Mass Innovation Nights » entrepreneurs

Funding Fridays

bobbie — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:34:52 +0000

A little bit of background for our non-Twitter audience. One of the regular trending topics on Twitter is “Follow Friday” (#ff) a weekly opportunity to point out your friends and make suggestions for good people to follow on Twitter. Meanwhile, one of the biggest issues in the Boston region entrepreneurial community is the inability to connect companies with capital.

Mass Innovation Nights and Innovation Breakfast would like to “hijack” Follow Friday (#ff) in the Boston area and turn every Friday into a Funding Friday – a day when the entrepreneurial and innovation economy players focus their efforts on:

Connecting companies and capital
Pointing out companies that have received funding and giving a big “woo-hoo”
Creating and highlighting blog posts and articles and resources on how to get funded and success factors for funding

Innovation Breakfast, which recently switched over from a monthly speaker program to a weekly Open Coffee style event, will be blogging about “Funding Fridays” and leading the charge. Every Friday, we’ll be live blogging on the Innovation Breakfast website about funding, companies that need funding, and strategies and resources for funding. We’ll also be leading the live discussion at Café on the Common on Main Street in Waltham from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. in our weekly networking meeting, and asking our friends there for their ideas.

What you can do to help:

Turn your Follow Friday tweeting into Funding Friday tweeting – look for resources, funding news and resources, and highlight companies that need funding. Go right ahead – use that #ff but add a dollar sign to it! Use #ff$
Help spread the word. Remember, the next company to get funded could be your own.

A Multi Nametag Day in MA Innovation

bobbie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:20:33 +0000

Thursday September 17 had a lot of the Massachusetts Innovation sector running from one event to another. When you show up at an event already wearing a name tag, you know it’s been a busy (and exciting day.) It seems that the Innovation crowd has awakened from its summer doldrums and is heating up even as we anticipate cooler weather. If you weren’t able to get out yesterday, here’s some of what you missed and here’s some cool new stuff coming.

“Massachusetts, It’s all here” campaign

Akamai played host to the launch party (or revival) for the campaign touting Massachusetts as the best place to Grow, Work, Live, Play & Study. A collaborative effort brought forth a website and marketing campaign to promote Massachusetts as a globally competitive, innovative, dynamic and diverse state. While some might quibble with the use of a slogan originally launched in 2003 as a touchstone for an innovation-oriented campaign, the green-flavored idea of re-using and refreshing what already exists, and the ability to tie-in and leverage the state’s tourism campaign using the same slogan is a good one. (Sometimes innovation is the intelligent use of existing resources.)

A gung-ho group of speakers:

Akamai CFO J.D. Sherman (“If you’re using the Internet you’re using MA technology.”)
Gregory Bialecki, Secretary of Housing & Economic Development (“It’s not bragging if you are really doing it.”)
Susan Houston, Executive Director of MassEcon (“This brand will have staying power.”)
Robert Culver, President and CEO of MassDevelopment (“We’re the toughest bunch of people…and well capitalized too.”)
Kofi Jones, Bialecki’s director of communications and public affairs, who played tour guide for the website (and, it seems to those in the know had more than a little to do with driving the project forward.)

During the Q&A period came one of the more interesting suggestions of the event, in a “Don’t forget the little guy” moment, Jean Horstman, CEO of ICE (InnerCity Entrepreneurs) reacted to the introduction of Mass Challenge with a challenge of her own. “How about a growth competition for established businesses?” (Start-ups and technology are all well and good but there are lots of established businesses out there who, with a little support could be growing and hiring.) (MassInno comment, “Hear, hear.”)

Also nice to see big mentions and links to VentureFizz, a one-stop shop for everything innovation-flavored in Massachusetts. Great events calendar and job listings, among other useful info!

During the Q&A, we heard again from Bialecki, “High tech can not be the single face of entrepreneurship here in Massachusetts.” (MassInno comment again, “Hear, hear.”)

Ignite Boston

Ignite events previously have been held in packed bars which is great for networking but not so great for presenting. This time, Fidelity opened up their terrific facility (four big screens, comfy chairs, full-on tech, nice) for the event. Heavily attended by those in gov, the presentations are quick affairs (5 minutes, 20 slides advanced automatically), a fact made hilarious fun of by the keynote speaker, Glenn Ezra, who made urban planning fun and informative. Book him now before he’s a YouTube viral hit and you can’t afford him.

The swanky venue unfortunately contributed to the only criticism I saw of the event — networking wasn’t emphasized as much as at previous Ignite events because everyone got so comfy and there wasn’t the usual jockeying for position to strain to see the slides. (A note to other event organizers — it is impossible to make everyone happy.)

High Tech Sector Branding Initiative. The process so far…from our friends at Innovate MassTech

On January 27, Governor Deval Patrick challenged the region’s IT/digital sector to create a collaborative approach to improve its global competitiveness. On June 10 an extended dialogue began with thought leaders and sector stakeholders to embrace the challenge of expanding the region’s innovative capacity and sector preeminence.

Over the summer key thinkers from the Governors Organizing Committee like Steve Vintor from Google, Paul Grogan from the Boston Foundation, Emily Nagle Green from the Yankee Group, and Secretary Greg Bialecki, Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, have shared their insights about the sector on Innovate MassTech, industry councils have been engaged to collaborate and participate in the process, and now we need to hear from the broader community.

How can you help? Participate in a tweet chat today from 1-2 (Friday, September 18): What defines the future of the technology and innovation sector of MA and New England? (#MATechIn) Add your comments to the feedback pages that have been created for this project. View the videos — do you agree?

June is Innovation Month in New England

bobbie — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:41:55 +0000

June 2009 is New England Innovation Month

As part of New England Innovation Month, Scott Kirsner challenged us to think of ways “to get people talking, connecting, collaborating, and thinking in new ways about how we launch and grow innovative ventures here in New England”.

While we were talking with one of our entrepreneur buddies last night, it occurred to us that with the launching of Mass Innovation Nights, we’ve had a unique opportunity to view innovation in New England. We’ve made many new friends and gotten a fantastic view of the services and organizations that already exist to support innovation.

So, in the interest of sharing innovation connections, here’s the Mass Innovation Nights Lucky 13. This is a list of local events, groups and buddies for innovators looking for connections and inspiration:

And this is by no way a complete list of all the resources out there to help you, Mr. or Ms. Innovator. Read Mass High Tech and the BBJ for local business news. Check out Boston.com’ s calendar, Mark’s Guide, Gary’s Guide and others. Follow the multitude of blogs writing on the local innovation scene. In addition to Scott’s columns you can find lots of others who attend local events and share their experiences. Look for the tag #NEInno on Twitter.

Calling all innovators: please add your fav New England Innovation Blog, Resource or Supporter below!