5 ms·
Money. Unfortunately VCs and Angels in Boston have a very poor reputation for taking risk on startups. Instead they want to invest in companies that have alread
by bcardarella 12y ago
Money. Unfortunately VCs and Angels in Boston have a very poor reputation for taking risk on startups. Instead they want to invest in companies that have already proven their model or just need money to scale.
Public transportation. I know that every city dweller thinks their city has poor public transportation options. Let me tell you, Boston has you beat. When we take into consideration the perceived importance of the city and how difficult it is to get from one side to another.
Insider's club. Unfortunately Boston still has a pretty strong insider's club that affects most aspects of business in town.
Racism. Boston has a bad history of racism. For a city that prides itself on being so progressive this is a black eye that I personally don't feel the city has gotten over.
Weather. I know that this point was dismissed in another comment but it just isn't about the winter. The two months of cold grey sky rain in the early Spring is curshingly depressing.
Lack of a true "anchor" tech company. There really is no large tech company that draws others in or produces talent. Many here think that Hubspot will be that company, that remains to be seen.
San Francisco envy. It is pretty pervasive here. We call it the Boston Brain Drain. The perception is that Boston is just a stepping stone on a developer's career. "I learn in Boston I work in SF!"
Cost of living. I realize that SF and NY are more expensive but Boston I suspect that you get more for your money in those cities. In Boston $3k/month will get you into a triplex in Somerville with no T access. Living in Boston is out of the question for many making below six figures. (also for many making above six figures)
Cost to run a business. I can count on my hand the number of neighborhoods in the city that have office space below $30/sq-ft. Nearly everything in the city is North of $40/sq-ft. And for that you get some run down Class B office space that was recently bought by a Class A property company that wants high-end Class B rates. And they are all pushing $1/sq-ft increase per year. With nearly $2/sq-ft utilities. Startups looking for private office space have a difficult time finding any in Boston.
All this to say that the medical industry does not have this same talent retention problem. What keeps the world's best doctors in Boston but pushes away the world's best software engineers? If Boston wants to make up ground on SF (and even NY at this point) I think starting with this question might lead to potential solutions.
- frostmatthew 12y ago> All this to say that the medical industry does not have this same talent retention problem. What keeps the world's best doctors in Boston but pushes away the world's best software engineers? If Boston wants to make up ground on SF (and even NY at this point) I think starting with this question might lead to potential solutions. It's curious you didn't lead with this paragraph since all but two of your points (lack of anchor and SF envy) are applicable to biotech/medicine - thus unlikely to be [significant] factors.
- bcardarella 12y agoI agree with the exception of public transportation. Many of the hospitals have deals with affordable housing in and around the hospital areas that doctors early in their careers get preferential treatment for. Walking distance commute to work, no MBTA needed.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- smeyer 12y ago>$3k/month will get you into a triplex in Somerville with no T access I'm a software engineer in Boston, and I know tons of people living comfortably with good T access for far less than that. I live in a nice building in Boston walking distance from my company's offices in Cambridge. I also tend to prefer the public transportation options to many of the places I've been and lived (New York very much excluded.)
- cbr 12y agoIn Boston $3k/month will get you into a triplex in Somerville with no T access. $3k/month will get you a 2BR anywhere in Somerville or Cambridge, including within 5min of Davis or Harvard: http://www.jefftk.com/apartment_prices/ http://www.jefftk.com/apartment_prices/
- ghc 12y ago$3k/month will also get you a nice 1br in one of the new buildings in Fort Point/Innovation District, right next to South Station.
- mattl 12y agoWhere in Somerville has no T access?
- hga 12y agoI'm pretty sure bcardarella is referring to subway access, in which case "almost all of it" applies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MBTA_Boston_subway_map.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MBTA_Boston_subway_map.pn... There's a whole lot of nice housing in walking distance to Davis Sq. (well, as of the '80s, but I don't gather that's changed), and there are some adjacent stations, but the vast bulk of Somerville is bus, car, bike, or (long) walk access to where you're likely to want to go. Also, per Wikipedia: "To settle a lawsuit with the Conservation Law Foundation to mitigate increased automobile emissions from the Big Dig, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts agreed to extend the Green Line north to Somerville and Medford, two suburbs currently under-served by the MBTA." And per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(MBTA)#Plans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(MBTA)#Plans they're going to drive a spur of the Green Line straight through the middle of Somerville (and on to Medford). Someday. Hmmm, and this list of recent accidents makes me question the wisdom of riding on the Green Line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(MBTA)#Incidents_and_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(MBTA)#Incidents_an... (which I did regularly for a couple of years without that sort of worry).