News and Views
Blue Fever Streaming Platform Launches to Overcome Hollywood Sexism
(Blue Fever moved to the Venture Development Center in January 2014.) "Entertainment industry professionals announced the launch of the Blue Fever Streaming Platform, which aims to transcend Hollywood sexism. As an entertainment company, Blue Fever will distribute...
Genetically Modified Pigs Could Ease Organ Shortage
(eGenesis moved to the Venture Development Center in August 2016.) "Luhan Yang, one of the authors of the paper and now president and chief scientific officer of EGenesis Bio, which she and Dr. Church co-founded, says the company has used Crispr to create pig embryos...
Neurala closes $14M Series A to bring machine learning to the edge.
(Neurala joined the Venture Development Center on June 1, 2012, and launched one year later.) "Artificial intelligence is swiftly becoming a commodity thanks to the rise of AI-as-a-Service offerings from Amazon and IBM. Today, Neurala is joining this list thanks to a...
How two MIT entrepreneurs were saved from deportation
Hasier Larrea - Founder, Ori Systems, and Alessandro Babini - Co-founder, Humon both participated in the 2015 MIT Delta V, an educational accelerator for MIT student entrepreneurs to help them build viable ventures. It is a capstone educational opportunity for MIT...
Report on state entrepreneur visa program: $163,427,265 in private investment, and 276 jobs
(Harvard Business School grad and Global Entrepreneur-inResidence Vivek Gupta (right) at a fintech event at the Venture Development Center with the Boston Globe, and CEOs of Quantopian, Putnam and State Street.) Updated on 12/4/2016 First report on how the program is...
Ivan Fernandez de Casadevante: Drastically improving the affordability and efficiency of micro-apartments
Ivan Fernandez de Casadevante (back row, 4th from left), co-founder and lead engineer at Ori. The U.S. has no startup visa, and this makes it really hard for talented people to stay in the country after graduation. Ivan is a co-founder of MorphLab, a company that...
Thomas Ketchell: Transforming the education system through a simple digital platform
The company’s success is all the more exceptional given the obstacles Ketchell and his team have faced—and continue to face—because of the U.S. immigration system. Thomas Ketchell is the co-founder of HSTRY, a tool that allows students and teachers to create...
Bernat Olle: Using microbes as medicine
“The current immigration system doesn’t just let this talent get away, if actually forces it to leave the country after graduation. It simply makes no sense.” Bernat Olle hopes to revolutionize healthcare through a technology that allows microbes to be used as...
Jonathan Thon: “We will have a huge impact on human health across the globe.”
Platelet BioGenesis co-founder Jonathan Thon (left) developed a way to produce human platelets in a lab using a microfluidic-based bioreactor. I considered starting Platelet BioGenesis in Canada, but knew Boston provided many more opportunities. Unfortunately, the...