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Yes!  I’m saying it - we are in the early days of an entrepreneurial renaissance in Boston.  Even in the wake of TechCrunch Disrupt.  Even though every VC that talks about the greatness of New England is doing so from the Acela to NYC. 

Those of us who have been engaged in the Boston startup eco-system know that this is the most excitement we’ve seen in many years.  I was having lunch with a prominent local entrepreneur, and he remarked that there is more startup activity among young entrepreneurs in Boston than anytime in the past 10 years.  And as I’ve said before, more shots on goal will result in more big winners.

There are many reasons for this.  I’m going to talk about two.

1. We are seeing multi-generational involvement and mentorship in the Startup Community.  This is thanks both to successful entrepreneurs who are actively giving back, as well as motivated young entrepreneurs who are creating buzz and density among their peers.  For the late 20’s - early 30’s crowd, there is the PopSignal group led by Brian Balfour and Jay Meattle.  It’s THE entrepreneur gathering for the up-and-coming founders, but you will almost always see some of the more successful local entrepreneurs attending to give back to the community (guys like David Cancel, Andy Payne, Rich Miner, Mike Baker, and others). And the early 20’s crowd is not being undone, with Dart Boston getting under-30 founders together to collaborate and get feedback from top VC’s in town.  

2. There is critical mass of great companies (and recent exits) where future founders and entrepreneurial executives are being trained. Not everyone will found a company right away.  For those that don’t, it’s important to have pockets of excellence where talented folks can work, learn a trade, and gain experience behind successful entrepreneurs.  It’s also nice to put a little money in one’s pockets too, to create flexibility to experiment.  Boston has several very important pockets of excellence and great companies that are talent magents.  Including:

• E-Commerce (RueLaLa, CSN Stores, Shoebuy)
• Mobile (Quattro, Skyhook, JumpTap, Enpocket, MocoSpace)
• Marketing, Advertising, and Analytics (HubSpot, BzzAgent, Visible Measures, Pangea Media, Dataxu, Constant Contact, Compete)
• Other Awesome Companies (TripAdvisor, ZipCar, Grasshopper, Kayak, etc)
• Other companies in vibrant sectors I’m ignorant about like Cleantech and Life Sciences. 

I think what’s happening in NYC is great, and I definitely spend my fair share of time there and in Silicon Valley (and have angel investments in both locations).  But I’m thrilled to live in Boston, and I’m partially glad that other investors are spending time elsewhere.  Leaves more opportunity for me :)

I previously wrote a To-Do list for new entrepreneurs arriving in Boston.  It included a bunch of folks to follow on twitter and on their blogs, events to go to, and companies to get familiar with.

I’d like to add a new to-do on the list, especially if you are a younger entrepreneur.  Check out Dart Boston - a community of entrepreneurs 30 and under helping one another start their businesses.  These guys have sprung up out of nowhere in recent months, and I’ve been really impressed by their level of activity and creativity.  For example:

Pokin’ Holes: A weekly meetup and video show where one local entrepreneur presents their company and gets grilled by their peers.  The show moves around Boston in an effort to engage the entrepreneur community in different areas.  Tonight’s event is at Tufts.

Capitalize: A monthly show where one company pitches to a VC or angel investor.  You get to see the pitch and feedback streamed live.  This month, it was at Kepha Partners with Eric Hjerpe.  In May, I’ll be on the show at Spark Capital.

Rule 53: A podcast that features a series of interviews about startup life, business, and tech.

I don’t know how these guys and gals have time for all this, but I’ve been very impressed and think it’s an excellent addition to the local tech scene.

I’ve often heard that there is a shortage of seed-stage investment capital in the Boston area, especially in the consumer realm.  Nabeel Hyatt, founder of Conduit Labs put it pretty succinctly:

“This is in IMHO *the* biggest impediment to a stronger startup culture. There is no ecosystem of consumer angels in Boston, at all.”

There are quite a few large venture firms in our region, but not as many who will a) write a bunch of $50K-$250K checks to help a very early stage company get going or b) can invest in deals that might not have venture scale potential but is still a sound business.  Some venture capital firms are active in this sector, but for a number of reasons, can’t fill the void completely.

I was trying to do some research on this market, and found that it’s actually pretty hard to figure out who could provide angel funding in this town.  So here is a list of the folks that I know are active at this stage (with a bias for my sector of focus).

Professional Seed Investors

These are folks who’s primary goal as a business is to fund seed-stage companies.  This does not include large VC firms (ie: any fund with $’s / investing partner > $30M).

• TechStars Boston
• Founder’s Collective - no website yet.  But investors in a number of early stage companies in New York, Boston, and SF.  It’s run by Eric Paley and David Frankel
• CueBall
• LeadDog Ventures
• Bantam Group
• Launch Capital

It seems that there is clearly a dearth of players in this sector.  The groups above have wildly divergent strategies and typical check sizes.  I think the more groups like this that are successful in the Boston ecosystem, the better.

Angel Networks

These are networks of high net worth individuals that pool their resources and deal flow.  There are often coordinators for the networks, or set events when these angels come together to evaluate opportunities.  A lot of folks have discussed the pro’s and con’s of these networks, so I won’t get into that here.  Xconomy has a nice summary of these groups here.  I’ve heard that quite a few of the members of these angel groups also invest individually.

Individual Angels

If I were raising angel money, I’d try to tap value-added individuals first.  It’s a lot of work, but I think getting someone with relevant experience to commit money and time to your new company is very helpful.  As a venture investor, we love investing with value-added individuals. I also find that companies that have these sorts of individuals involved tend to make better progress before raising an institutional round.  This is an incomplete list, so please add more folks in the comments.  If anyone here would rather not be on this list, please feel free to email me directly at rob at sparkcapital dot com and I will remove you.

• Bill Sahlman - well known HBS professor and angel investor.  I don’t think his list of investments is typically published, so I won’t disclose them. But anyone who has taken his class knows that he has invested with Jeff Parker for years.
• Shikhar Ghosh and Guli Arshad - former entrepreneurs and executives.  Investors in companies like Skyhook Wireless and BzzAgent.
• Dave Balter - CEO of BzzAgent.  Investor in a few companies, also an active advisor to quite a few others.  Involved in Perk Street Financial and I believe Runkeeper.
• Steve Kane - Founder and CEO of 3 successful startups. Investor in companies including Pangea Media and Conduit Labs.
• Andy Payne - Successful entrepreneur and OpenMarket co-founder.  Investor in companies including fansnap and care.com and Shareaholic.
• Dharmesh Shah - CTO and Co-founder of HubSpot.  Investor in companies including Visible Measures and OneForty.
• Brian Shin - CEO of Visible Measures.  Investor in Shareaholic and Hubspot.
• David Cancel - Founder of Compete.  Investor in Shareaholic and involved in a bunch of other companies like Geezeo, Visible Measures, and FlipKey.
• Stephen Kaufer - CEO and founder of Tripadvisor. His personal investments are not widely publicized, but I’ve seen a few companies that he has invested in personally and he is listed as an investor at weddingbook.
• Scott Griffith - I have no idea if he is investing personally, but I know that he has helped companies as an advisor, including runmyerrand which recently received further angel funding.
• Don Dodge - Fomrer Microsoft executive and serial entrepreneur.  His personal investments aren’t that public, but he is an investor in CitySquares.
• Ed Roberts - Chair of MIT Entrepreneurship Center.  Investor in Shareaholic and Visible Measures.
• Bill Warner - Founder of Avid Technologies, investor in Posterous.
• Jean Hammond - Member of a few angel groups and founder of GoldenSeeds. Investor in JAM Technologies and Zipcar.

Anyone else I’m missing?  Please add them in a comment.  And of course, I’m always in the market to hear about early stage investment opportunities and get to know local angels better.

Fall is upon us (although it feels like winter) and for Boston, that means a new wave of folks who are arriving here for studies or new career opportunities.

When I moved to Boston from Silicon Valley in 2005, I had a pretty sparse network of friends in the tech and entrepreneurship scene.   I also found the tech community here a little disorganized and opaque, although I think that has been changing quite a bit in recent years.

Four years later, I think I have a much better idea of what’s going on, and I’m excited about it.  But it took a while to figure out.  So I thought I’d post a little to-do list for folks who want to get integrated into the local tech community and benefit from all it has to offer.

1. Follow this list of entrepreneurs, VC’s, and academics

• David Cancel (blog , @Dcancel)
• Dharmesh Shah (blog, @dharmesh)
• Brian Shin (blog, @brianshin)
• Don Dodge (blog, @dondodge)
• Nabeel Hyatt (blog, @nabeel)
• Furqan Nazeeri (blog, @altgate)
• Andy Payne (blog, @payne92)
• Bijan Sabet (blog, @bijan)
• Jeff Bussgang (blog, @bussgang)
• Lee Hower (blog, @leehower)
• Larry Cheng (blog, @larryvc)
• Tom Eisenmann (@teisenmann)
• Andrew Mcafee (blog, @amcafee)
• Me :) (blog, @robgo)

2. Follow a few journalists and news aggregators

• Scott Kirsner
• XConomy
• VentureFizz
• MarksGuide

3. Go to the follow meetups at least once

• WebInno
• Mobile Monday
• OpenCoffee Meetup
• Dart Boston

4. Hang out where you are likely to have chance encounters (ok, this isn’t really that practical, but it’s interesting to know where VC’s and entrepreneurs tend to go)

• Deisel Cafe in Davis Square
• Andala Cafe in Central Square
• Paramount Restaurant in Beacon Hill
• Henrietta’s Table in Harvard Square
• Naked Fish in Waltham
• The Marriott in Newton
• The Westin in Waltham
• Preschool OpenHouses in Wellesley, Weston, Cambridge, Lexington,  BeaconHill, etc.  (I’m obviously joking here, but this just happened to me, so I couldn’t resist.  We went to an open house at the Cambridge Ellis School, and among the group of parents, I saw 2 VC’s, an entrepreneur friend, and an HBS professor before deciding the school was way out of my price range)

5. Try to meet folks affiliated with the following organizations and companies (the reasoning being that people at interesting companies and organizations tend to congregate)

• PopSignal
• HubSpot
• Betahouse
• DogPatchLabs
• TechStars Boston
• Cambridge Innovation Center

Hopefully this is a helpful start.  Should take a few months to work through all of these.  I know I’m missing a few (I think I’m obviously missing out events and people affiliated with MIT, among others).  Feel free to add additional thoughts in a comment.