ABOUT US
We're strengthening Boston innovation by education, connecting, and celebrating entrepreneurs.
Created by the community, for the community
Startup Boston is rooted in the development and celebration of people who are pushing boundaries, solving tough problems, and asking every day—how might we do this better? Our events are designed to be a platform through which innovators can learn from and challenge one another, build new partnerships, strengthen ties, and celebrate both failure and growth.
The team behind Startup Boston Week realized that it wasn’t enough to connect, educate, and celebrate the startup community 5 days a year. We needed to provide a platform that gave entrepreneurs, startup employees, mentors, advisors, students, investors, and newcomers access to initiatives and events that can connect them to like-minded individuals - and help them start and scale a company - 365 days a year.
After all, building and scaling a company is hard. Why would you do it alone? You need a community that supports you.
The Startup Boston team is excited to expand beyond SBW and provide the startup community with year-round support to help you start and scale your company, find and network with new communities throughout New England and NYC, and provide you with opportunities to become involved in the startup community we have here in Boston
We’re busy creating a lot of programming, content, and initiatives for you. So please sign up to our newsletter for updates and come back to our website soon - there’s always something going on!
Our History
The vision began in 2016. Now almost 5 years later, Startup Boston Week is one of the fastest growing business events in the city! And now, we're doing even more through our organization, Startup Boston. Here's a brief look at how we've gotten here.
Why did we create Startup Boston?
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Startup Boston was created in November 2016 with a vision of bringing the entire startup community together.
The startup community has always been tight-knit, and our team saw an opportunity to strengthen this community and its output by creating an event series that uniquely connects the entire ecosystem—bridging the gap between industries and company stages. We believe that the rising tide can lift all boats, and we built Startup Boston to support all levels of and contributors to the startup ecosystem.
2017
In September of 2017 we held our first Startup Boston Week. We planned five days of jam-packed programming with 125 speakers and, while we knew we had something special planned, it wasn’t until people started flooding in on the first day that we knew for sure that Startup Boston would be a hit. We ended up attracting 2500 attendees to our events, which featured prominent entrepreneurs from the local scene, including Brian Halligan (HubSpot), Jules Pieri (The Grommet), and Paul Liberman (Draftkings).
2018
Our second annual Startup Boston Week was all about taking our content and programming to the next level. In response to feedback from the previous year, we focused on crafting new event formats that were fresh and sometimes experimental. And, we pounded the pavement to curate a top-notch list of speakers, including Raj Aggarwal (Localytics), Donna Levin (Care.Com), and Stefania Mallet (ezCater).
2019
For the third annual Startup Boston Week we focused on the attendee experience. The team worked hard to produce - and label - events in a way that made it easy for attendees to navigate. Crafting each track specifically with a specific company department in mind - and we labeled each event within the track according to the company stage (idea, early, growth, and late). This way attendees knew exactly which events they should attend to receive the best information for their role - and company stage.
Additionally, we worked on diversifying our speaker list - so we could hear from startups, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders that haven’t been given the opportunity to share their wisdom with the startup community.
2020
This unprecedented year had it's challenges. Due to COVID-19, the Startup Boston team made the decision to pivot our annual conference, Startup Boston Week, to a 100% virtual event. We created 70 sessions for the startup community, featured 261 speakers and brought together 3457 attendees.
Additionally, Startup Boston grew to expand beyond SBW. We also held a virtual happy hour for the startup community in March, when COVID hit and created a free, one-day Marketing Bootcamp for the community in May.
2021
We're going full steam ahead in 2021. Startup Boston Week is primarily virtual with an in-person Closing Party. We've also been utilizing our blog to celebrate the startup community and to spotlight new voices and ideas. Additionally, we also started the year off strong in January with our new event series, The Inside Track, which is an invite-only group for startup tech CEOs, and created a free Sales Bootcamp in April for the startup community.
2022
Startup Boston Week did their first-ever hybrid conference. We provided both attendees and speakers with the option to join us either virtually or in-person so they could participate in how they felt most comfortable.
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We also ramped up our efforts for both the Dealflow Mixer and Cofounder Matching events- providing them to the startup community on a quarterly basis.
2023
We're excited that Startup Boston Week is back for YEAR SEVEN. Our annual conference will be hybrid again and, this time, will be in one location - at Suffolk University located right in the heart of Downtown Boston.
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The Dealflow Mixer and Cofounder Matching events are also going strong and back for their quarterly presence.
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Something is always brewing over here to better connect the startup community - stay tuned for what is next by subscribing to our newsletter!