5 ms·

And then there's poor, neglected Boston. No media coverage about being the next SV. No Silicon derived nicknames (instead there's Rt. 128, Kendall Square, and F

by ghc 12y ago

And then there's poor, neglected Boston. No media coverage about being the next SV. No Silicon derived nicknames (instead there's Rt. 128, Kendall Square, and Fort Point). Sometimes, thanks to the lack of media coverage, Boston/Cambridge gets left off the list of tech scenes altogether, despite having whole areas dominated by startups and the second largest amount of VC after SF/SV. I wonder if Boston is doomed to be a cautionary tale about what happens when a culture of B2B startups (Digital, Wang, etc.) produces VCs who don't have enough vision to fund companies like Facebook or TaskRabbit.

michaelochurch 12y ago
Boston is a beautiful city with amazing seasons and probably the single greatest concentration of smart people in the world. It's also, at least historically, the spiritual capital of Lisp (thanks to MIT). All taken together, I'm a huge fan of the place. Unfortunately, my experience with Boston companies (I've interviewed with a few, and had the misfortune of being reverse-acquired by one) is that they're not progressive. One hiring manager told me (this was a couple years ago, I think I was 27 or 28 at the time) that I was too old to be a programmer (wat?) but too young to be a manager. Another tried to give me a position with "junior" in the title-- this was in mid-2013, so I had 7 years of experience. (I know that titles are bullshit, but if they're going to exist, I'll take an inflated one rather than a deflated one.) Boston is a beautiful, under-appreciated place. Its climate is ideal (cold, snowy winters, perfect springs and falls, mild summers). I like the people a lot. But I see a culture where there is too much deference to authority and too little "fuck it, let's do it anyway". While the Valley is too youth-obsessed and flighty and sociopathic, New England seems to take the other extreme: too seniority-bound and stodgy and prone to following rules. The ideal, for tech, is somewhere between the two.
- ghc 12y ago
  I'm curious about where you interviewed, and how big the companies were. I've never had that experience with startups in Boston (only big companies out near Rt. 128). Engineers are in high demand here, so most "interviews" are really cap table discussions and salary negotiations over a drink. In fact, multiple startups over the past five years have used their VCs or EIRs to approach me; I can't imagine a situation where a company would look down on a 27 year old developer. I do know exactly what you mean by deference to authority, but outside of the MIT professor-run startup bubble, I think it's mostly dead (well, I can't speak for biotech...). I just hope it isn't replaced by ageism, as you suggest.
- kylequest 12y ago
  I'm curious if there's another Boston and New England :-) The Boston where I lived 10+ years had a lousy weather where you can't survive without an air conditioner during summers because it's so humid. Moving to Seattle/Redmond was a good idea in more than one way :-) Doing a startup in Boston is definitely no fun. That's true.
  - will_work4tears 12y ago
    Everybody has their own preferences and all but I don't personally consider >(cold, snowy winters, as an ideal climate. My Dad's side of my family is from Boston, so while I've never lived there, I have been there from time to time (usually in the summer) and they didn't seem that mild to me. Must like the Summers I was used to in the Midwest (which is [just] one reason I left the Midwest).
    - kylequest 12y ago
      Even the snow isn't that great :-) You get really nice snow one day. It starts melting the next day and the day after it gets really cold and everything turns into ice. Not great conditions for snowboarding/skiing...
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
rayiner 12y ago
> I wonder if Boston is doomed to be a cautionary tale about what happens when a culture of B2B startups (Digital, Wang, etc.) produces VCs who don't have enough vision to fund companies like Facebook or TaskRabbit. I'll assume for the sake of my sanity that this is sarcasm. In my opinion, Boston is just fine the way it is. It's a mecca for people developing new technologies, anchored by Harvard and MIT. Not everything needs to be a consumer-facing, internet-delivered solution to ordinary problems. There's a lot of money in that, no doubt, but it's not the be-all, end-all of the tech scene.
- ghc 12y ago
  My whole comment was facetious, but I also want to make people think. Companies like Facebook and Paypal, when they go public, produce a huge number of angel investors. When startups like Akamai get huge, they often don't produce the same influx of capital for new startups. Boston is fine...for now. Companies from the first dotcom boom produced enough investors to sustain most of the ecosystem. But in the future, if there aren't the kind of IPOs that lead to huge amounts of money being thrown at startups, the high cost of living will take its toll. Even now, the VC pool is small enough that the loss of Fred Destin in the shakeup at Atlas is widely mourned. Can you imagine the loss of a single early stage investor (not involved with YC) being noticed in the Bay area? If the only early stage investors left are groups of lawyers (Beacon Angels, I'm looking at you), and the Series A climate remains as tough here as it's been, will Boston still be in good shape? That's why I say that Boston has a bit of a PR problem. Even now, as an advisor for those companies "developing new technologies" at the Harvard Innovation Lab, I've seen first-hand that there's just not enough "smart money" to go around. Maybe the HubSpot and Wayfair IPOs will change all of that. Maybe Paul English's Blade will provide the PR, even if it just produces consumer companies. It's an open question.

by ghc 12y ago

michaelochurch 12y ago

Boston is a beautiful city with amazing seasons and probably the single greatest concentration of smart people in the world. It's also, at least historically, the spiritual capital of Lisp (thanks to MIT). All taken together, I'm a huge fan of the place. Unfortunately, my experience with Boston companies (I've interviewed with a few, and had the misfortune of being reverse-acquired by one) is that they're not progressive. One hiring manager told me (this was a couple years ago, I think I was 27 or 28 at the time) that I was too old to be a programmer (wat?) but too young to be a manager. Another tried to give me a position with "junior" in the title-- this was in mid-2013, so I had 7 years of experience. (I know that titles are bullshit, but if they're going to exist, I'll take an inflated one rather than a deflated one.) Boston is a beautiful, under-appreciated place. Its climate is ideal (cold, snowy winters, perfect springs and falls, mild summers). I like the people a lot. But I see a culture where there is too much deference to authority and too little "fuck it, let's do it anyway". While the Valley is too youth-obsessed and flighty and sociopathic, New England seems to take the other extreme: too seniority-bound and stodgy and prone to following rules. The ideal, for tech, is somewhere between the two.

ghc 12y ago
I'm curious about where you interviewed, and how big the companies were. I've never had that experience with startups in Boston (only big companies out near Rt. 128). Engineers are in high demand here, so most "interviews" are really cap table discussions and salary negotiations over a drink. In fact, multiple startups over the past five years have used their VCs or EIRs to approach me; I can't imagine a situation where a company would look down on a 27 year old developer. I do know exactly what you mean by deference to authority, but outside of the MIT professor-run startup bubble, I think it's mostly dead (well, I can't speak for biotech...). I just hope it isn't replaced by ageism, as you suggest.
kylequest 12y ago
I'm curious if there's another Boston and New England :-) The Boston where I lived 10+ years had a lousy weather where you can't survive without an air conditioner during summers because it's so humid. Moving to Seattle/Redmond was a good idea in more than one way :-) Doing a startup in Boston is definitely no fun. That's true.
- will_work4tears 12y ago
  Everybody has their own preferences and all but I don't personally consider >(cold, snowy winters, as an ideal climate. My Dad's side of my family is from Boston, so while I've never lived there, I have been there from time to time (usually in the summer) and they didn't seem that mild to me. Must like the Summers I was used to in the Midwest (which is [just] one reason I left the Midwest).
  - kylequest 12y ago
    Even the snow isn't that great :-) You get really nice snow one day. It starts melting the next day and the day after it gets really cold and everything turns into ice. Not great conditions for snowboarding/skiing...

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

rayiner 12y ago

> I wonder if Boston is doomed to be a cautionary tale about what happens when a culture of B2B startups (Digital, Wang, etc.) produces VCs who don't have enough vision to fund companies like Facebook or TaskRabbit. I'll assume for the sake of my sanity that this is sarcasm. In my opinion, Boston is just fine the way it is. It's a mecca for people developing new technologies, anchored by Harvard and MIT. Not everything needs to be a consumer-facing, internet-delivered solution to ordinary problems. There's a lot of money in that, no doubt, but it's not the be-all, end-all of the tech scene.

ghc 12y ago
My whole comment was facetious, but I also want to make people think. Companies like Facebook and Paypal, when they go public, produce a huge number of angel investors. When startups like Akamai get huge, they often don't produce the same influx of capital for new startups. Boston is fine...for now. Companies from the first dotcom boom produced enough investors to sustain most of the ecosystem. But in the future, if there aren't the kind of IPOs that lead to huge amounts of money being thrown at startups, the high cost of living will take its toll. Even now, the VC pool is small enough that the loss of Fred Destin in the shakeup at Atlas is widely mourned. Can you imagine the loss of a single early stage investor (not involved with YC) being noticed in the Bay area? If the only early stage investors left are groups of lawyers (Beacon Angels, I'm looking at you), and the Series A climate remains as tough here as it's been, will Boston still be in good shape? That's why I say that Boston has a bit of a PR problem. Even now, as an advisor for those companies "developing new technologies" at the Harvard Innovation Lab, I've seen first-hand that there's just not enough "smart money" to go around. Maybe the HubSpot and Wayfair IPOs will change all of that. Maybe Paul English's Blade will provide the PR, even if it just produces consumer companies. It's an open question.