What's the Matter with Boston VCs?
As a longtime Massachusetts / Boston resident, the culture of the city may have something to do with it.
Boston is, at its heart, a Puritan settlement. This has been used as a sleight against Boston, but I don't mean it that way. But it is a word that captures the essence of what I mean.
A superficial example shows itself to visitors immediately. Most people who visit Boston come away thinking the people are cold and unfriendly, especially if traveling from a very outgoing culture like you find in, say, California.
Having lived here, I can say, this is often true, Bostonians are not known for being welcoming of outsiders. But they are extremely loyal, honest, and dependable as a rule as well. If a Bostonian tells you they will be at your party next weekend, they probably will! I had some trouble adjusting to the fact that this isn't really assumed in other places (California...)
Another is the work ethic. Bostonians (as a rule) abhor flash and glamour. They prefer good old fashioned hard work. Leave the get rich quick schemes to New York, we will get rich slow.
I think that Boston needs to adjust to the pace that the tech world works at, and I think it will take some time. But, then again, the tech world will probably also benefit greatly when the deliberate wisdom of Boston again rises in the tech world.
And it will. Eventually.
To be fair, Cambridge, where I really live, has a culture of its own, and is often more reminiscent of Berkeley than Boston. But when you're talking about money, for the large part, you're also talking about Boston. Also, even in Cambridge, the focus is still definitely much more on academic achievement than entrepreneurial achievement.
why should each city have the same skillset and specializations? that sounds pretty boring. is SF leading the way in bio and health-care innovations? what about open-source data-y stuff like Cornell's DuraSpace, MIT's SIMILE, Encyclopedia of Life, Brown's Racket (our own little INRIA this side the atlantic?!)..
i moved back to boston from TL after 3 years because all i could find for work in SF was the least-common-denominator/proprietary/centralized/consumer webapp startups that this article is apparently hoisting up as the end-all of aspirations. maybe i wasn't looking hard enough but it's a lot easier to find things i'm into in boston
Nail on the head. We have been back in Boston for about year and a half, got a bunch of free office space (MC, CM). One of the best responses from a VC- "You can clearly do well... but not within the revenue of >$200M which we would hope to see in a potential investment (happy if you prove us wrong though!)"
I'd love it if pg chimed in and explained why, after citing Cambridge as the best city in the world, they pulled up tent stakes. Did the author capture it fully?
I think if Boston's VCs would have had their stuff together, its very possible that YC might not have abandoned Boston in the first place.
Also, many of the VCs are heavily invested in Biotech and other heavy-capital industries. Dollar for dollar they invest a great deal, but it doesn't generally go to consumer tech startups.
Now if you want to see an area with actual little high dollar investment happening, come visit me in Ohio sometime...
Agree. Grasshopper is just outside of Boston and out of last 75+ VC's and PE firms that have reached out to me, only 5 have been based in Boston with SF and NY leading the pack.
The author refers to pg's article on Cities and Ambition, and suggests that what is said about NY in the article is changing.
I don't think so. The banks will come back stronger than ever, it's just a matter of time, they always do. Other than that the mentality of people in the city has not changed. This so called engineering school which is expected to become top notch overnight, won't change things. If that were simply the case, Boston should never have seen it's decline as a tech mecca in the first place.
They can't get out of the way of their own egos (imo).