Journalists often have the best view of markets, as they cover a wide range of companies and industries from an independent and dispassionate point of view. That perspective – together with their ability to anticipate, spot and analyze trends – often makes them the experts to meet at industry events and conferences.
Scott Kirsner is no exception, which is why Startup Boston is so excited that he’s moderating the keynote session on the state of innovation with Yvonne Hao, Massachusetts Secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development. In this interview with Startup Boston, Scott draws on his experience as a journalist and the CEO of research and events firm InnoLead to discuss the startup scene, as well as his thinking ahead of his chat with Secretary Hao.
Startup Boston: In anticipation of Startup Boston Week, I’m curious what you see as the overall health of the startup market. Are you seeing investment activity pick up given expectations for interest-rate cuts?
Scott Kirsner: Not really, unfortunately — we're still in the post-Covid slump, but there are exceptions. You do see some interesting biotech companies still attracting money, as well as robotics and specific vertical applications of AI.
Flagship Pioneering, which is looking at the convergence of life sciences and AI with a lot of its companies, raised a $3.6 billion fund earlier this year. There's also a new accelerator called Curie.bio that raised $380 million in June to support scientific founders. But I'd say that is a signal of where the action is right now in Boston — bio, not tech.
SB: In terms of activity, how would you say that the Boston scene compares to the broader startup market in the U.S. – more vibrant, less so?
SK: Boston is really doing well as a center for tough tech, or companies that are bringing science out of an academic lab. MIT's The Engine is a central hub there, as is LabCentral, and they're practically right next door to each other.
Often these are companies that will take 5 or 10 years to develop a product and bring it to market. Commonwealth Fusion would be a good example of that. They've raised more than $2 billion to build fusion reactors to generate clean energy. That's really our unique position right now. There are some good efforts to build an AI ecosystem here, like AI Blueprint for MA, and we'll have to see where we land, since many of the platform companies are in the Bay Area, or New York in the case of Hugging Face.
SB: Given your experience as a journalist covering startups and your work at InnoLead, what would you say the biggest tech trends are right now – are they still centered around generative AI, or are other technologies gaining ground?
SK: We just did a survey at InnoLead that will be out in September, of big companies asking them about tech trends they think will actually help them generate value, and not surprisingly, AI is the top one. But quantum computing was in second place. I think there's a lot of curiosity there about the security risks of the quantum era — computers that will be able to crack today's encryption — as well as the opportunities to address really challenging problems. The idea of quantum computing was proposed in 1981 here in the Boston area, at an MIT conference, by Richard Feynman, and we have a cluster of startups working on quantum-related software and hardware, like Atlantic Quantum.
SB: With your dual perspective on the local startup scene and global innovation trends, what emerging technologies or strategies do you think Boston startups should focus on to stay competitive?
SK: I am going to do what some of my interviewees do and answer a different question than the one you asked. I don't really think it's my role to tell entrepreneurs what is interesting. But I think societally, I'm most excited about startups thinking about recycling, the circular economy, and climate tech. There's a lot of funding there, and there are some great shared spaces like Greentown Labs. I would love to see some of those companies really scaling globally and having an impact on waste streams and, eventually, climate change.
SB: You don’t have to give away any questions that you plan to ask, but what do you expect to focus on as you interview Secretary Hao for Startup Boston Week?
SK: Yeah, I definitely don't like to give away questions. People should come in person. But some themes I'm really interested in right now are, what are offices for? How do we have vibrant downtowns if people come into the office on Tuesday and Thursday? And what does it mean to be a successful ecosystem when so much hiring and collaboration can happen remotely? Those are some of the themes I'm interested in.
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Scott's keynote conversation with Yvonne Hao, Massachusetts Secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development, happens September 10th at 6pm. It's free to attend in-person or online. Just register for #SBW2024 here!
About the author:
Randall Woods is a former editor at Bloomberg News and currently is a Senior Vice President at SBS Comms, a communications agency for technology companies and startups.
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