News and Views
Belated Happy Birthday, VDC
The VDC turned 11 in May 2020, but there was no opportunity to celebrate in person as all of our community expect for the biotech and healthcare members were working remotely. I’ve tallied what’s been accomplished. From July 1, 2019 to July 28, 2020, the 110 current...
The reason there are more VC backed female CEOs
Samantha Truex (front, left in the company's team photo), CEO of Quench Bio, closed a $50M Series A Since opening the Venture Development Center in 2009, I’ve noticed a much larger number of women in the biopharma startup companies launching at the UMass incubator in...
Boston remains the startup capital during the pandemic
Will tech talent flee to the suburbs because of the pandemic? Perhaps it will accelerate a trend of a subset of millennials turning their minds to marriage, and moving to areas that offer more space. But there’s not much evidence that the pandemic has changed the...
Venture capital deals in Massachusetts outside Greater Boston slow to a trickle
Economic development planners trying to spread the innovation economy beyond Boston wish more entrepreneurs would follow the lead of Julie Bliss Mullen, CEO of water treatment company, Aclarity. Eschewing Boston, unlike most of her peers, the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30...
GEIR Experience: Perfect Immigration Solution
by Juan Morales, Tyme Wear Five years ago, I decided to leave Venezuela to pursue a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering at Boston University. I considered several options, but thought Boston would offer me the greatest exposure to high-tech and top notch research...
Hack.Diversity Selects 17 UMass Boston Students for Fellowship
Hack.Diversity, the New England Venture Capital Association’s initiative to help diversity the ranks of Boston’s fastest growing tech companies, has selected 17 Fellows from UMass Boston. Fellows participate in an eight-month career development program with...
Can I Start a Company on a Visa? Of Course You Can, at Least in Boston.
by William Brah You can start a company on a visa as long as the visa permits you to engage in business. In general, a student visa isn’t one of these. The challenge is the amount of time it takes to get a work visa after you graduate even if you are qualified. While...
GEIR Experience: The Silver Lining in the Immigration Cloud
by Thras Karydis, DeepCure Little longer than a year ago, I was sitting at my desk at the MIT Media Lab, reflecting on whether I had taken the right decision. Earlier that day, I had officially stopped my PhD at halftime, to join my lab mate and adviser in founding...
Which Boston startup programs are delivering for their companies
(PillPack signing term sheet in May 2015.) In 2019, three of Boston’s earliest startup programs celebrated a significant milestone: ten years of operations and growth in service to the entrepreneur community. From 2009 to 2019, TechStars, MassChallenge and the Venture...