ukbusinessupdates.com Live took a virtual visit to Boston this week during our special City Spotlight: Boston event. At the special, expanded event, influential Boston founders and investors, including Boston Robotics founder Marc Raibert and MassChallenge CEO Cait Brumme, spoke. The event kicked off with Greg Dracon, of .406 Ventures, and Matt Caulfield, founder and CEO of Oort, talking about cybersecurity companies in Boston.
Caulfield started Oort in 2018 and to date has raised $18.05 million to support the company, including from Dracon at .406 Ventures.
But why Boston, I asked in the video embedded here.
“I live in the boonies,” Caulfield said with a laugh as he added, “There’s a prototype Commonwealth Fusion fusion reactor in town down the road, which isn’t from MIT, and you won’t find that anywhere in the country.”
Both Caulfield and Dracon made Boston their home and started businesses in the area. For them, the area’s rich history in deep tech explains why high-tech startups, from biotech to cybersecurity firms, are thriving in the region.
And the Boston area continues to grow. As explained in this ukbusinessupdates.com article on Boston, success leads to success. In 2022, the area was the fourth most active venture capital market in the United States, behind only the Bay Area of California, New York City, and Los Angeles.
Greg pointed to the flywheel effect to explain the scene: “We [Boston] have companies that go out for nice amounts, and spew out entrepreneurs. We were early investors in Carbon Black and we supported two companies that grew out of Carbon Black… There are probably five or six companies that grew out of Carbon Black alone.” He explains that it is important for a region when people feel success together and points to other big Boston companies such as Hubspot, Wayfair and Klaviyo that saw projects turn into drawn-out startups.”
The Boston area calls for a specific type of entrepreneur, the two say. “You have to be networked in the tech communities and be a bit of a mix of introvert and extrovert,” Dracon said. “We find good founders who are sufficiently self-absorbed, often have a technical background, but who can get out there, build networks and turn things on when they need to sell.”
“If you’re solving a tough technical problem,” Caulfield said, “I can’t think of a better place than Boston to do it.”
