10 Resources for Startups & Entrepreneurs in Boston

I've recently been in contact with a wide range of entrepreneurs in Boston who are setting up programs and resources to help college entrepreneurs. Its great to see this trend continue in the right direction as I'm a stronger believer that the economic future of the US will largely be determined by entrepreneurs. Previously, I wrote about a growing need for more entrepreneursin order to capitalize on research and technology under development. Technology is advancing so fast that Singularity University was even formed to study its impact and how we can ensure that technological advances will be used for the greater good. Promoting entrepreneurship in universities is a good start to grow a stronger economic base by increasing the number of entrepreneurs who'll eventually build tomorrow's companies.

I've been speaking to the following people/organizations and will be working with them on our common goals. If you're interested in getting involved in any of these initiatives, shoot me an email.

10 Resources for first time entrepreneurs in Boston: 

1. Innovation/Startup Open Houses: Scott Kirsner, a prominent tech journalist at the Boston Globe, is starting an Innovation Open House initiative. This program will bring students into the offices of startups enabling them to speak to founders, ask questions, and better understand the early stages of forming a company. Although, still in its infancy, Scott is known for making progress and is in the process of getting people on board. [I've provided some ideas to Scott and will be helping promote the initiative as it starts to take off.]

2. Connecting Students to Startup Internships: Lauren Celano, an MBA student at Boston University recently launced Propel Careers to connect undergrad and grad students to internships, jobs, and mentorship opportunities at startups. The idea came to her when she was looking for an internship herself and realized that it its pretty hard if you don't have an estiblished network. [I spoke with Lauren a couple of days ago and will be helping by listing opportunities on College Mogul and helping students who reach out get connected with the company.]

3. Young Entrepreneur Meetup: DartBoston is also a new initiative that hosts small meetups to bring young entrepreneurs together to discuss ideas and critique eachothers businesses and business plans. While new, they've experience growth from a couple people in their first meetup to 25 in their second and will likely grow larger. Their show, Poke'n Holes, provides audio interviews and critiques of the startups. [While we've had a couple conversations, we'll mostly be cross promoting content and events.]

4. New Northeastern Incubator: From what I hear, entrepreneurial resources at Northeastern University are lacking. Two students, Evan Evanish and Ashkan Afkhami, are changing this by building an incubator called IDEA. Their site isn't up yet, but its a work in progress. In the same spirit, they hope to better connect the Boston entrepreneurial community with Northeastern students, and vice versa. [We've been speaking about building out College Mogul into a larger resource hub to aggregate tons of resources for first time entrepreneurs.]

5. Babson Summer Venture Program: It comes as a surprise that this is a trial program, especially since Babson is supposed to be reknowned as the #1 school for entrepreneurs. Anyway, 17 undergrad startups and 6 MBA startups, just presented their businesses to angel investors and venture capitalists.

6. More Co-Working Space: BetaHouse was the pioneer in Cambridge, but now more are springing up and provide entrepreneurs with gym-membership-like access to office space. Another recent one that opened is WorkBar Boston, that opened in the financial district. In conjunction to providing the same type of office space, they'll double as an art gallery and will host related events.

7. VentureCafe: Although, its not specifically for young entrepreneurs, they're certainly open to them and can provide a unique opportunity them to connect to venture capitalists and investors. VentureCafe is best described as an informal environment where engineers, business people, and potential investors can get together and talk about starting new high-tech companies. They're now located at the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square.

8. VentureFizz: Boston has needed VentureFizz for a while, a website that aggregates everything thats happening in the tech and startup fields. The website includes a blog, job board, funding news, company research, and networking calendar. If you're looking for events to attend, this will be the place alongside Marks Guide, to find like minded entrepreneurs and technologists.

9. TechStars: This one's been around for some time now, but if you're looking for seed capital, mentorship, strategic direction, and working space, then this is the place to apply to. Cambridge had the leader of the pack, Y Combinator, but they moved to Palo Alto, so TechStars has taken their place. The summer program offers up to $18,000 in funding per company, 40+ educational opportunities for its entrepreneurs, and over 50 highly accomplished mentors.

10. Cambridge Innovation Center: Of course, I can't forget this incredible building that houses over 175 startups in its Kendall Square head quarters. Their website explains it the best: "Neighboring the MIT campus and steps away from the Red Line in the heart of Kendall Square, Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) is the largest flexible office facility for growing technology and life sciences companies in the Greater Boston area. The Cambridge Innovation Center offers start-up and emerging companies award-winning facilities and state-of-the-art business and technical services in a package which is designed to meet the needs of small and growing businesses. CIC is cost efficient and scales with the company's growth. Currently, over 175 companies are located at CIC."

I'm sure I've missed a few resources. I'll have to put together a larger list later. If you'd like your included in that, please email me.