Jeff Bennett's Blog

I recently joined the Tech Stars Boston Mentors program.  The goal is to provide assistance to the nine companies that are going through the summer long entrepreneur boot camp under the tutelage of Shawn Broderick.  There is so much to master if you are a first time entrepreneur and providing a sounding board and some guidance is great.  From my perspective this has also stimulated a network of very talented entrepreneurs that live, eat, breath entrepreneurship right here…right now.  Getting to know these folks has been a wonderful byproduct of becoming involved in Tech Stars Boston…and we are just getting started.

Brad Feld and David Cohen were instrumental in establishing Tech Stars in Boulder…and in bringing the program to Boston for this summer.  For those of you who think that Boston is dried up thanks to Greylock turning its back on our community or YCombinator consolidating for the west…just go down to Cambridge and check out what is going on at Tech Stars.  Head to the MITX Awards in two weeks and take a look at the companies that were nominated and will win awards.  Take in the E&Y Entrepreneurs Award Night and take a look at this years crop of talented entrepreneurs.  Go to any of the New England Innovation Month events. Look at the “blog roll” to the right of this page and you can easily visit some of New England’s “best and brightest” entrepreneurs, investors and bloggers (including New England’s Chief Innovation Officer Scott Kirsner’s Innovation Economy). New England is alive and is as resilient as ever.  Like in the past though we need to keep pushing forward though and not just live in the past.  Together we can make it stronger.

Brad Feld was interviewed in Mass High Tech recently about why they wanted to bring Tech Stars to Boston.  I think he brings some good perspective for us to contemplate:  ”Boston has the same ingredients, which is that you have now in Boulder a critical mass of multi-time experienced entrepreneurs. People that have done it two, three, four times. The trick is to engage the entire life cycle of that ecosystem. The first thing that Boston should do is get rid of the Silicon Valley envy. Just say, “look, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to be the best that Boston can be at being great.” The second is to say what then are the characteristics that make an entrepreneurial community great and sustainable? I believe that the most important one is that you have to figure out and then do things that engage the first-time entrepreneurs with the experienced entrepreneurs all the way up and down the chain.”  You can read the entire Mass High Tech post here.

Right on Brad.  We do have a very solid community of entrepreneurs here in New England.  We need to get them more involved in stimulating more ventures and helping their fellow entrepreneurs as well.  Forget about Silicon Valley…focus on what is good here.  Lets work better with the schools and universities to retain some of the immense talent flowing through the region every year.  Get students involved with internships.  Mentor entrepreneurs. Fund start ups.  Bring your ideas onto campuses like Bentley University that have world class labs for market research, usability and internationalization.  We have incredible resources of people and facilities right here.  A fellow entrepreneur, Jules Pieri, also has some great ideas in a recent post on her blog as well.  It takes a village.  We all must work together.

Lets also remember that our community is not bound by the geography of “inside Route 128.”  The Internet and networking tools allow us to connect to our New England bretheren all over the world.  It would be great to have everyone live right here but it is not necessary.  The network of entrepreneurs that has been educated, started businesses, gained funds, hired talent from our region is immense.  There is no region in the world that has such a large network of talent..none.  These folks are all part of our ecosystem.  Tap into them.