing in software for institutional asset managers

—PK Clean, a plastic waste-to-energy company

—Privy, a Web marketing platform for local merchants

—Pintley, a beer website and app for brewers and consumers

—The Tap Lab, a mobile location-based game startup.

Congratulations to all the finalists and participants, whose journeys are really just beginning. All in all, this is becoming a pretty cool tradition for the Boston startup community. We’re looking forward to next year already…

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:          

It was a little over a year ago that Xconomy broke the news that a movement was underway to bring an Entrepreneur Walk of Fame to Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA, modeled after its Hollywood namesake.

The idea makes a lot of sense: If we celebrate movie stars and athletes, why not the top innovators and business leaders of all time? The goal is to inspire young people to make a big impact on the world. As for a location for the Walk of Fame, why not historic Kendall Square, which arguably sits in the densest cluster of technology and life sciences organizations and companies in the world?

Lo and behold, it’s really happening. Today the Entrepreneur Walk of Fame will be unveiled at a 1 pm ceremony in the newly paved plaza in front of the Marriott Hotel in Kendall Square. To get to this point took the collaborative efforts of a lot of people from MIT, the City of Cambridge, the Kauffman Foundation, and several community and private organizations.

Here is the inaugural class of seven inductees (and who will present the awards at the ceremony, which is almost as interesting):

—Thomas Edison (1847-1931), founder of General Electric. Probably America’s most famous inventor, he is credited with pioneering the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the commercial light bulb. But it’s his contributions to industry that got him in here. (Presented by David Edison Sloane, Edison’s great-grandson.)

—Bill Hewlett (1913-2001), co-founder and CEO of Hewlett-Packard. He was a Stanford and MIT grad. (Presented by Howard Anderson of MIT Sloan School of Management, formerly of Yankee Group and Battery Ventures, and an Xconomist.)

—David Packard (1912-1996), co-founder, CEO, and chairman of Hewlett-Packard. A Stanford grad and General Electric veteran who supplied the garage that housed the early HP. Rumor has it they called it “HP,” rather than “PH,” based on a coin flip. (Also presented by Howard Anderson.)

—Bob Swanson (1947-1999), co-founder, CEO, and chairman of Genentech. He was an MIT undergrad and MIT Sloan grad, as well as a founding board member of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. (Presented by Tyler Jacks of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.)

—Bill Gates (1955- ), co-founder, chairman, and former CEO of Microsoft; co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is probably Harvard’s most famous dropout, and one of the world’s richest men. (Presented by Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc, the PC spreadsheet.)

—Steve Jobs (1955- ), co-founder, chairman, and former CEO of Apple. On his resume: the Apple II, Mac, Pixar, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad…need we say more? (Presented by Dan Lyons, better known as Fake Steve Jobs.)

—Mitch Kapor (1950- ), founder of Lotus Development, creator of Lotus 1-2-3, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Kapor is the one inductee who will be present at today’s ceremony and will speak for himself. Rumor has it there will also be lots of ex-Lotus employees on hand wearing vintage Lotus 1-2-3 shirts.

“This is a hall of fame” for entrepreneurs, says Bill Aulet of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, who spearheaded the overall effort. “The event itself is kind of like The Breakfast Club. These people are coming together who fought at different times.” (He was talking about Gates, Jobs, and Kapor in particular.)

Each inductee gets a granite star on a 4-foot by 1.5-foot tile that has the entrepreneur’s name, title, and one of his inspirational quotes inscribed. (See photo, left, of the Steve Jobs tile, next to an MIT beaver mascot.) The tiles sit in the plaza next to the Kendall T stop, close to the sidewalk, on either side of the new grassy knoll. As of yesterday morning, about a dozen workmen were sweating to put the finishing touches on the construction in the plaza.

Of course, with any list like this, it’s easy to nitpick or ask why someone is or isn’t on the list. The whole selection process was probably subject to all the usual politics that plague any … Next Page »

Comments (11) | Reprints | Share:          

You know the type. He’s at every tech startup event, every investor event, and every incubator and early-stage mentorship session (at least every good one). He’s talked to every entrepreneur in the area and has had a hand in the development of many of their companies.

He has been a fixture of the local software scene for some 30 years, even though he doesn’t look nearly old enough for that. Worst of all, he comes across as a genuinely nice guy and doesn’t seek the limelight or talk a big game.

That would be Reed Sturtevant—and his reputation is as distinguished as his name. He is one of the Boston area’s most active and respected techies, known especially for his technical prowess and product experience. He’s also an Xconomist—one of our informal advisors who helps keep Xconomy plugged in to the innovation scene—so I wanted to take some time to catch up with him in more depth.

Sturtevant grew up outside of Washington, DC, and is a self-professed MIT dropout (we need more of those, don’t we?). He started his career as a programmer at Strategic Planning Institute in the late ‘70s and went on to work at Graphic Communications, maker of Freelance Graphics—which was bought by Lotus Development, where he stayed for about 10 years. During the ‘90s, he co-founded Radnet and RadioAMP before taking a senior role in 2000 with Idealab, where he was responsible for new company development in Boston. There he helped start six companies: Refer.com, Compete, Picasa (bought by Google), Newbury Networks, Paythrough, Pathspace, and Newbury Payments.

After Idealab, he became chief technology officer for Eons, the Jeff Taylor-led social networking site, and stayed for almost two years. He left Eons and helped found Microsoft Startup Labs in 2007, where he directed a team that developed the user experience for Bing Twitter search, among other projects. He left Microsoft in late 2009 to focus on startups and investing—which brings us to what he’s doing today.

Sturtevant currently co-runs Project 11 Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund (co-founded with Katie Rae) that works together with angel investors to back young tech startups. He tells me that since last fall, Project 11 has invested in seven companies—Locately, Scriptpad, peerTransfer, GreenGoose, and three undisclosed startups. In his spare time, he is a mentor for TechStars Boston, a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a founding member and trustee of the Awesome Foundation.

I caught up with Sturtevant over e-mail this week, asking him a variety of questions ranging from the state of the economy to the challenges of building a consumer-focused tech company (especially in Boston), to the most important trends to watch in computing. Here are his answers:

Xconomy: Let’s talk about the broader economic backdrop for what you do: startups and investing. How does the bleak macro-outlook for jobs and the stock market affect your strategy?

Reed Sturtevant: Obviously we’re all better off in times of economic tailwinds, but I’m seeing a couple of effects on the very early stage startup arena.

First, job security in established companies and industries is clearly an illusion. I teach at MIT and this week I asked our students whether they expect to work in, or found, a startup. Two-thirds of … Next Page »

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:          

The best way to get to know Dave Balter is over a beer. The founder and CEO of Boston-based marketing firm BzzAgent (now part of U.K.-based Dunnhumby/Tesco) is known for speaking his mind, but over a beer it’s even better. I’m not sure what he was drinking when he replied to my e-mail yesterday as he flew across the pond at 39,000 feet, but it appears to have loosened him up nicely.

I saw Balter speak at Angel Bootcamp in June, and his straight shooting impressed me then. Basically, he said that many entrepreneurs and execs have an inflated sense of themselves and their companies just because they’ve raised money and have had some success. Savvy investors should look for humble founders who are always learning, work harder than others, and have a fearless, grind-it-out mentality, he said. The following week, Balter came out with an article in Inc. Magazine in which he admitted his ego nearly destroyed BzzAgent; he implored entrepreneurs to stay humble, a process that he calls “the humility imperative.”

In addition to his CEO and angel investor duties, Balter is the author of two books on word-of-mouth marketing and the creator of numerous blogs, so he’s a bit of a polymath. He recently became a co-founder and executive chairman of Smarterer, another Boston tech startup. He’s also a newly minted Xconomist.

But his latest project (back to the beer now) is “DB Tech Prom,” a blow-out gala for the Boston tech community, to be held on October 20. There has been a lot of talk about creating a culture that celebrates entrepreneurship here in Boston, and this event seems to address that. At the same time, there’s no shortage of tech parties and gatherings these days, so I wondered what the real point was. Balter answered that, and much more, below.

Here are some highlights from our e-mail exchange:

Xconomy: Why is Tech Prom important for the Boston startup community, and what are its goals? If it’s about fostering a culture of celebrating entrepreneurship, how do we balance that with the humility imperative?

Dave Balter: After some very non-scientific poll-taking and survey-manipulating, we found that most individuals in Boston’s tech scene didn’t have the perfect prom experience. Some of this is of course due to intense, paralyzing high-school-nerdiness and less-than-impressive early-development social skills (see Sixteen Candles for widely referenced examples), but oh how things have changed. Now the techies have inherited celebrity status, and nerdiness…well, it’s in baby, it’s in.

This event should be a watershed moment that allows Boston to strut its stuff. And we’re not talking about flail-dancing during some Def Leppard song, but rather the celebration of how current … Next Page »

Comments (2) | Reprints | Share:          

Lots of comings and goings in the Boston technology scene in the past week. Here’s a sampling of notable high-level moves:

—Michael Simon, founder and CEO of LogMeIn (NASDAQ: LOGM), has joined the board of Cambridge, MA-based HubSpot, the marketing tech company. Simon replaces former (and longtime) HubSpot board member Gail Goodman, the CEO of Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT). HubSpot chief Brian Halligan wrote in a blog post that Constant Contact’s social media tools “are starting to partially overlap with some of our stuff.” He adds that “the overlap is pretty minimal at this point and our target market is different, but it is close enough that we thought it would be prudent to part ways amicably.” (The board move has been brewing for a while, as Goodman indicated in a recent interview.)

—Ben Levitan, a former partner with In-Q-Tel (the investment arm of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies), joined Waltham, MA-based IMN, an e-marketing firm, as its new CEO as of July. In an e-mail statement, Levitan said he is “excited about returning to operating and to be a CEO again,” as well as participating in the “fast growing world of marketing and customer communications.” He previously served as CEO at EnvoyWorldWide (now Varolii) and James Martin & Co. Levitan spent four-plus years with In-Q-Tel (which he could tell you more about, but then he’d have to kill you).

—Doug Levin, the Black Duck Software founder and former CEO, has joined the board of the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation (MTDC), a Boston venture firm that’s state-owned and invests in Massachusetts companies across software, IT, digital media, health IT, and cleantech. MTDC’s portfolio includes Harvest Automation, OwnerIQ, Illume Software, uTest, Life Image, and Ze-gen. Levin, a former Microsoft exec, most recently founded Ayeah Games, a social gaming startup that closed down earlier this year.

—Daniel Matloff has joined Lexington, MA-based 1366 Technologies, the solar energy company, as its chief financial officer. Matloff was previously corporate controller for Hittite Microwave (NASDAQ: HITT), which he joined before its 2005 IPO. Before that he was with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. So is 1366 looking to go public? Not just yet, especially given market conditions. But the company is looking to expand its solar-cell manufacturing business, said CEO Frank van Mierlo in a statement. So presumably it’s a good time to get its finances in order.

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

What time is it? Time to start looking forward to September events in the Boston tech world.

Xconomy has been hearing rumors about a big festival happening around Kendall Square next month. t=0, as it is being called, will kick off on the afternoon of September 16 and last through the 18th. We don’t have many details yet (like the exact venue), but t=0 sounds like it will be a celebration of technology, entrepreneurship, and business innovation meant to inspire a new generation of students and entrepreneurs around Boston.

According to the event’s sparse website (which includes a teaser video and preliminary schedule), the sessions will cover Web technologies, clean energy, and healthcare and life sciences. There will also be an MIT startup showcase and a “hack-a-thon” competition.

What we do know is the festival has attracted some heavy hitters from the national tech world. Computing pioneer Mitch Kapor is slated to give the opening keynote on the 16th. Kapor, for those who don’t know, is the founder of Lotus Development, creator of Lotus 1-2-3, and founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; he has been involved with a number of startups over the course of his career. And giving the closing keynote on the 18th will be venture investor and entrepreneur Brad Feld, the co-founder of Foundry Group and TechStars.

Interestingly, the Entrepreneurial Walk of Fame, a major Boston-area community project that Bob reported on here and here, has targeted September 16 as its launch date—meaning that the first group of inductees (who will each get a tile with a star in Kendall Square, like their Hollywood counterparts) would be named on that day. So it sounds like the Walk of Fame announcement could be part of t=0.

The MIT Entrepreneurship Center, HubSpot, and Skolkovo (Moscow School of Management) are involved as sponsors of the festival, according to the website.

More details as they become available… Let the countdown to t=0 begin.

Comments (2) | Reprints | Share:          

The pace of tech startup events is a little out of control this week. You can thank (or curse) David Beisel, Jon Pierce, Coolio, TechStars, DartBoston, Xconomy, and many others for that. With some more time and distance, though, we might all look back at this week as a flashpoint in history when the tech community was reborn in Boston.

Or not. These trends are cyclical, so it’s all a matter of degree. But you know it’s a busy week (not even counting the Bruins series) when I’m reduced to writing multiple stories in the form of top-10 lists.

Well, the second annual Angel Bootcamp, which was yesterday at MIT, warrants such a list. I couldn’t make all the sessions (in particular I missed Bill Warner’s closer), but here are the top 10 snippets I heard during the afternoon:

1. “All you have to do is write checks.” That was Dharmesh Shah, the famed investor and co-founder of HubSpot, saying that the reality of angel investing is that all you really need is money. (Which was followed by a slide saying, “I add minimal value beyond the cash. Maybe I can be a VC someday.”)

2. “Dharmesh is full of shit.” That was Laura Fitton of oneforty. Shah is one of her investors, and she was making the point that, of course, he actually adds a ton of expertise despite what he says about just writing checks.

3. “Humility.” Dave Balter of BzzAgent talked about the characteristics of successful founders, and which entrepreneurs angels should seek to invest in. He bluntly pointed out that lots of founders who’ve gotten money probably shouldn’t have, and consequently they have an inflated sense of themselves and their companies. Angels should look for humble teams who are always learning, work harder than others, have strength of conviction and a relentless, fearless, grind-it-out mentality, and believe they are “unstoppable.”

4. “Entrepreneurs need to run a process.” Brian Balfour, co-founder of Boundless Learning (and before that, Viximo), was talking about how to go about seed-stage fundraising. Startups need to follow a step-by-step plan and get their financing done efficiently, he said. Balfour, Fitton, Jeremy Levine (StarStreet), and Raj Aggarwal (Localytics) shared their experiences, which ranged from desperate to disorganized to definitive.

5. “No.” That was David Tisch of TechStars New York on whether he does due diligence on seed-stage investments; there is some debate about how much one can really analyze an early-stage company or idea. Another nugget from Tisch, on what he has learned about the dynamics of angel-VC investing syndicates: “I need to know every VC, so they don’t squash me out anymore.” (The flip side of that was Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital saying, “Choose your syndicates wisely,” and make sure your co-investors have the ability to finance the next round.)

6. “Boston VCs are dinosaurs.” In case you didn’t quite feel the undercurrent of angel-VC competition, that was one member of the startup community speaking on background. Dinosaurs in the sense of hanging on to old models, networks, and ways of doing things. An example: Not letting their entrepreneurs work on multiple projects, as Balter mentioned in his talk.

7. “Crazy shit is going to happen to your companies that you cannot control. You are along for the ride, whatever the destination.” That was David Cohen, founder of TechStars, talking about his experiences as an angel (18 personal investments, 156 total, and “12 exits that mattered”). He calls angel investing “addicting, surprising, and social.”

8. “The follow-on investment market now is quite good.” That was Eric Paley of Founder Collective, moderating an angel panel. How quickly things change: less than two years ago, people were talking about a bloodbath of consumer Web companies that would be unable to get follow-on funding. So maybe things have turned around, but…

9. “I’m seeing a bit of a funding gap—companies have high expectations for an A round. I try to invest in companies with some path to revenue.” That was the ever-pragmatic Roy Rodenstein, co-founder of Going.com and an active angel. (Spoken like someone who’s still investing during a recession or something.)

10. “You only need one giant win to pay for 100 stupid mistakes.” David Cohen again—and this gets to the heart of why angels should (and do) invest in companies they don’t necessarily know that much about. It also brings to life why angel investing can be so addictive (and surprising).

Analysis: For those scoring at home, that was 3 mentions of “VC,” 3 mentions of “checks” or fundraising, 2 mentions of “shit,” and 1 mention each of “humility,” “mistakes,” “addicting,” “fearless,” “unstoppable,” and “win.” (Zero mentions of “bubble,” by the way.)

I’m not sure what that all means, but the above words might hint at the direction the Boston tech angel community is headed. We’ll see how much farther it gets in the coming year.

Comments (2) | Reprints | Share:          

As we enter the summer months, I wanted to give readers a quick look into my reporter’s notebook. I have been shifting into high gear with events and other things, but once the storm passes I’ll be writing more again. Meanwhile, I’m hearing tons of interesting stuff from the local startup and innovation community, some of which will wend its way into future stories.

But for now, here’s a sampling of what’s going on around town:

1. If you want to turn off early-stage investors, tell them your startup is “too far along” for TechStars or other incubator programs. That’s what I’m hearing from angels and micro-VCs. Xconomy will answer (or at least debate) the question, “Do you really need an incubator?” at our XSITE 2011 conference on June 16. And TechStars Boston Demo Day is the day before that.

2. The MassChallenge accelerator has come back strong in its sophomore year, with 125 startup finalists participating in mentorship programs and competing for cash prizes this fall. “We are much more effective and much better organized than last year. It will be a much more organized experience for the teams,” says MassChallenge CEO John Harthorne. “Last year, we were younger than half the teams.” (Here’s my debrief from last year’s program.)

3. Steve Case of AOL fame tweeted this week from the D9 conference: “Eric Schmidt: Gang of Four now driving consumer revolution: Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook (and they’re now worth half a trillion).” Sounds a lot like what Ted Morgan of Skyhook Wireless told me back in March: “There’s a huge platform war going on for the mobile platform. Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google are looking to carve up the world.” (Wonder if Morgan and Schmidt talked about that the last time they had dinner together—not.)

4. Speaking of AOL (and incubators), techie angel investor Roy Rodenstein, whose last startup was bought by AOL, was in Moscow this week to speak at a crash-course incubator program, called Founders Bootcamp, run by Igor Balk. It looks like Balk, a Boston-based tech entrepreneur/exec, is planning to unveil new incubators for startups in Boston and Silicon Valley soon.

5. The tech IPO market is heating up to bubblicious proportions—see Groupon, LinkedIn, and Zynga. But what about around Boston? We’ve had Zipcar go public (and SMTP in its own way), and Myriant and Kayak are in the pipeline with their S-1 paperwork filed. Who’s next—maybe HubSpot? In some cases, companies file for IPOs to drive up their acquisition price. I hear that Matrix Partners’ David Skok is the master of this tactic, among other things—and yes, he’s on HubSpot’s board.

6. Here’s a $100 million-plus-revenue, very profitable tech company in Waltham, MA, that … Next Page »

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

Yes, I’m well aware that “wherefore” means “for what reason.” In this case, the reasons for being an active angel investor in Boston have to do with being part of a bigger and collaborative ecosystem, giving back to the startup community, and helping create the future of technology. It’s exciting stuff—especially in this day and age when the Boston tech scene is looking for some big successes (or at least more startup activity) to rival Silicon Valley and, increasingly, New York.

That’s all according to Jon Pierce, an entrepreneur, hacker, and founding member of the Awesome Foundation, who is organizing an event called Angel Bootcamp on June 14 at the Tang Center at MIT. I sat down with Pierce recently to chat about the landscape of Boston-area tech angel investing and what has really changed (and what hasn’t) in the past year.

But first, a little more about the goals of his event, which is now in its second year. “As much as it’s about education, it’s also about getting people excited about being an angel,” Pierce says.

Last year’s inaugural boot camp drew about 275 people—mostly investors and aspiring angels, but also plenty of entrepreneurs, as well as leaders from universities, government, and the media. As indicators of its success, one could point to a handful of New England angels who have become much more active in the early-stage scene—people like Ty Danco, Jennifer Lum, Roy Rodenstein, and David Tisch. (Apparently, Tisch met TechStars founder David Cohen at last year’s boot camp; that was where they first talked about the idea of TechStars New York.) Meanwhile, more angel and venture funds seem to be making seed-stage investments. And at least one Boston-area startup, Locately, made a key investor connection at last year’s event.

“We sent a message to the entrepreneurs that we’re serious,” Pierce says.

So what has changed, more broadly, over the past year—and why is this gathering as important as ever? Let’s talk about the f-word. “Seed-stage investors and angels are now starting to highlight the fact that things are a little bit frothy,” Pierce says. “It’s not a bubble, but [company] valuations are high in the Valley and New York. It’s not as true in Boston. We could use a little more froth in Boston.”

Pierce also points to the need to get people who have built successful companies—and in some case have had big exits—involved in angel investing. He’s talking about firms like Where, Kayak, and CSN Stores, and older companies that have been acquired for large sums in recent years, like Quattro Wireless, Maven Networks, Third Screen Media, Starent Networks, and ATG. To some extent this is already happening: just today, Boston startup TurningArt announced a $750,000 seed financing … Next Page »

Comments (2) | Reprints | Share:          

[Updated 5/8/11. See below] It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of events, it was the age of allergies, it was the epoch of objectivity, it was the epoch of PR and self-promotion, it was the season of writing stories, it was the season of prescription drugs and nasal spray, it was the spring of big financing rounds, it was the winter of boring software acquisitions. (I’m not actually a Dickens fan, in case you couldn’t tell, though his career is one of the first things I wrote about as a journalist.)

My point is there’s a lot going on around town—at Xconomy and beyond. You can always find a current run-down on goings on at our local events page. But to help you sort through some of the key events going on in the innovation community in this particularly busy month, I’ve prepared a quick cheat sheet (in chronological order):

—Next week, on May 11, you’ll have your choice of hearing about the future of search and online services (and Bing vs. Google) from Microsoft president Qi Lu, or watching the grand finale of the MIT $100K business plan competition (with Vinod Khosla speaking). We’ll be at both events, which are free to attend. I’ll be moderating a Q&A with Qi Lu at Microsoft NERD in Kendall Square, and my colleague Erin will be at the $100K finale at Kresge Auditorium.

—On May 13, Health Tech 2011 is taking place at Bingham McCutchen in downtown Boston. Regina Herzlinger, Jay Parkinson, and Esther Dyson lead an all-star cast of innovators who will be speaking about the latest opportunities and strategies in healthcare delivery, mobile health, wellness and behavior change, and investing in all of the above. The event is organized by careinnovators, a healthcare website and networking-resource organization. [We meant to list this event in the original version of the article---Eds.]

—A big mobile event from MassTLC on May 13 at the Kendall Square Marriott will focus on the global impact of the wireless industry. Kara Swisher from WSJ and senior execs from Akamai, Cisco, Groupon, Jumptap, Movik, Where, and other top tech companies will be on hand.

—On May 18, the 2011 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is happening at Kresge. The theme this year is “beyond the crossroads”—how chief information officers and senior managers must adapt to the digital business world, and what the latest opportunities and strategies are across industries. I’ll be moderating a CEO keynote panel featuring Brian Halligan of HubSpot, David Castellani of New York Life Retirement Plan Services, Tianwen Liu of iSoftStone, and Eric Openshaw of Deloitte.

—Angel Bootcamp is happening June 14, organized by Jon Pierce. This event, now in its second year, brings together the top people in early-stage startup investing, plus entrepreneurs and those who want to learn more about the field. Everyone from TechStars to Bill Warner to Founder Collective to Dharmesh Shah to CommonAngels will be there. But it’s invitation-only, so go to the site to request yours.

—Last but not least, XSITE 2011, Xconomy’s third annual flagship conference, is at Babson College on June 16 (whew—still lots to do). Our theme this year is “the entrepreneurship era,” the challenges and opportunities that are evolving fast as startups—and entrepreneurial practices in general—go increasingly mainstream. Our speakers include Desh Deshpande, Edward Jung, Phil Sharp, Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, David Cancel, Nicholas Christakis, Joe Chung, Todd Dagres, Paul Sellew, Katie Rae, and many others. More to come soon.

We are getting a critical mass of startups, entrepreneurs, students, and investors involved, and we want to make sure everyone has a blast while making lots of great connections. If you have feedback or suggestions about how we can make XSITE more valuable to the innovation community, please contact me at gthuang@xconomy.com or @gthuang on Twitter.

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:          

Far too much has been written about Boston versus New York City. Sports rivalries and cultural differences have a way of coloring our world view to include startup companies and venture capital. However, the past few years tell about a much closer relationship. The real story is Boston and New York City, particularly versus Silicon Valley.

This week, we welcome Xconomy’s most recent addition to its coverage, New York City! While having started in Boston and expanded across the country, Xconomy’s newest addition reflects the growing ties and teamwork between New York and Boston.

Let’s start with a few data points. It’s always been easy to think about Boston and New York as separate worlds. After all, it’s 225 miles between downtown Boston and Manhattan—a journey that takes typically takes 3 ½ hours. In contrast, the trip from San Francisco to San Jose is only 48 miles along the 101, which in the middle of the night is under an hour. With traffic, well, that depends and can take as long as the Boston-NYC trip.

Somewhat ironically, the technology created by entrepreneurs and the VCs that back them have been shortening these distances. Wi-Fi on the Acela and 3G mobile networks let entrepreneurs and venture investors stay productive on the Boston-NYC journey, making the trip seem a lot shorter. Personally, I love working on the Acela. It’s some of my most productive time, and I feel like I’m in the office. I can even have meetings, particularly if I secure the seats facing each other with the table between them. Web networking and collaboration tools make sharing information and coordination much more effective as well, not only between these two cities but across the world.

Venture capitalists and angel groups are expanding and coordinating financing activities between Boston and New York City. “New York is clearly on a roll here. If anything we’ve seen the presence of several Boston firms either opening offices or having affiliations,” said long-time New York venture capitalist and founder of Greycroft Partners, Alan Patricof. Matrix Partners recently opened an office, headed by Nick Beim. New firms like Founder Collective operate fairly seamlessly between the two cities. TechStars’ recent expansion to New York has been a great success. The Golden Seeds angel group several years ago opened chapters in New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia that systematically collaborate. Syndication among angel groups more broadly in New England and New York got started around 2005 and has been going through various iterations and improvements.

How does this then play out in the numbers? Silicon Valley may have had the lead for many years, but looking at emerging companies, the Boston-New York team looks like it’s been running a fast break. According to the most recent PwC MoneyTree data, the gap between New York/Boston and Silicon Valley for seed and early-stage companies has closed, whether looking by total deals or by dollars.

Five years ago, Silicon Valley did nearly twice the number of seed and early-stage venture deals compared to Boston and New York combined, 338 versus 178 in 2005. For 2010 the two regions are essentially tied with 400 for Silicon Valley and 392 for New York/Boston. Dollars tell a similar story. For 2005, the ratio was 1.3:1 in favor of Silicon Valley, growing to 2.2:1 by 2007. By last year, that gap had closed to 1:1 with $2.16B invested in Silicon Valley seed and early-stage companies and $2.05B invested in those in New York/Boston (see charts above.) “The startup and entrepreneurial environment in New York is the strongest I’ve seen in the past 40 years,” says Patricof.

But it’s not just adding numbers. The rapid growth of consumer-oriented, ad-tech, and fin-tech ventures makes Boston and New York City highly complementary and drives increasing … Next Page »

Comments (4) | Reprints | Share:          

It takes a village to raise a startup. TechStars, and other mentor-driven accelerators, understand this. Experienced entrepreneurs understand this. Investors understand this. New entrepreneurs often do not understand this; and those new entrepreneurs that do understand it often don’t know who they need in their village or how to work with them once they figure it out.

The composition of a startup’s village will depend on the individual needs and personality of the startup, but a common thread will be a network of formal and informal advisors—business advisors, technical advisors, legal advisors, personal advisors. If you’re Andy Sack, Rich Barton, Dan Shapiro or Dave Schappell, then you are an easy phone call (probably speed dial) away from a beer with the top minds in startup ecosystem. If you’re new to the tech startup world, then you need to get busy building your network with folks who can help you. Whether you’ve already found someone willing to spend time with you or are still looking, here are some tips for making the most of their help. As both an advisor and an advisee, I hope to learn something new from your comments as well.

1) Know why a particular advisor is a good fit for you. Early on, it’s tempting to want to talk to any potential advisors who will listen. Resist that urge. Have an understanding of why, specifically, you think it’s valuable to talk to this person. What is it in their current for prior experience that makes them a good fit for you. Do they have relevant expertise within your market, with your technology, with your customers, with potential strategic partners. The person you want to talk to should agree with your assessment. Remember, too, that every good advisor won’t be a good advisor for you. It has to be a good fit on both sides and if it’s not, then don’t force it; close the loop and move on.

2) Go after the correct “tier.” This is corollary to number 1), above… and may sound elitist… but get over it. You may think you want an audience with a hotshot in your space but keep in mind a couple of important things. The nearer the stratosphere an advisor is, the less time (and patience) they’ll have for you. And, if you don’t have your ducks in a pretty straight row then your one chance to make an impression may be squandered. Coupled with the effort it will take to get a warm introduction into them and the long wait to get on their calendar (could be two months or more), this is often a losing proposition. And don’t be surprised when your top-tier advisor’s assistant e-mails you the day before your long-awaited meeting to reschedule because “something has come up.” Also, top-tier folks are just not gonna have much time to spend with you, so you’d do well to think of them as connectors to other people and resources. As such, they will likely be cautious about referring entrepreneurs that they hardly know and/or aren’t confident are ready to risk their reputation on. So keep your powder dry. Work your way up. As your startup (and you) progresses you’ll naturally be ready for more and more top-tier help. It’s not a literal hierarchy and it’s not a caste system, but there are circles of trust and circles of influence; as your network expands and you gain the confidence of experienced people, then your circles will expand and will eventually overlap with higher and higher tiers. In the mean time, you may be better served working with folks closer to earth but with more time and energy to spend with you.

3) Be respectful of time. Know what you want to get out of the time an advisor spends with you. Be concise and specific. It’s easy to spend an hour chewing the fat about your new sliced bread machine, but that’s not a good use of their time or your own for that matter. Ask for 30 minutes instead of 60. Pick a coffee shop within short walking distance of your advisor’s home or office, or ask them to choose the meeting place. As the scheduled end of your meeting or phone call approaches, offer them a graceful exit.

4) Don’t be disagreeable. You don’t have to agree with what an advisor has to say about you, your startup, your product, your market, or your strategy but don’t assume that they are … Next Page »

Comments (8) | Reprints | Share:          

Hope you all had a fine Mardi Gras. Now it’s time to get down to business. Mobile business.

Yes, Mobile Madness 2011 is happening this afternoon, over at Microsoft NERD in Kendall Square (the program starts at 1:00 pm). We’ve helped assemble some of the top names in the mobile industry from New England and beyond, so bring your tough questions (we’ve got ours here and here, from emcee Wade Roush), and let’s have it.

We’re looking forward to a provocative, entertaining, and (we’re happy to say) unpredictable afternoon. Who knows, maybe 4G is just a big myth, our phones are making us dumber instead of smarter, and mobile commerce and enterprise apps are still stuck in 2005 (like my BlackBerry). Perhaps Stephen Wolfram will prove that the universe is actually an iPhone app (or is it Android?). And during the “location smackdown,” we might all discover that our lives are just an elaborate SCVNGR challenge, being orchestrated by Seth Priebatsch from his bunker on Second Street.

But seriously, mobile is everywhere. It has become a redundant term. And a lot of that actually comes from Boston companies. Ted Morgan from Skyhook Wireless (who’s part of the location smackdown) recently reminded me that the iPhone’s original location-finding technology, voice recognition system, and ad-serving platform all came from Boston-area teams. What’s more, at least five of the biggest mobile acquisitions of the past few years were from Boston—m-Qube, Quattro Wireless, Third Screen Media, Airvana, and Starent Networks.

“We’re living through one of the most explosive times in the tech industry,” Morgan says. “There’s a huge platform war going on for the mobile platform. Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google are looking to carve up the world.”

Help us get the Mobile Madness conversation going on Twitter using the hashtag #xmobmad. See you at NERD!

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

[Updated 5:15 pm. See below] Ken Olsen, the co-founder and former CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), died on Sunday. He was 84. The news was confirmed yesterday by Gordon College in Wenham, MA, where Olsen was a longtime trustee. There has been an outpouring of commentary about Olsen’s career and the impact of DEC on the computer industry. (You can read obituaries in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and CNET.)

Olsen, an MIT alum, started Digital with Harlan Anderson in 1957 with $70,000 in seed funding from Georges Doriot of American Research and Development. The Maynard, MA, company went on to dominate the minicomputer industry (as opposed to mainframes), employing more than 125,000 people in 86 countries and becoming the second-largest IT company behind IBM. Through the 1970s and ‘80s, DEC anchored the burgeoning Route 128 tech corridor and was joined by Data General, Wang, and other computer companies.

But DEC was famously slow to embrace the desktop computer market, and the company struggled through the late 80s and early 90s. Olsen resigned from DEC in 1992, and the company went on to be acquired by Compaq and then Hewlett-Packard. And as DEC went, so did the Route 128 ecosystem.

In a letter, Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates called Olsen “one of the true pioneers of the computing industry.” Gates added, “He was also a major influence in my life and his influence is still important at Microsoft through all the engineers who trained at Digital.”

Some of those engineers are weighing in with their remembrances. Gordon Bell, a principal researcher at Microsoft who spent 23 years at DEC as vice president of R&D, wrote in a post on Xconomy today, “I tend to remember all the humor and moments of irony that we shared while building computers at DEC.”

Yuchun Lee, the co-founder and former CEO of Unica (now part of IBM), worked at Digital from 1989-1992. He writes in an e-mail, “DEC was an organization with a terrific culture: one of intellectual honesty, meritocracy, and a desire to win. All of this can be directly attributed to Ken Olsen and his vision as the founder and leader of the best days of Digital. I’ve learned much of what a great and significant company ought to look and feel like as one grows up and am very fortunate to have cut my teeth there right out of school.”

History is made, and then it’s gone unless we pay attention. Olsen was the prototypical Boston tech entrepreneur. He leaves behind a legacy of thousands of employees who have gone on to new endeavors. DEC also provides a well-known case study of a hugely successful venture-backed company that failed to adapt to a changing market. Then again, not very many tech companies last more than 30 years.

I’ll update this space with any more unique comments or stories I hear from the innovation community.

Comments (5) | Reprints | Share: